How To Live The Abiding Life

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 55

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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.

Michael answers the key question: HOW…?  Every Christian who hears about and decides to want to “abide” is faced with this “how?”  Soak on what Michael has to say, and begin to REST and TRUST and RELEASE CONTROL and DEPEND in the One you say you are trusting to have forgiven you of your sins and will one day take you to Heaven to be with Him for all eternity.  Which is more difficult?  Christ forgiving sin and giving us eternal life in Heaven, OR taking care of us for a few years with some simple life situations (for Him) here on Earth?  Well, amen.

HOW TO LIVE THE ABIDING LIFE

excerpt from pages 164-169 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 164-170 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

…The “how-to” of abiding begins not with a work, but with an attitude to be maintained.  We live in an attitude of abiding, deeply aware that He is our life.  First, we are to be constantly mindful of our true condition were we to be outside of the Vine…

…Coming to know oneself and accept the fact that in one’s body dwells no good thing is not easy, and often is accompanied by much suffering…The first step, then, is to know ourselves and carry the attitude of absolute dependence that comes from this knowledge throughout the day.

Second, each of us must take his place as one who believes.  Believing is not so much work as it is rest, not so much activity as it is receiving, and not so much what is immediately reaped as patience in the wait prior to obtaining.  Faith is waiting on God to provide in quiet confidence, something that every living creature fathoms except man, who must learn it.  Faith is enjoyable waiting and easy resting.

Third, we are aware that the abiding life is not a feeling, but an awareness.  One of the great secrets of the Christian life is that when one is filled with the Spirit he generally feels nothing, since it is the natural and normal way of life…Abiding is knowing that He is keeping us even when we cannot keep ourselves.

Fourth, we take our place as the creatures and give up our tendency and desire to play the role of the Creator.  We understand that we are His creation and with full confidence expect Him to maintain us.

Once we have taken our place as the creatures, next we resolve to live only one moment at a time…

…Life is only to be lived one moment at a time, being faithful in each to experience His life.  God will then give succeeding moments wherein we are abiding and full of His life, and these moments will soon turn into days, and finally into a lifetime of living out of the joy of the Master’s presence…Ask only for the grace that you need today…

…Each day begin with this simple confession: “This day, Lord, I thank You that I am in You and You are in me.  Thank You that no matter how I feel, I abide in You.  Thank You, Lord, that it is not a position I must struggle to maintain, for You have put me there.  This moment is all I will be concerned for.  I accept my position of abiding with joy.”

There isn’t much more I can say other than what I expressed in the introduction to today’s writing.  It still boils down to REST and TRUST and RELEASE CONTROL …and DEPENDENCE (albeit those are four things we don’t do so well most days) and…to do so “one moment at a time”, “moment-by-moment.”  Oh, yes…don’t forget, the WAY is BY GOD’s GRACE (His doing it through us…see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).  Hallelujah!

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  

NOTICE:  another blog…on Michael Wells’ book, My Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  You can access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                         936-559-5696

The Moment-by-Moment Work of His Blood

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 54

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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. 

Michael gives us insight into one of the greatest assets Christians have, but are not using.  After the practical applications of the Cross in the previous pages, Michael speaks of the spiritual application of Christ’s blood…in this day.  Discover the impact available to every Christian of the “power in the blood”!

The Moment-by-Moment Work of His Blood

excerpt from pages 159-164 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 159-164 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

In the Old testament, man’s complaint against God was that He did not understand what it was like to be a man, while God’s complaint was that man did not know what it was like to be a Holy and just God.  God’s solution was to send the God/man, Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh (born of a woman).  This Jesus would be the great intercessor for God to man and man to God…

At the point of Christ’s death the Spirit had overcome every one of our enemies in a body and soul just like ours!  If somehow I could get that precious Spirit and place it in my human body and soul, I would be completely victorious!

The secret is found in the blood of Christ…unfortunately, most only understand its excellence from the standpoint of the forgiveness of sins and being kept from hell in the future.  They see the blood as something of value in the past and in the future, but have not considered its present worth.  Any ignorance of the daily work of the blood in defeating all the enemies that man has is one of Satan’s prized accomplishments, for the blood released in our life moment by moment means secured victory over every temptation, lying emotion, fear, frustration, and any other enemy…

…The cross and its resulting blood cannot be separated; both have a one-time effect and a moment-by-moment consequence on our lives…

…The presence of God is now accessible to you, but only with the blood of Jesus which you possess…

Again, we cannot hear it enough, since the blood possesses an eternal life (that is, a life that never diminishes in power), then what the blood accomplished once it continues to accomplish…

Now stop one moment and dwell on the precious blood of Jesus, on the merit of which at this moment you have access to the Father.  You stand making requests not on the basis of your attainments but on the success of His blood.  The blood of Jesus is so precious to the Father that He will not refuse you; actually He, expects you to take full advantage of this costly flow, never letting one drop be wasted…

…God receives pleasure when we take advantage of what cost Him so much.  Are you afraid of making requests to the Father?  If you are, I fear it is because your request is based on your merit, not the value of the blood…

… “Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19), the believer does not operate under the world’s system of performance-based acceptance, but under Christ-based acceptance.

