Romans 6

P 2649 Moving house will change your life.

/ DVH

“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:4,6,7,&11. “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—  because anyone who has died has been set free from sin…”  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Have you ever physically moved house? I have quite a few times. For those of us who haven’t ever moved, it is a long drawn out process that involves packing up your whole life, and putting everything into boxes, then shoving them into a moving van. Then you go to your new residence and you start unpacking etc. You won’t go back to that old house to live there anymore … because you’ve moved away from it.

Let’s look at what happened when we were born again. WE ALL MOVED HOUSE when we gave our lives to Christ. We left our old life behind us. There is no reason to try to live in that old house anymore, because we gave that house up in favour of living in a far superior new one. Somebody else was trying to kill us where we used to live, and that place we lived in was our life before we met Jesus.

Every time I have ever moved house, I have gone through my stuff and chucked OUT things I no longer needed.  I did not want to start my new life in a new house with junk I didn’t need anymore. When Jesus died for us – He took ALL OUR JUNK with Him to the cross. That junk is gone – just like the earthly junk I sent off to the Salvation Army! Amazingly, the bible says this: not only did we move house – at the same time WE DIED. This means we don’t NEED any of that old stuff any more! It belonged to our old way of life.

We gave up living there in favour of living in His presence, His kingdom. Our new house has given us a brand new way to live. Every part of us moved! Now our life has been hidden within Christ’s life, He took care of our sins, once and for all. Which is why sinning is a waste of time!! Why would we ever want to willingly go back to that old life where we were held hostage to sin? That was the place where sin ran the way we did practically everything.

Sin can’t have power over us the way it did before. The only way it can have power over us now is if we give it permission. Our permission, our choices are the criteria that will daily make all the difference. We simply tell satan we will not be dragged back into that old way of living! There will be some adjustment required because we are used to living in that old house, so familiarity could grab us.

But that was also the house where blame, shame, rejection and abandonment lived. In that old house love was conditional – it depended upon our behaviour. In our new house love is unconditional. Our precious Saviour oversees every single aspect of our lives now. To live fully alive there, all we need to do is simply follow our Master’s clear instructions in His book and leave the old house with its old ways BEHIND.

Nothing, not our current or previous circumstances, nor our old proclivities … absolutely nothing that happened to us before we were saved has the power to force us back into that old ‘house’ … even our old habits, our old ways of thinking, doing and being. We take our way of thinking, being and doing from the bible, now by choice. The bible is our illustration of what living in this new life looks like! Practically speaking, I can’t live in my physical old house anymore, because it is about 10 suburbs away and somebody else lives there now! That way I lived is now dead to me.

You and I could get into difficulties and become unhappy, if we decide we like the old way that we lived better than this new way. That’s why we actively look for His benefits in our lives. The bible tells us not to forget them … 

…one of the benefits of moving house for me, means my adult kids and grandkids live around the corner! Now I get to see them more. Plus I no longer live on the main road, with greatly increased traffic, now I live in a very quiet street.

When we gave our lives to Christ, we went from a life that had no purpose, no real meaning, into a life that moved forward and that new life propelled us into new exciting things. Things like getting to know the God of the Universe and beyond …!! SomeBody loved all of us enough to die for us. They WANTED us – we are not ‘extras’ on the vast stage of life, now we are HIS children. . 

In this new life/house we’ve been given, we all have a destiny. It isn’t just any old thing that someone made up so we wouldn’t be left out, this is something that only WE can do. If we don’t do it, it won’t get done. Now we can all ‘live for our Father’s pleasure.’ Our job is to learn to occupy our new house, so no trace of the old house/life is left. Moving house will change your life! 👋

P 2569 Praise God for Easter SUNDAY …

/ DVH

“For since we are permanently grafted into Him to experience a death like His, then we are permanently grafted into Him to experience a resurrection like His and the new life that it imparts.” Romans 6:5 TPT.

Easter Sunday released a new way to live … for all mankind. And the more we choose to yield to Him, the more of the Lord and His ways, we will begin to embrace. The church doesn’t just need revival – we need New Life! New life came into that tomb long, long ago – it swallowed up death. Our Saviour IS alive with eternal life and that is far greater than we can ever imagine. Our Jesus cannot be stopped. He is the source of our new life. ‘He is the way, the truth and … the life!‘

Just pause and let that sink in. The One you believe in is endless! He lives in eternity, and because of Him forever is our portion. We joyfully raise our sights above the battles of here and now, and live in the reality of His kingdom coming, now -TODAY.  Now we can watch “on earth as it is in heaven” happen … in front of our own eyes – in our own lives. We don’t have to be afraid of anything, because our source of life is not like the grabby spiteful kind of life that is in this world around us. The life in this world, decays and dies … because it is easily be corrupted.

Death can’t touch Christ. His sacrificial act on Calvary is where eternal life comes from. Death cannot touch Him, anymore than darkness can extinguish light!  Darkness cannot intimidate us because it cannot win. Praise God Jesus died to release us from sin…AND … He died to give US the power to conquer sin. So that sin can’t grab at us anymore. Sin is a place of temporary pleasure, but giving in to it means I lose sight of Him and what He is doing. What He does and is doing, right now, is so fantastic that I wanna know about it!  No brainer.

Now, He is a part of us, and we are a part of Him. We are His chosen bride. We are becoming one flesh with Him — because we are becoming united in our purpose. Dying to self is not a hopeless chore that is doomed to fail – it is the way to be united with the Lord. He died and now WE die! Our choosing to die for His sake … or even for someone else’s sake … unites us with His purposes. Just like that disciple that was constantly rattling on that he was Jesus favourite, now WE can hear His heartbeat. As we die to self, we  tune our hearts into His heartbeat by obeying and trusting Him … despite the cost … which is tiny in comparison to knowing the Lord! 

Here’s another great Easter Sunday present for you! “So now we draw near freely and boldly to where grace is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.” Hebrews 4:16 TPT. We are not alone, tossed about by needs, wants and the desires of this world. The winds of turmoil can blow … but they can no longer touch the heart in us. We’ve made His heart, His priorities, His goals, His aims … ours. This is how we follow Jesus. Living this life, the only one we have down here, the way He would do it. We have become His hands and feet, right here, right now. 

Everything we need as we follow Him, is available to us. I think we’ve been asking/praying for the wrong things. This world says if we get in trouble then we must pray to get out! What would happen if we pray to endureand GO THROUGH? Jesus prayed to get out 3 times, and God said NO.. go through. I’m not saying that our precious Father God and His mercy’s kiss won’t ever release us from harm. However, I am saying we will grow impervious to satan’s wiles, when we go through holding onto His promise that He will never leave us and He knows what is best FOR US.  That is how we grow and mature and gain His clarity. When we trust God, obey what He says, and go through trouble believing nothing happens to us that He does not know about – even if we die.

There are rarely shortcuts – or easy exits. To grow IN Him, we simply stand on what Christ already did. His death and resurrection are now our proof that death cannot conquer us. We may be pitiful and weak, but that’s OK, our Saviour has already given us His strength for our weaknesses.  Now our faith helps us to stand up! Or even to humbly kneel down, in the middle of trouble and strife. We have faith that says: “Trouble, you may not take away what I believe. My faith is not in answers —- it is in the Person of Jesus Christ!”  Praise God for Easter Sunday …👋