Just 1 Reason

I have been weeping and rejoicing for two days over the power of the death and ressurection of Jesus. I know, it’s a bit past ‘Easter’ isn’t it! But it is NEVER too late for death and ressurection, they are always NOW!! God is breaking our minds out of our holiday box this year. Perhaps that’s why after asking God for two months to speak to me and bring revelation about the Resurrection, I’m just now finally hearing Him. Sometimes we get into such a ‘traditional funk’ and glaze over at holiday times.
I was asking Him about it because I just felt like I was missing something. I knew Jesus died for all of my sin so I won’t have to stand before God and be judged for it, the price is paid. And I knew Jesus was raised from the dead, and that gave Him power over death, hell and the grave. That is the very key to our own Resurrection from death. That is why we will be with Him in heaven the moment we breath our last breath on this earth. But what about on this earth? How does His death impact us now, on this earth? How does Resurrection impact us now, on this earth? Until He revealed the revelation of the death on the cross, I couldn’t see the Resurrection. He has indeed revealed His death to me, and His Resurrection.

Just as Moses held up that pole with the serpent on it in the wilderness, I see my sin now, all sin, up on that cross. I used to get so frustrated trying to understand why a nasty serpent on a pole represented my precious Jesus on a cross! He’s so beautiful, how can a serpent represent Him?? But He wasn’t beautiful on that cross. All of the sin of mankind from the beginning of this world until the end was on that cross. Sin is ugly. Look around in our world. Sin is ugly. Murder, rape, hatred, self mutilation….sin, and the results of it, is ugly. Have you ever wondered why you still feel so ugly? Or why some Christians look ugly? They look depressed, angry, wore down, frustrated, betrayed, despondant. Have you wondered what happened to the “joy of salvation” that the Bible speaks of?

The part that I seemed to have forgotten over the years is not that my sin is lifted up on that cross, just as that serpent on the pole, but that it is no longer on ME! How many times have you received God’s forgiveness for something, yet still turned and seen yourself as ugly? Still sulked away feeling the ugliness of what you had done or said or thought? Listen to what Moses was saying! See it all on the pole! See all sin on the cross! ALL! “Children of Israel”, Moses was saying, “Look up and see the very source of all of your suffering completely hanging on this pole having no more power over you!! Stop looking at yourselves, at the wounds caused by the serpents, at the death happening all around you! Look up!”
When you can SEE it there, when your heart can grasp that, when you can SEE ALL of your SIN up on that cross, and not on you any longer, it will have no more power over you!
It’s all there and none is left on you child of God!! Not just all the nasties you may have done before you knew Him, but even the stupid things you did yesterday, or the mean thoughts you had today, or even the sinful choice you will make tomorrow! It’s ALL there! Stop wearing a serpent!! It’s ugly! Stop looking around at this world and seeing all of the death that comes from sin, because that is not your portion.
That is exactly how I have been living. Yes, I knew He died for my sin, but I had somehow forgotten that He TOOK my sin. How could I remember that He took my sin when I was believing that the Holy Spirit wanted to SPEAK to me about my sin?! Child of God, do you know that God is not interested in speaking to you about your sin? Do you know that it is not the Holy Spirit’s job to convict you of sin? Let’s look at John 16:8-11.
And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
I can hear you now, “See! He came to convict us of our sin!” Nope. Read it again, He is speaking about 3 different groups in this verse. Who is being convicted of sin? Those who don’t believe in Him. Not us. Do you believe in Him? Then He is not convicting you of sin! The Holy Spirit is inside of you now to convict YOU of RIGHTEOUSNESS! Because we see Him, Jesus, no more. The disciples walked with righteousness in front of their faces morning, noon and night. They had a complete picture of righteousness living with them! They could look and see the One they were becoming, the One whose image they were being conformed into. But when Jesus went to be with the Father, He wanted to make sure that we still had that perfect picture of righteousness, so that we would not forget who we are! Not so that we would see where we don’t measure up, but so that we would remember who we are and WHOSE we are!
When you sin, do you know what the Holy Spirit is saying to you? He’s saying, “You are beloved! You are still My temple! You are the reason Jesus died! You are a precious child of the Father! You are the righteousness of God! You are pure and Holy in His sight! The blood of Jesus has cleansed you…don’t forget! Don’t get stuck looking all around you at the result of sin in others lives, because those results in your life have already been paid for and taken away!”

See it all on that cross child of God. It’s no longer on you. Dying your hair black, piercing your body and getting tattoos is not “painting yourself” to look like the world; taking on the result of your sin, and letting it bring sickness, poverty, strife, pain, condemnation and inadequacy….that’s painting yourself to look like the world. Would you put down that paintbrush today, and allow God’s amazing love for you to wash you of all of your “ugly paint”? I’m having a hard time finding His children in this world…..they are masquerading in the worlds paint. I’ve made a decisoin that I’m going to allow my Father to wash this ugly paint off. I don’t like it anymore. I can’t breath under all of this ugly paint! He gave me wings to fly, and they’ve been painted down! Oh, but I see them unfolding now…..