Put To Death what is earthly in you! Really? -- Colossians 3:5

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Death . . . it is not a topic that we like to talk about much.  It ranks right up there with surrender and obedience when it comes to living as a believer and convert of Jesus Christ.

Yet, it is impossible to walk in the Light and by the Spirit without a death in us, not a physical death, but a death of our flesh.  That is what makes the topic so very unpopular in the western church. Those who claim to love the Lord struggle with the thought of crucifying their passions, lusts, idols, and sins.  We tend to justify our sins under the guise of, "Well, I am just made that way."  And if that is your excuse, I bet you have one, just like I do.

             " PUT TO DEATH what is earthly in you."

As I came to this verse (and a few that follow it), I found the very flesh that I am to be crucifying rising up inside of  me.  You see, I struggle a bit with anyone telling me what I have to do. Maybe you experience the same struggle.  If so, Colossians 3:5 will likely hit you over the head, especially as you realize, as I did, that knowing that we are to do something does not equal the actual doing of it.  This verse requires strong, immediate, and continual action. This one is our responsibility in Christ.

There you have it!  Everything that comes from the inside of you that is worldly (earthly), must be put to death.  It isn't a suggestion; it is a command!

Thinking back to verse 3, I have to ask myself.a couple of questions  You should, too.

• If I have died and am hidden with Christ in God, then why am I working so hard to keep my flesh alive? 

• Can I be 'positionally' hidden in Christ, and still have sins that are clearly not hidden?

• What is preventing me from surrendering my earthly (and very fleshly) sins, and walking in obedience to what the Word commands me to do or not do?

• Why have I not reacted more diligently to the truth that what is of this world in me is NOT of Christ?

It is my responsibility, given to me by God Himself, to put do death my very flesh . . . every bit of it.  That includes some very specific sins (that will be included in my next blog), but it really includes every sin that can be found in me.  I am not walking in obedience if I do not take full vengeance on my every sin, idol, evil thought, passion and lust, personal goal, desire, dream, attitude . . . well, you get the picture!  To not hide them in the shadow of Christ and His every desire for me is to leave them active.  When they are active in me, they expose the true measure of my love for Christ, and it is not a favorable review.

The one who desires to be totally focused on what is above, not on what is earthly, will begin to take up his own cross of earthly and fleshly crucifixion, and walk after the Savior.  This one will discover what I am beginning to understand:  My part is to surrender; the Holy Spirit in me will live the Life of Christ through me as I do so.  But I must surrender in order to climb onto the cross of my own crucifixion.  When I do, the Spirit will lead me to the death of myself in every area where I am prone to stumble.

What sins, lusts, idols, and attitudes need to be put to death in you?  

 

 

GOD'S WORD TO ME--Walking with a Limp

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I Kings 18:21

"And Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'How long will you go on limping between two different opinions?  If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.'"

Do you ever feel like your spiritual walk is more like a limp?  I know that I do.  Sometimes it is because I have been wounded or beaten up through spiritual attack as I try to traverse this life as a Christian.    But all too often I am reminded of my limp when I consider the great battle that rages between my spirit and my flesh.  More and more I am realizing that this battle is between polar-opposite opinions, God's good and perfect will and plan and the evil that entered the world with the very first sin. 

I  only have two choices in every situation.   I can choose God's way or the wrong way.  The wrong way, the way of Baal, consists of three entities.  I John 2:16 describes the three as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life."  This is the way of the world, the way of Baal.  How often I take this path and follow Satan's way in the world.  It is no wonder that I walk with a limp in so many situations.

My call is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, for this is the only "Way" to walk without a limp.  When I create my own 'altars of sacrifice,' that I willing lay upon, it is no wonder that I then find myself limping, for I will always limp around altars of my own making.  (I Kings 18:26--Read it!) 

Lord Jesus, today I choose to follow You.  Open my eyes to see those places where I am  sacrificing my trust in You by trusting in my flesh, what I can see, and my own sinful pride, for these are the altars that make me limp.  Lord, continue to show me that a limp can quickly become lameness.  Forgive my idol worship of life in this world while forgetting You. Come, lead me today, that I might walk in Your strength and power! 

The Barriers That Separate Us From God

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Today, while reading my daily devotional Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, I was struck by the first two sentences.  God's voice seemed particularly clear and direct as my heart heard these words come forth:

"You can live as close to Me as you choose.  I set up not barriers between us; neither do I  tear down barriers that you erect."  (November 5, page 324) 

While reading the first few words my heart was shouting a big "Oh, yeah!"  But the jubilation only lasted a second.  My heart was pierced by the last part.  "Neither do I tear down the barriers that you erect."  Stopping myself from reading the rest of the devotion, I sat silently pondering those words.  God's direct approach this morning had caught me so completely off-guard, I knew that I could read no further until I had addressed His comment spoken so specifically to me.

