Living for Jesus or Allowing Jesus to Live through You?
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
When we become Christians, life doesn’t suddenly become perfect.
When I first understood Christ within me, I fell under the false impression that I would always feel His incredible love and peace – that it would just come automatically to me.
That’s why when I eventually allowed the physical world to get in the way of my spiritual self, I was surprised that all of those physical world/ego things came raring back.
Impatience, negativity, quickness to anger, lack of motivation…oh, I could fake my way through acting the way I knew I was ‘supposed’ to act, just as I had many, many times in previous years. But wasn’t I supposed to feel God’s love all the time since I’d come to accept Him?
2 Corinthians 5:17 says that we are a new creation in Christ…so why did I fall back into my old ways?
Just as our cells are constantly changing, so too is our spiritual self.
As we must exercise our bodies in order to keep them healthy, our minds to keep them sharp, we must also exercise our spirits in order to completely allow Christ to live through us.
We are not so much as living how He wants us to live (from the outside), but instead, we are allowing ourselves to be infused by Him so that our very essence is Him.
I don’t mean we are Him. I’m not trying to divert the focus from Him. Instead, I want to stress how much it is that He is a part of us. And we must feed and nurture that part so that He can truly live through us.
There’s a difference between living for Jesus and allowing Jesus to live through us.
Think about that for a minute.
Living for Jesus means living from the outside in, doing things merely for the sake of doing them whether it’s for appearances or maybe because we think that by only doing the good deeds we can be closer to Jesus.
But allowing Jesus to live through us…by doing that…we are truly living from the inside out, knowing the love within us that is Christ and allowing it to pour out of us into the world…that can definitely motivate a person to do things.
In the times when I felt God’s heart-swelling, gut tingly love and peace inside me, allowing Jesus to live through me came easily.
But what about those times I didn’t?
And believe me, those times happened more often than not.
I read the scripture about becoming a new creation in Christ, and I know that’s what I want.
I also understand it’s not a one time deal.
When we accept Christ, that’s only the beginning.
We know how it feels to have Christ living through us. Our job is to allow that feeling to drive our very existence.
When we do, then we are motivated to do something. We can’t help it. It’s in our very nature at that point.
However, it’s also in our physical nature to deny that part of ourselves. We allow the stress and busy-ness of everyday life to take precedence, and we don’t let Christ be at the forefront.
Then, we wonder why we can’t get back to that (lovin’) feelin’ again. Okay, doesn’t that make you want to burst into song? I think I’m dating myself. But seriously, it’s true.
We want to feel the feeling, but we put it on the back burner as we get wrapped up in our everyday lives.
We should want to make Christ our everyday life…and not just on the outside either (living for Jesus) but by allowing Him to live through us.
In order to do that, we should take a second look at 2 Corinthians 5:17.
We can be brave enough to throw away all we’ve learned growing up (driven by fear) and realize that just like our cells, our spirit is constantly renewed, sometimes every moment.
We have to make the conscious effort to create ourselves each and every moment.
I love women’s ministry, helping women find their purpose in Christ.
So glad you’re here! ~Julie
Wow God wants to live his life through us & he made that kind of life possible through his Son Jesus Christ who is our life [col 3;4] oh thank you dear sister you have the same mind which is in Christ Jesus. When i use to think and say that Christ is you life, he wants to live his life through us, because our life is not our own he purchased us with his blood people laugh at me saying dont you have a responsibility you are not a robot …. and so on. It is sad most of the christian wants to copy/ape Christ do know that even Christ didn’t live , work and said anything own his own, but did everything by absolute surrender to the will of his father , Jesus said Son can do nothing of himself ,[john 14:10]The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works….
To become like HIM BY IMITATING is impossible, only Christ can live a chis life christian life
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for me. ‘[heb 10:5]. THAK YOU FOR SUCH A BLESSES WORD
Rajesh, thank you so much for your encouragement and inspiring words! Bless you!
Does it mean we can not speak our own words? Like talk about our likes, dislikes, recalling memories or sharing stories at the family dinner table?
I know Jesus said that He did and said nothing on His own. So does it mean that when we really allow Him to live through us, we no longer have right to say anything on our own? Only the words that God the Father gives us? How does it even work? I am confused and afraid of such way of living..
Hi Ana, I see it more as allowing His love to move through us in all that we do and say. When we do that, our words and actions reflect God’s love so that we can share Him with others. ~Julie
My pastor spoke on this exact thing Sunday and so I decided to Google search Jesus living through us and your site came up.
Thank you for taking the time to share this. I believe it really is an aspect many of us (me) have not exercised.
It us going to be a life changer.
God bless.
Ed, I’m so glad you found my site, and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts! I know that when I allow Jesus to live through me, my life truly is changed. We are new creations in Him. It’s so wonderful! You are right…it’s a life changer! Bless you, and thank you again for taking the time to comment. ~Julie
This would have been the kind of life Adam enjoyed at the beginning. A God breathed life in constant communion. Very different to our intermittent union.
This gem has been a discovery for me that has enabled me to get back in the saddle again after years of ‘trying harder’ to be a better follower. It’s always been in the back of my mind but now it makes perfect sense and is all over the New Testament, especially the prayer of Jesus for us all in John 17
Yes! Thank you so much for taking time to comment. Blessings to you!
Enjoyed reading this. You make an important point that many do not get. I wrote about this, too, on my website and in my free eBook. There is a whole new level of freedom in allowing the Christ in you to live out through you. May God’s Spirit lead more brothers and sisters into this level of freedom in Christ!
Christine, Thank you so much for commenting. I can’t wait to check out your website. God bless!
Where is your ebook I can’t find it christine?
Hello Yvette – I apologize, it appears the link (on my website) is not working. I have copied/pasted the URL address for the free ebook below:
http://www.TheJesusSaidProject.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Access_the_Power_of_Eternal_Life_Now-Christine_Rosendaul.pdf
If you copy/paste that into the address bar in your browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, etc.), it should open the ebook within the browser. Then, you can read it from there, or print or download a copy.
Hope this works! Thank you for your interest. God Bless your journey and seeking Him, always! 🙂