GOING THE SECOND MILE
Experiencing our death with Christ gives Power to Obey!
In reading the Sermon on the Mount, we see that Christ went a step further and talked about going the second mile. It is when we are willing to take the first step of the second mile that the power of His word of life takes over. Are we willing to take the first step that is usually so contradictory to our own way of thinking? Are we willing to do more on our jobs and for others than what is normally expected of us or do fears and jealousy keep us from doing it? If we want to follow Christ, He may tell us to do the opposite of what we want to do (Matt.5:38-48).
Matt.5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
God will give us His word of life when we are willing to carry it out. Many of us do not hear God because He knows we will refuse to do what He says. When we are willing to go the second mile God then transforms us and gives us the fuel to carry it out. His word of life is the food that takes away the pain and gives us the power to accomplish the work He has given us. We then find out that it is the power of the Life of Christ in us that is actually doing it and not us.
Following Jesus Christ is experiencing the very fact that we have been crucified with Him and that it is no longer us that lives, but Christ in us (Gal.2:20). The works that we do, we learn to do by faith in what Christ reveals to us daily. We learn to follow Christ by receiving His word to our hearts as our food: His blood as our drink and His body as our meat. To drink His blood is to experience a portion of the innermost feelings of the fruit of His Spirit even to His jealousy, anger, hurt, sorrow, and especially faith that knows HE IS our life (Heb.11:6). To eat His body is to receive the wisdom that both transforms our failures and enlightens our minds as we come to know God as our Reward Who carries out whatever He wants done thru us, especially when it is to be for the members of His body.
When we learn to hear and receive His Word, we will never hunger nor thirst. In John 6:26-65, Jesus explains the work and food of the disciple. We may read small portions of this text and fail to see the real message in it. We look at verse 29 and accept the word believe as just knowing that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins. But when we link it with the word work it has a deeper meaning than just believing in what Jesus has done for us. It has to do with completely entrusting our lives into His hands daily. His work is for us to labor for the meat which does not perish but endures to eternal life: Life that Jesus gives us continually when we learn to feed on Him by receiving His Word to our hearts and entrusting everything we are and have into HIS Hands.
Believing is knowing that Jesus is doing the work in us while we are resting in Him. This is what the writer of Hebrews means in Chap. 4:10 when he says that we cease from our labor as God did from His. Our work is to know that He is working because we have learned to hear His voice to our hearts that give us life (i.e. our work is to receive). Believing faith is knowing experientially, not just a head knowledge, for we hear with our spiritual ears.
Food is something we need daily and so is His word to our hearts. He is the Word of Life that will continually save us from self (Rom.5:10 - we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son and much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.). When we hear and receive what His Spirit is speaking to our hearts we are eating and drinking of Jesus Christ.
Our thoughts and emotions are those unseen things that are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). His Word will cut away those fleshly, negative emotions and will leave more room for Christ to be formed in us (Rom. 8:29). If Christ is not the Lord of our lives, we will spend eternity being haunted by those negative emotions in a place burning with fire (Matt 13:41-43).
Let us learn to hear His voice in all of the emotions of life and He will transform them into greater revelations of Himself in us. In 1 Pet. 1:7-9 we can see that those revelations (or appearing of Jesus) are for the present, as v. 8 mentions that “though we see Him not we believe and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory”, even though we are in the midst of trials. The next time trials bring those negative emotions, count it all joy (James 1:2-5) and listen for the Spirit as He reveals another revelation of Jesus Christ to your heart. He is the answer to every need.
Rom 12:1-21 - 1. beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. . . . .