Monday, August 15, 2011

Our Calling

We have a high calling above and beyond anything we can imagine; to be constantly changing into the image of Christ. Daily we are being transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. As we yield and surrender our fleshly selves with its passions, lusts and desires we are yielding more and more space for the Spirit to inhabit.


This same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives and operates in our mortal body. He will not exert Himself where He is not wanted. It is our duty to yield to Him with full knowledge of what we are doing. Philippians 3:9 speaks of being "found in Him" not by our own righteousness; we can never have enough righteousness of our own to be "found in Him..." It says that it is the righteousness of Christ! It is the faith of Christ, not faith in Christ, but the faith OF CHRIST which is from God that operates in our spirit.


This indwelling of another Spirit inhabiting and controlling our spirit has great eternal value. This treasure that we have in earthen vessels is a mystery to our human way of thinking. There are spirits of lust, greed, anger, depression and oppression from the evil one. The Spirit of God supersedes each one of these spirits of evil and has more power that all of the evil spirits combined. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world!


Our duty is to learn to recognize the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He inhabits every Believer to the degree that we yield to Him. He is always willing to teach, assist, comfort and control. Jesus said that the Spirit takes of what is of Him and gives it to us in every circumstance.


Forget the things which are behind and ever so faithfully reach out by His power toward or high calling that is in Christ Jesus. We must appropriate this by faith; the faith of the Son of God operating in us. If one were to have a church membership of 100,000 and be on television and the Internet 24 hours a day and not have the Spirit of God operating in their life and being changed into the image of Christ it is all for nothing.


I remind myself often of a passage in the famous Isaiah 53 passage that gives an avid picture of Christ suffering while He was here on earth. " ...It pleased the Father to put Him to grief " BUT, because of the travail and bruising many are being (even now) justified and their iniquity was borne by Christ on the tree of Calvary.


Must the process be different for us? Was the Father with Christ during His temptation? Of course. Was the Father with Christ while He was being spat upon and beaten? Yes. Did the Spirit lead Christ into the wilderness to be tempted? Yes. Tribulation works patience. It is a fruit working up into each of our souls like fruit growing on trees that go through drought, strong storms, strong heat and bitter cold.




Because Christ poured out His soul unto death He now has a portion with the great, according to Isaiah 53. We are cut from the same cloth. The Apostle Paul speaks of picking up what is lacking of the suffering of Christ. As gold and silver is refined, so are we. Each to different degree. But God Himself sits as the Refiner; He has His hand on the controls; never forget that.


Our place, our effect, our tent becomes mature and enlarged as our curtains are stretched and our stakes are strengthened in this life. An eternal purpose is being accomplished.


"For He hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
(2 Corinthians 5:21) The righteousness of God, not our own righteousness but HIS! Our righteousness is but as filthy rags in God's sight; but He has made Christ our righteousness.


That we might attain, know, and appropriate this fact into our daily lives is our high calling, not in ourselves, but in Christ Jesus working in us.

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