THE POWER TO DIE
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“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your reasonable service.
Somebody said, “The problem with the living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar!”
Matt 26:35 Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And so said all the disciples.
Consider Peter’s bold and well meaning declaration of loyalty to Jesus and as a matter of fact, all His disciples made the same declaration! Yet not one of them could make good on their promise to Jesus! They all forsook Him and fled when Jesus’ time was up! (Mark 14:50)
Luke 12:50 "But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!
Jesus was speaking here of the death He would die for all of us as the Lamb of God! Though the disciples passionately proclaimed their devotion and willingness to die with Christ, they did not have the power to perform their promise but later on, most of them died a martyr’s death. What happened to enable them to lay their lives down for the Gospel? The answer is found here in the words of Christ: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8 ) The word witnesses is Martys, which is Greek for Martyr! Obviously Jesus was saying that this Holy Ghost power was a power to die. Power to become a living sacrifice and power if need be, to give your life for the Gospel! That was the power that made the cowardly, courageous! Jesus called it the promise of the Father. (Acts 1:4) John the Baptist called it the Baptism of the Holy Spirit! (Luke 3:16)
Being a living sacrifice is our “reasonable” service, meaning logical, meaning that is the least we can do for the one who gave it all for us! As Paul asked the Ephesian disciples, Brother, Sister I ask you, have you received this Holy Ghost baptism of power to die since you believed? (See Acts 19:1-7) Jesus is still mightily baptizing men, women, boys and girls with this same power today! If you have heard it is not for today, you’ve heard wrong! Just ask Jesus and receive it! Acts 2:39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Every blessing!
—Tom