Rom 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

Our death with the Lord Jesus Christ is both a crisis and a process. If we don’t understand that, we will spend years living without the full joy of the Lord.

When we became aware of our sin (truly aware by the unction of the Holy Spirit) our response was to receive Jesus as our Savior. And if we are honest, it was at that moment that we anticipated a complete victory over all the sin in our life. But it was shortly thereafter that we realized that our old nature was struggling with our new nature; our spirit. Do you remember the questions that rolled around in your head… Am I really saved? How could all this be happening if I were really saved? I thought everything was going to be different; all my problems would go away!

Then came that moment when we came face-to-face with the fact that our old nature needs to be crucified with Jesus… daily!

I know that I truly had a determination to surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit; He gave me that determination. I wanted to make sure that my flesh was once for all crucified with Him on the cross. But what I didn’t understand was that desire to die has to be followed by something even more crucial to my walk. There is a Process that must follow the Crisis… I need to “live” with Him. If we are to truly appropriate (make useful) our crucifixion with Him, then we need to follow-up the crisis that brought us to the cross with the process of dying day-by-day. And we have His personal guarantee that we can accomplish that in Him (by His Spirit). That’s what Paul meant, which has been taken out of context far too many times:

Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

He began and He will finish… that’s a process! That’s God’s method of making us just like Jesus. Continual crucifixion of our flesh (our old soulish nature), combined with the continual provision of His divine life; His righteousness.

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

That is the “process” of developing Jesus’ character. That is the “process” of bringing the righteousness He has given us that we hold on the inside, to the outside that God may receive the glory.

Many, many (too many) members of the bride of Christ have come to the crisis point in their life where they went to the cross and now know Him as Savior.  But sadly, they don’t know the glorious life that He has set before them. The glorious prospect of becoming just like Him. And the reason? They don’t possess and exercise the faith in Him that they need. They remember that they are joined to Him in His death but forget that they are also joined with Him in His resurrection.

Is that where you are? Is your life lacking the daily joy that Jesus has promised? God has placed everything in your personal account, and you can possess it all. But you have to lay hold of “life in Him” if it is going to be of any benefit. You need to let Him live through you by the strength and power of the Holy Spirit. Only then will you experience the fullness of joy that will allow your light to shine before man so that they may glorify God.

Our Crisis must be followed by a Process. And that process is what the entire Book of Hebrews is all about… Spiritual Maturity. If you are still just drinking the milk of the Word, it’s time to move onto the meat of the Word. It’s a never-ending process, but a process that will bring about immeasurable joy and reward.

Look at the palm of your hand and see your crisis. Now flip it over and look at the back of your hand and see the process. They are married together… Death and Life… Crisis and Process. What we do about that here and now has an incredible impact on our eternity… it’s time for the bride of Christ to Wake Up and Rest in Him.