"Neither do I tear down the barriers that you erect."  You see, I love the idea that you I can live in such close  proximity to God that I experience many intimate moments throughout the day.  And I also love the idea that I could never go so far wrong that God would build a brick wall between us.  God set in motion a plan of relationship with Him that involves me running boldly into His throne room, without hesitation or fear, so that I can jump into His lap and be encircled by His loving arms, and at any point during my day, frequently if desired.  But what I don't like about what He said is that if there are any walls that are put up between us, it will be of my doing.  And what's more, He will not be the one to tear them down.  If I build a wall, I will be the one to have to destroy it, if I want it down.  Even worse for me to hear, there seems to be the implication that I have erected and will erect these walls.

My convicted heart knew in that moment that there is still a wall of barrier between me and my Lord.  I have built this wall, brick upon sinful brick, as I walk in the disobedience of my own fleshly heart.  What stands between me and the Lord are my sins, and the only way those bricks of sin are coming down is if I surrender myself to the Spirit within me,  and I  begin to obey the commands of God's word.  In a nutshell, the wall will come down as I repent, turning completely and resolutely away from each individual sin that is a brick in my wall.

Once again, my Lord has brought me back to the same thing He has been addressing in my life for several months now.  It is the issue of the individual sins and idols that are still in my heart, and  they are  affecting my spiritual  life and walk with Jesus.  This has ramifications on my intimacy with Him, too.  The bottom line is this:  I can spend much time in the Word; I can learn all that it says to me by dissecting the words I study by defining them more correctly in the Greek and Hebrew; I can do endless cross-referencing that will support the concepts found in a single verse; I can sit in on multiple Bible classes and teachings each week.  But if I am not applying what I am learning, and if nothing really changes in my thoughts, words, and actions, then all my knowledge and understanding comes to nothing.

For years I have basked in the idea that "knowing" is a great blessing.  But the blessing only comes when we "do" what we say we "know."  Jesus told His disciples a powerful truth, just after He had washed their feet and challenged them to live spiritually higher and more intimately than they could completely understand.  These are the words He spoke to them, and to me today, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."   I have coined a saying that is similar to what Scarlett O'Hara said in Gone With The Wind.  Here is my thought that seems to line up with what Jesus said to His disciples, "Knowin' and sayin' ain't doin'!"

In the end, my biblical knowledge on the topic of the importance removing sin and idols from my life, the verses I can quote about it, even teaching the Word's truth of it to others, will never equal the 'living it out' in my own life.  The wall I have created out of multiple bricks of sin and dependence on things other than God Himself must come down!  The difficulty of the task can never be my excuse to avoid tearing it down.  The state of the mortar that holds it together (whether hardened by years, partially solid, or still soft from its very recent application) is irrelevant.  The wall must come down if I want to experience life in the Holy of Holies.  My wall is the veil between the Inner Court Classroom on my spiritual journey and the intimate presence of God in the Holiest Place of All.   The wall, the veil in the Tabernacle, is my own flesh!

To turn away from the difficult work of rooting out all sins, idols, and wrong attitudes in my life through my surrender and repentance is to make a choice to live farther away from God than He desires.  It is a choice to live with my sin-wall between us.  Yes, my wall MUST come down!

Discovering The Sin Within Your Heart

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Theory must always give way to practical application, otherwise all of our 'head knowledge' becomes wasted and worthless grey matter.  Can we turn our focus for just a moment to the Inner Court of our heart transformation?  I would like us to magnify that court right now so that we are not looking at the beginning or end of our spiritual journey, but just at the present, the here and now.

It is in the Inner Court where God allows us to see just how dark and sinful our hearts really are, and can be.  This court is a place of illumination.  Once in the Inner Court, once we have taken a good 'look around' at what is really hidden there, we often find that the sins, the gods, and the idols we find inside of us are so many that they are overwhelming to us.  We know that we are to be busy building our hearts into a proper and pure home for the Lord by sweeping out all that He would not enjoy.  Just like the Israelites of Haggai's day (that we looked at in Chapter 6 of Spiritual Healing), we know that we are to 'rebuilt' our sin-scarred hearts, which is the temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. But again, just like the Israelites, we typically respond just as they did, don't we?  We put satisfying the desires of our own flesh ahead of the priority of cleaning out those very flesh-sins found in our hearts.

