I would like to tell what Jesus has for us. Why He came. The Bible says, “In Him was life…” If this Bible tells us anything about the mission of Jesus; it’s wrapped in this Word that we don’t understand properly, or rely on enough. “He that hath the Son hath life.”

There are verses throughout the Bible which we all could quote. For instance, “In Him was life…” (John 1:5). John also quotes Jesus saying, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” John 10:10 sags, “The thief comes only to kill and destroy; but I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” I John 5:12 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath life; he that believeth not on the Son hath not life.” Then to further complicate it; (because this is to people who are alive you read Paul; who says, ” and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God being rich in mercy, because of His great love for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together in Christ Jesus.”

The Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ came that we might have life and that’s strange because it is written to people who are alive. Jesus says that He is the way, truth, and life. This perplexed people, Nicodemus was perplexed when Jesus told him he had to be born again. What Jesus was saying was that Nicodemus, you need life; and Nicodemus was saying that he was already alive.

The Bible says you can be alive, but in God’s sight dead. You may be able to function physically, but in God’s sight you are missing the very thing Jesus Christ came to bring. The Bible, also, says you can be dead, but still alive. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me though he were dead yet shall he live.” You can be dead to the world, but alive to God. “For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” So, you can be dead, but alive; and alive, but dead.

The word “life” used in the Bible is not the same word that we understand today. There are several different types of life, In my study of life, one of the types of life is plant life. Scientists believe that plants have a life that we have got to realize. They have discovered that plants move during the days. They move so slow that we can’t see it, but they still move. Roots are trying to go down and will embed themselves in concrete if necessary, just to find water to give that plant life. A plant has its own separate life. A bird has its own type of life. They can communicate, reproduce, and navigate the minds. It’s their life. They have their own diet that’s different from everyone. Their life is more complicated than plant life. Then

you can go into animal life: the lion, chimpanzee, etc. These animals can use their hands to operate tools. They build things that plants or birds can’t. Then the highest form of life there is – is human life. It is far above plant, bird, and even animal life. We have the ability to do things that no other life can do. We have a kind of brain energy, a kind of dexterity, and mobility that nothing else has. But as advanced as we are, we still don’t have the life that God wanted us to have.

When sin came into the would, it robbed humanity of life. God told Adam that in the day that he sinned, he would die.  Adam didn’t die physically, but he was dead spiritually.  Jesus Christ came into the world to give back the life that sin had taken. Elvis Presley was alive physically, but he was dead spiritually. Jesus said that life doesn’t consist of abundant passions, sexual promiscuity, or money. If it had, Elvis wouldn’t have taken his life. People are unhappy no matter what they taste of in human life, because we were never created just to have that life. If you’re not alive in Christ; then, you’re dead in trespasses of sin. You can go to church and be any denomination there is and still be dead. Denominations and churches can’t give life. Jesus Christ is the only one who can give ‘real’ life.

Many Christians only believe in life this wag: that if we are born again and die then our spirit willgo to Heaven where we’ll live forever. This belief is only half-right. The secondary part of life is what we call ‘eternal life,’ The Bible teaches us that if we are a Christian that even though our body dies, our spirit can never die; and that we will live eternally with Christ. You are immortal and can never be separated from God. They can bury or burn your body, but they can never kill your spirit. This is why Jesus and the Apostles weren’t afraid of death. One early martyr said, “If you take my life; you only give me true life.” However, ‘eternal life’ is only the secondary part of life.

When Jesus came, He didn’t just come to save us from Hell, The Bible says that Jesus Christ has transferred us from death into life; so therefore, we are to have life while we are yet living. This is not just a promise for when you die, but is for now, too. We, as Christians, are supposed to have divine life now! Through Jesus, we can have the life that Adam and Eve lost through sin. There are Christians around the world who are trying to obey the Bible without life. You can’t be obedient to God’s Word without life. God doesn’t just command; He gives life. Jesus told us that He came so we could have abundant life, not just a little when we die. The old covenant was the law. Moses would tell the people what God would say; and the people foolishly said that everything that God said, they would do.

