This is my most important post on SI – please read

Yes, in my opinion this is my most important post so far here on SI! Why? I will show the root cause of our all our failures in experiencing the TRUE LIFE OF CHRIST daily.

I have been in the school of the law and self effort after embracing Jesus Christ as My Savior.

The purpose of the school of the law and death was to strip me of ALL my works of the law and to strip me from all self effort. The only way to graduate is to be totally dead to all self effort. I was in this school for over 40 years on the sin - confess merry-go-round and the dedicate and rededicate cycle that never worked. Sometimes it appeared that I had victory as THE RESULT OF MY OWN EFFORTS but this lasted only for a very short season. And even then I was proud of MY EFFORTS and I became very critical and judgmental toward others, thinking that I was better then them for my actions.

I got stuck in this school for so long that I gave up all hope but as a result I fell into some very serious sins. I came to the place where I realized that I needed faith so I tried to get it but could not because I still regarded myself as my point of origin and source of life.

I knew my sins were forgiven, but I always failed to live and experience Christ's Life. I found out that the harder I tried to live this life the more I failed. Then I was forced to come to the conclusion that me living this was impossible for me to do. I began to realize the reason why I could not live it was that God never even intended me to do that by my own efforts or energy.

I regarded myself as my point of origin and source of life. I found that I could not produce the life of God out of me. I couldn't bring God's life out of me. How was I going to do that? As long as I saw myself as the source of life, though, I had to keep trying. Until one day after countless failures and defeats, Jesus impressed to my spirit: "I am your life. I am the only life acceptable to the Father. I not only want to forgive you; I want to live the life in you. I want to be your life."

So my question was, how do I change the point origin and source of my own life? I knew that my own efforts that it was impossible for me to surrender or to change my source just by the power of my will. Self can NEVER surrender it self.

This is when my eyes were opened to see that this was something that God had already done for me and in. I saw it was ONLY by HIS doing that I was in Christ. 1 Cor. 1:30 New American Standard Bible (©1995) "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption."

God in Christ did what the law and all my own efforts could NEVER accomplish.

I was facing the same issues that Hudson Taylor experienced. Here is part of what he wrote to his sister.
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"All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out. He was rich, but I was poor; He was strong, but I was weak. I knew full well that there was in the vine, in the root, the stem, abundant fatness; but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question.

As gradually the light dawned on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite to laying hold of His fullness and making it my own. But I had not this faith . . . I strove for it, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior - my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith but it did not come. What was I to do?

When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never seen it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One."

As I read I saw it all! "If we believe not, He remains faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, "I will never leave you." "Ah, here is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?" And Dearie, He never will!
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I was in this exact position also. " I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith but it did not come. What was I to do?”
Now here is the answer to that question. Look the real power of the new covenant.

Jer. 32:39-40, "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me."

Ezek. 36:25-27, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances."

Deut. 30:6, "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou may live."

Jer. 24:7, "And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart."

The Good news of the Gospel is that Christ crucified you with Him and you were buried with Him. When you were born again, you just experienced the reality of what God had already accomplished for you. You began to realize that the old you died and now instead, you have Christ's Life.

We were made one with Him by an irrevocable act of God that made you in perfect union with Him. We have been made one with God. We are truly one with Him and we can experience His Divine continual presence and power. He has taken away our old stony heart and has now given us His heart. We now have a heart of flesh, a tender, living, loving heart.

We now have His Life within us. It is by His Almighty Power and Love, breathing and working in us, that He makes the promise true, "I WILL CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES AND YOU WILL KEEP MY JUDGEMENTS." We now have a heart in perfect harmony with Him, a life and walk in His way - God is engaged in Covenant to work in us. HE UNDERTAKES FOR OUR PART IN THE COVENANT AS MUCH AS FOR HIS OWN.

Yes this is the true secret of experiencing the reality of Christ in your life.

Now you may know these facts but this promise is NOT AUTOMATIC. Now, just because you know these facts or believe in them does not mean you will ever truly experience the reality of Christ living and abiding in you.

What is needed is for us to place our ALL OF OUR CONFIDENCE in this message to us. LOOK HIS MESSAGE to you NOW! "Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

This is God's answer and solution to the question, "how do I change the point origin and source of my own life?”

Here is the key to living the Christian Life - it does not depend on you but on Christ Himself living and abiding within you.

Yes - you MUST place you confidence in Him but that is EASY once you see Christ's faithfulness to you!!

