This is a faith walk. All we do we do by faith in God and His word. The enemy wants you to move in the natural.  But those who are born of God…those who have the life of God in them…can not move in the natural. There are too many trials, test, and temptations. There are too many things to distract us and get in the way. The enemy wants to fill your mind with doubt, frustration and confusion by manipulating situations and circumstances around you.  But God teaches us that to do His will we must walk by faith and not by sight. We must stay focus on God and His word. Now our faith is in the Word. Every time something happen to you; every time you are tried; every time suffering comes your way, you must stand on what God has spoken into your spirit. Do not be influenced by the situation or the circumstances. But in all things we must hear from God through His word. In fact when the enemy is attacking you; when the enemy is accusing you; when you can not take any more, fall on your face before God, seek His face until He gives voice to His word within your spirit.

The passage from the carnal life to the spiritual life in Christ Jesus happens at the point of sacrifice, happens at the point of the cross. No sacrifice, no experience of the reality of Christ within. No sacrifice, no spiritual living. I am raising the truth today that the world needs people to make the sacrifice unto righteousness, and the church need people who will make the sacrifice, if the church is going to be the church – the body of Christ. Now this is not an uncommon statement; for in life, nothing happens for good unless there is a sacrifice. Take for an example, your marriage will never be a success unless there is a sacrifice; your children will never be what they should be or have what they should have until there is a sacrifice. You cannot be what you desire to be or really want to be on the inside until you make the sacrifice. If you have not learned that by now, then grow up.

It is time for you to let God know that you need a touch from Him. You need His grace to go on. It is time for you to cry out from the depth of your being, “Lord, I need you”. When you do, God will come. In the deepest part of your pain, God will come to help you. Where you hurt the most, God will touch your life. When you are at your weakest, God will come. So release yourself into His hands right now. Let the cry come out of your spirit and let God minister to you. Cry out to God and let Him help you. Say, Lord, I need you! God is ready to hear your humble cry.  He wants to minister to you. His touch is all you need. Just one touch will flood your soul and spirit. Hear Him say, O my beloved, fear not: peace be unto you, be strong, yea, be strong. Let His words strengthen you. Better yet, let his words be your strength in all you do and have to do.

There are some things, regardless of how strong you are, regardless of how committed you are to God, that are so devastating, so hard hitting that turns your joy into sorrow and robs you of your strength. There are some things that can happen to the best of saints that leaves you pure weak; and if it were not for the grace of God, you would give up because of the weight of the hour. Know this: God knows all about what you are going through. He could bring it all to an end, but for some reason he allows you to go through and experience it all. If God allows you to go through, then know that He has a higher purpose for your life.

By this time in our journey, we ought to know, without a doubt, that we have been called to the “high places” of life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit within us lets us know that we are no ordinary “barn yard” people.  However, to get to the high places, we must exercise certain disciplines because the adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, I Peter 5:8. We must receive into our spirit a fundamental truth and reality concerning us: We are free! That’s right; no more chains are binding us. Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed, John 8:36.”  Beloved, Jesus Christ has made you free. Now take a deep breath and say, thank God, I am free. Now you are free to exercise ten key disciplines. If you practice these disciplines, they will prepare your feet for the high places.

Like Christ you walk in love, walking it, sharing it, letting it flow from your life.  As Jesus walked in joy and peace and the strength of heaven, you do the same. Nothing should be permitted to rob you of your joy and peace. But remember it is the Holy Spirit that doeth the work. You are yielding to His hand at work in your life. You are in flow with what He is doing, the way He is carrying you or directing you. Jesus walked with the consciousness of the presence of the Kingdom of God on earth with Him – the rule, reign and dominion of God on earth. This is why He could respond to situations, circumstances and people in the way He did. To Him nothing was impossible because of the presence of the kingdom of God with Him. He was never afraid. He was never anxious for anything.  The Spirit of God was with Him. Therefore He had access to the will of God, the life of God, the power of God, the strength of God, the wisdom of God, and the knowledge of God. He walked in all of these things, and God wants us to walk as He walked.

It is powerful, beloved. Only a few ever rise to the walk of faith in the kingdom of God.  But it is just as natural as bees making honey, birds flying, trees producing fruit. Why? Because you have the nature of God in you. He has placed into you as part of your born again life and spirit His life, His character, His nature. And yielding to that nature is just like birds yielding to their nature, bees to theirs. You do not have to tell a bird how to fly, a fish how to swim. Then it will be natural to you to live for God and to walk the way Jesus walked. It is all part of your nature, your character. It is what the Spirit of Christ brought with Him when he came to live in you – your born again spirit. You say, give you something practical. Give you a place to start. Start with yielding to the Holy Spirit.  Submit to His working in your life. He is building into you the “Word”. Walking in the steps of Jesus or walking as He walked is simply walking in the “Word” that the Holy Spirit builds into your life. For example, the fruit of the Spirit: Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering  gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.  As the Holy Spirit so work these into your life, you walk in each of them.

We are called upon in this life to walk as Jesus walked. To even suggest that we could walk as Jesus walked would have been laughed at fifteen to twenty years ago, but it is just as real as Jesus is real. Most of all, it is the will of God concerning His people today. Otherwise why would God have created us in His image, after His likeness (Gen. 1:26)? A tree reproduces after its own kind. A fish reproduces after its own kind. A bird reproduces after its own kind. In fact all of nature reproduces after their own kind. Then why is it so strange for God, the one who created all things, to reproduce after His own kind? May God open our eyes to see this. We are in the earth, made in the image and likeness of God and we are to bear fruit and reproduce ourselves after God’s own kind. This being true, therefore, we walk as He walked. The question, no doubt, for many is, how? How can I walk in the steps of Jesus Christ? The answer: The Holy Spirit of Christ is here in the earth to show you the way. Follow Him. This will mean that you will have to stay more focused. It will mean that you will have to submit to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This will mean that you will have to yield every area of your life to God completely, and surrender your all to Him in all things pertaining to your life.

The Bible teaches in II Corinthians 13:1, “…in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”  God is a witness in heaven, so is our Lord Christ Jesus. God has already spoken and we have his words written in the Holy Bible. When you read the word and believe what God has said and agree with what He has said by saying so, by letting it come out of your mouth, you become the second, if not third witness needed to establish the word in your spirit. The word, when it is established – builds up in you, makes you look like Him. How does God look?  He looks like His Word. How does His Word look? Well, you have to go to the Bible to see how the Word looks.  In the word you find the form and image of God.

We come to the place where we move to the next level of spiritual maturity.  This level of spiritual growth has to do with taking on the image of God.  In Genesis 1:26 it reads, And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…”  It is clear from this passage that God’s purpose in creating mankind was to have someone on earth made like him, made in his image. Now we know that God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth. To take on the image of God, then, means to take on his spirit image.  God is a spirit being, and He has made us like him – spirit beings. However, the gospel of John adds to the revelation about the image of God. We find in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Here the Holy Spirit takes us deeper. The Word is God.  This being true, then the image of God is the Word. Now there is no need for confusion because Jesus, the Word, said that His Word is spirit and life, John 6:63. We thus come to this conclusion that to take on the image of God means to take on his Spirit image by taking on his Word image. How do you take on the word image of God? By establishing (planting, building) the word of God into your spirit. There should be no doubt that God is His word and the Word of God is God. When you establish the Word of God in your spirit, you establish the image of God in you.