LaCricia Hlavinka

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A Personal Invitation

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“Whose Life is it anyway?”

By Pastor LaCricia Hlavinka

In the Declaration of Independence we read that all men have “certain unalienable Rights…Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”

Hey, I’m an American; this is my right, right?  I should be able to pursue what makes me happy!  You know, live as I see fit.  After all God has given me the ability to make decisions on earth for myself. I have a body soul and spirit that have needs.  Why shouldn’t I be able to fulfill those needs?  And, of course, God wants me to be happy, doesn’t He?

In the heart of a true believer there lies a hunger not just to pursue happiness as an American or even as a human being, but a hunger to pursue God.  We may not even recognize how famished we are until we hear or see something supernatural.  When we begin to taste and see that the Lord is good, when He reveals Himself to us through an epiphany no matter how small or insignificant, we hunger for more.  In every believer there is a hunger to know God.  The only reason it hasn’t manifested in some is because there has not been given them a taste of His goodness.  Our God–senses have to be awakened by the unveiling of Jesus Christ.  Even as we hear a revelation of His word it causes us to desire more.  When He interrupts our life we see what we have missed and see our entanglements of this life.  We begin to realize that in this Holy Spirit is the real joy, peace and righteousness.  He allows many things to come our way to awake us…hardships, trials, and difficulties. This forces us to seek Him.  The Bible says, “Draw near to Him that He may draw near to you”.  A burden is then realized in our lives that He may now say to us, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me…ye shall find rest for your souls.”   ‘A peace that the world cannot give.

We thus begin to discover we are a part of something that is far greater than the world and pursuit of happiness in it.  We now recognize that we are of a citizenship of a different nation; A nation of God that we were born into through the Spirit.  Our birth certificate cannot be seen by the eyes of men, but a quickening is found in our hearts.  That quickening is a witness that we are in this world but somehow having another identity that has not fully been revealed to us.  Suddenly, our desire to know our purpose becomes prominent.  We begin to seek that we may find our true identity.  Who can reveal to us this quest but He that is the creator of that identity.  In seeking the Lord’s face to find our own, we discover that in fact we have been “hid in Christ” all along. (Eph2:6) Our identity becomes clear in knowing HIM.  Paul experienced this and cried in His heart, “That I may know Him and power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil 3:10).  Wait a minute; did somebody say suffering and death?  To understand who we really are we must loose our life to find it.  “He that loveth his life shall lose it and that hateth his life in this world shall keep it…”(John 12:25) For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself…(Lk 9:25).  If we pursue happiness and gain everything in our unalienable rights, we will lose ourselves. 

So whose life is it anyway?  We have been identified in Christ.  To disclose His life is to find our own.  Paul said, “ I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…(Eph 5:2) So, I may be born in America and Born of this Human race but that is only the outer man that shall perish as I uncover more and more of my real identity in Christ Jesus!

  You are the temple of God. You are not your own, you belong to God, you were bought with the price of His precious blood.   “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk.9: 23)  God wants to live through you and bring you into real peace joy and righteousness.  Ask of Him, Seek Him, Knock and a door shall be opened to you that no man or circumstance can shut!  You have a purpose, beloved, and that is to show forth the Glory of your

Father (the Spirit of which you were born into)