Resurrected with Christ

The Israelites in the Old Testament regarded names as an equation to the person’s character and personality. It carried significant influence to their lives. When I learned of this, I asked God, “Lord, what’s in my name?”

Stacy was my pen-name when I used to write stories, but when I accepted Christ I decided to take it as my Christian name too. I had no idea what it meant until I did a search and found out that Stacy means RESURRECTION. I was very happy and surprised when I knew this because I realised that God had given me this special name even before I was born-again.

Jesus was crucified on the cross, He bleed and died for us, and He was resurrected on the third day. Today, He is sitting on the highest position on God’s right hand side, and all of us who has believed in Him are on that same position with Him. But God spoke to me that I though was sitting together with Him in the heavenly places, my life was not resurrected.

Dying, Resurrected, and Living
I was on the bus on my way back to Ipoh when the Lord dropped His understanding to me from heaven. He said to me, “Stacy, your name means resurrection, live up to it! To be resurrected means you have to die first, overcome death and rise again to live a stronger and better life.”

Actually, we are all in the process of dying the moment we were born into this world. If we’re not growing, or if we are stuck in stagnancy, we are living a dead life. If we’re not doing the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do, we’re doing dead works.

Dying is not without the price of pain. When Jesus died for us, He not only suffered pain, but also rejection, betrayal, shame, mockery, and loneliness. However, Phil 2:8 says "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Because Jesus was obedient and humble to the point of death, God raised Him to the highest position in Heaven.

The Lord spoke to me that I needed to die to my old-self. I need to die to all my past hurts, pains, disappointments, fleshly desires, sins, weaknesses, and especially pride -- everything that had hindered my growth in Christ. The thing is, even though we don’t like all our weaknesses and the bad things in our past, we can still hold on to them and be unwilling to surrender ourselves to God. There are also things in our lives that are so dear to us that we don't want to surrender to God, but these are the very things that will hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in and through our lives. It was definitely painful, but I have to submit to God all those dead areas of my life so that He can do a resurrection in them.

Then God said, “Stacy, be resurrected!” Just like Jesus had called Lazarus out of the cave when He resurrected him, God was calling me out of the cave of death. I have to leave behind all the old and walk into the new with Christ, into the new life that Jesus has given me when I accepted Him as my Lord.

In the Bible God said that He’s a Living God. Praise the Lord He’s not a dead piece of idol, Amen, because if He is we’ll remain dead. God is a God of resurrection. He resurrects our lives so that we are able to walk alive in His spirit. Romans 8:5–6 says, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” I have to resurrect not my worldly mindset, but my spirit, so that I will live in the will of God, and His life and peace may fall upon me.

I’m determined to walk more and more in His Spirit. I commit myself to resurrect all the dead areas of my life, so that God may do a change in them. It may be very difficult at times, but the breakthroughs will come if we press on. Therefore, let us be mindful of what we want to resurrect in our lives – whether our old-nature, or our renewed life, a life that we live by faith through Christ.