Moment by Moment
Curtis Hutchinson
Did you know that God is ready to visit you every morning when you arise and that He is trying His people EVERY MOMENT of their lives? (Job 7:17-18)
Moment by moment is God’s desire for our fellowship to be with Him and Him with us, and because we know that, we also know that the denial of SELF and the taking up of our Cross will be required based on what He taught us to be able to follow Him (Luke 9:23). Christianity is not a worship service to worship service but rather going from Faith to Faith and from Glory to Glory, which according to God’s Word is step by step and moment by moment.
The reason our Lord has me writing this little booklet is because of what we will call the “Blanket Statement” of “Sure I Believe in Christ”, or “Absolutely I Believe in the Cross”, but it is only a blanket statement made referring for the most part to one’s Born-Again experience, and not at this very moment or at the moments which we are carried away through the lust of our own flesh into things that are not God’s will. There has never been one Child of God commit an act of Sin while at that same moment trusting from the heart in the work of Christ on Calvary’s Cross. If we think otherwise, then we would be admitting that the power of sin was greater than Christ and His great overcoming work on Calvary’s Cross.
Now we are hopefully beginning to get a hint of what is being spoken of here. Every time we as God’s people have been carried off into a temper tantrum, some lustful experience, jealousy, envy, strife, or whatever the sinful and deceitful thing was, it was through the lust of our own flesh, and at THAT VERY MOMENT we were caught “Off Guard.” The only way for the Christian to never be caught off guard is to be “On Guard.” Being on guard can only take place one way, and that way is through Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Now, we are not speaking of some overall blanket statement such as “Well of course I Believe in the Cross of Jesus Christ”, but rather a moment by moment dependence upon Christ and His victorious Sacrifice on Calvary’s Cross. It is important to know God’s Word, and God’s Word tells us those who are Christ’s ‘have’ (past tense) crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24). Here we see that our Faith must return to the Sacrifice of Christ, for it is only there that we can find that which Christ did there to overcome everything that will ever attempt to take us back under the control of the Sin Nature, the Flesh and all of its lusts and sinful affections.
It is not guess work, nor is it just whatever we want to Believe and say that at least we are Believing something, but one’s Faith must be touching, from the heart, the Sacrifice of Christ, for it is there alone that we were Saved from our Sins and immersed into the Body of Jesus (Romans 6:3). Christianity has been reduced down through the years by the lusts of the flesh and its affections to anything and everything less than a moment by moment experiential relationship with Jesus Christ through Faith in His Cross. You will surely have to admit that every time we have been carried away through the lust of our own flesh into something sinful that we were not trusting in what Christ did on Calvary’s Cross at THAT VERY MOMENT, for if we say we were, that means the sinful desire overcame The Holy Spirit. We know that is not true nor possible, therefore we know that in the moment we stumbled, we were not making our calling and election sure, for if we had been God said that we would not have stumbled (2 Peter 1:10). Our calling and our election were both by God’s Grace through our Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ. While we DAILY walk with our Lord making sure THAT is the only object of our Faith, then we are in Truth making our calling and election surely what it has been from the beginning.
One area that we only hear occasionally mentioned but is never really preached and promoted with continuity is that we as Christians are required to bring EVERY THOUGHT captive to Christ’s obedience (2 Corinthians 10:5), and THAT obedience is His obedience unto the place where He overcame every deceitful and selfish thought in His own death on Calvary’s Cross. The reality is that if there is a MOMENT where we do not take those vain thoughts that creep into our minds to Christ’s Cross of obedience, then we can rest assured that we will find ourselves “BEING CAUGHT OFF GUARD” and those thoughts will capture us and take us to certain places that will only result in corruption and destruction along with much heart break and shame.
We have a choice as God’s Redeemed people as to what we do with the thoughts that come into our minds each moment of the day. We can either capture them and deliver them over to the Cross, or they will capture us and deliver us over to defeat, fear, and shame. Christianity is THIS radical, and we must realize that our God has given us all things, and until we are willing to give ALL to Him, we will continually find ourselves “Off Guard” and only pretending that we are OK knowing all along things should be so much more than this in our lives as a Christians.
