Cross Emptying to Cross Filling!

The Duality of Cross Emptying and Cross Filling

Jesus is not so much interested in what I have or possess in terms of the material or how much money I have or how many credit cards I own.  He is more concerned about what I don’t have. It is those who lack who He uses because those who lack are usually the empty ones He can fill.  It is from the position of being empty before the Cross that the Cross can work in me.

The more I learn to carry His Cross, the greater the filling of the Holy Spirit and the presence of signs, wonders, miracles, and the demonstrations of the Holy Spirit can be manifested.

There is a duality of Cross bearing that comes to me when I choose and seek the Cross Life - a Cross emptying and a Cross filling. The only thing that can empty me of myself is my closeness to His Cross.

The closer I stand and embrace His Cross, the more empty I become for my eyes become open to my own wretchedness and hopelessness and need of Him 24/7. It is my closeness to the Cross that can empty me and then fill me.

Conversely, the farther I am away from the Cross, the more I walk in my own self-life, going my own way, thinking my own way, doing my own thing, and losing touch with Him.

It is my distance from the Cross that limits not only my fruit production and spiritual giftings, but also His usefulness of me to serve in the kingdom of God.

The Salvation Experience

I have learned that salvation means standing at the Cross daily being emptied of all that I think I am, think I deserve, think I should have, think I should do, think I should perform for Him, and think I should own. My thinking often is not His thinking. 

Standing at the Cross daily is saying,

“Jesus, I do not belong to me or anyone else.

I belong to You.

My heart belongs to You. 

I stand here

 and

 submit myself to be emptied

by your hand

of those things that cause you

tears and grief

and

ask you to place

Your hand on me and empty me.

I accept.

 and

whatever discipline

or

affliction you would allow to come

to me so that

I can experience being emptied.

and

filled with Your life.”

The Spiritual man vs. the Carnal Man

Again, my friend, unless I can come to this point, my usefulness in the hand of the Master is severely limited in hearing from Him as well as serving Him.

In the kingdom of God, emptiness equals fullness.  It is more important for me to be empty before the Lord and His Cross so He can fill me up daily.  The kingdom of the world opposes the kingdom of God and wants its subjects to be filled with the things of the world.

As long as people are filled with the things of the world, they are full of self and become stuffed with their own wants and desires.  Therefore, the natural man or carnal man of the world does not understand the spiritual man of the kingdom of God.  

The the spiritual man desires only His God and His Son (Jesus Christ) and to serve Them in righteousness, truth, and holiness. The carnal man desires fullness of the world without emptiness while the other desires emptiness to be filled with the things of God.  

Being empty is forsaking all to gain Him.  To gain Him I need to be to be full of Him. I have learned that I do not gain in spiritual things being full of desires and things of the flesh and the world.

Jesus Calls

 There comes a forsaking before a gaining. For without a forsaking there is no gaining.  Jesus looks for those willing to be emptied and forsaking all to serve and give all to Him. He said,

“…..If anyone intends to come after Me,

let him

deny himself

 [forget, ignore, disown,

 And

 lose sight of himself

and

his own interests]

 and

 take up his cross,

and

[joining Me as a disciple

 and

siding with My party]

 follow with Me

 [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me].

Mark 8:34 (AMP)

Jesus further adds:

And he who

does not

 take up his cross and follow Me

 [cleave steadfastly to Me,

conforming wholly to My example

 in living and, if need be,

 in dying also]

is not worthy of Me.

Matthew 10:38 (AMP)

The Poor Widow

 One day while Jesus was sitting in the temple, He was watching people put their gifts into the treasury.  Those who were rich in terms of religious things and worldly things were putting in their gifts not so much from their being empty, but from their being full of those things.

Then, along came a poor woman, a widow, a person of little, a person who just had two copper coins, and a person who was willing to let go of all she had even the last two cooper coins.

The two cooper coins were all she had to her name, but she put these two coins into the treasury of the temple. When Jesus saw her sacrifice, He said,

Truly I say to you,

this poor widow put in

       more than all of them

(the rich people);

For they all out of their

 surplus

 (fullness)

 put into the offering;

 but she out of her

 poverty

 (emptiness/lack) 

put in all that she had to the live one.

(Luke 21:3)

Surplus and possessing the world’s goods does not impress Christ nor does one giving out of being full make an impact on Him. It was this poor woman giving out of her emptiness that stirred Him – she gave the more than the rich giving from their fullness.

She gave out of her lack and all that she had to live on – “she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford – she gave her all” (Message Bible) and Christ commended her.  And even though we do not know her name, her action remains with us till this day. It is recorded in the heavenly books. Truly, she was a prophetic example of one going to and submitting to the Cross to be emptied of everything to gain His touch resulting in His filling.

It was her going to the treasury to give her all which becomes our example of drawing close to His cross making a deposit of our heart and life to gain Him.

Thus, the Cross of Christ becomes our treasury where we give out of our emptiness to gain Christ’s riches and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  Now we go from empty to fullness of His Cross and His Life.

May you draw close and remain close to His blood-stained Cross and receive His revelation of Cross Emptying and Cross Filling. 

Rich Arnold

Servant of the Lord

311 Adelaide Ave SW

Hartville, Ohio 44632

330-704-9306

richarnold3@gmail.com