"A Terrible Thing To Waste"

"The king's daughter is all glorious within... I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Psalm 45:13; Romans 7:22).

    To rephrase a popular adage, a spirit united to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is a terrible thing to waste.

    Boil a born again believer in Christ down to his or her essence, and you'll find the Spirit of the Lord Jesus united to the spirit of His trusting child.  "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17).  Therein His delight for His Father's will is our delight, as affirmed the Apostle Paul, and therein the Holy Spirit reveals both the love of God and love for God - "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).

     Certainly this reality of our Christ-inhabited spirits does not always lead to corresponding thoughts, attitudes, words, deeds and relatings to God and others.  Indeed, we may "live in the Spirit."  But we do not always "walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).  The truth remains true nevertheless, and the more we know and affirm with the Apostle that God is working in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure," the more we will experience and express the wonder of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:27).

    Our spiritual enemies know this truth more than we do.  Thus, they seek to distract, discourage and deceive us from the powerful work of grace already effected in the depths of our being.  The devil and his minions point to past experience of failure, present feelings of weakness, and future uncertainties to hinder our understanding and strong affirmation that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippian 4:13).  To the degree they succeed will be the degree to which we fail to consistently walk in the inheritance of "unsearchable riches" freely given to us in the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 3:8).

     Conversely, to the degree we succeed in knowing, believing and affirming the truth of our innermost being immersed in Christ will be the degree to which more and more live accordingly.  If we have believed, we live our lives in this moment and forevermore as living temples of the living God.  He dwells in us, walks in us, and enables us to think, speak, act and relate in a capacity far beyond human means (II Corinthians 6:16).  Christ is the life, the power, the wisdom and the love whereby we live for the glory and will of God - "Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).  We are the trusting and submissive sons and daughters who "live through Him" (I John 4:9). 

    It is indeed a terrible thing to waste "so great salvation" by failing to know, believe and affirm the wonder of who Christ is in us, and who we are in Him (Hebrews 2:3).  Let us therefore get our spiritual dander up, as it were, realizing that our enemies seek to cloud and enshroud the Light that shines so brightly in our hearts.  We do not have to succumb to their deceptions and distractions.  "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).  Rather than waste such "hope of glory," let us arise and avail ourselves of the presence of the Lord Jesus among us and within us...

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, Amen."

(Ephesians 3:30-21)