NOTE: My wife and a team of women left yesterday for Dominica on a Missions trip. They will arrive this morning and be there until the 29th. Our ministry is already established in the Dominican Republic — where we have two schools that provide an education to 122 children, and we have several other ministry projects there — and we are now looking to establish an enduring presence in Dominica. My family is from the Dominican Republic and Isabella grew up in Dominica. The Lord has us going back to share His love and power with the less fortunate. I solicit your prayers for the Missions team. Pray that the supernatural would flow through them and that lives would be changed forever. Thank you in advance for your prayers.
This morning we continue our series entitled, “Refined Focus”, by continuing with our new mini-series entitled, “Focusing on Dying To Self”. Since I just shared with you what my wife is doing on a Missions trip for the next week, I will incorporate my wife and I into today’s message.
We have been looking at the following passage for over a week. Jesus said: “Any of you who want to be my follower must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me. Any of you who try to save the life you have will lose it. But you who give up your life for me and for the Good News will save it.” (Mark 8:34,35 ERV). Think about this passage for a minute. Are you truly doing what Jesus said? After coming to Him, after claiming to “GIVE” Him your life, aftering being Born-Again by His Spirit, have you stopped thinking about yourself and what you want? Did your life change? Did your desires change? Did the trajectory of your life-pursuits change? If nothing changed, then you must question whether or not you were truly Born-Again.
Paul said, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there” (Gal 5:24). Notice the words “have nailed.” Paul writes this in the past tense, projecting an image that we have taken the same dedication to sacrifice and personal death that Jesus did. Paul’s life changed. He was going one way, he got Born-Again, and he then started running in a completely different direction. Paul’s desires changed. His friends changed. His life-passions changed. His old life was nailed to the cross with Jesus and the life he was living, post-salvation, is the life Jesus died to give him. I can say the same the thing. I can say, without any equivocation or mental reservation, that my life is not about me. Rick and Isabella Pina only want what God wants for us. Our life’s passions are the passions the Lord has placed in our hearts.
Early in our lives Isabella and I did not know we would be doing what we are doing now. We had no idea, but God did. God had already made plans and the only way His plans are going to be manifested in our lives is by us DYING to self.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
- Allow me to repeat something I shared with you last week. I said, “You cannot become the person God called you to be until you are willing to die to the person you became on your own.” You cannot live for Christ until you die to self.
- In Christ you must die to live. God requires you to lose in order to gain, to release in order to receive, to concede in order to conquer supernaturally!
- There is an amazing life waiting for you on the other side of your personal cross — it’s the life Jesus died for you to live.
- God did not save us from sin, hell and the grave so we could live self-centered, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-seeking or self-serving lives. God saved us so we could bind our feet to the path He planned for us from the foundations of the world!
- If you hold on to your old life you will never fully embrace the life Jesus died to give you and you will wind up missing God’s best altogether. You will be saved. You will go to heaven. But you will never completely your divine assignment while you are in the earth.
*** My wife and I can testify. Take it from Rick and Isabella Pina. If you give yourself away you will find yourself in God! Take up your cross, die to self, and follow Jesus — you will be glad you did!
Closing Confession: Father, this is a season of refined focus for me. I bring my life into focus in 2016 by dying to self. You sent Your Son Jesus to die in my place. He paid a price I could not pay, for a debt He did not owe. He did it for me. He took my place. He then left and went up into heaven. He now expects me to take His place in the earth. When people see me, they are supposed to see Jesus. When people come in contact with me, they are supposed to come in contact with Jesus. But this can’t happen if I don’t die to self. I declare that I do. By faith I declare the words of Paul. I WAS crucified with Christ. My old life, old passions, old desires, and old self were all nailed to the cross. The life that I now live, I live IN Him, WITH Him, and FOR Him! As You reveal my life’s assignment to me Father, I say Here I am, I am available, I am committed, I am dead to self, I am alive to You, I am YOURS! Do with me and through me what You will! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