This is the wag most religious meetings would deteriorate today: A preacher stands up and thinks he is bringing conviction on people, when all he’s bringing is condemnation. People then come down to the altar and smash their heads against it and say, “God, I’m sorry I disobeyed your word, but I’m going to try harder,

I’m going to obey the Bible.” You can’t! If you could obey the Bible, do you think Jesus would come and die for you? But He said, “I am the resurrection and the life…” -if you believe in me, you’ll be different than you are. I will live inside you. So you can say with Paul, “It’s not I, but Christ that lives inside me.” We obey the Bible. We have life. I grew up in that syndrome. A preacher would say this is what God demands and everybody says I’m not living that way.”  Then you come up and feel sorry for yourself and make another vow. What vow? What can you do? We are supposed to repent and if you are living a double life, you need to repent. After you repent, you need to believe on Jesus because He’s the only one who can change you by giving life. If you don’t, you’ll be repenting and doing it again, and over and over again. God has to have something better than that. He has life. Not all people, who go to church, have life. Not all pastors, who preach, have life.

Not all singers, who sing, have life. There’s a lot of black, soul-gospel music and a lot of white, southern-gospel music who have emotionalism, but not life. Here’s how you know it. They don’t live right. I was listening to some music the other day; and he’s as gay as a three dollar bill. He was singing gospel music, and as I was listening I was saying to myself, “No wonder that song grieves me, because it’s in that soulful nonsense; but it doesn’t have life.” When you have Jesus, you have life and you don’t live that way. We don’t want emotions; black music, white music, or Latin music. We want life! We want life that changes us; that gives victory over sin. Gospel music is riddled with singers that have been defeated and are moving people with soul-power and emotional-power; but they’re living a double life style. So what are they singing about? They don’t even have life. Life is not emotion. Life is Christ! It makes you walk straight and live right, so that you can testify that; you have life!

Here’s how you know you have life. As Christians, we need to ask God if we’re trying to live the Christian life by natural life. So many people have life, and then go back to the law, and try to perfect themselves be trying harder and by a better devotional life. All these things are a part of it, but they have to come from the only source of life. If we are dead in trespasses and sin, what can we do to impress God. He looked at us and said, “You’re dead, but I will make you alive.” If He made us alive, then the only life we have is the one that He quickened us with.

How do you know What does Christ have for you who are really not Christians today? First of all, a person who has spiritual life begins to feel the energy of that divine life – just as plants feel plant life, birds feel bird life, animals feel animal life, and humans feel human life. When you are truly born again, you feel the surge of divine life inside of you. It’s God who works in you, both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Not I, but Christ who lives inside of you. You start to love people you couldn’t love; not because you made a commitment; not because you struggled with the thing; but because you

received life.

Paul mas not changed because he changed his mind. He mas changed because Jesus invaded him and took him over. That’s the promise. The thief comes to kill and destroy, but I came that you might have love that you could never have. Are you battling? Battle all you want, but the only one who can give you victory is Jesus Christ. He will give you His purity. Can a leopard change his spots? If you were dead in your sins, are you going to show God you’re something now? NO! We are so hopeless that Jesus came because He was the only hope we had. He gives life. He gives an energy that you don’t have in yourself. Someone may say, “I’m so impressed with the love you have.” That’s not me. I’m a wretch. That’s Jesus; He’s given me life. It’s His life, We’re supposed to be feeding every day off of God’s life.

Christianity in the New Testament is not a life of vows to commandments like in the Old Testament. Christianity in the New Testament is that we are confident ministers of the New covenant of the Spirit not of the letter for the Spirit gives life. Only the Spirit of God gives life! This is the life He promised.

We have a right to go to Jesus today and say, “God, you know my flesh. You know that I’m weak. You know that I love you and want to obey your word.” God forbid that anyone violates this word. “God, the thing is hopeless in myself, but thank you for coming that I might have life. You’ve given me the Holy Spirit; so that I can live a holy life.”

