Imagine if you will if you began to live from the spirit. Nothing that happens to you affects you because you stay in the spirit. The spirit in you is where Jesus is. Now imagine if you will live through Christ. It’s not your will you are living through, but Christ in you the hope of glory. You may try to convince yourself that this only happened to Jesus. Sorry, but you are wrong. In Acts 16 Paul gets wrongly accused, and so did Jesus. Paul gets whipped and thrown in jail, and so did Jesus. Jesus didn’t defend Himself, Paul didn’t either. One thing you do find Paul and Silas doing is singing songs and hymns to the Lord after the beating and being thrown in jail. Now that’s living in the spirit. Don’t confuse the flesh with the spirit, and don’t give any excuse for the flesh.
Acts 16:16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” 22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
Imagine if you will live through Christ in you and see His glory. It’s Christ in you, the hope of glory right? What if Jesus’s glory is the goodness of God? He did go around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil as God was with Him. In other words, doing good to others is God’s glory. Interestingly enough, it’s the goodness of God that leads men to repent. Do you see a pattern here?
Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Imagine if you will that my Father has a plan for your life. Imagine this plan has you and Him working together, walking together, proving to the world around you that Jesus is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. Imagine if you will that His plan all along is to become one with you in the spirit. His plan has always been for good for those who love Him and are called for this purpose. Imagine if you will that this mystery has been hidden from the foundation of the world. It’s the glory of God to conceal this, but it’s your glory to find this out and live from this mystery. Be blessed, my friends.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
