If you will believe me and trust in my all-sufficient presence, today will mark a new era in your life. I am all that you need. I will supply you with words, images, motivation, ideas – everything!

Be prepared! I will require you to think completely differently. You’ve been seeking, looking from the underside, treating me as a hypothesis. Now, you must deal with me as fact, as reality.

I will teach you how to live beyond asking, seeking, and inquiring; I will teach you to live in the presence of the “IS,” the eternal present, the reality of “I in you and you in me.”

Live in me without too much effort. Trust in my presence even when you do not see any dramatic activity. I have many ways of manifesting my presence through and to you.

You must not live passively by denying your gifts, skills, and personhood. I am in your intelligence, imagination, even your will. I act in your actions, think in your thoughts, feel through your emotions. You will not be able to separate me from you any more than your an separate me from the bread and the wine.

Keep paying attention to me – the center and source of your life. By listening to me, you will continue to change. You will not “try” to change you will change because of your fellowship with me.

I have called you by your name. I have sent you. I intend to speak through you, to work through your hands to establish my kingdom.

Do not think about it too much. My Spirit blows like the wind; it comes as it will!

As you keep listening to me, let your response to me be simple:
– Go where I send you.
– Receive those I send you.
– Speak what I tell you.
– Never concern yourself with your effectiveness or with failure. Success consists only in being obedient to me.

– Ben Johnson, I Stand at the Door, CTS Press, 1986, 23-24.

1    So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service.  ²  Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature. 

3  Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you.  ⁴  We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function.  ⁵  In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other.  ⁶  We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, you should prophesy in proportion to your faith.  ⁷  If your gift is service, devote yourself to serving. If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching.  ⁸  If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging. The one giving should do it with no strings attached. The leader should lead with passion. The one showing mercy should be cheerful. 

9    Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.  ¹⁰  Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other.  ¹¹  Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord!  

Romans 12:1-11

How do you feel as you hear these invitations from Christ? Are you ready to step into a deeper relationship with him?  

Holy Lord,
Let me be a living sacrifice for you.
Show me the ways you would work through me.
Help me to trust that who you created me to be,
is just what you need from me.
Free me to freely serve you,
trusting in your Spirit’s guidance and power.
Amen