Light…Not Twilight!
There's no reason why we as believers can't please God as much as Jesus did. We have a reborn spirit made in His image. We've been given His righteousness. We've been filled with the same Holy Spirit. We have all the capacity that Jesus had in the earth to be just like Him and to do the works that He did because He lives in us. The scripture says "…Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
He was dedicated. He was totally sold out to God. He was without sin. The Bible tells us many times He ministered to the multitudes all day and then prayed all night, yet Jesus had a flesh and blood body just like yours and mine. He enjoyed a good night's sleep just as much as we do.
So there was an element of crucifying the flesh involved in giving up that sleep and doing what pleased God. He had to say "no" to His flesh, and "yes" to the Father. "Well, Gloria, I know Jesus did that, but God doesn't expect that kind of self-sacrifice from us."
Yes, He does. Read 1 Peter 4:1-3.
It's time for the Church to stop living like gentiles (or the sinners) do! It's time for the Church to live like God says, regardless of what the world around us is doing. Just because the morals of the world slip doesn't mean the morals in the Church should slip.
It doesn't matter how dark this world becomes, we are to be the light of this world. Not the twilight of the world—the light!
We need to fight against compromise by arming ourselves with the commitment to suffer in the flesh rather than fail to please God. To suffer in the flesh doesn't mean to bear sickness and poverty without complaining. Jesus already bore sickness and poverty for us along with every other curse of the law so that we can be free from those things.
Put Your Flesh Down!
We are expected to resist that curse in Jesus's Name. Suffering in the flesh is making your flesh do something it doesn't want to do. It's dedicating yourself to do what's pleasing to God even when it causes your flesh discomfort.
When you're ready to do that, you'll go beyond just "not sinning" and into a life that's pleasing to God. You'll be ready to lay down those things that you enjoy, things that aren't necessarily bad in themselves, yet they are hindering your walk with God.
If you want to walk in the best God has for you, those are the kinds of sacrifices you must make, for Jesus said:
He who does not take up his cross and follow Me [that is, cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming holly to My example in living and if need be in dying also] is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose [the higher life], and whosoever loses his [lower] life on My account will surely find [the higher life].I'm sure Enoch didn't know what the higher life held for him. He probably had no idea that he'd be the first man ever raptured. But he was. Hebrews 11:5 says, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death…for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
(Matt. 10:38-39 AMP)
If you could see what God has for you in the higher life, you would immediately let go of the mundane things of the world. You would drop that junk so fast you wouldn't even know which way it went. But you're not going to be able to see it and then make your decision.
You have to step into that higher life by faith. You have to lay down your life because the Word says to do it. Then and only then will you discover the wonders that are waiting on the other side of your obedience!
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries