Decrease To Increase or Dying To Live


Decrease To Increase or Dying To Live

Lose Your Life to keep it

John Lynch 11/30/04

In this strategic hour the Holy Spirit is empowering His People to run to the battle. He is placing a fierce cry, commitment to prayer, sacrifice, love, faith and action, in their hearts that is striking terror in the enemy. The "People of God In This Late Hour" are releasing that war cry in our generation. Increasing numbers are willing to follow the Lamb wherever He leads. We at Freedom Foundation Fellowship are praising God for His renewal in His sons and daughters, their awakening to their identity and union with Christ.

All of God's works are towards the end of increasing Christ. In other words, everything God has done, is doing, and will do is related towards revealing His Son and bringing us into the full-knowledge (epignosis) and union experience with Him. The goal is for Christ to have the preeminence in all things, beginning with his church, then individually as disciples, our marriages and families and finally with all creation, "that He may be All in All." Eventually every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Beyond this, we are told that God will continue to reveal His Son in the ages to come, bringing us into depths and dimensions of Christ that we cannot fathom.

God is not moving backward, but in the Son and through the Son, He moves steadily forward. Christ MUST increase. This is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Just as we cannot have gravity without having the law of gravity, so it is impossible to have the Life of the Lord but not have the Law of that Life. And the Law of Life is that Christ must increase.


Now what we are discussing begins with an event or crises experience (new birth) and continues as a progressive process (sanctification). There is a once-and-for-all decision to follow Christ, then we are to keep on following, pressing into Him, interacting with and calling on His name. Entering the gate is a once-and-for-all event, but walking the path is our learning a moment by moment process of abiding. We gain everything when we enter the gate, but we must walk the path of life, by faith, in order to now live out of what we have and who we have become. We are new creations (the righteousness of God in Christ), but we are being changed daily into the image and _expression of Christ (experientially).

We died with Christ once (Rom. 6:6): yet we die daily. We were crucified with Him once: yet we take up the cross daily. We were raised with Him once: yet we experience and are saved by His Life daily. We were ascended with Him and we were seated with Him in the heavenlies once: but we live out the heavenly position, by faith, in our daily walk, daily ascending above the earth, above the natural, to sit with Him in His throne as overcomers.

We must see that for every decrease of Self (independence), Christ is increased. We learn to bring every thought, reaction, feeling, habit, area in which we have been deceived and excuse to the obedience of Christ. Even in our conversations we groan inwardly about having to die daily, having to give up our way our pride and our will. We are hesitant to confess boldly, the sovereignty our our Father, giving thanks in everything. Each environment and experience becomes an escort to Christ and His adaquacy.

He MUST increase, but we MUST decrease. It is better to relinquish everything now, on a voluntary basis, by faith, losing our lives in order to gain or experience our real Life. It is more glorious to enter the Kingdom out of a desire to give Christ the preeminence than to enter kicking and screaming and crying because we love ourselves too much. Make no mistake, if it is the Kingdom we seek, the Kingdom we will find, but we must be changed in order to enter therein.

Pride is an illusion of who we are; a deception arrived at when we limit comparisons to a select controlled group. We will create environments where we are superior and, whenever possible, create roadblocks to keep others from joining. Many secular organizations, as well as church organizations, operate on these grounds while pretending to protect the integrity of the discipline and tradition they represent.

In the area of righteousness, men compare themselves with other men, resulting in a false sense of righteousness. Reality and truth can only come when we look to the ultimate standard – the Lord Himself. Without this unmovable and unchangeable standard we are lost in a sea of counterfeit comparisons. Any sense of wellbeing arising from such comparisons is misplaced. when it comes to serving God and fulfilling the desire of His heart, the first ingredient is a revelation of Christ. Without this we can only build out of the standard which is our-self. No doubt we can please ourselves, and this is the trap we often fall into. Christ, as our living experience is the measuring stick (the Divine design and provision) for our life and labor. This is where repentance (turn or changing one's mind) and thanking God for His complete forgiveness at the cross, becomes an ongoing exercise.

If we seek power from God we will have to accept the weakness in ourselves. If we seek Christ's success, we must accept our failure. If we want to rule with Him we must suffer with Him. If we want His Life we must give up our life. We can choose either one, but we cannot have both. One is Life, the other death There is no increase without decrease, and there is no decrease without increase. The way up is down and the way of life is death (to self).

May the Son be increased in you and in His Church Amen.