Living the Christ-Life

Living the Christ-Life
by Chip Brogden

So many times I do something thinking it is Good, thinking it is really Spiritual and Holy and Pure, but it results in Death. It is Death because it is "me" doing it. For many years that was the way I pursued the ministry. I was very busy doing things for God, and of course I thought I was a good, spiritual person. But I am in the flesh whenever "I" am doing anything apart from Jesus. We are not qualified to judge what is truly good. When I have no confidence in the flesh I give up on the notion that I am fit to be a judge of such matters.
The ministry was my whole life - and I mean the ministry of pastoring, teaching, and so on. Even when I left Organized Religion the ministry was an idol to me. What could be more spiritual than ministry? What could be more "good" than being in the ministry? But over the process of years the Lord showed my how He judges things, not according to our standards of good and bad, but according to His standard of Life and Death.

That which Jesus originates in Himself and empowers me to do is living and produces fruit. That which I originate in myself and carry out in my own strength is Dead. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself. And people saved, sermons preached, and churches built apart from the Life of the Lord are simply dead activities carried out by dead branches.

Stop asking what is right or wrong, what is good or bad. Start asking, "Is this living or dead? How does the Spirit of Jesus respond to this? Do I sense life, or do I sense death?" That is the key. Now if we follow the Life of the Lord we will do the right thing every time. We will do the good thing every time. We will not have to wonder what the "right thing" is, and we will not have to worry about doing the "wrong thing"...

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