Michael draws attention real quick in this portion of SIW to the moment-by-moment power of Christ’s blood throughout our life here on earth.  Far too many Christians (because of far too much teaching and preaching of just the Cross and Heaven) are living without the knowledge and experience of Christ’s blood’s power in daily life.

Doesn’t this excite you?!?  To read and to know that His blood can bring Life to our life moment-by-moment? 

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  

NOTICE:  another blog…on Michael Wells’ book, My Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  You can access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                            936-559-5696

Practical Applications of the Cross - part 2

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 53

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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. 

 

Michael is progressing now to showing us more and more how the abiding life is a reality and definite possibility…and its positiveness.  The life lessons from The Vine are absolutely incredible…

 

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE CROSS – part 2

excerpt from pages 152-159 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 152-159 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

 

…When Christ appeared to the disciples, what was the proof of resurrection life?...(John 20:27).  The proof of resurrection life will always be the marks of death…On the other hand, the one who carries the marks of self-life, boasting in ability, talents, programs, knowledge, wealth, family, or anything else from the endless list, has yet to know real life.

As I have traveled and stayed with various Christians around the world, I find the occasional Christian who is walking in all the joy and power that the Lord has for His children.  As I have fellowshipped with these various brothers and sisters, I have discovered that they all have two things in common: On the one hand, they all understand the necessity of abiding moment by moment, and on the other, they all have faith.  If this is an accurate perception, then surely the greatest sources of power must be prayer and abiding.

…No one can imitate the Son; He must live through us.

…Imitation, following Christ as an example only, is a false teaching.  And how does Jesus confront this false teaching?  With a simple illustration of a vine, a vinedresser, and a branch!

…”I am the true vine.”  He does not say He is like a vine, but rather He is the true vine!  That is to say, if Jesus did not exist, neither would vines; all vines are created to teach and preach the Son of God.  If we would know more of Him, then we can simply observe the vine.

…what a vinedresser prunes from the branch are the shoots that last year bore the most fruit…if the good shoots from last year are allowed to remain this year, they will require more sap (life) and produce less fruit.

…The enemy continues efforts to have our eyes rest upon the wrong things.  We are not to focus on the results of abiding, and in so doing cease to abide, but we are always to have our eyes on Him, which will produce fruit…Our one purpose in life is to bear fruit, not to do something for the Lord.

…Just as a branch has no life within itself, Christians are not called to generate life, but to receive it.  We are not called to imitate the life of Christ, but to participate in it.  When we learn the abiding life, we will find ourselves doing by very nature the things so many struggle and work for years to accomplish, because we have the same fiber, the same life, and the same Spirit as the Vine, being one with it!

We find a corresponding dissimilarity between the Christian who imitates and the one who abides.  Those who work are noisy and feverish; their efforts do not produce a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord.  Their fruit, which often will fool others at first glance, will be found merely to be counterfeit.  But the believer who has learned the secret of abiding is quiet, refreshing, and full of real life – Christ’s life!  He has fragrant, revitalizing fruit, produced not for himself but for others to enjoy, that they may be renewed and live.  His life is spontaneous; he never emphasizes doing but abiding, and his eyes do not stray from his precious Vine.  He has no worries, for the Vinedresser and the Vine take care of everything.  He submits to pruning readily, for each one has brought greater closeness with God and more abundant life.  The branch acknowledges with joy, “Apart from You I can do nothing.”

 

I love Michael’s point about “imitating”:  “No one can imitate the Son; He must live through us.”  Absolutely.  All the imitators have proven imitation useless…only failure is ultimately the end result.  That is not Christianity!

The Vine shows us His way.  The branch is totally dependent upon The Vine.  And Jesus said He is The Vine, and we are a branch.  Life as a Christian is simply each being what each is.  All of the false teachers who have been telling Christians to follow Jesus have perpetrated against all believers a losing life method.  There are no “successful” followers!  And that is what Michael keeps showing us in SIW.

Believers need to get back to the Bible, take God at His Word, and receive the Life that comes with abiding!

 

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  

NOTICE:  another blog…on Michael Wells’ book, My Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  You can access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                         936-559-5696

Practical Applications of the Cross - Part 1

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 52

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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. 

No question there is such a lack of knowledge or understanding, and/or practical use (in our lives) of Jesus’ simple command in Matthew 16:24: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”  Michael gives us his practical instruction on applying the cross to our lives…

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE CROSS – Part 1

excerpt from pages 146-152 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 146-152 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

…The world, sin, and Satan cry to the believer, “Save yourself.  Don’t take the cross!”  To the degree we save our own self-lives, to that degree we spread death to those around us.  But to the measure that we take up the cross, deny ourselves, and allow the cross to be applied, to that extent we will spread life to those around us.

