The passage from the carnal life to the spiritual life in Christ Jesus happens at the point of sacrifice or the crucifixion.  No sacrifice, no experience of the reality of Christ within. No sacrifice, no spiritual living.  I am raising this truth today so that people of the world will make the sacrifice unto righteous and become part of the Body of Christ. If the church is going to be the church – the body of Christ in the earth we need to make this a reality in our lives. Now this is not an uncommon statement, for in life, nothing happens for good unless there is a sacrifice. You cannot be what you desire to be or really want to be on the inside unless you make the sacrifice.

When you deny yourself, you make a sacrifice. You say no to self, yes to God and the will God for you life. When you make the sacrifice, then Jesus becomes your life. This is your goal. This is the reality that God wants you to experience. If we are going to be the church that God is looking for, if we are going to follow Jesus, if we are going to be faithful unto God, we must make the sacrifice!

Year after year we put Jesus on the cross until that is how we know and relate to Him. How many of you know that Jesus is not on the cross? How many of you know that God’s plan worked? God has judged sin, you have been redeemed, you have been delivered, you are created in His image, and now by the same power that raised Him from the dead, He lives in you. Satan wants to play with your emotions; therefore, he dwells on the crucifixion of Jesus. But the main point of concentration today is, He lives…He lives…He lives and because He lives, we live also.

The sacrifice or crucifixion of Jesus was not Satan’s plan.  It was God’s plan and in it He had a purpose, and that purpose was fulfilled. Number one, He wanted to judge sin and pay the penalty for mankind sins. Two, He wanted to redeem His creation, those He loved so dearly. Three, He wanted to set free or deliver what belong to Him from the powers and dominion of Satan. Four, He wanted to produce after His on kind; that is, produce a people in His own image, after His own likeness. Five, He wanted to inhabit His people; that is, He wanted to live with and among and in His own people. Satan could not and would not plan all of this.

Why sit there with your head hung low? Why act like there is no hope? You have a God who knows all and can do all. He is willing to come into your problems, your situation and turn them all around. He can bring to a halt everything you are going through or He can allow you to go through them to teach you some lessons. The thing is to not fear. Do not worry. Be strong. Where do you get your strength from? The word. Where do you get this kind of faith from? The word. As you meditate the word of God it will supply you with what you need for such an hour as this. So make up your mind today. Turn to the word of God. Pour out your soul in prayer. And God will fill it with answers from heaven. These answers will strengthen you, will keep you and get you ready to be used of God in this earth.

The key to prospering in what you do for God is obedience. Once you say yes, God applies His grace to your life. From then on, His grace becomes your sufficiency. What is God’s grace? God’s grace is God’s ability in you. Those things that you can not do in self, you can do in God’s grace or His ability. And He said that His grace is sufficient. You can live this life. You can grow in the Spirit. You can let God use you. You can obey God in all things. You can bring Him glory. You can pay the cost. You can win the victory over self, sin, and this world. You can do all things through Christ which strengthens you.

No matter how weak you are, you can obey the will of God for your life. No matter how many times you have failed, you can be what God wants you to be. No matter the mess that you have made of your life and the feeling that constantly follows you that you are nothing, God can still use you. In fact, He chooses the nothings, the nobodies, the poor, the weak, the meek and pour out His life into them and make them what He wants them to be. My point is, this is what He can do for you. You can live for God.

Job 5:18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

Have you experience that something on the inside yet? It want let you go.  Everywhere you turn it is there.  Even when you do wrong, it is there. I know and you know that you must give in to it…that you must say yes to it…because you know that it is the will of God for your life. You read the Bible, Paul, Peter, Daniel, Caleb all paid the price. I am talking about men and women who were not great, nor powerful, nor strong, nor without failures. People who were flesh and blood just like you and me. The only difference is that they made a decision to go all the way with God and they did. Whatever it cost them, they paid it to do the will of God.

People are not willing to pay the cost. There love for God is not strong enough, is not deep enough, is not real enough to cause them to break ties with the world or sin to obey God and His will for their lives. If you are going to be God servant, you must be wholly His and willing to obey Him in all He gives you to do. It cost David rejection, murder attempts, wars, threats on his life yet he obeyed God. Yes he failed and made mistakes but he really loved the Lord and there was something on the inside that would not let him go. What is in your heart?

Have you said yes to God? Was it out of the heat of your emotions? Was it on condition that God would do something for you…to help you out of trouble, to save you financially, to heal your body?  Now that He has done all what you have ask Him to do, have you kept your part of the bargain? It cost Abraham to obey God.  He was required to leave his family and country and leave by pure faith. He did not know what was going to happen; yet by faith he obeyed God and trusted Him with his life and that of his family. Abraham had to walk in faith. There were failures. There were mistakes but Abraham let nothing, not even the life of his son come between him and obeying God. There is a cost.