On January 6th, 2004, the Father and I were talking – I was writing that which He was speaking in a journal…He said to me that day “In the future, there will be a price for not having entered into crucifixion that Jesus has offered. They must earnestly seek the way of My Spirit – it is the way that transcends all earthly matters.”
Sadly, no one teaches crucifixion for His glory. Some teach being crucified WITH Christ, however the message that we are to submit to self-crucifixion has been lost (and in most cases, ignored, shunned, omitted on purpose!).
We were created to be like God! How can we NOT experience His experiences? True sacrifice unto God is giving up your “self” and any life you’d choose to live, in exchange for the perfect will of God.
God is searching for dead men walking. Men and women who have submitted to crucifixion of their flesh where absolutely no sin abounds. None. How many hear, even to this day, “We are all sinners….saved by grace.” ? We WERE all sinners UNTIL we were saved by grace….THEN, we became saints who sinned on occasion. There is a DIFFERENCE! AND – there is a place BEYOND sin…a place of wholly holy, righteous living in Christ that causes one NOT to sin. But that can only be accomplished when you DIE to flesh, the world, sin, the law. THESE, then, are the ones who can enter into a reconciled relationship with Christ – a relationship where you are COMPLETELY, absolutely, utterly joined to Him – dead to sin, alive unto God!
Let us make one aspect of sin perfectly clear: DISOBEDIENCE – not doing the Lord’s will – is SIN. Doing “your” life “your” way is sin. ALL that is apart from His perfect will for your life is sin.
Unfortunately the church today does not include this in THEIR definition of sin and tend to label it extreme. HOWEVER JESUS said obedience leads to righteousness (Romans 6:16). And He said obedience is love (2 John 1:6).
Obedience is the very key to pleasing God.
Genesis 6:1 proclaims that God will not strive with men forever. If you continue to sin, if you continue to walk in disobedience, ignoring His PERFECT WILL for your entire life, God will turn away from you and leave you to your own sins and ways. Truly it is your choice – but that choice has consequences: obedience means to walk with Him; disobedience is to walk alone.
Obedience is not something that we must do but Christ didn’t. God forbid! Christ walked in ALL WAYS obedient unto the Father. Everything INCLUDING His crucifixion was the Father’s plan – Jesus had to allow His flesh to be crucified, to come into perfect agreement with the Father’s will. So must we.
“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered” Hebrews 5:8
Christian obedience cannot be forced. It must come from a willing heart that has been made ready to obey. It is where we turn our hearts to God, surrendering to His commands, and deciding to obey the voice of the Father above all else. We are to become a living sacrifice unto God with His Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
YOU have to CHOOSE surrender – to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh via Holy Spirit – to surrender your life and heart to live free from the sinful nature. Christians who are alive unto God offer themselves to Him 100 percent. They have made their life a continual, daily, minute-by-minute offering to God, allowing Him to live through them, walk through them, work through them while giving Him all the Glory.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2
It isn’t rituals, it isn’t robotic, it is actual joyful heartfelt dedication of ones heart, mind, soul, spirit and will completely unto the Lord.
It is only when we are willing to live according to His perfect plan, completely believing, that He will transform us totally.
Self MUST DIE. DIE completely to the things of this world, allowing God to be 100 percent in control.
TOTAL OBEDIENCE to the master is required.
Self can no longer be exalted – not ever – you must enter into that holy place where Jesus alone is exalted.
It is truly a voluntary act.
Do you want all of Him?
Are you willing to give up all for Him?
You may consider this a steep price to pay…VERY FEW have EVER given up ALL for Jesus.
Have you? Are you still putting your name on things that the LORD spoke? Is HIS MINISTERY named for Him or is it named after you? Do your sentences start with “I” and “I think” and “I believe”? If you were TRULY HIS you would know that YOUR THOUGHTS don’t mean diddley! ONLY HIS THOUGHTS, ONLY HIS WORDS have eternal life. If you are proclaiming something to have been spoken from Him, but then you write, “I believe the Lord is saying….”, you haven’t heard Him! BE SILENT until you KNOW FOR SURE and can proclaim THUS SAITH THE LORD!
Ah, but that requires YOU to get out of the picture. And it is not just in these few ways, but all ways, your entire existence, must have NOTHING to do with you beyond being a yielded vessel. THAT is when you have been not only dying daily, taking up your cross daily, but you will begin to evidence YOUR OWN CRUCIFIXION has taken place.
