Thinking of the Cross

My mind is unable to comprehend the work of the Cross.

What the Cross Accomplished for Me

God’s warriors can agree in the experience of their day of salvation. The moments we first felt the movement of our spirit connecting with The Spirit. It was not by our own natural thinking or understanding. In fact, our mind was at work to comprehend what was occurring and why. Despite our mind’s battle to comprehend the movement of The Spirit in us, we continued on toward the calling of our salvation.

What a glorious moment in life! In fact, as we encapsulate that moment and review it over and over again, we could all agree that was our most life-giving experience. Greater than money, greater than getting married, even greater than becoming a father. The moment was genuine, real, complete, absolute, unexplainable, rich and eternal.

Our salvation is also grace outpouring from our King. Logically, intellectually, it did not make sense. According to our natural experiences in this world, what did we do to earn forgiveness of our sins? What decision did we make to welcome our Father? It honestly made no sense. Quite frankly, it still doesn’t make any sense. Nonetheless, forgiveness was given freely and completely.

No matter how long our journey has been since our moment in salvation, we still cannot explain logically how or why it happened. In fact, our mind has always been diligently at work to counter our spiritual experience. Doubts, opinions, circumstances, situations, failures, knowledge and debates continuously attempt to rationalize that our experience was not real, sincere or justified.

But praise God for our spirit! Praise our King for His Spirit in us! No matter what happens, no matter how “smart” we become or how smart the world tries to be, our spirit in oneness with The Spirit is with us, forever. And it’s by that intuitive understanding that we continue to overcome. Thank you Lord for Your divine work on the Cross that has cleansed me of all sins and crucified my old man.

It’s by this work that objectively our King, our God, our Master, our Mighty Warrior, allows us to come home to Him and participate in His Kingdom. It positively has nothing to do with what I have done, what I am doing or what I will do. I am in God’s Kingdom because of God Himself, the Son and Spirit. I am a His warrior.

What the Cross Accomplishes in Me

Salvation is only the beginning of our experience of the Cross. From the moment of our salvation we know, by our spirit, that we are forgiven. This forgiveness brings us to God in oneness, and that’s the jubilee we experienced at the time of salvation. An unexplainable connection to our Creator.

Because we are still human and in this world, our rationalization and experiences set in to undermine our new reality in Christ. Rationalization from our mind, how we think, what we’ve been taught and what we believe. Experiences from this world, what it thinks, what it teaches and what it believes.

Our natural man wants to hang on to all it’s been taught. Yes, we have new revelation of our sins, and in a lot of cases, to the specific sins that initially stirred up our spirit. We recognize immediately the forgiveness of our sins by the Cross, but we may not recognize that our sin nature, our old man, has been crucified as well. So we may go on praising God for forgiveness of our sins, but our old man goes on living as normal with the addition of renewed life. This experience, however, is a conflict, a gray area. We need to be absolute, black and white. The problem is that our old man continues to live.

Our journey in life brings out the glory of the Cross. The Cross gave us access to God. The more we communicate with God, the more He sheds His light in our spirit. The more light we receive, the more we recognize the sin nature. The more we recognize our sin nature, the more we realize how much life our old man still has.

It’s at these moments of revelation of the life in our old man that things become challenging. What “man” wants to surrender his things? To surrender his love? His money? His ambitions? His dreams? There is no man, still living in his old natural man, that wants to die to all these things. Our pride is very strong.

Whether we realize it or not, in addition to our own old man strength, the world has taught us and relentlessly teaches us what a “man” is. Be successful, be smart, make money, be sexy, be a “man.” Movies, commercials, advertisements, pictures, videos, graphics and words bombard us. Wives, girlfriends, friends, parents, children, co-workers, bosses and enemies influence us. Even though God’s warriors are not of this world, we all too often, are still very much in this world.

But praise the Lord for His continued work through the Cross in us. We are told to take up His Cross daily: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24.

This daily taking up of the Cross is the denying of our old man. It’s really a simple matter. So simple, the Lord gives us specific instructions to simply eat and drink Him: “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53. “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” John 6:55-57.

How do I eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood? Intellectually, this can be better understood by studying the Passover in Exodus 12. Spiritually, it is already understood. Eating and drinking. Consuming. Receiving. Digesting. Absorbing. Nourishing. We need God in us. The more God is in us, the more he detoxes us from the life of our old man.

The detoxification of our old man is an ongoing, daily process. The old man wants to live, because our old man thinking wants him to live. The world wants our old man to live, because that is all it knows. No matter where we are in our journey with God, He will continue to expose what we keep alive in the old man. God gave us new life. He doesn’t want an improved old man living. He wants His life in us for His purpose. Nothing else is acceptable. Nothing else will do.

God’s Kingdom is for His purpose. His Kingdom is His Kingdom. He is King. We are warriors in His Kingdom. God doesn’t want our opinions, our abilities, our concepts, our desires, our ambitions from our old man. He wants His opinions, abilities, concepts, desires and ambitions in His new man in us. In order to live out this new man God has given us, we must pursue Him, seek Him and communicate with Him daily, in spirit as the new man. This is simply by eating and drinking Him.

When it becomes complicated, that’s the old man. When we become fearful, that’s the old man. When we become ashamed, disappointed, discouraged, confused, intellectual, divisive, angry and remorseful, that’s a clear indication we are in the old man. The new man is one with God. The new man is walking in spirit. The new man is alive, fresh, pressing forward, invigorated, connected, secure, confident and complete.

The new man is the warrior in Christ for God’s Kingdom. The warrior says “come Lord Jesus.” The warrior says “let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done.” The warrior worships. The warrior hates his old man. The warrior prays. The warrior eats. The warrior drinks.

And the best part of God’s reality is He is always available, He’s always free and He never runs dry.

Prayer: “Father. Dad. King. I admit I keep my old man alive. I don’t want him to die, but at the same time I do. I love him but at the same time I don’t like him. I know one thing for sure, I absolutely love You. I thank You for continuing to reveal anything in me that is not You. Nothing of myself satisfies me. Nothing of this world satisfies me. I can’t eat enough on this earth to be fulfilled. I can’t drink enough of myself and this world to be happy. I can’t be happy. No one can be happy. My old man longs for happiness. Only You satisfy me. You alone. I just want You. I simply come to You today and eat. I simply come to You and drink. I, in my old man, don’t have the ability to even approach You. Just like when it pleased You to save me, there was nothing that I did to earn or deserve You. It’s the same now Father. There’s nothing that I have done, am doing or will do in my old man that earns or deserves anything. So, I just eat and drink. I ask You, my Mighty Warrior, to put more of my old man on the Cross to die and continue to reveal more of Yourself in my new man. I want this new man. I am a new creation, I am more than a conquerer. I am going on with You, right now. Praise You Father for Your purpose in me. Thank You. May Your Kingdom come. May Your will be done. Amen.”