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 Going To Your Own Funeral


“Tell your family, ‘I’m starting a prayer life. I’m going to live for Jesus.’ Go home. Take a clean piece of paper and write your name and date at the top and write out what is wrong with your life:

I’m lazy. I’m indifferent to the lost. I have no compassion for the lost. I have no vision. Life has no power. ‘Lord, you show me what is wrong in my life.’ You will be amazed at what he shows you. Things that offend Him.

Tell him, ‘I want to be crucified with Christ. Put to death everything that is unholy. Fill me as full as a human can be with the Holy Spirit of God. I’m going to get rid of this bondage tonight.’

Get rid of your rights, your rights to criticize, your right to be dry-eyed, you’re right to be a failure. We know one thing about a man who leaves with a cross—he isn’t coming back.

Let us go to our own funeral.”

- Leonard Ravenhill


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2022/4/19 6:55Profile
InTheLight
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Joined: 2003/7/31
Posts: 2850
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 Re: Going To Your Own Funeral

Carter Conlon preached a great message on this topic.

http://sermons.tsc.nyc/the-joy-of-preaching-your-own-funeral/


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Ron Halverson

 2022/4/19 9:21Profile
AJM_REV2220
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Joined: 2022/2/18
Posts: 16
USA Great Lakes...

 Re:

Brothers,

Thank you for sharing. Brother Leonard and Carter words are encouraging and edifying.

 2022/4/19 13:01Profile
DEADn
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Joined: 2011/1/12
Posts: 1395
Lakeland FL

 Re: Going To Your Own Funeral

Ironically I need this!

15 minutes before I saw this I wrote an email to a friend about the inner turmoil I have inside. Very restless on this inside. From unsatisfactory conditions of church, of work, got a disconnect with family, and even entertainment genre. I also find a disconnect with the world around me in certain matters and I wondered if this was a mid life crisis or just a normal Christian thing to go through. Friend told me it was a normal christian issue as I war between the flesh and the Spirit.

Then I see this from Ravenhill and some of what is said in it is what is growing very restless in me.........even to the extent that I found a website called talkdeath dot com that has a shirt that says 'Ask me about your mortality'. I thought it a good slogan to open the door for the gospel but then my goth self began come out and Just think about death.

Even recently my next door neighbor was found dead in her home. 52 years old and so I have thought alot about death, my own health, how long I would have to live and those around me since I have seen alot of people around me pass away who are not even that old.

So what Ravenhill says here is kind of like jumper cables to me. Just gotta turn the key on and jumpstart my soul!

John


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John

 2022/4/20 13:13Profile
murrcolr
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Joined: 2007/4/25
Posts: 1839
Scotland, UK

 Re:

Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death? Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

Present yourself unto God, as alive from the dead. " The whole self consciousness of the Christian is to be imbued and characterised by the spirit that animated the death of Christ. He has ever to present himself to God as one who has died in Christ, and in Christ is alive from the dead, bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus. His life ever bears the two-fold mark: its roots striking in true humility deep into the grave of Jesus, the death to sin and self; its head lifted up in resurrection power to the heaven where Jesus is.

Believer, claim in faith the death and the life of Jesus as thine. Enter in His grave into the rest from self and its work - the rest of God. With Christ, who committed His spirit into the Father's hands, humble thyself and descend each day into that perfect, helpless dependence upon God. God will raise you up and exalt you. Sink every morning in deep, deep nothingness into the grave of Jesus; every day the life of Jesus will be manifest in you, Let a willing, loving, restful, happy humility be the mark that you have indeed claimed thy birthright - the baptism into the death of Christ. "By one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified."The souls that enter into His humiliation will find in Him the power to see and count self dead, and, as those who have learned and received of Him, to walk with all lowliness and meekness, forbearing one another in love. The death-life is seen in a meekness and lowliness like that of Christ.

Andrew Murray

Edit to add this note

The key - Believer, claim in faith the death and the life of Jesus as thine.

