Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.

Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” ( Romans 6:4 ). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” ( Philippians 3:10 ).

Jesus prayed, “. . . as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” ( John 17:2 . The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now.

It is here that we often forget that we already have the victory over all trials, tribulations and difficulties of this life. If we have the victory, regardless of the circumstances, perhaps we can remember to focus on our victory instead of our circumstances. We have discovered that this a good thing to know, but our ability to live this out comes when we discover and put in place the disciplines we find essential to keep us focused and connected. We do these daily devotionals as part of our daily initial “reconnect” to help jump start the rest of our day. When we get connected at the beginning of the day we find it is much easier to walk through the circumstances of the day and keep our eyes on Jesus. It is not an always thing but over time, it becomes more and more a part of how we live. JDV/DJR

The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.