What to do? The next right thing….
In Part 1, we came to the understanding of what “discipline” means. In this post, we go forward with understanding in how to apply it to our lives with what SELF has got to do with it.
To begin, we come to the place where it was finished – at the cross.
When He received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
John 19:30
The cross is the very place that we BEGIN to FINISH well in “running the race” for HIM.
We begin in HIS FINISHED works to begin operating in our works for HIM (living them out loud in our life fashioned forward for Him.)
Christ completed all the preparatory work of His Spirit.
The ART is in learning reliance of Him and His ways.
AND then livingoutloud His ways in actionable steps of our life.
Will we feel like doing it?
No, we will fight against doing the next right thing in Him, because most often it will go against our (sin) nature. Our spirit man has to be greater so that we can say “no” to the worldly flesh that wants to say “yes.”
Romans 7:19-25 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our LORD! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
We must die in the law to rise in its fulfillment of Christ.
Jesus came into the world not to abolish the law but to fulfill by His grace.
It is only in Him that that we RISE in the resurrection of His ways.
We must learn how to abide in Him as the vine so that we can be rooted in Him and anchored down by the essence of love livedoutloud through Him.
Redeeming LOVE as a love affair to begin the ART of SELF-DISCIPLINE
Do you remember that first crush that you had? To please that other? To be noticed by him/her? What would you do for that person to be noticed? To be loved? To be in compansionship?
That’s the answer to forming the ART – by having a love affair.
First you must divorce the world so that you are free in AIM TO BE DEVOTED TO HIM.
Next, you pray for His wisdom, guidance and understanding of His WORD so that He can LEAD you into the greatest love affair of your life.
THEN, you respect what your REDEEMING LOVE shares with you to do next….
His SPIRIT is LIVING and HIS WORD ALIVE.
The ART of SELF-DISCIPLINE is in becoming a work of ART for Him.
Ephesians 2:10 10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We learn to BECOME HIS WORK of ART….to Become who we are meant to be in Him. And in Him we display His ART of SELF-DISCIPLINE because our SELF becomes ONENESS
To be continued in Part 3.