Are you Dying to Live?

When we hear the word “Die” it can communicate many different things depending on the context. For example: As you sit down and hear a tremendous RIP from the back of your pants! Or you are singing in a Choir and you are in good voice, so you belt out a note, forgetting there was a pause there…you are the only one singing! The girl you are crazy about hears you tell her you love her and she tells you she loves you…like a Brother! In each case your heart drops into your stomach and you just want to get away. That’s key, the idea of separation. On a serious note…someone you love passes on and you have to accept that reality, numbness sets in as you contemplate the separation. To “die” can be funny, tragic, heart breaking and, as we will see essential.

We have seen that our life is to flow internal to external. What is inside matters most! We also looked at the two natures we have; the old, which is powered by the flesh, and the new, which is empowered by the Holy Spirit. However, our new nature needs to develop life patterns so we can overcome the patterns of our flesh. No one has to teach me to sin…my flesh has been training me all my life!

The “fruit” that is produced by the Spirit of God in the child of God is the character of our Lord and will produce the life patterns we need.

How do we get it? It’s a two-fold process.

First is dying: As I said it is essential, because Scripture makes it clear that to “live” we must die.

* Most important and simple, yet the most difficult principle in Scripture!

John 12:24  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Dying is not so much about cessation, but separation. When we die physically our spirit separates from our body. Yet our spirit continues. If we die spiritually, our spirit is separated from God, but we still exist, which is why the question of our eternal destination is the most important question we will ever answer.

So what in the world does Jesus mean in John 12? This is the first part to seeing fruit produced…we must die to ourselves. This does not mean you cease being you, but separate yourself from you! This brings you full circle – Going back to how you think. Scripture admonishes: Where your treasure is, so is your heart!

Dying to self is separating yourself from YOUR: Priorities, Desires, Dreams and ideas of success.

God used my dad as an example. My Pop was a spy for the USA, a very special one. When my mother became terminally ill, we moved to Hawaii, where she had a remission that extended her life by 7 years. She came into a relationship with Christ 3 months before she died. God is so good! In those 7 years my Pop was offered 11 promotions by the government, two, by two different presidents. He turned them down because he knew if we moved out of the environment of Hawaii, my mom would surely die.

My Pop taught me a principle I saw on a tee shirt. It is a race with a bunch of rats, pushing and pulling on each other. On the back it states: If you win the rat race…you are still a rat! The success of this world is nothing compared to the richness of a loving relationship.

Be careful of the “Dangerous Substitute” - Good intentions; I planned to; I should have; I am going to…that path will never get you to “I am!” The more you play with commitment, the more dangerous it becomes. It leads to hardness and callousness of heart.

God’s priorities are always more noble and rewarding than the priorities craved by the flesh. It is difficult for many to understand that God desires a great marriage far above a great career, a humble person over a famous and successful one, a generous person over someone that is rich, a man of God far more that a big building and widely known ministry.

“So if I die to self, I can’t have all that other stuff?” God never said that! The issue in dying is whom will you rely on for that other stuff…yourself or God?

Jesus said:

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:33–34

Jesus is stressing realignment of your priorities, which allow fruit production, which will lead to new life patterns. He is also challenging us to live sensibly…none of us can digest more than one day at a time, so why do we live anxious about the future. Focus on the moment and get the most out of it. God will never move you away from one thing without leading you toward something else. God is reasonable and does things that make sense. Our flesh may not always see it, but by faith we move and then see the wisdom. Believing is seeing, it’s just more difficult because our nature craves temporal sight!

The second part of the process is abiding:

John 15:4-5   "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

We must be attached to Christ! This is not an incident-to-incident; no it is all the moments that make up a life. “But Nate, what about when I sin?” At that moment you have pulled away from the vine, yet if you immediately confess and repent you reattach to the vine. So the question is; once you know that you have pulled away from the vine,  what do you do about it?

Living life this way means; Consciously taking Christ with you everywhere you go. If we do that we will also keep this reality before us; How long can a branch last away from the vine?  We can lose what the Holy Spirit has produced in us, fruit bearing is an ongoing lifestyle.

Jesus warns several places that to imitate being a connected branch will only bring disaster in the end.

John 15:6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

Matthew 7:21–23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Religiosity can produce the appearance of fruit, but there will be no reality to a pattern of changed life.

Let go of your life and latch onto His!