CRUCIFY THYSELF!

“All I want to do is change the world!” usually really means, all I want to do is change MY world, or, I want the world to be the way I want it to be, I want it to change - for ME! Everybody wants to “Change the world!” but who wants to love the world, be the light of the world and lay down their life for the world? God did, but do we?

We want what we want and will try to use God to get it. Under the guise of goodness we go, but deep down we know, that our motives are low and we can’t truly live, until we let go.

Quit trying to change and improve your own life and just die already! You will never know yourself until you die to self. For there is One greater than self. But you can’t know the greater until you lose the lesser - your life that is. You want to “win the world” but the gain is found in loss. If you refuse to lose you can’t live.

Most people are focused on increase to increase and can’t increase because they need to decrease.

John 3:30
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
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Or they focus on decrease to increase when what they need is decease.

Gal 5:24
24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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Gal 2:20a
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…
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Now this is a good theology. But for most “Christians” it’s more of a theory than a reality because they keep trying to get out of the crucifixion. By subtle subversion they believe there’s no need for self sacrifice. They avoid the pain of making the flesh abstain while trying to obtain the gain. But the pain remains because in death is gain. They’re obsessed to “be blessed” but they must die so it can be possessed. They cry and try, and pray and say, “Lord let there be another way!” But there’s only one way.

Matt 26:39
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
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And the way is death and the deed is self denial. Crucify thyself. Not the body but the flesh, die to yourself and all of your own dreams and desires. You must be willing to give, and give it all! Before you can live, and live - at all. There are millions of prayers, but the purest one is, “NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE, BE DONE!”

Luke 22:42
42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
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2 Cor 13:4
For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.
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Matt 16:24-27
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
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1 Cor 15:31
31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
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Gal 6:14
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
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Rom 6:3-11
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Rom 8:12-13
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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Gal 5:19-26
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
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1 Cor 1:18
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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Col 2:13-15
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
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Gal 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
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2 Cor 5:14-15
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
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Phil 2:5-11
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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Rev 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
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Rev 2:10
Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
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