Pierced Hope
Galatians 5:22-26 NKJV
[22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. [24] And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
We have never witnessed someone hang from a cross.
We read about our Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
But can we truly understand it?
We speak about it like it was an easy thing to endure.
The Apostle Paul says that he preaches Christ Crucified.
The selfless acts of love to give one’s life for another.
The physical pain to endure.
The emotional pain of being left alone.
The spiritual turmoil of feeling like even the Spirit of God has left.
Many pulpits speak to the hearts of those that sit and listen to Crucify the flesh.
We speak about it like it was an easy thing to endure.
The flesh is one of the greatest enemies we will ever face. No one can escape it. We all carry it, because it is who we are.
But it is too easy to say this.
It is spoken tongue in cheek.
Flippient words thrown around that don’t actually cut the heart.
With no cutting there can be no healing!
Jesus hanging on the Cross did one thing that many don’t know or speak about.
He gave up all of His earthly rights!
When someone was nailed to the agonizing Cross a man lost all of his rights.
The end was near. Air would soon stop filling the lungs.
The heart would stop pumping blood.
The Spirit of man separates from the cold body.
There would be nothing on earth that could save a person once that Judgement was pronounced!
The moment we accept Jesus Christ as Lord there is the start of transformation that should start to take place in the depths of every heart.
It should feel like a nail piercing into the life of the flesh. It should be bringing it into submission to the very same nails that hold it to the Cross.
The Holy Spirit and the Word of God is what pierces and hangs our flesh and that comes through it that is not of the Lord.
Hebrews 4:12-13 NKJV
[12] For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [13] And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
As it pierces it divides!
It separates, it crucifies!
The flesh gets nailed down on the Cross losing its power!
Our flesh must become like the nail that pierced the Hand of Christ, it separated His flesh and bone.
Nailing the flesh Sacrifices the unusable parts and throws it into the fire to be burnt away.
You give up your earthly rights and ways!
You are supposed to nail it to the Cross!
We forget that Cross was messy and bloody and a very hard thing to endure.
Paul in the beginning of many of his Epistles calls himself a bondservant to Christ!
No longer a slave to the world but one to Jesus Christ!
The flesh of our hearts pierced and nailed for the Glory of God!
What is nailed and sacrificed is for the name of Christ and Glory His Kingdom!
The old passes away to allow the newness to exude the Aroma of Heaven!
That Aroma is the Regeneration of the heart! It is finally seeing the need of a Savior! It is understanding what the consequences of sin in the flesh produce,
No inheritance to the Kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV
[19] Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [21] envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Please take this time to reflect on which one is still you!
What needs to be nailed today?
A crucified flesh no longer, should no longer, have an excuse for the sins of our lives.
The Word of God exposes, it pierces and nails it to the Cross to be Redeemed, Transformed and usable for theKingdom of God.
The heart learns to repent. The soul starts to regenerate. Slowly we shed the things that hinders our walk with the Lord.
Sometimes we have to face ourselves honestly.
It’s not always pretty or easy to do.
The more we see the things that displease God the more the Cross of Jesus Christ reveals itself.
Then we can see the One that was pierced more clearly.
This gives us Hope!
Live a life of pierced life of Hope today.
Lose your earthly rights at the Cross to to inherit the Kingdom through the Hands and Feet that has already nailed what we must give up!
Pastor Ed