Our Funeral Celebration

Our Funeral Celebration 

Have you ever struggled in an area and said, “I will never get victory over this.” Is it something you’ve battled with for so long, it feels a part of who you are? Well, I have too. In fact, I struggled for many years in a besetting area thinking I would take it to the grave with me. But the scriptures show us Jesus did that for us. Our sins and our nature to sin are already in the grave. Jesus took them with Him and buried them for me and for you when He died. So don’t you think it’s time we have a funeral celebration for our old

dead self once and for all?

Hear what Paul says:

“We have died to sin once and for all, as a dead man passes away from this life. So how could we live under sin’s rule a moment longer? Sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried and entombed with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him. We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life.”  Romans 6: 2,4 TPT

Since Jesus died ONCE to take care of ALL sin for mankind, I say it’s time for a funeral celebration once and for all. There is no need for us to drag around our old dead self through this amazing new life Jesus purchased for us. When we walk in our new nature it’s easy to ignore the struggle and residue of sin. So, if God is only interested in a relationship with the new alive us, how does He respond to the old dead us? Beloved, there are no longer relationships between the dead and the living. God is only speaking to the alive us.

Here is how it happened in my life:

One day years ago after I had attended the Mind of a Saint conference, I was by myself and suddenly, fleshly thoughts from my past slam into my mind. Dizziness and confusion rolled in like a wave. It felt like I was in the Walking Dead TV show where humans are constantly battling dead zombies and they are always looking for a place of safety and rest. My awareness of old passions began to flare up like a fire in my thinking. I caught myself and stopped to examine this battle in my mind. This is what I thought: “The old Dewey would love to do that, but he is dead. The new Dewey loves God, loves his wife and loves his children.” Then I spoke it out loud and went back to doing what I was doing. That was it! For the next week, I continued to practice this same thought process and speak the same phrase when these past thoughts tried to get re-ignited in my mind. By the end of the week I felt a freedom and a hope I had never experienced in my entire life of struggling, battling, and continued failing. The struggles vanished within this time. I saw one by one the enemy’s talons being released in my mind as I confessed the truth that my old self and sin nature is dead. My new normal became this: Ignoring the struggle I used to battle, and instead focusing on the delight of living in this fresh new life Holy Spirt was revealing.

As I was having dialogue with Holy Spirit on this, He put a picture in my mind of a campfire burning and all my attempts and performance to fight this struggle was like putting logs on the fire. It kept it burning. The Spirit spoke to me, “A fire goes out when you stop putting logs on it?” The Lord simply revealed to me when I focus on sin, negative thinking, and the past, it’s like me putting logs on a fire. So I stopped giving my attention to those dead things. The results were quick and powerful. The fire and struggle simply went out like a forgotten campfire.

I’m convinced more than ever now that the reason God was so quiet in my life was because I kept asking, seeking and knocking out of my old nature. When I flipped it and began praying with thanking and rejoicing from my new nature, everything changed. I began hearing his voice like never before and the scriptures came alive in a new and fresh way. When we speak as a living new creation, everything changes. For me it started in my thinking, then I spoke it out of our new nature. Victory is ours when we see it, accept it, and practice it.

“So let it be the same way with you! Since you are now joined with him, you must continually view yourselves as dead and unresponsive to sin’s appeal while living daily for God’s pleasure in union with Jesus, the Anointed One.” Romans 6:11

Our new focus is on our sin-free resurrected self. It becomes an obedience issue of seeing ourself the way God sees us.

If you were like me, feeling like a walking dead person battling with your old self for years, I’m proof that there is hope. If you feel your old zombie self lurking behind trying to get your attention, It’s ok to turn around and declare the Truth: You are dead! Then keep moving forward focusing and walking with Jesus. If it tries to rise back up and persists, just keep reminding your new self the Truth. We are not zombies trying to bandage our old self just to get by as best we can or survive until the end of time.

Beloved, before Jesus died, He said, “It is finished.” What finished work have you not seen yet that needs revealed in the true you? A new and exciting celebration awaits you today. If you are like me, your celebrations may be hidden still, yet to be revealed as you process your true identity by joining God in focusing on the new you, the true you.