TEEN TREE OF LIFE
Receiving A Glimpse of The Resurrection Life Before We Die
Part 5
December 1, 2019

Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

At the end of last week’s Tree of Life, we learned that what we’re going to attain, by executing God’s Pre-Designed Plan for our life, is an incredible, superb inner peace which will be with us no matter what we’re going through, no matter what the circumstance!  We also learned that when we, as believers, begin to encounter suffering in life, we shouldn’t run from it. We should accept adversity as we would prosperity. We also learned that our goal should be to get to a point in our Christian walk at which we’re no longer blown away by things people do to us or by troubles that come our way. This is how a spiritually mature believer handles life.

Little by little, as you grow spiritually, you’ll be brought to this same secure state of inner peace.  This is described as death to self which then becomes the Resurrection Life.  This is what the apostle Paul is talking about in PHI 3:10 (New International Version) when he writes: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death… This principle is also taught in MAT 10:39 (New International Version) when our Lord said: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

Now, Jesus Christ is not asking you to lose your life. He’s not asking you to throw your soul away. He’s asking you to lose something about your soul which will enable you to discover the real you. You must be transformed into His image. This is the new life – the Resurrection Life. And it’s the only way to find the real you – the you that God initially designed and desired you to be. The idea here isn’t you exchanging your soul for another one; but it’s changing what your soul values most. Look at what Paul wrote to his Christian friends in Philippi: Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book. The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. (PHIL 3:2-9 The Message Bible)

What Paul is teaching us is that it’s not about changing our lifestyle but changing what our soul values. If a believer lives only for self and thinks only of self, he or she will ultimately be a loser believer. The Christian loser is defined as the Church-Age believer who, through negative volition toward Bible doctrine, has failed to execute God’s Pre-Designed Plan for the Church-Age. The loser does not lose his or her salvation; he or she only loses escrow blessings for time and for eternity. The Christian loser fails to use the amazing power options God has provided us: The Filling of The Holy Spirit and metabolization of Bible doctrine. The loser believer has wrong priorities and spends life in the cosmic system.

And here’s an important point. If you turned away from God, after reaching the point at which you receive a glimpse of the Resurrection Life, it would be the most miserable thing in the universe. Why? Because you cannot get real pleasure from the things the cosmic system has to offer.  These things are pointless and have no value in comparison to a relationship with Almighty God and the Resurrection Life we can have while on earth, when we reach Spiritual maturity.
 
It’s comforting to know that when you’re faced with any problems or difficulties, that there is a Resurrection side of the Cross, where we leave behind the old self-life for the new Christ-life – the Resurrection Life!  This is the life that is filled with the fruit that God produces in our life: But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. (GAL 5:22-23) When we “live God’s way,” we can have these characteristics and manifestations. And money can’t buy them!

When we reach this point of spiritual maturity, we aren’t in union with the life of Christ as He lived on earth in His Perfect Humanity; we are in union with the life of the Resurrected Christ in Heaven.  Think about that for a minute! Do you realize what that means?? We have the privilege to partake of the spiritual life that Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ took possession of for us, at His Resurrection! And we are enabled to bring forth the fruits of that spiritual life! 

Resurrection Life is a peace that exists in the mind and spirit. It means that we can get to a point in our Christian Walk in which we are free from worrying, free from anxiety and free from frustration.  We can experience what the apostle John described in JOH 10:6-10 (The Message Bible): Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So, he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. This is a verse you should keep reminding yourself of, throughout your life!

Something you should understand is that there is a difference between living the spiritual life and experiencing Resurrection Life. God not only rewards those in the eternal state who diligently seek Him, but He also rewards them in time, here on earth.  Never forget that a lack of overt prosperity is not a lack of spirituality. This is especially true when it comes to how you look at your own accomplishments in life. You must turn your eyes away from the cosmic system and the “I-Want-More” mentality that is so prevalent today. There have been millions of believers who have made an impact in Christianity who would be classified as poor by today’s standards. You must mature(grow-up) enough to accept that wealth cannot buy what seeking God’s Kingdom can.

Our goal needs to be to think like The Lord Jesus Christ and reach a state of total reward in our mental attitude by fulfilling God’s Plan for our lives.  We are still going to sin and fail in our thought pattern; but if we continue in His Plan, we’ll experience times when God’s peace is such a reality in our lives, that the problems and difficulties we are facing will have no control over us whatsoever!

{to be continued}