Ken:
Really knowing the Lord and walking with Him, it's really related to really knowing Him. You really don't know the Lord until you come into the place where you accept Him and relate to Him as the Lord of your life. Before that time, it's an experience, but not the experience where you lay down your life and realize that everything that comes in to your life has to be something that you allow the Lord to search your heart over everything that comes. Because anything can become an obstacle to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It's you and Him.
Dale:
It seems that the lordship of Jesus Christ begins with salvation. That step of salvation is the beginning of a walk with God.
When you accept Him, I like the word set apart. We're set apart at salvation. What are we set apart for? We're set apart for a relationship with Jesus Christ. We're set apart. unto the Father. I think the Lordship of Jesus Christ begins there. 1 Corinthians 11 3 says, The head of every man is Christ. That I think is what we're set apart to.
We're set apart to Christ becoming our head, Christ becoming our Lord. Being set apart is an experience. Salvation is a time of great rejoicing. It's an experience you'll never forget. Understanding that you're being set apart, you're being saved, Christ comes into your life. The Father has sent Him as your Savior.
Ron:
Back in when the Israelite's were being taken out of Egypt, they were taken out to be brought in. So there's a principle, He was taking them out of their bondage and their slavery, which is what Christ does for us. But there's a purpose in taking us out, not just to wander around, but to come into a relationship with Him and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Today, this is one of the major issues in the world today, is the Lordship of Jesus Christ . Whether people recognize it or not. In their lives, if they're missing or not walking in under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, they're wandering. No matter how effective they think they're being, whether they feel like their life's effective or not, it's not without being under His Lordship.
Then you're left up for your own devices. What do you have to draw from? What do you have? Where do you get your leading or your direction for your life? Basically, you'll get it from your mind, your circumstances, and maybe some friends or colleagues, but you're not getting it from Him. Being under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, one of the first things that happens is the dethroning of your carnal mind, the dethroning of your thinking, your ways, and everything that you would choose you're laying down .My thoughts, my choices, my ways, and looking to Him to lead you in new thoughts, new choices, and new ways.
Ed:
When you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He gives you a the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that is what's going to lead you into this Lordship of Jesus Christ and to lead us into greater things in Christ.
Dale:
When you accept salvation, you accept Christ as your Lord, as your head, as the one who directs. And the basis for genuine union is complete control. You're giving over complete control. Scriptures use the word subjection. Your head, your thoughts, your brain, you are taken over and become the possession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that means you give complete control. With that complete control, you're able to move about. in the things of the Lord, in the things of the Spirit, with someone to guide you. And Ed was talking about the Holy Spirit, and that is the conduit from the heart of the Father to the Lord Jesus Christ to your heart.
Ken:
We're going to be led by the Holy Spirit. We're going to be directed by Him. And in order to be directed, we have to lose that thing that competes With the spirit nature. The mind, the human mind is at enmity with God. It cannot receive, it cannot connect, it doesn't know how to relate. But the spirit of God in you, that's been given to you by God.
That's when you begin to really live. You know when Jesus said, I've come to bring you life. And that more abundantly, this is what He's talking about.
Dale:
Paul said to the very end that he was working out his salvation. As God takes us in each step, that working of salvation becomes deeper and deeper and deeper.
Debbie:
When we first accept the Lord, we believe that He was raised again and that He's living. So we come into a walk with God. Do you have a relationship with Him yet? No, because that has to be developed. As you get more into the Word, as you reach into His presence, as you ask Him to show you and ask the Holy Spirit to make Him alive to you. The more He becomes alive and real to you, your relationship deepens. The more He becomes Lord over your life, the more He becomes in control. You don't lose your life. You lose your old nature. You gain life. Does the old nature go away naturally? No, we have to submit to the Lord constantly saying, Lord. I love you. Show me, lead me, direct me, and let me come into your presence. Let me know you. Not just about you, but to really know you.