We follow after our own priorities, and we leave our sin-filled hearts in disrepair, desolate, and open to destruction while we continue living flesh-ruled lives.  Our breaches, fractures, and sins remain.  Our walk with the Lord and our very lives do not even remotely resemble the life of Christ!  We continually go our merry way, prioritizing everything else in life except our walk with Jesus and a desire to achieve a holy and pure lifestyle.  Following in the footsteps of the Israelites, our wrong priorities lead us straight to the obvious consequences, and some of them will be severe.  Our ministry for the Lord becomes fruitless, barren, and even non-existent.  In the end, when we do not concentrate on obediently living the commandments and repenting of our sins and idols, our lives reveal that our hearts have not been transformed.  Such transformation only takes place when we have been walking intimately with the Savior."

Tomorrow I will be continuing in this vain, by sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World.  Her personal testimony might help you more clearly see what you are doing that is keeping you from that very intimacy.

Choosing The Correct Path

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

As I begin to wind down the message of Spiritual Healing in the next few blogs, much of it will seem familiar to you, at least I pray that it will.  The last chapter of the book is the culmination of the first eleven.  Each blog will have less information, but it is designed to be that way.  Prayerfully absorb the truth, look deeply within so that you can correctly assess your spiritual condition, and then choose the correct course of action that will lead you into the Holy of Holies.

"Are you in the same court [of the Tabernacle] as when you began to read this book [or these blogs on the book], or have you covered some ground on your way into the next court?  Which court is your current address?  Each of the courts can be reached by taking appropriate steps, and sometimes even leaps, in our spiritual lives.  The goal is always to reach the presence of God in the Holy of Holies.  But your arrival there will depend on these two things:

1. You!
2. And the choices you make!

If you never choose to die to yourself and your sinful ways, you will never walk boldly into the Holy of Holies here on earth, for no flesh can reside in His presence.  So to reach that goal, one must die to self.  Do you remember that the placement of everything in the Tabernacle lines up into a cross?  In order for Jesus to secure a way for us to travel through the Tabernacle into the presence of God, He had to sacrifice His life on a sinner's cross.  If we desire to bask in His presence, we must choose to do the same.  He died for our sinfulness, but our sin still is present in us to many varying degrees.  His intimate presence will only be gained when we die to the sin still found in us.  The Old Testament Tabernacle was a prophetic picture of Christ's death.  It was also a prophetic picture of what is required of us now; it shows us how we must die even as Christ had to die."

What will you do with this information?   Did you recognize this as truth and absorb it?  Did you assess your spiritual condition and the sin that still is apparent in your life?  Will you decide to do whatever it takes to die to your flesh and to your daily sin?  These choices are up to you.  Your choices will determine and reveal whether or not you are serious about moving forward in your walk.

How To Be Obedient, God's Way

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 9)

We are taught from a very young age that we not only can accomplish things, but it is better if you do it all by yourself.   This sounds like good instruction, but it does so because this has been ingrained in us since we began to hold our own bottles at feeding time.  But God's word does not teach that at all.  As a matter of fact, He tells us this in Zechariah 4:6 instead:

  

"Not by [your] might, nor by [your] power, but by MY SPIRIT, says the Lord of Hosts."

 "Here's the problem that most of us have when it comes to surrendering to God so that we might obey His every command.  We tend to try to do it in our own power.  In other words, we try to surrender the flesh--BY THE FLESH!  You have already heard that nothing good resides in your flesh, yet you are probably guilty of trying to surrender by your own fleshly power and strength anyway.  You have also likely discovered that surrender by way of the flesh is fruitless.  If you think that isn't true, then just think of one New Year's resolution in which you have succeeded for life!

It bears repeating.  We can only accomplish surrender to God in one way--God's way!  We must come to the place where we allow God to change our hearts and minds so that we understand that repentance--the intentional turning from sin--that flows from a heart that God is changing, is required of every God-seeking believer.  When we allow God to work in our hearts and minds we are set free to act upon the work He has already done within us--the heart-transforming act of placing the life of Christ in us by way of the Holy Spirit.  Because of this one action, we can fix our gaze on Him and turn away from our sin instead.  This is how we die to our flesh.

It is at the veil that divides the Inner Court from the Holy of Holies where the crucifixions of our flesh will take place.  When the veil of your heart that keeps you from fully surrendering to God is removed, then you will be enabled to become a fruit- bearer of the  greatest kind!  But if your walk lacks crucified flesh, then your flesh will remain in its state of decline, ruling over your thoughts, words, and deeds.  If you choose against the surrender that involves the crucifying of your sinful flesh, then you will become useless to God, and your 'religion' will be dead.  Remember, the flesh is death to you, but the Spirit is life."

