Gal 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live: In submitting your life to Jesus, the very first thing that is required of you in The Six Biblical Principles is, you must DESIRE it. If you will allow it to, your struggles with divorce can help you DESIRE to submit your life to Jesus. To start out with, submitting your life to Jesus got credited to your record with God; but, Jesus wants you to ACTUALLY submit your life to Him. So, what is ACTUALLY submitting your life to Jesus going to mean to your everyday life? If you are a very private, independent person, it may take a lot of convincing for you to be willing to give up your “normal” life. You can appreciate that Jesus forgave you and erased all your past sins, mistakes, failures, and abuses; that is wonderful! AND, if Jesus will just keep forgiving you for all of them in your present and future, that is awesome too! BUT, if He is wanting to start messing with your everyday “typical” life, that may be a problem for you.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me: If Jesus would just take over all those areas where you are messing up and leave those things that you feel good about, then you would be more likely to DESIRE to turn your life over to Him; but, that isn’t what He is asking for. He has a NEW life that He is wanting you to trade your old one for. AND, this new way of life is exactly what you need so you can get healed from your difficulties with divorce. 2 Cor 5:17 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! You have that new life credited to your record with God; and, that made you a born again child of God, a member of God’s family, and a citizen of His eternal Kingdom. But now, Jesus is wanting to get you ready for your eternal life.

The life I live in the body: It is true you are NOW heading into a human life that has less sins, less misdeeds of the body, less mistakes, less failures, and less abuses; but, that isn’t all Jesus has to offer. Jesus has you on this planet so you can learn how to live as a child of God in eternity; AND, you won’t learn how unless you allow Him to teach you. But, you may not DESIRE to learn about living as a child of God until you find out that this training will help you greatly with your struggles with divorce.

You might be willing to take a few classes on the subject; but, you may want to put the major part of your effort on being successful here and now. The good news is, that is what Jesus wants too. If you fail at life here, it will typically mean you failed in eternal life as well. Jesus wants to show you how to win at this life; AND, He wants to show you how to help others win with you. This means that you will only participate in win/win situations for everyone involved. And it means that you will share these breakthroughts you get with other people.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God: Jesus will help you start living in such a way that you will be able to STOP mistreating the people around you. You may get to the place where you never hurt anyone, abuse them, or mistreat them; but, Jesus wants to help you learn how to help them. If you go around ignoring everyone, that would take care of any abuse; but, that would end all relationships as well. Jesus has a way of life for you that helps people enjoy you, be your friend, and look to you for helping them have a successful life. A connection, dependency, and respect for Jesus will not only take care of the inconsistencies, they will enhance your God and human relationships in a marvelous way.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me: Just like a branch on a grape vine gets its life from the trunk of the grape vine, your CHRISTIAN life only exists in Jesus; He IS your life. This concept is going to take a lot of help, training, and explaining from Jesus. You have been able to live your human life as an individual. But, before you were born, you were attached to your mother through an umbilical cord. If you ever got detached while in your mother’s womb, you would have died. That is the way it is with Jesus from now on until eternity.

If you always keep in mind that there are two aspects to your Christian life, it will help you navigate through the Bible. On your record with God, you have been crucified with Christ and you no longer live. But, as you are going through your day, it is a moment-by-moment, issue-by-issue decision. As you face an issue, you WILL decide whether you will ACTUALLY do it your old self or you will do it the new way with Jesus.

At first, your life will be much more up and down in your day-to-day life. That is because you don’t yet know how to put your dependency on Jesus. In John 15:1-8, Jesus is going to be telling you to REMAIN IN Him at least five times. That means that during your day you can, if you want to, no longer live and you can, if you want to, allow Jesus to live in you. This is already true in your record with God; but, it won’t be true all day long; you WILL make mistakes and need more help from Jesus, as you deal with people and life.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me: Before Jesus takes you into HOW to go about letting Him live in you, let Him help your mind get the proof it needs for being WILLING to let Him live in and through you all the time.

Jesus illustrates in John 15:1-8 that, as a Christian, your life-success is dependent on His resources and life-giving supply. It is true you are constantly deciding whether or not to yield to Jesus during your day; but, you are actually deciding more than that. The only way for you to live as a Christian is to remain attached to Him. If you ever make a permanent decision to stop submitting yourself to Jesus, you may go on living as a human; but, you will be dead as a Christian, a child of God, a member of His family, and a citizen of His Kingdom. So, with that important information in mind, let Jesus help you understand what you need to let happen to you.

John 15:1 (NIV) I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. Let Jesus show you a grape vine where He is feeding nutrients and power into your life. He and the Father are making decisions about your life all day long as they watch your growth. They are the two main Ones Who are influencing your Christian life. Jesus is trying to help you understand that you and He are like a grape vine. He is the main trunk of the vine and you are one of His branches. All your growth, health, spiritual and physical achievements, and righteous relationships are empowered and fed through Jesus, the vine. Allow yourself to see how important your relationship with Him is. It is vital that you allow Him to show you why you need to ASK for everything. This illustration will show you why the two tool sets are so important.

John 15:2 (NIV) He (God the Father) cuts off every branch IN ME that bears no fruit, while every branch that DOES bear fruit He PRUNES so that it will be even more fruitful. Your relationship with Jesus is dependent on how you respond to Jesus’ influence on your life. If you, like a healthy grape branch are totally receptive to the provisions of the vine, then you will have all you need to be healthy and succeed in life. But, if there are any obstructions or resistances to His provisions, you will either only produce a long branch and leaves with no fruit; or, you will whither and die. If you will yield to Jesus enough, you will at least produce “some” fruit. If you resist on a major level, you won’t produce any. If you produce some fruit, you will be pruned by God. If you don’t bear any, you will be removed from Jesus, the Vine.

John 15:3 (NIV) You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. First, you had to experience salvation and justification. If you hadn’t been born again, then you wouldn’t be connected in the first place. But, now you have a perfect record with God. What is going to be evaluated by God next is your relationship with yourself and other people. Now that you are connected to Jesus, will you allow Him to flow into you and transform your relationships with humans? Now that you are connected to Jesus, will you allow Him to empower you and train you?