Christian Writers Circle

Intimacy with Christ through Life
by Judy Hitson

John 3:16 NKJV “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It is a miracle of life when we believe in Jesus Christ and receive His Spirit. When I received His life in me and His forgiveness of my sins, I no longer feared death or hell. It was like a heavy weight lifted off me. He revealed that I was accepted in the beloved and needed to forgive myself which took time because of sins in my past and self righteous living.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

As a child, I learned to practice religion, go to church, confess my sins, attend Christian school, follow rules and believe in God. However, I was bound in fear, visualizing God in heaven looking down on us as Judge with a gavel in His hand, while I lived on earth trying to be good and please Him. Soon after being born again, a revelation came to me reading John 5:24 NASB “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” As I write that verse, the words of a hymn come to mind, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory Divine”…………  Soak those words in your spirit, O child of God. It is a blessing to see things from God’s perspective rather than human reasoning and understanding. We have the privilege through Christ and the life of His Spirit to see as He sees and live Christ as He lives through us.

Are you living Christ or practicing religion?

The second birth is being born again through Christ by His Spirit. ( See John 3) It is the beginning of life for us with God. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you, John 6:53 NASB. As Christians, Christ…is our life, Col. 3:4, from morning to night, even in our sleep. Without Christ, physical life is existing on this earth without God’s life, being earthly minded. The Spirit gives life, John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6. As I write, I hear the words of Acts 19: 2NASB and he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

In closing, consider intimacy with Christ through life, ponder these words and questions:

2Cor.2:14-16 NASB But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?          

Are you a fragrance of Christ?

John 7:37b-39a NASB “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” But this He spoke of the Spirit……

Do rivers of living water flow from your innermost being by the Spirit?

John 20:31 NASB but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Do you have life in the name of Jesus Christ?

John 14:6 NASB Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.     

Do you come to Father through Jesus Christ?