Ministry Of Redemption

It is one thing to be set free from the bondages of sin, but it is quite another to learn how to live set free. It is one thing to mentally apprehend a truth of God, a truth of your salvation, but it is quite another for God to work that truth into the very core of your being, to set that truth into the quick of your soul as it completely redefines who you are.

A couple years ago, I was sitting in the waiting room of a clinic, waiting for my daughter to get out of her oral surgery procedure. I was wrestling with some things that morning. I was hurting. I was mourning some of my wrong patterns of thinking, some of my character weaknesses and flaws, and that morning, hopelessness paced the doorstep of my heart like a hungry cougar. Watching and waiting for the opportune moment to strike. It wanted to have me, it wanted to set up camp in my heart as I contemplated some of the sinful tendencies that I continued to struggle with. As I sat there that morning and cried out to God with my whole heart, I wrote a poem.

Beloved, I want you to know today that there are times that I struggle against sin in my life. Not so much outward sins, things that you can see, but the inner ones—the work that God is still performing on the inside of me—my thoughts, my emotions, my perceptions. What you need to understand is that our struggle is part of our shaping. God uses our struggle to mold us, to teach us perseverance, persistence, faithfulness, and determination. It is not okay to sin, but it is okay to struggle against it, because that is what we are supposed to do. Crucifixion is a writhing struggle, the body of flesh fighting for each breath as the life is slowly suffocated out of the one crucified.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we join Him in His death, and it is at that point in your existence that the glorious work of the Spirit begins. Your spiritual truth is that you are dead to sin from that moment on, but it is the Spirit’s work to show you how to live that way, how to think that way, how to walk that way, and beloved, that is a glorious struggle. Brother or sister, if you are struggling today, I want you to know that I am right there with you. I want you to know that He is right there with you. Oh beloved, we don’t die on that cross alone, we join Him on it in His embrace.

“I Need”
Written 12/9/2019

I need You this morning
As I sit here
Confronted by my ugliness
My broken nature staring back at me, saying:
"You'll never escape from me,
You will always be in my grip
No matter where you run
I will be there waiting for you."

I need You this morning
As I sit here
Contemplating Your promises
Your holy nature says to me:
"You are safe in Me,
Nothing can snatch you out of my hand
There is no need to run
You have not received a spirit of fear."

I need You this morning
As my heart aches for healing and my soul thirsts for truth
And yet
My heart is satisfied with wholeness and my soul is sated with Your presence
I need you this morning
As my flesh demands its own way and my will struggles against Yours
And yet
My flesh humbles itself and my will surrenders to Yours

Back and forth I amble
Swayed one way and then the next
As my hope rises and falls like the tide
As my faith stands and buckles like the rising and setting sun
As my trust blooms and wilts like the spring and fall flowers
I wonder this morning
Do you see me being torn apart?
Do you see this collision of natures within me?
Do you see these laws at war in my innermost being?
Do you see me in torment?
Do you see?

"Yes child, I see.
I see My provision of grace: forgiveness replacing condemnation
I see you justified by faith: righteousness replacing sin
I see My Son being formed in you
I see you filled by My Spirit and shaped by My hand
I see."

Yes, You see
And yet, I wonder this morning
How do we walk in a faith that brings both death and life?
How do we both die and live?
How do we trust in a hope of both slavery and freedom?
How are we both submitted and set free?

"Child, listen to Me this morning
Your faith makes you dead to sin but alive in Christ
That is how you die and yet live
By My Spirit you are a slave to all that is right and good, set free to bear My image
That is how you are both submitted and set free
Submitted to my Spirit and set free from the letter
Crucified to your flesh and raised to life in the Spirit

"I am here this morning
As you sit here
Bending your knee to grace, and bowing your head to blood
As your heart both aches and is healed
As your soul both thirsts and is filled
You will always be in My grip
No matter where you run
I will be there waiting for you"

(Rom 8:1-4) There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit Who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

 
(Rom 6:11-23) ...count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus...offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace...you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness...But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Posted on Facebook 1/28/2021 Talitha Koum)