Greetings!
“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the victor’s crown, the life God has promised to those who love Him”
(James 1:12).
I cannot tell you how much my soul fought this verse
through the years! First of all, the word “trial” was something I worked throughout my entire life to avoid. Secondly, I have had a fear of being “tested” since I was old enough to understand just exactly what testing meant. Finally, the “victor’s crown” was a term that described a life that I believed I would never be able to attain here on earth – at least until I discovered what it truly meant to have the indwelling Life of Christ.
Even though I received the indwelling life of Christ at 16
years of age (salvation), I did not understand exactly what that meant to my daily living until many years later. Since the day of my salvation, I had a heart-hunger for the Word but was not able to embrace the Spirit of Truth/Word until my Lord took me on a journey that revealed the intimate details of advancing the Life of Christ from within.
I might have been born again
without knowing much of the Word if any, but I certainly understood that in order to grow I must be bathed in the Word and the Spirit of Truth. But how could I do this – for I was functionally illiterate and could not read until my mid 20’s. Little did I realize at the time, this would become one of my greatest blessings in Life. Since I was unable to read, my early growth as a believer completely hinged upon the indwelling Life of Christ, being forced to be a student of the Spirit of Life from within.
Early on in my faith
, I did not know the difference between “Christian” and being an indwelt Christian. I got caught up in the classic thinking that being a Christ follower was my only way to be progressive in obtaining victory as a Christian, therefore, I began by attempting to meet God’s
standard/laws
through following instead of releasing Christ within me to meet those
standards
. If someone would have only told me that in order to advance spiritually, I had to discover what and who I really was by the indwelling Life of Christ and not by trying to become who the Bible says I am. Needless to say, that never happened – nor could I reach such a goal no matter how earnest I was or how hard I strived to become something that I already was.
I can still remember how I felt when I heard for the first time
that upon the day of my salvation, my old nature was crucified with Christ and that I was dead to the power of sin, buried with Him, resurrected and then placed at the right hand of the Father. For me, these were the most freeing truths I had ever heard.
To every indwelt believer there should come a time
when we can say “
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.”
It doesn’t matter what God decides to bring our way, it is imperative that we are brought to the experiential reality of this statement. My experience is, the more rejection suffered, the longer and more difficult it is to embrace such profound truth. But know this, Christ is always seeking to make Himself known in us, but until we have been detached from all earthly pleasures and are ready to look inward to Him alone, we must still wait for His Indwelling Life to manifest in every thought and deed. For those of us who do experience a long delay of such a Life, it is critical that we understand that there is no delay on His part, the hard-core Truth is, all the waiting that is necessary to discover such freedom is totally due to our own flesh waging war against His Spirit from within.
I learned early on that going to Him inwardly is
not the hard task but not yielding to the sin that remains in me, that is not me, is the toughest task for all believers. In fact, it takes Christ in me to master such warring. Once I learned that it takes my mind to be yielded to the mind of Christ within me – the task of “not I, but Christ” became as easy as the yoke He carries, which is lite. It was a stirring reality to know that I typically carry around more burdens than Christ does as being God. To rest my mind on such truth became the doorway to my freedom.
Due to my rejection patterns,
I continue to find “resting in Christ” a huge challenge. Resting in Christ requires me not to look at, think about, worry over circumstances, my surroundings, my thoughts, and experiences. Breaking free from viewing life through my five senses has been the greatest obstacle in my life as a believer. Whereas looking through the eyes of Christ from within has become my daily process of working out my salvation in the midst of this harsh reality that surrounds me. Now I find myself looking at how Christ views these circumstances through me. How did I get here? That is what this book is all about.
Read My Full Life Story
Stephen Phinney