“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.
When one seeks intimacy with Christ – to know Him and reflect Him – the secret lies in uniting with Him on the cross – living the crucified life. Jesus said if you do not take up His cross and follow Him, you are not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:8). Jesus said you cannot be His disciple if you do not partake of His cross (Luke 14:27).
The cross identifies that the believing disciple is now crucified, united with Him as one.
In the garden when Jesus prayed, He was allowing His flesh/will to align with the Father’s will. He agonized so that any and all things that might hinder the call and purpose to which He was born would be destroyed.
For you to partake of Christ – to abide, live, dwell in Him – you must embrace death to self, crucifixion – you must surrender yourself wholly.
AND you must not let yourself come down off the cross. The flesh needs to be submitted and surrendered up to the cross every moment! The flesh nature, or human nature, needs to be crucified daily.
When you have complete faith in the power of the cross you will gladly take the cross along with its pain. It is when you come down off the cross of submission and death to self that your problems begin. Always be aware that your old nature (flesh) will seek to deceive you that living this life of crucifixion – death to self – is just expecting too much. Your ONLY way to stay in the crucified life is by constant abiding fellowship with Jesus.
CONSTANT.
I PRAY: Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, reveal to all who long to truly be Yours the hidden glory of the unity of being crucified with You.It is an HONOR to be chosen to walk with Jesus, walk as He walked, to partake of His cup, so that you no longer live but it is Christ through you.
“...he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Acts 9:14-16
"For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Philippians 1:29
God calls by His Spirit, “Do you truly want to be broken?”
You ask “Lord, draw near” and “more of thee” but is that truly your heart’s desire?
God is looking for a humbled (submissive) and contrite (repentant) heart. You cannot give your heart to God while clinging to your own selfish desires. The turning, repentant heart will die to selfishness.
“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:2, 10, 17
“Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.” Psalm 86:11-12
He already knows your decision – and this isn’t something you can do – it is the work of Holy Spirit as you ask Him to do this IN you. “Here am I Lord,” (the famous words of surrender uttered by Isaiah) are bandied about in an attempt of your flesh and pride to say, “Oh yes…that’s me…I’m ready.” But even Jesus DIDN’T WANT THE CROSS! He didn’t GLORY IN THE IDEA OF BEING CRUCIFIED. HIS FLESH SCREAMED AND CRIED OUT! So much so that when He prayed before His Father, asking if this cup could be removed, He not only sweat blood but He became emaciated! Transformed literally physically to something horrid and unrecognizable! THAT is how much His FLESH did not want to be crucified! So WHO ARE YOU TO SAY “I can take it” – NO, YOU CANNOT! NOT WITHOUT HIM YOU CAN’T!
If you know that you love Him….and you know that you WANT all that He has placed before you – all that, before the foundation of the world when He knew you and chose you and decided how you would walk for His glory – if you truly want all of THAT, then ask the Lord to prepare you. Ask Him to allow you His sustaining grace and mercy to enable you to go through the crucifixion you MUST FACE if you are to live His resurrected life.
Why will no one teach this? It is, indeed meat, but truly, you cannot even advance beyond the first four books of the New Testament without coming to terms with, understanding completely, what Jesus’ life and death and resurrection mean to you as His follower, His disciple, His own. It is Christ through us – but we cannot become like Him until we see Him and all that “He” entails.
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord..” 2 Corinthians 3:18
Jesus was BORN TO DIE. It was His entire purpose in setting down His divinity, coming into the world in the flesh, in the form as man – to defeat death, take the sin and world and law and religion upon Himself to His Cross….there could be NO RESURRECTION, reconciliation, freedom, victory, without that death.
And YOU cannot walk out, fulfill His divine purposes for “your life” (His life through you) until YOU DIE as well.
Be of good cheer – you will also partake of His resurrection…but ONLY AFTER your own crucifixion.
