The Grace to Die

"For whosoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it." Matt 16 :25

The whole of today, the Lord was just teaching me about dying... I remember during the YAM retreat that the Lord was speaking something to me about the grace of yielding, the grace to die.. and it seems that He's carrying on the revelation of it...

When i woke up in the morning, I heard the Holy Spirit ask me "How much will you die for Jesus?" or something like that.. When i heard it, i knew that it was talking about something so much more than martyrdom.. i believe that i may well join their company one day but let's face it.. living a life for Jesus is way harder than dying for Him.. I've been claiming Galatians 2:20 over myself lately... and today, it seemed like He was really showing me what it means to die for Jesus...

I've come to realise that the more you die to yourself, your will, your plans, your desires, the more you have Jesus inside of you.. and i dun want to even just be 80% dead to self but fully surrendered to God. Recently, i read an article by Nita Johnson on the call of the believer to living in the fullness of Christ. When i die to myself, Jesus can then live His life through me and i can be complete in Him cos He's all-sufficient, not lacking in anything.. In Him, everything is Yes and Amen. Today, God was just showing me how to get to that place by yielding and dying and allowing God to fill me...

The entire day was just filled with situations.. When i was trying to get a taxi in the morning, the Holy Spirit was reminding me that there was no point getting angry. When i was upset over something i heard in the afternoon, the Holy Spirit was just reminding me that there's no point getting worried. When i finally saw that God's in control and allowed Him to have His way, i began to see how sufficient and complete i am in Him already.. :)

Then the Lord was highlighting some truth to me about fasting from the Bible. I never saw fasting that way before. Fasting is symbollic of dying cos a dead person doesn't need to eat or drink.. fasting talks about dying to the flesh.. and the way that Esther approached the king after having fasted for 3 days and nights show a pattern of how the Bride of Christ must die to herself and go through the same path that her Master did! And at the end of it is reward, is promotion, is the fulfillment of her prophetic destiny. That's where i want to go...

Then the Lord showed me that every temptation, every circumstance that is brought to us to provoke a reaction from us is an opportunity to die- and more than that- it is an opportunity to be filled with more of Christ! And that's the mindset we should adopt.. that's how we should see things! That's what it means by me decreasing and Him increasing! Cos as we are emptied of ourselves, there's more space for us to have more of God in our lives! Many of us cry out "God we want more of You!" but we gotta pay the price and it's called dying...

Then when i got home, while i was meditating and praying Ephesians 1:17... God was showing me this truth further.. cos God wants the eyes of our heart to be open so that we may know the hope of His calling.. He wants us to see Jesus.. He's the hope of our calling! Our goal is Christ! He is the fullness of God in man and we are pre-destined to be conformed to His image... He is the image of the invisible God full of grace and truth.. He is the hope of glory. And as our eyes are open to behold Him, we are changed to be like Him. It's like looking in a mirror and knowing who you truly are, who God truly made you to be- just like Jesus! And God has His glorious inheritance in us- His investment in us- that is, the potential to be all of who Christ is and having the fullness of Him in us as the fullness of God is in Him! And God has given power to those who belive to take them from the very pit of their circumstances, from the bottom of their despair and discouragement, to a place of being seated with Christ in heavenly places, a place of ruling and reigning, a place of authority.. He's seated on the highest place and we're seated with Him! That's a victorious place, a place where we can see everything, including our own circumstances, from God's holy and divine perspective..

and we begin to see every trial as an opportunity, a stepping stone to glory, one step closer to our ultimate goal of having all of Christ in us as we empty ourselves before Him! I believe that the greatest form of worship is being who created us to be... just like Jesus! :)

More of You!