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For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.
ROMANS 6:5
He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Jesus said, "I am the Vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in Me and I in him will bear much fruit,
for apart from Me you can do nothing."
JOHN 15:5
I don't think there has been a time during the last few years when I haven't clasped my hands together (as in the above photo) during a discipleship counseling session to testify of our union with Christ. I believe it is a spontaneous gesture from the Spirit of Christ in my heart. Last month, I noticed I did this while meeting individually with 6 men.
The message of the cross is indeed the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18)! God says through this message that we were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and raised a new creation united with Christ and free from the power of sin (Romans 6:1-11)! There is no freedom, no victory, no hope apart from this message.
THE DECEPTION
It is this glorious message that the enemy doesn't want us to know. Our enemy's goal is always to steal the glory of God. And where is God's glory supremely manifested to us? The cross and resurrection of Christ! And now this glory is manifested through us because of our union with Christ!
However, following are some phrases we can be deceived into believing. Each phrase subtly contains the deception of a separation between us and Christ.
Do your best and God will do the rest.
I just need to get out of God's way.
God will never put more on me that I can take.
I want to work for the Lord.
What would Jesus do?
I need to read the Bible and pray more.
Lord, please give me a sign!
I need more patience.
I need for God to give me strength to carry on.
You need to get right with God.
These phrases do contain truth, but not the whole truth. God loves us and moves us to see the whole truth. However, the enemy tempts us to see only the half-truth, which is that we have something good in us that we can do apart from God. Adam and Eve were the first to fall for this temptation.
THE TRUTH
I witness transformation in people's countenances when they see God's glory and the whole truth through the message of the cross. As a result, they are freed from the burden to find ways to initiate their lives as if they were not vitally connected to Christ. And they begin to experience the intimacy with Christ.
The whole truth is that we are vitally connected to Christ. He doesn't give us a separate life, He is our very life! He is the connected source -- the root -- of all we need (e.g., love, joy, peace, etc) and all that we are (e.g., children of God, holy, a branch of Christ's life, soldiers of the cross, etc).
CLOSING
Because we are united with Christ, we can now respond to His initiation in us, instead of striving to initiate the illusion of our separate lives. This is the meaning of grace. This is the meaning of relationship.
Rest in this verse made possible by the message of the cross: "By the grace of God I am what I am...and I labored...yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).
PS, The picture below can represent my hands and your hands being one with the hands of Christ ministering the pure water of the Word to others.
Jesus says through each of us:
"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
The water I give shall become in him a fountain of water
springing up into eternal life."
JOHN 4:14
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