BECOMING WHO YOU WERE CREATED TO BE - PART 8

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He predestined, these he also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30 NKJV).

As disciples of Jesus our desire and goal (and the predestined will of God) is to become like Jesus.  However, it is difficult to define what it means to “be like Jesus.”  Most of the definitions I have seen have to do with different characteristics that Jesus had (love, forgiveness, peace, power, etc.)  As I have studied the life of Jesus, I found that there are two characteristics that defined who Jesus was and, therefore, are what we should strive for.  All other attributes flow from these two. 

The first attribute, which we have been talking about, is that Jesus has a pure heart and He will purify our hearts as well.  The second attribute is that He is Spirit-filled.  In other words, Jesus, though He is God, did not do the things He did as God, but instead did them as a man filled with Holy Spirit.  All other attributes flowed from these.

One of these attributes that marked Jesus’ life and ministry was power.  As we read through the Gospels we find that Jesus spoke/taught with power, he healed with power, he cast out demons with power, he even raised the dead with power.  When he was getting ready to leave the disciples, he told them that they would receive power through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).  Later, we read about the many ways the disciples displayed the power of the Spirit within and through their lives.  This is the same Holy Spirit that God wants to fill us with.

However, we need to realize that there is a difference between being filled with the Spirit and being empowered by the Spirit.  In Luke 4:1, after Jesus was baptized by John and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, we read “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,”.  Later, in Luke 4:14-15, “Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all” (emphasis mine).

What was the difference between Jesus being “filled” with the Spirit and Jesus being in the “power” of the Spirit?  The wilderness temptation.  For forty days, Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan.  Through this time, Jesus had to learn to fully trust in the leading and power of the Spirit to guide, protect, and sustain Him.

Walking through the fire of the wilderness, refined Jesus in a way that nothing else could.  In the same way, the Spirit will lead us into wilderness experiences as well.  He doesn’t do it to punish us, or because He wants us to suffer.  He does it so that we, as Jesus, will learn to rely completely on Him to source and sustain us.  It is only as we learn to truth the Spirit to protect and sustain us, even in the wilderness (which means we have to go through the wilderness) that we will truly live in power.  It is only as we release the Spirit to work within us and through us that we truly live in the power of the Spirit.  That we truly live the lives we are created to live.

I want that.  I want to be who God created me to be.  Let’s continue to journey together and become wholehearted through and for Him.