How to walk in newness of life promised to me
How do we walk according to the pattern of Gods Word, this new life in Christ, and not according to the elemental spirits of this world?
How do we renew our minds and call that which is blessed, blessed? Are you cursing what God has called BLESSED?
The Lord has outlined for us in His Word keys to living a life that is filled with peace even in the midst of hardship.
From the beginning
Sister, in the beginning when The Lord made all that we know and see, He spoke it all into being.
The only thing which He did not speak into being, were us. His Word says He bent low, formed him from the dust, and breathed His breath into Adam’s lungs.
“…then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
He filled Him with life. His life. Made in the very image of God.
I want to take us to Ezekiel 37. The valley of dry bones. One of my most favorite passages. The Lord knows exactly what we need.
Read with me as we see Father, through His servant, bring life to what is dead and dry.
The Valley of Dry Bones
37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast (exceedingly great) army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
The Lord takes Ezekiel to the valley amidst dry bones and He asks Him, “can these bones live?”
I love Ezekiel’s response, He knew that The Lord knew so He said, “Oh Lord you know”.
Sister, sometimes what Father is asking of us seems too hard, too difficult, too “out there” that we wonder if it is truly even possible.
We see the deep brokenness of our lives, or the ones of the people around us and we wonder, is it even possible? Can God truly use this for my good?
Their good? Can God transform this home? This City? This Nation?
Notice how Father commands Ezekiel to speak. He tells him to prophesy to the dry bones. Every single step led by God.
He has called us to obedience.
I am here to tell you if He calls us to it, He will provide!
I want to illustrate this point by taking us to the first book of Genesis, before He made Adam and Eve He created every single thing that they would need to live.
He thought of everything.
Then He made them.
It is the same with us. Our Father is so certain of our purpose in Him, through His Son Jesus, that He says He has work for us to do.
He says we are His Workmanship in Christ Jesus, from when? He predestined. For made. Long before we would ever walk in what He had purposed for us, He wrote it down.
“For I know the plans I have for you say’s The Lord.”
What exactly has God called us to?
To know Him and to make Him known has been our call from the beginning.
He has purposed that we would delight ourselves in Him and as we do, He will give us the desires of our heart.
“Blessed and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.”
Seek First His Kingdom
We are reminded to seek first His Kingdom and as we do everything else will be added onto us. Father does not want us worried and concerned about how we will honor Him.
He wants us to delight in Him. He wants us to know that He causes all things to work together for our good and for His glory.
Sister, our part is to present ourselves as a living sacrifice before Him.
Go with me to Romans 8, one of my most favorite passages.
28And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
33Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36Just as it is written,
“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing can separate us from the love of Our Father.
Sister, if we will be faithful to fix our eyes on Jesus I promise He will help us to walk in the new life He has provided for us.
I know that so often it is a war for out attention. We have so many demands coming at us, many times al at once.
Christ has not left us as orphans, He has given us His Spirit to help us to live out this beautiful life He has given us.
Moving forward:
How do we move from a focus on our insecurities, our own shortcomings, our own education or lack there of?
By fixing our eyes on the Author and the Perfector of Our Faith.
I cannot encourage you enough to sit in His Word, to dissect His Word together with Him. Grab a concordance and see how different passages connect.
The Strongs has been a valuable resource I use to help me grow deeper in my understanding of what Father had in mind when He wrote His Word.
I am praying and asking Him to show us the very real connections in His Word, to our everyday lives.
Sister, He is speaking, every single day. Please lean in and listen.
Often times there is a progression in His Word.
How often do we see this verse on a pretty post on Facebook and try with all of our might to obey:
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you”
“Be anxious for nothing…”
Sister, these two passages are only an example of how often we read a scripture and in our own strength strive to make it happen.
I want to invite you to read the beginning of these passages, both of these passages begin with us fixing our focus on God, because He is near,
4 pRejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness4 be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
Also this passage,
“…Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
The only way we are going to be able to resist the devil. The only way we will cause the devil to flee from us.
The only way we are going to walk in the newness of life that God has for us, is by submitting to God, by humbling ourselves before God.
By presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice before God.
Sister, every single thing we desire to do in the person of Jesus Christ, is found in Him. Everything.
Every good and perfect gift comes from The Father of lights. Sister, I promise you, Christ wasn’t just the way to salvation, He is our all in all.
He isn’t just the A-C, He is the A-Z, The Alpha the Omega, the beginning and The End.
In conclusion:
Sister, unless we do the first thing first, which is to present ourselves before God.
“Here I am God”.
Humbly surrendered before Him.
To know that God is with us.
We will often fail at the second part. Because we will run on empty trying to do it in our own strength.
Everything God has called us to we can only do because Christ has given us His strength, because we have rested in Gods goodness and because we are receiving Gods provision which He has already provided, we need only to reach for it.
Ask Him, please sit with Him this week and ask Him to show you how He has already provided for you?
When we begin from a place of rest and love, truly knowing we are loved our joy in Him becomes complete and we go forward in peace.
His perfect Shalom. It is ours. Not when life settles down. Not when I am healed fully of the pain, hurts, habits.
Not when my children always obey. Not when all is well in my life. Here and now. His peace is ours and it is the fuel we need for each and every single day.
Sister, reach with me, let’s grab a hold of His peace He freely gives and let’s ask Him to help us to not loose sight of who He is.
He is Christ. Our Hope. The lifter of Our heads. Our Redeemer. The One worthy of All praise. Glory and Honor.
This King. Our King adores you! He is not ashamed of you.
This week if you are dealing with guilt shame or condemnation because you are not further along on your journey with Christ I want to speak into your life and remind you that according to Romans 8:1, There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That is you and I.
You are right where you need to be and if you are not, can we trust The Lord to reveal this us?
Can we trust that He cares more about our holiness and righteousness than we do sometimes?
He will fulfill His plans in us!
This day surrender your all and do not fret, for fretting tends to lead us into sin, not my words but His.
You are so loved and I am so thankful for you! I pray this weeks post wis an encouragement to you!
This blog post is a part of a series on renewing the mind. You can find part 1 here. You can also visit the “Brain” tab on the home page to access the full series.
