Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 50
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life Ministries
International
Littleton, Colorado
Notice: this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the
Wilderness. Why a blog? So that many can receive the weekly thoughts
I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner.
Over
and over, again and again…Michael gives us some astounding thoughts on what
true Christianity really is, as compared to years and years of teaching that
came our way with erroneous and misleading thoughts that in many ways have
caused saints all around the world to be led out into the “wilderness.” Today’s excerpts from SIW give us some basic,
foundational principles that make our journey out of the wilderness so simple.
THE MOMENT
BY MOMENT CROSS – Part 3
excerpt
from pages 143-144 of SIW (5th printing,
March 1998)
excerpt
from pages 142-144 of SIW (14th printing,
March 2012)
(used with permission from
ALMI):
…Have
you yet to come to your senses and seen that because of co-crucifixion you are
a child of God and can lay aside the struggle that comes from trying to
change? Is it any wonder that Satan
wants to blind you from this glorious truth and keep you in a state of looking
to yourself to plot some way to overcome the old self?
As
a believer you are completely in Christ (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 2:5-6;
Colossians 2:10). Again, the history of
Christ becomes our experience and our spiritual heritage. As Nee succinctly puts it, “God has put me in
Christ, and therefore all that is true of Him is true of me. I will abide in Him.” Remember that Christian growth is merely
accepting what you have always had from the first day you gave your life to
Christ. Your death in Him has already
taken place, so how long will you let this rotting old self remain in our
house? He is, you know, beginning to
smell, and no matter how you dress him up, you can no longer hide the obvious
and fool your loved ones – he is dead!
…We
cannot say it enough: Before we can experience the fullness of His life, we
must participate in the fullness of His death…we must be firmly rooted in the
death of Christ before we will begin to experience His life.
…If
we are once again living in defeat, we may also be tempted to think, The teaching doesn’t work! But that is impossible, simply because it is
not something that we do, but rather something that God has done. It must work; it does work… “That may be, but
I still find myself once again living in defeat.” Again, it is because you saw the cross as a
one-time event, as a method, as a cure-all, and not as the moment-by-moment
participation that God intends it to be to keep us near to Him.
I
think of all the thoughts I was first introduced to after becoming a
Christian. Not by teachers or friends
exhibiting maliciousness, nor intentional, nor as one trying to mislead me…simply
by their misunderstanding or having been misled previously. But all of that caused me for 15 years to
read and hear many of the same truths Michael shares in his teachings, getting
a tinge in my spirit (God’s Spirit in me) to the truth that was there, but
never getting complete revelation of all that God had for me.
But
thank God for the day that revelation started to flow!!!
Check
out in summary form some of the most exciting news Michael shares in this
portion of SIW that a Christian can have revelation of:
·
Because
of co-crucifixion you are a child of God and can lay aside the struggle that
comes from trying to change.
·
As
a believer you are completely in Christ.
·
Christian
growth is merely accepting what you have always had from the first day you gave
your life to Christ.
·
Before
we can experience the fullness of His life, we must participate in the fullness
of His death.
·
The
teaching…is not something we do, but rather something God has done. It must work; it does work.
·
The
cross (is not) a one-time event, as a method, as a cure-all…(it is) the
moment-by-moment participation that God intends it to be to keep us near to
Him.
Now…for
each of us, we would do well to stop and soak on EACH point until God has
revealed the “much” of what He has for us.
Just seeing God in the first point is enough to think about starting
2015 out with a completely different outlook for what each day will hold…for
those seeing Him for the first time in “laying aside the struggle that comes
from trying to change.”
And
for all the rest of the points, as we say here in East Texas…”Hooooooooo-boy!”
As
we celebrate the birth of Christ today, I say “Thank you, Lord, for ALL it
means to me to be a ‘child of God.’”
And, thank you, Michael and Betty (and all that are a part of ALMI, in
Colorado, and New Jersey, and around the world), for getting the message out to
a hungry bunch of Christians around the world!
Joy
to the world! The Lord is come!
Note:
if you don’t have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books,
please contact ALMI
(www.abidinglife.com) and get one today!
To access ALL past weekly
blogs, go to Getting
Out of the Wilderness by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com
Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
leemccm@gmail.com
1737 CR
2051 Nacogdoches, Tx 75965 936-559-5696
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