This excacxtly what Ravenhill said but in a different way -

Tell him, ‘I want to be crucified with Christ. Put to death everything that is unholy. Fill me as full as a human can be with the Holy Spirit of God. I’m going to get rid of this bondage tonight.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified Heb 10:14


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Colin Murray

 2022/4/20 15:19Profile
ccchhhrrriiisss
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Joined: 2003/11/23
Posts: 4779


 Re:

So wonderfully put! Thank you for sharing.

I would add that I never felt so dead to self than when I met our Lord and put him first in my life. I felt "new" and, yet, dead (to my former self) at the same time. The dead tries to resurrect itself; but, it is ineffective with the continuance of placing our King first.

In this sense, every moment spent in prayer, worship and study of the Word of God feels like I am drawing closer to the newness of life. If my spirit feels dry, I remember that moment that I met him and passed from death to new life.


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Christopher

 2022/4/21 12:19Profile
yulboum
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Joined: 2021/11/14
Posts: 82
Toronto

 Re: Going To Your Own Funeral

Hi Greg

Thank you for sharing this.

Blessings,
Robert


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Yulboum Robert

 2022/4/21 23:28Profile
beloved-vern
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Joined: 2020/9/15
Posts: 129


 Re: Going To Your Own Funeral

Do you believe in the death of Christ? Of course you do. Well, the same Scripture that says He died for us says also that we died with Him. Look at it again: "Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). That is the first statement, and that is clear enough; but is this any less clear? "Our old man was crucified with him" (Romans 6:6). "We died with Christ" (Romans 6:8).

When are we crucified with Him? What is the date of our old man's crucifixion? Is it tomorrow? Yesterday? Today? In order to answer this it may help us if for a moment I turn Paul's statement round and say, `Christ was crucified with (i.e. at the same time as) our old man'. Some of you came here in twos. You traveled to this place together. You might say, My friend came here with me', but you might just as truly say, `I came here with my friend'. Had one of you come three days ago and the other only today you could not possibly say that; but having come together you can make either statement with equal truth, because both are statements of fact. So also in historic fact we can say, reverently but with equal accuracy, `I was crucified when Christ was crucified' or `Christ was crucified when I was crucified', for they are not two historical events, but one. My crucifixion was "with him".[3] Has Christ been crucified? Then can I be otherwise? And if He was crucified nearly two thousand years ago, and I with Him, can my crucifixion be said to take place tomorrow? Can His be past and mine be present or future? Praise the Lord, when He died in my stead, but He bore me with Him to the Cross, so that when He died I died. And if I believe in the death of the Lord Jesus, then I can believe in my own death just as surely as I believe in His.

Why do you believe that the Lord Jesus died? What is your ground for that belief? Is it that you feel He has died? No, you have never felt it. You believe it because the Word of God tells you so. When the Lord was crucified, two thieves were crucified at the same time. You do not doubt that they were crucified with Him, either, because the Scripture says so quite plainly.

You believe in the death of the Lord Jesus and you believe in the death of the thieves with Him. Now what about your own death? Your crucifixion is more intimate than theirs. They were crucified at the same time as the Lord but on different crosses, whereas you were crucified on the self same cross as He, for you were in Him when He died. How can you know? You can know for the one sufficient reason that God has said so. It does not depend on your feelings. If you feel that Christ has died, He has died; and if you do not feel that he died, He has died. If you feel that you have died, you have died; and if you do not feel that you have died, you have nevertheless just as surely died. These are Divine facts. That Christ has died is a fact, that the two thieves have died is a fact, and that you have died is a fact also. Let me tell you, You have died! You are done with! You are ruled out! The self you loathe is on the Cross in Christ. And "he that is dead is freed from sin" (Romans 6:7, A.V.). This is the Gospel for Christians.

Our crucifixion can never be made effective by will or by effort, but only be accepting what the Lord Jesus did on the Cross. Our eyes must be opened to see the finished work of Calvary. Some of you, prior to your salvation, may have tried to save yourselves. You read the Bible, prayed, went to Church, gave alms. Then one day your eyes were opened and you saw that a full salvation had already been provided for you on the Cross. You just accepted that and thanked God, and peace and joy flowed into your heart. Now salvation and sanctification are on exactly the same basis. You receive deliverance from sin in the same way as you receive forgiveness of sins.