If we are messing up, it’s because we are not appropriating what God has for us -LIFE. You may say, “I can’t break that  habit.” Yes, you can through Jesus Christ. He gives you life! Don’t you believe that lie -“Well, I have to be that way; I was born that way; I grew up in a house that made me that way.”  Nonsense! He’s come that you might have life. If your uptight and self-conscious, He set you free from that. You blacks that hate whites, He set you free from that.

When I read the New Testament, sometimes I wonder what kind of religion we have, In so many of the churches today, we have Old Testament religion – love Jesus and try to obey the lam as best you can. What kind of religion is that? That is not in the New Testament. The Bible says that when Paul went to Antioch the first major city he hit on his first missionary trip, he was kicked out of the town; but the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost. If I’m full of the Holy Spirit, I will obey the Bible, I will love everybody because God will be working in me. You won’t be able to compliment me, and I won’t be able to boast because I know in myself that it is God working.

When you live in God, you have divine senses awakening in you that have never been there before. You can know if you are a Christian. You begin to see with spiritual eyes for the first time. You begin to weep over things that you have never wept over before. You begin to delight in things that you never knew

existed before. “For our light affliction, which is but for the moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corinthians 4:17-18.

Paul said that before he knew Jesus, he knew only what he saw. I know the things that human life let me come into contact with. All that I knew I had to contact with my five senses. When Jesus came into my life, He gave me divine life. He gave me His life. God is a spirit and when you have His life, you suddenly become aware of the real world; which is the invisible world.

So, you have a woman like Mrs. Workman who at the age of 51 left everything she had in America; and went to Haiti to start an orphanage; and lives in the midst of AIDS poverty, and filth. What do you think made Mrs. Workman want to go to Haiti? Was it what she could see physically Never! It was because God’s divine life opened up her eyes; and she began to see things like the will of God, the glory of God, the blood of Jesus, the value of a soul, To some Christians today, those words mean nothing. But why do you think we sing, shout, and get exited? It’s not because of what we see physically, but because that God has opened our spiritual eyes. We can see beautiful things. We can see the things that are invisible and eternal. You can have all you want of this would. You may even call us fanatics. You may think that you have security. What security do you have when Jesus comes? But we, who have life, are anxiously awaiting His appearance.

Charles Finney said, “The only way to overcome the power of the world, is for the things of God’s world to become so real that you are weaned away and drawn away from the things of this world because you delight in the other world.” You can give all the commandments that you want to about carnality, and the flesh could care less. When the TV’s there and you’re bored, it’s easy to give indulgence to the flesh. That’s when you remember Psalms 22. How God would come down and touch you, and you would soon forget the flesh. The world will laugh and say, “Why don’t you have some fun?” I have joy unspeakable and full of glory!

This thing is real! Everything done in the world is done by    feeling and reality. Pleasure is reality, sex is reality, indulgences are realities. You can’t live for God unless you understand the other realities.

The only way Christians can be free from self-consciousness is to let life flow through you. When you meet someone and your not letting God’s life flow through you; instead of looking at them the way you should, you look at them like: Do they like me, or am I accepted? If you have God’s life in you, He gives you different eyes and now when you see people, you don’t worry about what they think of you. You just see their heart and that they need God. You begin to weep for them and intercede. Others may think it’s crazy, but it’s real! That is why people, who have life, are always worshipping because they can see things others cannot.

If you haven’t given your life to Christ, then the devil is ripping-you-off from life. You may try drugs, sex, or perverseness. It will all end up at a dead end. The thing that your longing for is God’s life. You need communion with God, so that when the world passes you won’t cry, but you will rejoice. Now you enter into total life. If you don’t have life, it is because you have rejected the Giver of life. You may be a member of a church, but still be dead. Why die while you’re still living? Why reject life? God will never fail you!

If you will repent, and be baptized in Jesus’ name; I promise you that God mill fill you with His Spirit. It is life

If you once had life, but now you’re dead; Jesus Christ can revive your soul once again, You can live forever!

Message by Pastor Cymbala

Transcription by Jose’ McFarland

Typing by E. & D. McFarland