(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing: The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 9)
". . . Flesh never improves. It has no ability to improve. It is always in a state of withering and declining. The older you get, the more clearly you can see this truth in action. You need to look no further than Paul's lament in Romans 7. Paul, the transformed apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ who was responsible for so many of the epistles that teach us today, soundly judged his own flesh (and ours as well) when he wrote this:
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. (Romans 7:18)
When we continue to follow our flesh, we allow its sinful and selfish ways to maintain control of our lies. We become the god of our lives when we allow our own flesh to sit on the throne upon which the Spirit is to be sitting. When we are the god of our own life and heart, we continue doing what we want to do. In this state, we are unwilling to yield to the very God we clung to for our salvation."
The world does not revolve around us. To live as if it does, from moment to moment, is to live by the desires of our flesh. In those moments and situations when we are living selfishly, we are on the throne of our heart, not God. Which of the three diagrams is the true picture of your heart? Does Christ reside inside or outside of you? Is He in you, but your are in full control of your life? Or is Christ not only in you, but on the throne, orchestrating the particulars of your day, every day? There is only one model which is a picture of righteous living--sanctification.
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