Nee

 2022/4/22 6:43Profile
brothagary
Member



Joined: 2011/10/23
Posts: 2556


 Re: Going To Your Own Funeral

Amen brother, the challenging thing about the death of the old man or the death of the deeds of the body as Paul said
is it must be done through the spirit. Paul said if you by the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body. On our journey we Tend to have some sin put to death through the spirits power to sanctify us and then the deep-rooted inner Sins and character flaws tend to be harder to put to death. The blood of Christ through the spirit seems to deal with cigarettes and alcohol and fornication and adultery and stealing things like that tend to get put away in some cases or just restrained under the power of the flesh, in other cases the spirit puts them to death but then we have sins like judgement, shyness, unbelief in certain teachings of the scripture, Pride and these other things can be a challenge. I found two major sins or blockages that stop a person from growing in sanctification and holyness through the dying of the old nature. One is judgement, false judgement a sin that is embedded in our flesh , the result of that is not being able to love our enemies and even love our brothers in Christ the way we are called to love. It seems to make it impossible to express the spirit of love through us, so I believe false judgement is the most important sin to deal with I think Jesus definitely taught about it and so did the apostles but we brush over that thinking that we are not judging anyone but in reality we could be judging millions or thousands of people and not loving quite a big proportion of the human race. And the other sin is the sin of unbelief, in which we doubt and do not believe that the blood of Christ has the ability to cleanse us from every sin and cause us to walk like Christ walked completely free from the dominion of sin. When we doubt that doctrine of the power of the blood to completely sanctify us we give faith and power to the old man to stay alive and so hold on to certain inclinations of The flesh. I think some of these hidden sins are so embedded in our character that we don't believe that it's possible to have a complete change and walk in the new creation as sons of the heavenly man the second Adam. We tend to hold on to and identify with the nature of adam in some small ways instead of fully identifying with the nature of Christ and realising that it's our inheritance to walk as Christ walked and to have Christ in us the hope of Glory the fully formed lamb within us..,.. blessings everyone

 2022/4/23 21:10Profile
brothagary
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Joined: 2011/10/23
Posts: 2556


 Re:

To reckon ourselves dead to sin we must allow the Holy spirit to convict us of sin, so that we by that same spirit put death the sins of the body. To identify with the crucifixion of Christ, and allow the death of Christ to be our own death, the death of the old man, we must understand that this still is another expression of repentance towards God and repentance of sin, we must have a conscience of what sin is to have it crucified and put to death.. so as we come to the altar which is the cross we must allow the sword of the spirit which is the word of God the high priests work of cutting and exposing every sin of the old nature so that we can reject it and be healed. The idea of dying with Christ doesn't replace or contradict the deep work of the Holy spirit to bring out and show all the sin that is within the old nature that has to die. We must take all our sin to the altar to the cross to be dealt with. This Becomes a deep spiritual experience of the heart it's not an exercise we do through the intellect. It also involves the suffering and hard trials and stripes that occurred before the death of the Cross, which is part of partaking of the sufferings of Christ and the refining and testing of our faith through fire, Jesus learnt obedience through the things that he suffered we must also walk through the valley of the shadow of death and experience suffering. He who suffers ceases from sin. This has a purifying effect and through that process god allows every crutch that we lean on in this world to be knocked out from under us so that we learn the hard way only to lean on and trust in Christ and what he did on the cross for us. Once we carried our cross and walked up to the hill of Calvary it has a pride stripping effect and we become ready to be placed upon the cross with Christ and not as a Barrabbas, as a murderer in heart. Our heart must be prepared before the sacrificial death. The apostle Paul said offer yourselves as a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to God. Two types of people try to be crucified with Christ the Barrabas, or the humbled thief. Learning obedience through the things that we suffer on the whipping Post and the pathway up to golgotha, on the pathway of bearing the cross even before we die with Christ we must pray and say forgive them Lord for they know not what they do, peace to the world a good will towards men. We can't take false judgement to the sacrificial altar, we must allow the spirit to do a cleansing work to prepare us for that special death, for the deep work of the Cross.

 2022/4/23 22:57Profile





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