So now, just stop all your efforts in the attempt to get faith, it is a FREE gift of God. Eph 2:8 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" You can place your confidence in HIS message to you because in contain and supplies the faith that is required. You can grab hold of HIS HOLD ON YOU. You must count on it and expect it daily. This is NOT SOME PASSIVE STATE. It is a total reliance of God in Christ to perform and bring it to pass according to HIS WORD!!

LOOK AT CHRIST'S FAITHFULNESS TO YOU!! You can truly expect Him to BOTH TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE moment by moment because you have HIS LIFE WITH IN YOU and NOW He IS YOUR LIFE. Yes - He now lives and abides within you and He will NEVER leave you or forsake you. You can expect and count on the fact that the Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and make them known and real to you moment by moment.

Do you see what Taylor Hudson saw? "As I read I saw it all! "If we believe not, He remains faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, "I will never leave you." "Ah, here is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?" And Dearie, He never will!"

Romans 4:3-5, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Here is the key "And being fully persuaded that, what GOD had promised, God was able also to perform." Abraham considered his body dead and knew that he had no hope in his own abilities or faith to make this promise happen. His confidence was not in his flesh or anything thing he could do. All of his confidence was placed in God and his message being fully persuaded that, what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

So where is your confidence? Is it in your own abilities to trust or somehow work up faith or love that is required? You must realize that you are completely dead to your own efforts and you can never place any hope in yourself whatsoever.

You can NOW place all of your confidence in HIM. You can say - "I am fully persuaded that I cannot by human strength and will obey or please God. I have no plea of holiness. I am without strength, and I can do nothing in my own ability. My sin is too powerful, the chains too heavy. I am too wicked to free myself. I need a miracle, and I need a helper. All I can do now is cry, Abba, Father."

I have no idea but I think that this number is now increasing daily.

Paul used the word secret.

Rom 16:25, "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began."

A true Christian is one who has Christ living and reigning in them. Jesus Christ becomes this person’s life and source from all of their actions flow. Christ is their ONLY hope of glory.

Christ's Life is the very core and essence of true Christianity. Having Christ's Life is the only true foundation and source of acceptable spiritually.

Just saying that prayer will not do it. You must put your total confidence in God and His message to you totally relying on His ability to perform what He says.

Really? Did Abraham use self-hypnotism when He believed God's message to him?

Romans 4:3-5, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Here is the key "And being fully persuaded that, what GOD had promised, God was able also to perform." Abraham considered his body dead and knew that he had no hope in his own abilities or faith to make this promise happen. His confidence was not in his flesh or anything thing he could do. All of his confidence was placed in God and His message being fully persuaded that, what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

It is impossible for any person to enter by self effort. But Now By God's doing we are in Christ! YOU ARE INCLUDED!

Look at what crusader wrote

"I really struggled with this and didn't understand what God was doing. About 2 years ago while life was at its worst for me, i walked along the beach and as the holy spirit spoke to me i could see that all of who i am has no value towards Gods righteousness and grace. there was nothing i could do in the flesh that would warrant God to do any blessing towards me apart from that he chose to do this because of the covenant between Christ Jesus and me."

here is the key - "there was nothing i could do in the flesh that would warrant God to do any blessing towards me apart from that he chose to do this because of the covenant between Christ Jesus and me."

Look at the Covenant and what God's says He has done, is doing now and what He will do in the future.

LOOK AT CHRIST'S FAITHFULNESS TO YOU!! You can truly expect Him to BOTH TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE moment by moment because you have HIS LIFE WITH IN YOU and NOW He IS YOUR LIFE. Yes - He now lives and abides within you and He will NEVER leave you or forsake you. You can expect and count on the fact that the Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and make them known and real to you moment by moment.

Christ actually does this IN you when you simply believe in His message to you.

It is NOT the result of self effort, self will or some form of positive thinking.

It is HIS LIFE being revealed and manifested within you DAILY.

I'm curious,

What law are you guys talking about?

marcmc

From my point of view I am the Chief of sinners. Yes I was involved in some VERY SERIOUS SINS. Let me make this clear - all my efforts, willpower, works to somehow please God FAILED MISERABLY.

Now I count all these attempts as pure rubbish and garbage. It was God who put me in the school of the law and death to strip me of any confidence that I had in myself.

At the foot of the cross we were all sinners with equal standing. Now, while we were still sinners and ungodly, God in Christ reconciled all of us to Him and united us in union with Him.

Christ Himself has QUALIFIED us to be partakers of His Divine Nature. He did this because of the Covenant agreement not by anything we have done, are doing or will ever do.