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:5-11
There is a very huge difference between carrying your cross, dying daily, following Jesus – and – your crucifixion. Jesus was crucified, resurrected, then ascended to heaven in His glorified body, where He sits at the right hand of His Father. We, on the other hand, are to remain here for His purposes, His glory, in the world but not of the world – NO glorified body but (after crucifixion) as resurrected saints encased in flesh. Thus we must die DAILY as He kills us daily (as we permit in humble submission and obedience and surrender) (and there are thousands of ways He kills our flesh daily, keeping us holy, righteous). BUT…CRUCIFIXION…nailing to the cross – THAT is a prerequisite to even FOLLOW in Christ’s steps. And sadly, less than one percent of so-called Christians ever permit this. EVER.
To embrace your crucifixion is to allow the destruction of ALL THAT IS IN YOU WHICH IS NOT CHRIST - - -allowing it to be destroyed. This is foreign to man as man embraces the world – which is at enmity with God – and cannot comprehend a life that basically isn’t like everyone elses and isn’t about THEM.
You might suppose that if we were born in the days of Adam, if we were the first, and God literally came down and walked and talked with us, showing us all things…..or if we were born and raised where there were no contact with the outside world, no radio, no TV – and all that we learned from the time we were able to start learning as infants, was the ways and the Word of God….THEN it would be ‘natural’ to live the way God intends for us to live. Is that the argument? That because of the ways of the world that this is not only not possible, but ‘that was the way it was and not what God expects today’?
Sadly many folks think this way – even and especially ‘believers’. But it COULD BE THAT WAY, SHOULD BE THAT WAY and MUST BE THAT WAY TODAY if we are to be HIS OWN…if we are to know and be known by Him! The minute a parent who knows Christ gives birth, they must make sure their child only hears the Word, experiences His love, learns of prayer, worship and praise. Ah – but again you will argue that ‘no one else does it that way’. “My parents didn’t do that…” or “I had to meet Christ as an adult…” or “I was raised in the church from infancy but NO ONE taught us THAT….”. What is YOUR excuse for choosing the world and its deceptive ways over all things GOD? Once you DID meet Him – why didn’t you live wholly fully for Him, coming out from among them to be SEPARATE?
The ways of the world cannot be your excuse not to live wholly for God and doing things His way – that was YOUR CHOICE! Who or what are you afraid of? Are you embarrassed to live a Godly holy life, wholly separated?
If you have ever spent any time in His word, studying the written examples of the most faithful ones – the singled-out ones – the ones He chose to use as examples to us – - - they CHOSE the narrow way…the crucified life. Yes, most erred because of their flesh, (and the Lord permitted there errors to be recorded for all eternity, for all eyes to see and know!) but the point wasn’t that “they were human and therefore as God favored them and they made mistakes, hey it’s ok for me to sin also” – GOD FORBID! NO! The point is that they ROSE ABOVE their frailties to be those whom God honored, loved and was well-pleased with! And He did it THROUGH THEM – they SUBMITTED…they HUMBLED THEMSELVES at His hand through obedience and He was then able to exalt them as holy…because all that was good and righteous about them was Him THROUGH THEM, and nothing of them/themselves. They had to die to their flesh, submit to being crucified. They are not examples of yesteryear and days gone by. His word is alive, the same yesterday, today and forever. That said, we are not to emulate them, but CHRIST!
How are you able to live the way you are living, day to day, doing your own thing, making your own decisions, but they were not allowed!
ALL examples of all the saints pale in comparison to THE ONE who BOUGHT YOU WITH A PRICE. The one perfect example is OUR LORD. Who died so that we could LIVE His eternal plan through us. That perfect example of God’s chosen Son – living perfectly, wholly, holy, righteously THROUGH US. All we have to do is SAY YES.
And there is NO OTHER EXAMPLE but His, the way He died with grace even though prior to doing so HE DID NOT WANT TO. The praying in Gethsemane before His Father, where His flesh met up with the eternal purposes of Almighty God – just the though of being crucified caused Him to sweat blood – His heart-wrenching prayer, His screaming flesh, the agony of the thought of it all causing Him to be disfigured, rendering Him unrecognizable as he grappled with His flesh until HIS WILL CAME INTO PERFECT ALIGNMENT WITH THE FATHER’S WILL FOR HIM.
“NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE” (see Luke 22:41-42; Matthew 26:39; Matthew 26:42; Mark 14:36)
Death to self is the narrow way.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13-14.
Our living example, Jesus Himself, yielded wholly unto the Father in absolute surrender. It was never about Him…never. So He asks the same of us, turning from sin completely, denying self, giving all of ourselves, that we might also walk in total obedience, allowing the will of God to become our deepest joy as we are then able to abide wholly in Him.
