I No Longer Live



I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20



O Praise God!! O Hallelujah!! What a wonderful passage of scripture! It is one of the most important aspects of the Gospel!! I have to be honest, I did not always understand this scripture. I would often wonder what Paul meant by this, but thanks be to God that He has revealed this main truth to my heart! God is so magnificent and so awesome! How could we not praise and adore him? I often wonder what took me so long to come to the knowledge of the truth, and then I realize that I was in bondage just like everyone else.

When I came to Christ and received salvation, I honestly only knew that I was forgiven for my sins and that now I must "live right" While this is truth it is only partially the truth! Salvation is so much more than forgiveness of sins! I was in the dark a long time about what all Salvation entailed, I was steady "trying" to live right on my own, and trust me that is a hard thing to do. When we "try" we are actually still under the law and not under grace. By our trying, we are annulling the cross all together. Christ did not die for us to "try" and live right. Honestly, do we even know what righteousness is, aside from Christ? Our flesh cannot live right, it can only "try" and it will never be successful. I struggled and struggled and was weary! I felt like giving up. I begin to doubt my salvation and even doubt that God was real! I mean, honestly, what kind of God tells you to come to Him and find rest and then leave you with the burden of "trying" to be Holy on your own? This is something that I asked God. Many of you may be saying how dare I ask the Lord that, but I had to because I was tired of struggling and not having any real revelation or understanding of God. I knew deep in my heart that I was saved because my mindset was changed, my desires had changed and only the power of God can could have changed what was filthy into something pure! However, I was not having any real victory over sin! I was still sinning in thought, word, and deed. I was just tired of it! One day God had me read some writings of an older believer and in those writings was the answer to my prayers. Hallelujah!!! I was free!!

You see I no longer had to "try" and live right because I was crucified and it was Christ that was living in me and for me. Well after that sank into my heart, I asked the Lord how could I apply this practically. (I am a practical gal!:)  Practically applying this is usually the challenge for most believers. We read, we study, and we pray but somehow we don't get the application part right. I truly wanted to know how to apply this to my life and truly rest in the Lord. To apply this God told me to just say it and believe it. He told me to just say: "Lord I am helpless, I am unable to overcome, I cannot live the life you desire, Jesus you live, You overcome for me, you be patient for me, you be loving for me, you be all the things I need" You guys I am telling you that when I obeyed and spoke what God had me to speak and truly believed that Jesus was the one living in me and He was the one that was going to live for me, I could truly breathe!! It was as if something fell off my shoulders!! Jesus is real you guys, He really is and He really lives in us and for us! We will never overcome on our own, we will never have victory without Christ! He must live and we must stay crucified. We must remember that we have been crucified, WE ARE DEAD!! The task of daily living is to stay dead! Satan always comes and tries to tempt us to raise ourselves up and trust me it can easily happen if we don't guard our hearts and minds!! He constantly harasses and injects thoughts and wants us to take up and fight him on our own. Paul says that we are to put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand our ground. Our daily requirement is to STAND on the word of God. Stand on the facts of the cross and benefits of our resurrection with Christ! We must reckon ourselves dead and continuously do so. We must realize that because Christ lives in us, He will live this life for us. No need for us to try and struggle in our own strength. Christ has paid it all and He will live out God's righteous requirements in and through us! Praise be to God!! We can have rest and we can stand on what Christ has accomplished!!

Much Love,

Stephanie