"Are You Dead Yet???"

"ARE YOU DEAD YET???”

- John 12:24 -

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much."

I’ll make it plain…Jesus had to die so we could live…we have to die so He can live through us so others can have life!!! Seems painful, but it’s oh so true. The way we think, the way we think it ought to happen and what the Word of God says is completely opposite. It’s like this:

If I want to I must…

… save my life… … lose my life – Luke 9:24-26

… be lifted up… … humble myself before the Lord – James 4:7

… be the greatest… … be a servant – Matt.20:20-22

… be first… … be last – Matt.19:30

… rule… … serve – Luke 22:26-27

… live… … put to death the deeds of the body – Rom.8:13

… be strong… … be weak – 2 Cor.11:30; 12:9-10

… inherit the kingdom… … be poor in spirit – Matt.5:3

… reproduce… … die

It’s the seed principle I’ve wrote about many times. If you keep the seed out of the ground all you have is the seed. But when that seed is planted and then it grows…end of story. Bury it and it rises. Sounds a lot like resurrection!!! Sounds like there better be some spiritual funerals…yours and mine…ouch, but amen. Dying to self, dying to my agenda, and giving all to Jesus. Why do we struggle so??? Why do we want to be in control??? Our lives are not our own, where have I heard that before??? It’s time to give up and give in to Him. The Master says: And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34). He said that to the people and us His disciples in case you were wondering. It’s so my desire to do His will. I friend am at a point I have not been before. I want Him and His will like never before. For God to move, for God to bless people through me, because that’s what He so desires…amen???

Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened (made alive), except it die. (I Cor. 15:36). For God to move… we must move…by faith. And faith friend is an act. Get faith by hearing then doing the Word. Put your life in the ground of faith, the soil of success, the dirt of divine direction. “Except it (you) die”. I heard this joke this week: “If you want to see God laugh, tell Him your plans”. Oh, I have my ideas of what I think is best. Or the way I think it will work. But did you see “my I problem??? Me, myself and I, the greatest roadblock for God to move and make a difference in my life.

“In the center of the ring stands My flesh vs. God’s Spirit. The ongoing battle of the ages, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal. 5:16, 17). When we are so stubborn, believe it or not God loses and we win. God loses us friend, our part in His plan for us. We think we win, but in fact we’ve lost everything. We must die to our flesh, it profits nothing “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63) and ”For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not”. (Rom. 7:18). It’s pretty much how we get in so much trouble, “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness” Rom. 6:19). Here is the “works and war of the flesh and spirit” verses of verses: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16 – 25). “Crucified the flesh”, I trust you read that…slowly!!! We must die or we will reap what we sow, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:7, 8). We must make a decision! We must decide whether it is to obey the spirit and therefore be united with God and His will or will the flesh yeild to the body and all the temptations of the material world. In the beginning, when man fell, we/mankind resisted the spirit’s (God is a spirit) authority and became enslaved to the body and its passions. Thus man became fleshly, not spiritual. In other words, man’s sprit was denied its rightful position and was reduced to a prisoner of the flesh.