…How many Christian marriages suffer from shallow self-protectionism?  How many suffer from refusing to die and keeping lists of every loss suffered at the hands of the other, watching for every word that might offend or for an encroachment on precious self?  After all, “me” is all I have, so I must do all I can to protect it.  Don’t disagree with me, don’t neglect me, be careful not to offend me, remember to always treat me with the greatest respect.  The only problem that I really have is that I can’t stand me, either.  Am I any the happier for all the effort it takes?  Is there any contentment in demanding that everyone in the family structure life around me?

…If you decide to retain 25 percent of your old baggage, idols, residue, and lying emotions, than that is 25 percent of the Lord that you will never know.  And if you decide to keep 5 percent of the old self, then you will be missing 5 percent of the Lord that you could have had.  The cross of Christ is the great subtracter, and all who come in contact with it will lose many things.  But all loss will be filled with an abundant measure of His presence.

To the degree that we allow the cross to apply death, to that same degree the Holy Spirit will apply life.  In light of what has been said previously, listen to what Paul says: “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 2:10-12).  Here is Paul’s secret, he appeals to the Death/Life cycle. 

It is a staggering thought that “to the degree we save our own self-lives, to that degree we spread death to those around us.”  I wonder how many Christians around the world have ever given any thought to that?!?

Perhaps, coming aware of what that even means is a big break-through.  Michael’s book right here gives us a look at what spreads “death” to others: self-protectionism, keeping lists of every loss suffered at the hands of the other, watching for every word that might offend, an encroachment on precious self, etc.  Me, me, me, me…don’t disagree with me, don’t neglect me, be careful not to offend me.  And how strange is it: “The only problem I really have is that I can’t stand me”?  Really???

And, then Michael gives us that practical instruction or application…of the cross.  (How beautiful it is that LIFE comes from different aspects of the CROSS!).  “To the degree that we allow the cross to apply death, to that same degree the Holy Spirit will apply life.”  Hallelujah!

And at moments like this, the Scripture comes alive…Michael taking us to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:10-12.  Can’t you just picture “carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus” a lot differently than before?  And then…”that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body”…hoooooo-boy!  And, then it is just flabbergasting: “So death works in us, BUT LIFE IN YOU.”  Well, glory be!

Do you SEE the Death/Life cycle?

So, wait a minute…”to the measure we take up the cross, deny ourselves, and allow the cross to be applied, to that extent we will spread life to those around us.”  Amen! 

And so, I have a choice to make: Do I want to spread “death” or “life” to others?

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  

NOTICE:  another blog…on Michael Wells’ book, My Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  You can access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                        936-559-5696

The Moment By Moment Cross - part 4

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 51

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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. 

You are about to read some of the most incredible insights into God’s truths that have evaded many for so long.  This monumental experience of “entering into Christ” and “Christ entering into us” at the moment we are Born Again is so full of life changing happenings that we should be praying and praying for God to reveal it ALL to us. 

THE MOMENT BY MOMENT CROSS – part 4

excerpt from pages 144-146 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 144-146 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

God is not bound by something that He Himself has created, such as time…From His perspective, once we enter into Christ at any given point in time, we have always been in Him…At this point, it might help if you would see Christ’s life as a line that meets to form a circle, described as the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8), the first and the last (Revelation 1:17), the beginning and the end.

You have eternal life because you have Christ’s life within.  You need never worry that there will come a time when God is weary of you, because you are in the very eternal life of His Son, of whom He never grows weary.

…Getting into the line of this circle called eternal life was a one-time event.  It happened the day you gave your life to Christ…Co-crucifixion is a one-time event in that it happens the moment that you enter the line of the circle, and yet it is moment by moment as you abide in His life.

…God put me in Christ and I was crucified.  The Christian is never to attempt self-crucifixion; it cannot be done.  We are to only act on what has already been done.

Therefore, my crucifixion with Christ is an accomplished fact, but if I close the door to His life, the moment-by-moment application of the cross to my old baggage and residue – which makes the experience of the victory a reality – will cease.  Again, God has structured my life to be lived in a moment-by-moment fellowship with Himself.

One of the biggest challenges for man is to believe, receive, reckon, and appropriate the great, marvelous SPIRITUAL truths that we cannot see or touch with our physical parts.  We say we do when we get Born Again…then begin to doubt.  We wouldn’t IF we had a PHYSICAL ticket!  So, it is imperative upon us to find our way to trust God for that which only those who are Born Again can truly trust Him.  I’m so grateful for men like Michael who have known and shared the truths revealed to them so that I (and YOU!) can “own” them also!!!

Praise God for His revelations!  May we experience His Life in us more so in 2015 than each of us have ever before experienced Him…

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  

NOTICE:  another blog on Michael Wells’ book, My Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  You can access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                         936-559-5696