Provocative title, I know. But it is crucial. This message is not one to joke with. We need to plan our own funeral and do it TODAY.

I do not know about you, but I have my fair share of dying to do. My list of sins are a mile long and though I do not make practice of sinning, there are a few deep rooted sins that seem to try to kill me.

Jesus said in John 10:18 about his death:

17The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again. 18No onetakes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from MyFather.”

Jesus willing laid down his life, on his own accord, in obedience to the Father, and the Father loved him for it. This is what Paul says about death in Galatians 2:20:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.https://biblehub.com/galatians/2-20.htm

So Paul understood what it meant to lay his life down with Christ. So what is my point. Sis, in this life, if we want to live in the fullness of God, we must willingly lay our lives down. Sins are rooted in our lustful desires; bad seed that we received at some point in our lives. I am currently in the fight of my life to uproot and annihilate a particular seed that rooted in me 22 years ago. It seems like the hardest fight I have ever had in my life, I talk lightly about it in other posts, but girl, it is true. But I want to be free. God loves me if my desire is met, and he loves me if it is not. Do I love HIM if my desire is met or if it is not? Am I willing to plan the funeral of all of my desires outside of the ones Jesus plants in my heart? Do I exercise being crucified with Christ?

Girl, these are all the questions that come through my mind on the regular! But, there is hope. Look with me at what Paul says about crucifying our desires:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Girl, we have to die. Pick a date, today, and decide that you are nailing the coffin on your sin so that in this life and the next you can be alive in Christ Jesus. How do we do this you may ask? How do we really become free? FAST and PRAY. Now, I am 100% talking to myself and taking my own advice, I am just dying in front of you and checking myself. We have to fast and pray for a long period of time. How long may you ask? As long as it takes to die to the sin, never to pick it up again.

My Elizabeth taught me that a 30 day fast with your whole heart will break sin at its root. I have never full out done a 30-day fast. I’ve tried, but it was very hard and I had moments of bending the fast a little bit. But, I am desperate to be free. I no longer want to be led away by my lusts. I want to be free in my mind, heart, and actions TOTALLY. I have the tools, I simply must obey until, I die to me and become alive in Christ. The enemy of my soul wants me to believe that I will never be free and that this root will never come up off of me, but it will, and I will be faithful and believe and trust that my Rewarder will reward me.

I am praying for myself and I am praying for any woman reading this post. Do not lay down in defeat. Jesus Christ died for even THIS. If you want to be free, believe that you are free, and live like it.

How to Fast:

Fasting

¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

I love you and I believe we will overcome and be free.