The ONLY profitable, worthwhile, valuable thing is knowing, abiding, dwelling with Jesus our Lord. All else is loss. Nothing – not one thing – of this world is of value when you have died to self and the desires thereof. (NOTE: when the Lord said this He told me to write down “even people” 09-12-2008).
The crucified life keeps you from conceit, keeps you from exalting yourself – it will keep you humble, emptied of self and totally dependent upon His power and strength and NOT your own abilities.
“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” Philippians 3:7-8
Dying to self is giving your entire being on the altar of sacrifice. The entrance into the full life found in God is obtained by the soul when it is surrendered on the altar of self-sacrifice. Jesus, our blessed example, came in the flesh to show us that the temptation of the flesh can be conquered through submission unto God.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” Hebrews 2:14-18
Every single day Jesus took up His cross and followed the Father’s perfect will. Every moment of every day He ceaselessly yielded unto His Father. Daily He lost His own life and will by dying to self, then speaking only that which He heard the Father speaking, and doing only that which He saw the Father doing – following after everything He saw and heard from Abba Father.
TOTAL OBEDIENCE.
In 2005 Holy Spirit proclaimed: “ALMIGHTY GOD WILL SEND HIS MESSENGERS TO PREPARE THE WAY FOR HIS COMING – THESE MESSENGERS WILL CALL THE CHURCH TO PURIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. THE CLEANSING WITHIN THE CHURCH MUST TAKE PLACE BEFORE HE RETURNS.”
Ah. The preparation of the Bride to be received by her Bridegroom. The ugly, stinking, flesh walking/talking bride, the gossiping, back-biting, competing Bride – to be made lovely without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. Has He revealed to you what that transformation will entail?!? HOW it will come about?
IT CANNOT COME ABOUT UNTIL YOU SURRENDER ALL. UNTIL YOU SUBMIT TO YOUR CRUCIFIXION!
Which causes another problem to surface (that coincides with the pride and arrogance of saying you want all of God, thinking you are capable of doing something so great with something as tiny as a prayer of acceptance, or the arrogance of believing you can walk differently than Christ walked but with the same results). So many folks say “yes” in the heat of a passionate moment. TRUTHFULLY the Lord would say that as of yet, not ONE PERSON that the Lord has sent to me over the years (25 years) – all who came claiming “ALL – I WANT ALL – NO HOLDS BARRED, LORD, WHATEVER IT TAKES, CLEANSE ME, LORD, CHANGE ME LORD, REMOVE ALL THAT IS IN ME THAT ISN’T YOU, ALL THAT SEPARATES ME FROM YOU” - - - NOT ONE HAS MADE IT. NOT ONE. They have all given up. They have said it’s too hard. Some have said that I’m too mean (forgetting it seems that it is the Lord who speaks through me and who Himself proclaims that His words of truth are a double-edged sword, dividing asunder….) - - - the Lord proclaims there is no greater love than truth. He has assigned me to walk in mercy and in truth:
“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:” (Proverbs 3:3)
Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
ALL HAVE BECOME OFFENDED BY HIM! ALL HAVE RUN accusing God, this messenger, pointing a finger at all but THEMSELVES.
Do YOU remember saying to the Lord, “Whatever it takes, Lord….change me.” Is that something that came from your heart, or something that you heard other believers say? Because ‘whatever it takes’ – whew – spoken to the holy sovereign Lord? WHATEVER – IT – TAKES….to The One who created all things…thunder and lightnings…who can open the earth, part the Red Sea? WHATEVER IT TAKES is a pretty substantial plea.
This is not about me, nor has it ever been. Not only am I not permitted to speak unless the Lord give me utterance, He has also put upon me an anointing that reveals – an anointing that brings out (uncovers and causes to rise to the surface) all the hidden ugliness, sin, flesh, compromise in those who are sent. He has chosen me and used me as an instrument of HIS CRUCIFIXION IN THE LIVES OF MANY. (more on this later). In that His message through me has always been death to self, humility, surrender, obedience, submission, dying to self, carrying your cross, allowing Him to crucify you, to partake of His cup of suffering and the honor of being chosen to partake of His suffering – why would it then not be His perfect will to utilize His messenger(s) as instruments of crucifixion?