Pride is not possible - because all of this is based on God's doings and not mine. All I can do is boast in HIM.

Now look at the Covenant that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit has made together that CONCERNS YOU.

Gods covenant is for you now - you can get a hold of it NOW. Here is what David Wilkerson wrote.

Psalms 89 verse 27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. That's the Father - I'm going to make you higher than the kings of the earth when you take on this call. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, I will visit the transgression with the rod, their iniquity with stripes.

Nevertheless - this is for you and me - this is the promise for the seed, He's making this to his Son, he's saying to his Son, nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Glory be to God!

Now we are to lay hold of the covenant, lay hold of the promises of God whereby we're made partakers of His Divine nature. Let this - jump into the stream and flow with it right now because this is the word of the living God. God said to his own Son, I make a covenant with you, I will make you higher than all the kings of the earth.

For His part, Christ promised the Father perfect obedience, first on his own behalf. Now it gets even better. Psalms 40. Folks, look this way please. I want to show you now that Jesus says first of all, I am going to be obedient to you. Father, I'm going to be obedient. He's talking now here in this passage about his own personal obedience to the Heavenly Father. Verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 40: Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, I have not refrained my lips. It says, Then said I, lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written, I delight to do thy will O God.

Now look at me please. This is God's pledge, this is Christ's pledge, this is His part of the covenant, His part of the agreement. He said, I pledge to you Father, my Father, I, then promised. It is written of me. He's talking about himself. Now I am going to be totally obedient.

Now folks, this is exactly what happened. Jesus totally obeyed his Father's will. It always has to do with the heart and the will. He said, I have completely surrendered my will. It's written of me, I am going to obey you, Heavenly Father. He gave the Father perfect obedience.

I want - you have to see this. That the Lord Jesus makes a pledge of total absolute obedience. This fulfills the law. Every command has been fulfilled. Everything that God required of his law, that's all fulfilled now in
Christ Jesus. But then he goes on to cover you and I our whole lifetime. He makes such an incredible deal for you and me! What an agreement he made on our behalf! What a deal! What a covenant! It's a better covenant than the Old Covenant. Made on better promises and here's that better promise.

Listen to me. I'm going to make a statement now that on the first hearing you'll think it's error. You say it's too good to be true. I can't believe it. Nope.

Now folks, when Jesus was born in the manger what did they sing? Glad tidings. Glad tidings. This is glad tidings. God says, not only Father, am I going to obey, but I'm going to engage not only for my obedience, but for the obedience of all my seed, all my seed. I'm engaging myself not only to fulfill obedience, not only will I be totally obedient to You, but I am going to engage now for all my children.

Look at chapter 16, verses 2 and 3: O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee. What he's saying, Lord, this obedience - this goodness, it's coming to you not just on my behalf alone. It's not just for me that I'm obedient. But for the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Jesus said, I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified. He's saying, from now on Lord, I am providing for the obedience of all my family.

Remember what Jesus said to you and to me and to all his disciples? You can do nothing on your own. He said, without me you can't do anything. But with me you can do all things. He said, get into the covenant. Depend wholly on me. You just trust in me and you trust in my obedience that I've given to the Father was a perfect obedience.

You can never present to Him a perfect obedience on your own. Come simply by faith now and say, Jesus, you have promised no matter what I'm going through, I'm under covenant. You said you would take me by the hand. Father, I'm in trouble. Father, I've got a lust I can't handle.

Father, I've got problems in my home. The Lord said, reach out your hand, put out your hand, I'll hold your hand.

He said, I will put my fear into your hearts that you shall not depart from me because you're under covenant. I'll put my fear in your heart. Don't try to produce it. You just put your hand in mine, you trust my obedience, you trust my righteousness, you just believe, accept my promise. Reach out your hand, lay hold of the covenant. He said, I'll put my fear in your hearts, I will remember your sin no more. I'll write my law on your hearts, I will make you to know me from the greatest even unto the least.

God is saying, I know what you're going through but I made an agreement to be responsible for you. He said, and My Son ratified that covenant with his own blood. He can't break it because the one who made the covenant with the Father is already at the right hand of the Father. It's all finished. He can't lie.

Can't you get a hold of this now in your spirit? And hold this up before all the forces of hell and say, devil, I am in covenant, I have not yet arrived. I am still working. I know that if I sin I am going to be held responsible because He's going to put a rod to my back. He's going to do it in love though. Many, many times I've spanked my children, but then I hugged them and I spanked them because I love them.