We have been reduced at times to words, which are factual statements, but they for the most part have become our excuse not to give ALL to our Lord. Some of these statements are “No one is perfect”, or “We will not be like our Lord until we see Him and are with Him.” These are facts, but my friends we do not live by facts, but rather Faith which comes by hearing/believing God’s Word in its Righteous context (Romans 1:18, 10:17).
This is why the eternal message of the Cross of Christ, The Slain Lamb, must not be only realized as sound theological doctrine and preached with the blazes of Holy Ghost power, but this great Truth must be what we ourselves lay hold onto every moment of each and every day, for each moment that we do not, that moment is wide open for the enemy to pierce through with one of his fiery darts. Now I am not saying that every thought must be the word “Cross”, but every moment must be guarded with the only Truth that Saves, delivers and KEEPS us. The Truth of The Gospel.
This is the very reason so many have been seduced in these last days waxing cold from love as God’s Word says many will. If our value of our Savior isn’t seen by looking at what our God did in and through Him on Calvary’s Cross, we will, instead of learning to take it up each moment of each day, be found laying our cross down to follow the way of our own deceitful and deceptive hearts. The Fear of Man can, in a moment's time, come rushing into our hearts, and if we do not look to the Cross and see it properly with its great significance and glorious value in THAT VERY MOMENT, it will ensnare us and steal our confidence (Proverbs 14:26-27).
The Child of God who doesn’t know HOW to live for God according to God’s Word as it regards HOW the Cross of Christ pertains to their DAILY living, can in no way know what we are speaking of in this writing. The Cross of Jesus Christ was not just a DOOR, but the DOOR of all distribution from God’s throne. The Bible says that the Lamb was Slain “to receive” power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing (Revelation 5:12). This lets us know that unless our Faith is “right now” in Christ and His Cross, there is no possible way for Him to profit and affect us with benefits He died for us to be able to have freely by Faith.
Just so you will know that what I am saying is in the Word of God, you can read the letter to the Galatians and see for yourself that when the Child of God removes their Faith from the Truth which saved them, that being the message of the Cross - The Gospel of Jesus Christ, they fall from Grace and Christ can no longer profit or affect them (Galatians 5:1-4). How many times do we read right over that and think it could in no wise refer to us while more than likely it pertains to the largest part of the true Born-Again Church today. When our Faith is not in the Cross, and again, I do not speak of the “Blanket Statement”, but the moment in which we are not trusting in the Cross of Jesus Christ within our hearts, we will be carried away through the deceitful lusts of our own flesh (James 1:13-15).
Believing in the Cross of Jesus Christ is not only a yesterday’s reality, but if our Faith is to be legitimate, we must Believe that God “IS”, which means that He is right now and is able to right now be that which I need, but this is all based on what I do with the Cross of His Son. Remember the Galatians! Believing is not a past tense or futuristic word, but always a right now word of experience. What I believed yesterday doesn’t guarantee that I will still believe that same thing today or tomorrow. This is why moment by moment we are required to within our hearts remain planted in the likeness of our Lord’s death so that moment by moment we can live in the likeness of His Resurrection (Romans 6:4-5).
We as God’s people are told to reckon ourselves “TO BE” dead indeed unto the Sin Nature (Romans 6:11), and this phrase “TO BE” is always a present tense and verbal phrase. This is true Faith, for NOW Faith is (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is always NOW, not yesterday or tomorrow, for we are never in either of those places, but rather we are ALWAYS in the right now moment. Where is your Faith at this very moment?
When we speak of Faith in the Cross of The Lord Jesus Christ, we are speaking of our hearts surrendering and depending upon our God only through His Way of the Cross, His Way of distribution for everything we need. Not only a guarantee of heaven, but the guarantee of all the things our God is offering to us freely every day through that one and only avenue. Because we are needful every moment of every day, we must know that Faith in the Cross is not just a thought, but rather a heart Believing and surrendering unto Righteousness just as in the moment when we were Born-Again. Many needs of the Child of God go unmet simply because they thought God would just do what God would do, but He does ALL that He does in and through our lives through our Faith in the Cross of His Son.
The deceitful flesh will attempt to get us to lay the Cross down so that it (the flesh) can have his own vain, deceitful and lustful acts carried out. The alcoholic began with one thought that led to one drink. The sin of adultery began with one look and one wrongful thought, and because IN THAT MOMENT that thought wasn’t taken captive to the place of Calvary, it took us captive to a shameful place. The flesh is very deceitful and will scream the loudest when being denied through the taking up of the Cross. You see, the fleshly carnal Self of man isn’t going away and can’t be shut up, but it can be denied by taking up our Cross every moment of every day.
