Daily Deaths

5/9/1990

What’s the difference between the initial death, when we first give our life to Jesus, and the “as we walk along” daily deaths? Sometimes it seems that there is so much to die to. What do you die to in the beginning? Some of us can be doubting whether we have been saved at all because there is so much dying to do, if I have died to anything. What is that initial death?

What you die to in the initial death is your right to refuse to die to any subsequent death. Simply put. You’re renouncing your right to refuse any teaching or any direction of Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit in the future. You’re renouncing your right to refuse to die. You’re dying to your right to live, and God will interpret that for us as the days go by in deeper and more profound ways as we walk with him. So, it’s a covenant that everything, henceforth, from now on, I die to. You help me to interpret it, and I will walk with you through it all the rest of the way. I don’t know what it means, I don’t know how to understand it. When I turn on my automobile and I turn on my headlights, I can only see 75 feet, but if I drive 75 feet, I can see 75 feet more. If I keep driving and driving, eventually I will get to my destination. But I didn’t see the end when I started my car. I took that course. I set that direction, and the light was shed on the obstacles and on the road, on satan and his devices, on the temptations in the road, and on the way which is Jesus Christ. The light was shining on all those things as I went along the way, not in advance. None of us have to apologize for that. That’s just the way it is. But what we say when we start the car is--we’re going Home. We’re going all the way. And every obstacle will be avoided, leapt over, or bulldozed into, but we’re taking the road Home and nothing is going to stop us, by his grace. We’ll deal with the obstacles as they come. So, when someone says, “Here’s a sin in your life,” I’m not going to say, “Well, I’ll think about it. I’m not sure whether I’m going to repent of that or not…” I already decided to repent. I have something now to repent of, that I obviously didn’t repent of before, that I decided to repent of a long time ago when I gave my life to Jesus. That was already decided. Now it’s just a matter of how to repent of that--using the resources and the tools and weapons of righteousness in the left hand and the right, as Paul said. Learning how to put on the armor of God, being willing to be instructed and taught, humbled and encouraged by our brothers and sisters, in circumstances, in God himself.¬