Your very best obedience of the flesh is not acceptable to God, but faith gets you into the covenant. And once you're in covenant, you obey God not to be accepted but because you're accepted. And then the obedience you offer to Him is a gift of love because you're in covenant.

He said, if you love me you'll obey me. How can you not love a father who looks at your failure and your sin and your battle. He doesn't come to beat you down or cast you under the law. He said, I've made an agreement that's everlasting, I cannot lie. I made an oath to my Son. And when you're in Christ, I can no more cast you aside than I could cast my own Son aside who sits at my right hand. It's that sure. It's that sure. Hallelujah!

Now you go to Him and say, Father, this is what my despair brought me to in the first place. I just gave up and said - you either give up and run back to the old life because trying is going to get you into despair and you're going to give up.

But folks, that's what the Lord wants, He wants you just to give up instead of running.

He said, just reach out your hand. He said, I will hold you by your hand, and I will keep you. I will be responsible for you. And that's why Jesus died and he went into hell and the Lord said, it's covenant time.

I've made my Son a promise, that no devil, no demon, nothing of sin or lust can destroy him, and he sent the Holy Ghost in and the Holy Ghost pulled him out of hell, out of the grave!

God kept covenant with his Son. And you know when you come by faith, you see, Jesus is in glory now. The covenant has been fulfilled; he's fulfilled his part of the covenant. But now you and I are seated with Christ in heavenly places. That means clearly that he is keeping covenant with you and me, the seed of Christ. I thank God, He isn't going to let you go. I don't care what you're going through.

Saul - murderer, persecutor - the Lord says, no, I'm not going to let you go. I'm going to get a hold of you and once I get a hold of you, Paul, I'll never let go.

Yes there is temptation - even Christ was tempted.

No. there is no Magic formula to follow or even steps to take when one is tempted because if there was, you would depend on that and you doing it rather than God.

When a temptation comes I Immediately go to the THRONE OF GRACE.

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

This I can BOLDLY do with NO SELF EFFORT do BASED ENTIRELY on what God in Christ has already provided for me and in me.

I do not try to suppress or deal with this temptation by an act of my will but I count and expect on the LIFE OF CHRIST who is actually dwelling with in me to both to will and to will of HIS Good Pleasure in it. I remind myself and God of HIS COVENANT that concerns me. He said He would CAUSE ME TO WALK IN HIS STATUTES so I expect Him to perform what He what He said.

Now I am being saved BY CHRIST LIFE within me. It can not count on me to perform anything. I rely on Him to preform it because of the COVENANT He has made.

It is not hard, any Christian can do once they see and understand the Covenant. You can do it now.

"We are called to bear fruit in character and in service if Christ is our life. And we will do that because Christ is our life: He cannot deny Himself. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

YES THIS IS TRUE - I agree 100% This is what I am attempting to say.

JESUS CHRIST is my LIFE and I do bear fruit as a result of that.

1 Pet 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise WITH THE SAME MIND: for he that hath suffered in the flesh HATH CEASED FROM SIN;

There is a connection between entering into His Rest and ceasing from your own works of righteousness (sin).

Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also HATH CEASED FROM HIS OWN WORKS, as God did from his.

Paul knows man's propensity to work religiously for good standing with God, to strive and labour to be acceptable to the Lord (as he did as a Pharisee and as Cain did), so he uses this term (work, labour) now to indicate what we should be working.

Heb 4:11 LET US LABOUR therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The "promised land of rest",
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"For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you." (Deu 12:9)

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did not provide rest.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, IT IS A PEOPLE THAT DO ERR IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN MY WAYS: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. (Psa 95:10-11)

They did not understand His ways is a big key.

All of the pictorial types of "rest" in the OT were pointing to Jesus Christ and the "rest" that can only be found in Him.

We have to rest in His sufficiency. Resting from religious performance.

Getting back to "suffering in the flesh and ceasing from sin."

Think - "No cross, No Christ"

"arm yourselves likewise WITH THE SAME MIND". We confess that we have the "mind of Christ" and if you do, then the Cross is active in your life and if the Cross is active then your flesh is suffering (not getting it's way) and if your flesh is not actively controlling influencing you then you are ceasing from sin.

There is other sin besides religious works of self-righteousness. Now, let's read the next few verses of 1 Pet 4.
"That he no longer should live the rest of his time IN THE FLESH TO THE LUSTS OF MEN, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:" (1 Pet 4:2-4)