TRUTH CUTS ASUNDER – separates – it is HIS POWER.
To be in a position of His authority and be anything LESS than an instrument of His crucifixion in the lives of those He sends is an affront to His will, His ways, His Kingdom.
In 25 years I have met ONE PERSON in leadership who wasn’t mean for the sake of being mean (who was utilized as a tool of crucifixion but ONLY because they were not walking in compromise and flesh and were able to be utilized in this way). ALL OTHERS were used in my crucifixion NOT because they were holy sovereign instruments of crucifixion but because God could get them to act ugly because of their flesh.
Why is He now speaking of this? Because to become spotless we must be crucified. And – get ready for truth - because, beloved, Jesus was CRUCIFIED BY BELIEVERS!
Without getting ahead of His message but getting to it slowly – God is going to use Christians to crucify you.
There are Christians who are in the flesh and will hurt you and it has nothing to do with anything other than their meanness (that is, if you react in your flesh as well and carry it around like an anchor - - - when you moan and cry and complain and gossip about others and blame them for the things they did to you, while leaving God out of the equation – THIS is just ugly on ugly – no crucifixion happens in these types of situations).
There are those Christians who inflict pain because they are luke-warm compromisers and are easily maliable to become INSTRUMENTS of your destruction (orchestrated by God, but they are not sovereign holy vessels).
Then there are sold-out believers who are wholly His through whom He can work His divine purposes, who are used as instruments of crucifixion – leading, encouraging man to partake of His suffering willingly, who are used to speak His truths – which are SHARPER than any two-edged sword; these truths cut, offend, bring out the dark secret depths of an individual, revealing them to HIS LIGHT. THESE are NOT CRUEL – THESE speak truth which OFFENDS the undead ones – thus perceived as mean or cruel because their flesh is crying out, rallying against truth, light overcoming darkness, the flesh dying slowly, often painfully - - - but truly it is done so in LOVE - merely speaking His truth in love, unto the ones who unwittingly proclaimed, “WHATEVER IT TAKES, LORD…”
To which the Lord responded…”As you have said it.”
It is not love to water down His word. It is not love to try to make it less ‘harsh’. To those who know Him and are known by Him, His word is not harsh at all.
DYING is harsh…the flesh will scream, wail, rally against dying…cajole, bargain, compromise…but the messengers of God must not falter, not waiver – Jesus ONLY spoke that which He heard the Father speaking, bringing many into the Kingdom of His Father. WE CAN DO NO LESS unto those He sends
(speaking to those called as leaders but also all Christians – you must speak only that which He speaks – His truth in love – for it is an unfailing, unyielding love that will see a soul through to eternity regardless of how painful the truth might be in their fleshly dying – for it is not love to let someone perish IN THEIR FLESH and spend forever in the pits of hell).
“My Messengers shall call My church to purification and sanctification.”
Beloved of God, when the bride (church) devotes her heart to the Bridegroom (Jesus), her commitment is one of devotion. “Another shall not interest me because You are my true love; my heart is fixed to living with You forever.” She counts her life as being devoted unto HIM – and she is therefore WILLING to die to all that is NOT HIM, to all that will KEEP HER FROM HIM!
Your desire for Him should be so great that you will have nothing to do with yielding to sin, because your heart is forever settled upon Him and Him only. You will come to desire a life so completely free from sin, you will seek holiness more than you will seek being saved from hell. Because when you seek HIM and the live He has chosen for you – the life free from sin, the “benefit” is being saved from damnation.
Do you REALLY want all of Him?
Are you ready to learn more about your crucifixion?
PRAYER:
Oh Lord, my Love….the prayer of my heart is to be dead to self, daily abiding in Your cross, daily abiding in Your perfect will. Crucify my flesh…help me to wholly surrender unto You. Help me become empty of the world and its ways, to not be of the world but set apart to reflect You, Lord Jesus, to those around me. With joy I take up Your cross of dying to my selfish will and I humbly submit in absolute obedience unto You, yielding to You and Your perfect way. I want to be wholly surrendered to You in every area of my life. I long to be Your spotless bride….remove everything that is keeping me from You. Thank You, Lord Jesus. In Your name I pray….Amen and amen.
via His Messenger
posted 04-10-2010