Self will tell us so deceitfully and deceptively that we just can’t be thinking about the Lord and His wondrous Sacrifice every moment, but God says that if we want to have His perfect peace at work in our hearts we will (Isaiah 26:3). That particular verse there in Isaiah reveals that to trust in The Lord is to keep our minds upon The Lord. Not only there, but Paul writes to the Christians in Rome and reminds them that to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace. Now always remember that being spiritually minded which results in Life and Peace refers to our minds being stayed on that which allows the Lord to impart those things into our “Believing” hearts. The Cross!
Yes, my friends, Christianity is learning to walk with our Lord moment by moment, for in the moments we are caught off guard without our minds stayed on His great work on Calvary’s Cross as the Lamb Slain for us, will be the moments in which the enemy of our lustful flesh and the devil himself attempt the takeover. Satan is never ultimately the blame for the Child of God’s failures, for his (the enemies) only ground to function successfully is Self which can be denied through Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Faith in the Cross is being IDENTIFIED by Faith in the death of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:6-7, Galatians 2:20). Many have left the Cross for the attempt to go on in Resurrection power and Life, but true Resurrection power and Life always reaches back for Calvary’s Cross, for there alone does Resurrection find its power and life source, and there alone are we as God’s people being made conformable (Philippians 3:10). Faith in the Cross is not only a message, but the only message which offers initial and DAILY Life moment by moment.
Every Word of God held in any other context outside of Righteousness, is God’s Word being held out of its context of Life and Light (Psalm 37:6, Proverbs 12:28, Romans 8:10). The Righteousness of Jesus Christ is only revealed in the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17), and only as the Gospel is preached, which is the Truth (Proverbs 12:17) can Righteousness be seen, hungered, and thirsted for and learned to love. We are speaking of Righteousness because the steps we have been left by our Savior are steps of Righteousness (Psalm 85:13). Not just a one step plan, but step by step, moment by moment we follow Him, and to be able to follow Him requires that we deny self and take up our Cross.
Although Jesus did what He did for us all by Himself on the Cross, He did not become a one moment or a one step program, but rather He became to us through His suffering of Death, our New and Living Way. He has told us that if we Believe upon Him that we will continue in His Word and that we will know the Truth and the Truth will make us free from sin (John 8:30-32).
In the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit would show up only at certain times speaking and doing certain things that would ALL point to Jesus and His atoning Sacrifice on Calvary’s Cross and all that it would afford the Believer, but under the New Covenant, The Holy Spirit has come to stay so that moment by moment we can have our Lord’s ever abiding presence and benefits. I say presence AND benefits, because it is not a guarantee for us to be found benefitting from Him although we have His presence at all times. God’s presence is not God’s approval, nor does it mean that we will be found benefitting from Him. Read Galatians again. Many in the Church TODAY, and probably always have spoken often of revival and the need for revival, but this only reveals that we are not walking moment by moment in the place where Light and Life are always found (1 John 1:7-9).
The presence of God Himself was among Israel in the person of His Son, and despite all that God showed them and did for them in those days, they rejected Him and still do until this very day. Some Believe that just because they are saved that God will do whatever it is that He wants to do in their lives, but again we must read Scripture such as Galatians and the Book of Revelation written to the Churches. Much can be forfeited, such as our full reward if we do not learn to live moment by moment with our Savior (2 John 1:8).
If we are truly Christians, then truly we do desire to live pleasing unto our Faithful Lord. If this is the case for you, you need to know that He is calling you into a place of more devotion and surrender to His Way of The Cross, for there His Fire is offered to all who will only Believe His Word which always points to Calvary’s Cross. He has offered the fires of Revival to His people through the place where His Righteousness and Peace kissed each other (Psalm 85:10). The word ‘kissed’ refers to a kindling of fire, therefore the cross of Jesus Christ is the exclusive avenue through which comes our God to us as the Consuming Fire that He is (Hebrews 12:29).
I pray that our Faithful Lord has shown you something in this writing that you desperately needed to see. His remnant is learning that in these last days our walk with Him is to be one step at a time and moment by moment.