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Good Morning! They say the most important verse in the bible to an unsaved person is John 3:16. I believe that is probably true. But I also believe that the most important verse in the bible to a saved person is Galatians 2:20.

Galatians 2:20 teaches me that "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. " Though I am alive, it is not me that is doing the living; it's Him living His life through me.

If I were to invest $10,000 for the purchase of a used vehicle, I would have every intention of owning it. I don't give 10 grand for a car so that it can have some spending money. I give the money that I may take ownership of it.

Likewise, Christ purchased me for eternity by paying for my sin payment. He has placed His Spirit within each of us as the earnest payment of our "inheritance of Heaven". Until that time, His intention is to live His crucified life through each and every one of us.

It is sad but true that Christ, who did so much for each of us, struggles to have more ownership over our lives. He is not an oppressive owner. He is rather longsuffering with each of us. He wants to live through us, but in order to do so He must suffer for a long time while we are learning how frustrating life can be without His oversight.

Have you ever thought about this truth? When God is long suffering toward us, it means we are making God suffer! Why would we do that to the One Who paid the penalty for our sin? Because we see Him as an Owner, but not as our Owner Occupier!

If we would contemplate as we meditate throughout the day that the God of this Universe lives within us, I think we would recognize that every decision we make in life belongs to Him. We are His jurisdiction. He should be making all of our choices in life. When He is not making our choices, then we are living our life, rather than the Christ life.

Colossians 3:3, 4 teaches us that we "are dead, and [our] life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." When we live the Hidden life, which I define as "our soul being daily crucified with Christ and then placed under the control of God", then He becomes our Life, for us. Our crucified Christian Life has begun and will continue until we choose to reject His leading in order to embrace a wish of our soul. At this time our life will no longer align with His direction.

At that stage, we have ceased to live the Christ life and have begun to live the self life, or what I like to call the soulical life. The soulical life is a life lived under the influence of my mind, will and/or emotions. This is not God's design for us. We are to die with Him so that we can live with Him. Romans 6:8 teaches that "if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him". The word "with" means in partnership.

Though He is an Owner/Occupier, we work in partnership with Him to go about doing good. He gives direction and in "partnership with His Ownership" we submit as lead by Him. This will allow us to live soberly, righteously and Godly in this present world. (Titus 2:12)

Now how is this done? We are taught this truth in Romans 6:13 where we learn not to "yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

This verse explains that our members, which means "body parts" are not to be tools (or instruments) of unrighteousness. Unrighteousness is doing bad in our own power. But rather they are to be tools of righteousness. Righteousness is doing good in His power.

Yesterday I was in Springfield, Mo. I ate lunch at a Fuddruckers and while I stood in line far, far, far away from my home I noticed something I had never realized before. Fuddruckers sells domestic bottles of beer with their extra value meals. You can actually upgrade from a soda to a beer. My mind immediately went racing back to the days when I used to "enjoy" a big fat "burger and a beer" during happy hour at my local watering hole. For a few unsupervised moments I found myself thinking about the past and was quickly prompted by the Spirit to cast that thought down.

I wonder what would have happen, I thought, as I paid for my burger and diet coke, if I had allowed myself to meditate on that thought for a few more minutes. Would a temptation overcome me to do something so unrighteous and damaging to the body and life of Christ? I am thankful that God has given me the strength to cast down such foolish thoughts. But as I pondered the "mistake that might have been" had I not cast it down, I was approached by a young man and his pregnant wife. He looked me in the eyes and said "are you Steve Curington". "Why, yes!" I replied. To which he responded, "My name is (blank) and I attend an RU in Wyoming. We are passing through Missouri on our way to (blank)". I was shocked, stunned and just smiled as he glanced down at my tray of food and said "hungry, huh?"

I am so glad that we have an Owner that not only wants to Occupy us and make us His occupation! He wants to do everything for God through us. If we do not learn to submit to His leading and guiding in the little things in life, we will never be able to say, I am His and He is mine.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY: "Lord, help me today to recognize that you not only live within me, but that you want to navigate my every move. In order to allow that to happen, I must give you jurisdiction over my feelings, my wants, and my thoughts. This is not an easy task for me Lord. I want so bad for You to live your life through me, but when faced with unfortunate circumstances my mind begins to wander to the negative and I find myself doing good or even bad in my own power. This has proven to be a pointless way to live my life. I confess my failures in my Christian life and ask you to forgive me for them and to empower me to today's victory IN Christ! I pray this is the bloodstained name of Jesus, Amen!"

A QUESTION FOR TODAY'S MEDITATION: "Am I living in defeat in any one area of my life?" If so, list each one and then ask the Spirit "Why?" Then write down the answers to this question and begin to follow His leading to gain a more sure victory.