Crucified

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

The above verse has rung in my heart like a brass cymbal. Let’s examine what Paul was saying in this verse. In the first line, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, Whew. This first line is powerful because Paul is saying that he was spiritually dead when Christ went to the cross to save humanity and that’s why Christ went to give us new life. His (our) old ways and fleshly desires crucified. For Paul, his old ways were being a religious Pharisee and persecuting Christians. However, when he received salvation through Christ Jesus his old self died. His old self no longer lives but now Christ lives within us, how awesome is it that God lives within us? Over 2000 years ago, Jesus died and sent the holy spirit to live inside of us. So, when we become in relationship with Christ. We submit to him and he lives inside of us. The next lie, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God” Living here on planet earth is not easy. It is extremely difficult because there is famine, poverty, crime, hate, racism, etc. The word is anti-Jesus and we are Christ Representors. As Christians we should be naturally bothered by what’s going on and others should see Christ in us.  When we live by faith, we take our eyes off our situation and focus on GOD. The final line of the scripture is “who loved me and gave himself for me”. God loved us so much he sent his only son into the world to save us.

-          John 12:47

-          Romans 12:2

I want to mention the 3 S’s that are important in our walk with God.

1.      What does it mean to submit?

Submission: to surrender; to yield to one person to the power of another. (KJV) When you receive salvation you have to submit to Jesus. What the act of submitting to Christ looks like to me is consciously dying to your flesh and living a holy life. When I say consciously, many of us Christians get into a routine and we may THINK we have submitted to Christ, but our actions and faith says otherwise. When you die to yourself you are putting your entire being on the line. Your willpower, actions, thoughts, desires and you start to consult GOD with every decision. I have realized that I must DIE to who I am (Nikia) so that Christ Jesus can be exalted within me.

2.      What is sin?

Sin: the voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule or rectitude prescribed by God. (KJV) In modern day terms, sin is an offense to God and essentially separates us. If a color can be used to describe to sin it would be black. There are multiple parables that depict the oldest battle between light and dark, good and evil. Sin is darkness and goodness/purity are white. One of the scriptures that describes this is Colossians 1:13 “For he rescued us from the domain of darkness [sin] and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. In this scripture, the domain of darkness describes the world and our sinful nature, and his beloved son is Jesus or the light of the world. We find in John, Jesus was talking to the disciples and told him that “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) When we think of a light, think about the sun and how it lights up everything. Earlier I mentioned how sin separates us but take a moment and think about how scary is it to be cut off from our power source? In Isaiah 59:2 it reads “But your iniquities made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face form you so that he does not hear!” My heart’s cry is to be more like God and I cannot be like that if I am separated from him.

What is shame?

3.       Shame; The last thing that many Christians (saved) are struggling with is dealing with the burden of shame. So many of us have received salvation but cannot confess the good News because we are burdened with our shame. We have turned our ears from God’s voice and accepted the voice of Satan. We know that Satan is a LIAR and there is not truth in him. You may be saying "Nikia, what do you mean by that?" I’m not trying to offend you, but you have stopped listening to what God said about you and believed a lie. In John 8:44, Jesus described in detail the devil’s character. It reads “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the very beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.” Saints, we should be living in peace not shame. My pastor defined shame as what happens when we let the sin of our past affect the present. Declare out of your mouth it doesn’t matter what you use to be! (See 2 Corinthians 10:5) I’m telling you what the devil is selling you don’t have to buy.  You must pay attention to your thoughts and stop listening to what the devil says about you and believe what god has for you.

Your destiny is on the other side your faith. Now that we have discussed the 3 S’s lets examine the 3 C’s that we must avoid.

(Distractions: The Three C’s)

1.      Comparison

2.      Complaining

3.      Change Your Mindset

There are 3 C’s that we must consider in moving forward to be fully devoted to a crucified lifestyle: Comparison, Complaining, Change your mind about yourself.  The first one is comparison. It is almost impossible not to compare our lives to others in this social media era. Our generation is somewhere scrolling on Instagram as we speak. Sadly comparing our lives to people, we may or may not know because a shared snipper of their live. Maybe a car, a home, or spouse. The most common for women “She’s so pretty! Why can’t I look like her? Sis, you can’t look like her because GOD made you to look like you not her. (See Psalms 139:14) When you neglect your own BEAUTY you fail to acknowledge GOD’s masterpiece! The second C is complaining, God has arrested my heart in regards to this because I was the biggest complainer! I complained about everything, small and big, and we block our blessings that way! You may be complaining about your job. Wait take a minute and step back. Isn’t that the same job you prayed for? The one you got in your prayer closet and waged war against hell for? Stop complaining and be thankful that you have a job! The final C is changing your mindset. This is a must because you cannot move forward in a positive light with a negative mindset. In proverbs it tells us “For as a he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (See Proverbs 23:7)

As always!

Be encouraged,

Nikia A. Handy

Founder of The Purpose Room Ministries