Once, several years ago, I had finished speaking during one of the sessions of a Santa Barbara business conference and decided to forgo lunch to visit the old mission. Hummingbirds buzzed through the warm spring air of the mission garden as I walked up the path. The scent of earth and stone baking in the sun led me to take shelter from the rays. I moved inside the cool chapel just as a few tourists wandered out, leaving me alone.
I sat awhile in the front pew of the small chapel and stared at the almost life-sized wooden statue of Christ on the cross, a grisly sight. Suddenly, the room blurred and I found myself catapulted out of my seat and onto the cross. Sobbing, I felt
the pain of the nails in my hands and feet. I moved my head to see the rivers of blood pouring out of me. Just as suddenly, I caught sight of a man leaping off the pew, moving rapidly toward me me. He brought His shoulder beneath mine to catch my fall then reached up to pull the nails from my hands. I slumped over His shoulder, and He reached down to pull the spike from my feet. It was the Lord.
He sobbed loudly, in agony over my agony. “I never meant for you to be there,” He sobbed. “I never meant for you to take My place.”
The vision lasted a few seconds. As abruptly as it came, it faded. And I found myself still seated on the pew, tears streaming down my face.
You cannot purchase life or atone for your own sins. Why memorialize the pain by crucifying yourself over the sins others have committed against you? Why allow the memories to nail you to the cross of despair? Life and forgiveness are freely given to you. Long before you were born, He chose you, called you by name, and said, “You are Mine. Will I not freely give you all things?”
The enemy loves to take a spiritual truth and twist it into something obscene. The cross of Christ is His alone. The cross He calls us to take up is not our suffering over old pain. His cross purchased your salvation. Your cross seeks to abort it.
Your cross perpetuates hopelessness, thinking that nothing will ever change.
His bloodshed ensures your healing.
Your cross and emotional bloodletting keeps your mind focused on carnal reasoning and glorifies the power of the enemy in your life.
His cross released power over death. Your cross keeps you in a cycle of death.
His cross released grace to become fully alive, free from all that weighs you down—your sins and the sins that others have done against you.
Your cross prevents you from living life fully and walking into the destiny and purposes for which you were created. Even though you might feel dead, God, who is rich in mercy and full of kindness, is calling you into a place of resurrection.
But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His k indness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by work s, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s work manship, created in Christ Jesus to do good work s, which God prepared in advance for us to do
(Ephesians 2:4-10).
You must choose to come off the cross of your own making. Only then can you take up the cross that God gives you. You are God’s workmanship, created to do good works, not out of duty but out of a love that compels you to do what you were created to do in work, in relationships, and in ministry. His resurrection enabled you to be seated with Him in heavenly realms, a place where you can bear the pain of earthly suffering because, like Christ, you have already overcome and are already victorious. It is a mystery, I know. But more will be revealed as you choose life and ask God to lift you up into a higher perspective, from a viewpoint that transcends your earthly reasoning.
The cross God gives you is not one of suffering outrageously in the work He calls you to do or in the relationships impacting your life. It is a cross of the joy of intimately walking with Him and sharing in His sufferings for the purpose of transferring the dominion of darkness—satan’s domain—into the Kingdom of light, Jesus’ domain purchased so many years ago.
His death and resurrection call you to come up higher, to experience the Kingdom power of God. The same resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead resides in you. Despair, depression and anxiety, pain and shame, and a sense of unworthiness may have worked some profit in your life in years past. But you don’t need it anymore. Consider it part of your loss and let it go for the sake of Christ.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sak e of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of k nowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sak e I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to k now Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming lik e Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead
(Philippians 3:7-11).
Where is this power of resurrection to be found? How do you access it? Many people believe that God can just reach out and touch them in their living rooms, bringing instant breakthrough. He can. Sometimes He does. But perhaps He has another plan. Perhaps He created His Body, the Church, to assist the work. So, not realizing that God’s power resides in His Body, some people stay home, practice their defeatist attitudes, and passively pray something like, “Anytime, God. Come and get me.”
Meanwhile, in a home group nearby or a church meeting within an hour’s drive from home, God’s presence and power routinely flood the meetings, releasing the fullness of salvation —forgiveness of sins and healing of disease, deliverance from
oppression and release of gifts and purpose and destiny. Why stay home? I don’t know about you, but I know where I’m going when I need something from God. I am going to travel to a place where my desperation meets God, who dwells wherever two or more are gathered in His name, and invite His Spirit to come and minister in a way that I cannot access on my own, alone, at home. I run to Him because I know this:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weak nesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:14-15).
When I run to His throne of grace, He always meets me. He has never failed to back up His promise, “Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you” (see James 4:8). Where is this throne of grace? It is wherever you meet with God.
The Anointed One knows that you need more of His anointing of love and power—especially if you have been ministering your heart out, or laying down your life for your family or church or mission. He is calling some people to come down off the cross of their self-imposed martyrdom and give it up. He never meant for you to take His place.
The vision I had of the cross enabled me to shed the sense of unworthiness I felt and to embrace my destiny.
A revelation of the cross and the blood of Christ is different from being taught about it and taking communion as a remembrance of the mystery of union with Christ. Revelation personalizes everything. Suddenly, we know that Jesus didn’t mean for us to be on the cross. And we understand that His blood makes us worthy. His righteousness is imparted to us through His sacrifice—not through our working to earn His forgiveness or striving to earn His love.