Belonging to Him
A Testimony
“He is Teaching Me How to
Belong to Him”
Marsha Deveaux Johnson,
Living Joy Ministries, Inc. http://hepzibah40.blogspot.com
What I Did Not Know
Then
I accepted
Jesus as Savior when I was around fourteen years of age. At that time, I wasn’t even aware of all the
instant benefits of belonging to Him. I
knew my sins were forgiven, but not past, present, and future sins. I did not readily understand that I had the
favor of God stamped on my life and was a joint-heir with Jesus Christ (heir to
what?). Neither did I understand that eternity
had begun for me and I could now walk in the promises written in God’s word. I
never even thought about my name being written in the Lamb’s “Book of Life”. I surely did not perceive that I had been
delivered from the “kingdom of darkness” into the “Kingdom of the dear Son of
God”. My redemption from the curse and
being a new creation in Christ Jesus was not even on my radar screen.
I
just knew that I was happy in my heart and I now was going to walk with Jesus. I knew the Holy Spirit was now an integral
part of my life but I did not have a clue as to His importance and His role in
manifesting in me that I belonged to God!
What I Found Out
As I
continue my walk with God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, there is one
thing that has become increasingly clear to me.
It is that the journey of faith is a journey of “progressively belonging
to Him”.
This
journey starts with your understanding of how you got to be a “son” of
God. When you receive Jesus, become born
again, experience the new birth, you receive instantly all the rights and
privileges for which He shed His blood. You
are then the “righteousness of God in Christ“, 2 Corinthians 5:21. Your righteousness is two-fold. First it is
the imputed or God-given righteousness. This righteousness places you in right
standing with God. Second, it is doing the will of God (Holy Spirit led) which
brings you to right fellowship with God.
Right standing with God remains, while fellowship can and often is
broken. The repentance path is the restorative process of fellowship.
“Imputed Righteousness”
Imputed (God Given,
purchased by the blood of Jesus) Righteousness
After I received Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior of my life, these benefits of imputed righteousness
were instantly mine.
·
My past, present,
& future sins are forgiven. (Romans 10:9-13)
·
I have the favor
of God (Grace). (John
1:16)
·
I have been
“imputed” or given righteousness by God through faith in Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:9)
·
I have been born
a new creation In Christ Jesus. (2nd Corinthians 5:17)
·
I am redeemed
from the Curse. (Galatians
Chapter 5)
·
My name is
written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 21:27)
·
I spend Eternity with
God. (Revelation
21:27)
·
My spirit is now
God-conscious & lives under the law of the “Spirit of Life in Jesus
Christ”. (Romans 8th Chapter)
Imparted Righteousness
(Righteousness is
imparted to the Believer daily as he obeys the Holy Spirit.)
As I walked with Jesus and grew in the knowledge of
what was instantly mine when I accepted Him into my life, I noticed a
“scriptural gap” between what was mine as a Believer and what I was
experiencing in my daily walk. I also
recognized the frequent attacks on what was rightfully mine in Christ Jesus. My
“imputed” or “God-given” privileges were often challenged by the world, the
flesh, and the Devil himself.
As
I grew in the knowledge of Him (God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) I
realized that in addition to our instant benefits when we “receive Jesus”,
“become born again”, “experience the new birth” that there is more. It is after this experience that we enter
into an on-going and progressive process that brings us to the point of
“Belonging to Him”. This process is a
continuous progression of transformation, conforming to the image of Christ, dying
to self, entering into the peace of God, and finally entering into the complete
“Rest” of belonging to Him. What is now
evident to me is that this is the process by which God imparts righteousness
and holiness to His body. He continually increases our ability to consciously
belong to Him.
Romans
12:2 Transformation
Romans
8:29 Conformed
to the Image of Christ
1
Corinthians 15, 31 Death
of Self Will
Hebrews
4:9-16 Entering
into the Rest of God
1
Corinthians 6:19 Not your
own, “Belonging to Him”
Ephesians
4: 1, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 1 Peter 1: 18-19
Imparted Righteous (AKA)
Belonging to Him AKA
= (Also Known As)
You
listen to the Holy Spirit.
You
praise and worship God continually (spirit, soul, and body).
You
choose to obey God’s word above all else.
As He reveals light, you walk in it.
You
do not compare your walk with God with others regardless of their status,
titles, or authority.
“Belonging
to Him” is a continuum (on-going process).
It increases progressively as you yield to the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. He is in charge as you yield to
the gradual process of becoming more and more like Jesus. After all we are supposed to be “like Him”
when we see Him 1 John 3:2.
What I Now Know about
Belonging to Him
Belonging
to Him brings “Intimacy with Him” as only He can reveal.
Belonging to Him brings a peace that passes
all understanding.
You
literally cannot be disturbed or shaken by what you see, hear, or perceive in
the natural or spirit realm.
You
know unequivocally that God is in control of everything that happens to you.
You
realize that God’s word is irrefutable, irrevocable, and infallible.
Heaven
and earth will pass away, but God’s word will not.
The Special Anointing of
Belonging to Him
I believe
there is a special anointing that comes with belonging to Him. You become a doer of His logos (written) and
His Rhema (Spirit inspired) word. As you
do the word of God, you may notice:
God
can trust you to see as He sees.
He
can trust you to give and not be selfish.
He
can trust you to know and abide by His assessed value of temporal (time
related, earthly) things.
He
knows you can live in eternity with Him right now.
He
can trust you to minister in the way He ordains.
He
imparts an incredible love in your heart for people.
He
can trust you to be fair and just and righteous in your dealings with all
people.
He
puts people in your path that are supposed to be there.
He
removes people from your path who are not supposed to be there.
He
gives keen, revelatory insight to you in the deliverance of circumstances,
situations, and relationships.
He
fellowships continually in your spirit as your body and soul attends to
necessary temporal (time related, earthly) things.
He
gives a “Oneness” with Him that is unexplainable with words.
Scriptures for
Meditation and Discussion
Ephesians 4:1, “I
therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called.
1 Corinthians 6:20, “For
you are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Peter 1:18-19,
“Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like
silver or gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot.”
A Surprise!
As
I neared the end of this testimony, the Holy Spirit brought a song that I sang
so much in my childhood in church. I remembered all but one of the verses in
detail. I lay in bed one morning singing
this song that sums up the experience of “Belonging to Him”. The song was written by the famed Fannie
Crosby and William Howard Doane.
Fannie Crosby,
(1820-1915), American Mission Worker, poet, lyricist and composer writing more
than 8000 hymns and gospel songs
William Howard Doane
(1832-1915), American inventor, hymn writer, and church leader, composed over
2000 songs
I am Thine O Lord
“I am Thine O
Lord, I have heard Thy voice and it told Thy love to me,
But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer
drawn to Thee.
Consecrate me now to Thy service Lord by the power of
grace divine,
Let my soul look up in a steadfast hope and my will be
lost in Thine.
O the pure delight of a single hour that before Thy
throne I spend,
whenI kneel in
prayer and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend!
There are heights of joy that I may not reach till I
cross the narrow sea,
There are depths of love that I may not know till rest
in peace with Thee.
Chorus:
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the cross where
Thou hast died,
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to Thy precious
bleeding side.”
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