The Cross

Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

It was an evening service. The Pastor asked us to enter into a time of worship. My heart longed to know the truth about Jesus, if He really died on a cross and above all what that meant. The congregation was worshiping and praying in tongues. My eyes were closed and suddenly I sensed a presence of peace that overwhelmed my who body and soul. A Brilliant light brighter than the sun flooded me—it seemed I was standing in a pillar of light that I could see even with my eyes closed. Suddenly I was on a hill looking at Jesus on the Cross. However, it was the multitude of people weeping through a terrible silence on the hill against the dark sky that held my attention. “Why Lord?” I asked as I turned away from His face. “I died for them.” At that moment Jesus filled me with a love for the people not of this earthly realm.

I saw the Cross, and the face of the Lamb of God. Yet it was the people who became the focus and I have more of a memory of them than of the Lord on the Cross—most would think it should be the other way around. It was like the Lord wished for me to “ignore the shame” as well. The vision faded and I was still standing in a pillar of light recognizing that this was an encounter with God. This was a beginning of a remarkable journey. I understood something that there are no words for.

Perhaps what the Lord wished to show me was that He did not wish for me to focus on His death, but rather WHY He died. The Lord wished for me to focus on the people—and to love them. I don’t entirely understand why the Lord chose to reveal Himself to me this way, it is not something I have mentioned very often. Basically, I am still learning the magnitude and the repercussions of my vision in terms of understanding what it means to be brought out of darkness into His Glorious Light every single day of my life.

I saw the Cross, yet it was the people weeping on a hill that the Lord wanted me to embrace with all my heart. Jesus died for the people, His children, His brothers and sisters, His Bride. Jesus died so we could live. Jesus suffered so we could be healed. Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the whole world. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) This is the gift that sets the captives free:

 

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,

Because the Lord has anointed Me

To preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified (Isaiah 61)

My first revelation came in knowing that Jesus did indeed die on the cross. It came as a surprise to perceive what Jesus saw and felt towards the multitude of people weeping on the hill—He gave me a tiny glimpse of His love; to be filled to overflowing with His love. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).

After seeing the Cross, my living situation did not allow me to go to church very often. Therefore, I asked God to teach me, and He still is teaching me. I had a little religious background in listening to Handel’s Messiah every Christmas. It is my perception that I have been taught by the Holy Spirit and hearing the voice of my King Jesus by reading the Word. The frontier I have traveled marked many trials and tribulations, and through them all, the Lord remains my husband.

We are members of the kingdom of God and we are delivered from the darkness of the evil one and clothed with the blood of Jesus Christ—this makes the devil powerless. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:28). God is with us, Emanuel God is with us. We are anointed with the Holy Spirit and power because Jesus said we are. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere–in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). We are witnesses of the fact that Jesus is alive and we are alive in Christ. The Cross, means life: Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives (Hebrew 2:14-15).

We are those who were once walked in darkness. We were once slaves to the dictates of this world. Yet now, we are those whom Isaiah 61 is referring to—this gift did not exist before the Cross.

Jesus endured the cross on our behalf to initiate faith and to see to it that what we hope for is brought into perfection through the manifestation of God’s will and purpose in our lives. Because of the cross, we have access into the Holy of Holies by the Blood of Jesus Christ. The cross is the beginning of eternal life and the gospel of peace. The cross is symbolical, refers to the Tree of Life from the Garden of Adam and Eve. We can partake of the Tree of Life through the fullness found in our baptism of Spirit and fire to live in the Kingdom right now. The Law essentially revealed the fact that we cannot uphold it on our own. Jesus is the better covenant because He wrote the Law on our hearts completing what the Law was for.

The Law taught us one thing and one thing only. Help! We can’t stop sinning and being selfish no matter how hard we try. The sacrifices of animals do not take my sin away. Help! Help! I need you, God! I want to depend on You. This Law thing does not bring me LIFE! We cannot get into your presence because we are not good enough! In fact, some people cannot even come into your courts. Especially women! We can’t love you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength! Help! We are selfish and afraid! The Law is not working, in fact, all our efforts are futile. This life is futile. There is no hope or light at the end of the tunnel because we just keep wandering around in circles. The only good that happens comes from faith in the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. No matter how hard we try we cannot keep the faith as the patriarchs did. Help! We keep reading the Torah but it only tells us what to do and gives us a bunch of INFORMATION! We are still the same empty people with a dry desert in our being thirsty for something we have no idea what it is, but help!

Because of the cross, we now have access into the throne room of the Father coming as a priest to receive the direction and blessing of a first-born inheritor in a Kingdom of Light and liberty. Jesus brings TRANSFORMATION in us by the Word through the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot change our sin or shortcoming but Jesus can. Let Him abide in you so you can abide in Him. When we allow Jesus to dwell within us, the dry places that once consumed all our stuff, addictions, and sin, eventually become a garden with the fountain of life spilling out bringing the Kingdom to the earth. The Law defined a need for a savior to accomplish what we could never ever do on our own. Jesus literally washes away our sin as we dwell in Him. He will help us overcome the dictates of this world. Our overcoming and partaking of the Tree of Life, IS the joy that was set before our Jesus while He endured the cross. Our victory over sin and our stuff is His JOY. Jesus is the better covenant of salvation; darkness cannot stand in the light and as the light floods our being, sin cannot remain.

. . . but there was an oath regarding Jesus. For God said to him, ‘The LORD has taken an oath and will not break his vow: ‘You are a priest forever.’ Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God (Hebrews 7:21-22). 

Repentance from dead works means repentance from doing this thing called life on our own. Actually, when we are doing this thing called life on our own, it is not life at all. In fact, it is death and leads to death. When it is all about the people, places, things, sins, and addictions in our life coming first, ask yourself this question: when did any of this stuff bring me joy? Jesus is more concerned with LIFE than with your sin. He gives us the Grace to abolish the sentence of death put on our being because of sin–so that we can live in the fullness of His Light. He asks us to come to Him so we can live in the light of the Holy Spirit with a Father who loves us and a Husband who we are one with. Our willingness to yield in faith toward Jesus takes care of the sin–that is the better covenant. It is not about the sin–Jesus sees the joy now that your sin is covered in His blood so you can now LIVE in Him. He remembers your sin no more.

In honoring the cross we honor the free gift given to us. The fullness of God removed the consequences of sin but that never removed our propensity towards sin. That is why the overflow of grace is sufficient for us to LIVE. Make no mistake–Grace is not a carte blanche for sin. The more we draw close to our King Jesus, the more we experience His sweet Grace the more the light floods our being. There is more room in our heart for The LIFE we find in the Tree of Life. The roots of this Tree grow deeper and deeper in our being–He is the vine–He is the Branch–we are Oaks of righteousness–we are a tree planted by the Water. We have returned to the Garden to feast on the Tree of Life because of the cross.

When we take up our cross and follow Jesus, we leave the old man behind to “lay down our life” for others. What this means is our dead works become works of righteousness motivated by LOVE. This is what it means to die to self. The self was motivated to please the self. The old “selfish” man is buried in baptism–and the new creature of love is resurrected in Jesus by the Spirit of God. This is the better covenant–a new being is created out of our fallen nature–our sin nature, forgiven and renewed like the eagle into the being God intended from the foundation of the world.