Death to Life

"Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness."
Romans 6:13

One morning recently, I was praying. It occurred to me that our God of resurrection. He brings us from death to life. We are so conditioned to view our lives as ones that are passing from life to death that we forget this important truth. While the world is passing from life to death and our bodies are doing the same, God is doing a miracle in our behalf. He is leading us the other direction into eternal life. So I wondered, why can't I apply God's way of death to life in every area of my own life?
    I already know that I have passed from death to life. I was dead in sin and now I am alive in Christ. This is the foundation of the Christian life. But the reality is this: Where I live, in a world that is sinful, and in a body that is slowly dying, death seems to be in control. So I asked God how it works. How do I apply his way of death to life to every situation? The answer is found in the instructions of Jesus. When he taught us to pray, he told us to say this: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Through this I know that I am to pray the kingdom of heaven into every area of my life. I am even supposed to pray the kingdom into the world around me.
    God's kingdom is all about life, not death. I saw part of a movie recently. In one scene, the characters found themselves in a place where everything was backwards. Gravity drew things up instead of down. Plants grew down from the top of a cave, instead of up from the ground. The only things that were still under our laws of nature were the people themselves. They were in awe of this magical place. The same is true of my life. I am subject to the laws of the natural world. My body is dying and death is imminent for every living thing. But I also live in a kingdom where all the laws of the natural world are reversed. His kingdom is full of opposites to the world I live in. There is life there, not death. There is health there, not sickness. There is prosperity there, not poverty. There is the presence of God there, not the curses of the enemy. His kingdom is like the magical place in the movie. Everything is opposite.
    So the way for me to apply God's way of death to life is to pray his kingdom into those areas of my life where I am literally dying. If I need life in my finances, I find it in the kingdom of God. If I need life to my body, I find it by praying his kingdom into my health. You see, I understand that I have everything in Christ...in the Spirit. But now I must take what is mine spiritually and apply it to the physical. This physical reality in which I live must be turned upside down by the power of the kingdom of God. As I do it, as you do it, our lives are transformed and everything about us is passing from death to life just as God has planned. Death no longer reigns, but life! And that, even more abundantly!