We can do it, but not alone!  Our part is to surrender to the Spirit in us, and then He accomplishes obedience through us.  Any changes we make on our own can never be heart-transforming because our flesh is made of nothing good. Changing us is the work of the Spirit within us.  Only He can change your heart.

We Are Withering Grass

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(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 9)

"Generally, the word 'surrender' means to give up something completely, after striving to maintain possession of it.  Are you making the spiritual connection?  Our flesh keeps trying to hang onto the control of our lives, and that control can be seen every time that we fall prey to temptation.  The sin that follows the temptation is a clear indication that we are controlled in that area by our flesh.  Isaiah spoke about our flesh, spelling out the truth about it:

All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers and the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.  The grass wither, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.  (Isaiah 40: 6b-8)

Isaiah compares people who are walking in the flesh with grass and flowers.  According to the verses, our flesh is in a constant state of decline!  Not only are we physically withering and fading year by year, but our sinful flesh which desires to be in control of our whole lives, is getting worse and worse.  Our flesh, more and more, wants to be in control and make all the decisions based on what will both please and feed it.  When we walk in the flesh and under its control, a spiritual type of death begins to take place in us.  While we might be spiritually growing and our walk with God improving, our flesh is declining.  Sinful, human flesh can never be improved upon.  It has no ability to improve since it is in a constantly declining and withering.  The older you get, the more clearly you will see this truth in action."

Through the years my spiritual heart has grown stronger.  But at the same time I have discovered my sins have become more and more about my pride issues and poor attitudes.  This is my flesh.  I am growing spiritually, but my natural, ungodly, self-focused desires have become far stronger than they were 30 years ago.  My spirit is improving, but my flesh is getting worse.

While your spirit can be improved upon, your flesh can not.   By nature, it will become worse and worse, so stop trying to improve it in your own power.  Why not surrender your flesh to the Spirit and walk with Him?  Let Him be in control of your actions and responses.  Then you will begin to see great improvement in your spiritual life!

Remedy For a Sin-broken Heart

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Solomon had just finished his beautiful, powerful prayer to God as he dedicated the newly built temple.  He concluded with a call to all of Israel to devote themselves, their hearts, to the Lord by walking faithfully in all of His commandments.  By setting the Ark of the Covenant in the new Holy of Holies, God would then be able to say, "My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."  

Solomon's connection between the Ark of the Covenant where God dwelt then, and our hearts where God dwells now is critically important to us today.  It is in our heart, the core of our being, that the Holy Spirit perpetually dwells.  He is the eyes who watch everything we think, do, and say.  He is the very heart  of God in us.  And what is the "heart of God?"  It is the very life of Christ.  That is what the Holy Spirit represents in the life of the believer.

Though we have the life of Christ living in us, we so often try to do every spiritual thing in our own power.  We use our strengths and our sheer will-power to try and overcome sin.  We want desperately to walk faithfully in the commands God gives us to live by, and fail miserably with each attempt.  We so often life in a sin-confess-try again cycle, and usually never realize that this is simply a dog chasing its tail.  We go round and round and round, but we never really get anywhere.

So what is the secret, then, to having an unbroken heart, a heart healed of its sinful ways that obeys the Lord's commands?  Zechariah the prophet speaks loudly the key to having an unbroken heart.  "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord. (4:6).

The healing of the continual sin in your heart will not come by might ("I am trying hard to handle this.  I failed yesterday, but I will try harder today."), nor will it come from your strength and power  ("I am strong; I can get through this; I did yesterday, so I will today as well.").  The spiritual healing of your heart, the very removal of fleshly gods, idols, and sins,  will happen because of your working at it.  God requires one thing from you to become an obedient child who walks in His pure and righteous ways.  He requires your surrender to the Spirit.  Your transformed heart, changing from broken to unbroken, from sin-stained to holy, is the work of the Spirit.  This work happens from the inside out by the Spirit, not from the outside in by your striving flesh!

In every 12 step program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the transforming work begins with these 3 principles:  I can't; You can; go ahead!  Do you hear the surrender of such a prayer?  This should be our constant prayer!  Why not begin right now to apply the truth of Zechariah 4:6.  It will sound a something like this:

"Holy Spirit, you have a job to do in my heart, but You require me to seek Your work in me from a place of humility and surrender.  I am struggling with committing the sin of _______.  I have tried to stop and have failed miserably.  I know that my flesh cannot transform my heart.  Only You can.  So I come to You today, with my flesh crucified and my spirit crying out to You.  'I can't get this done in me!  But I know that You can!  So please go ahead!'  I surrender to Your work in me."

By using the "Post Comment" button below, why not report back what the Spirit is doing in you as an encouragement to the other readers of this blog!  And while you are at it, click on the "follow" button to the right!

No Other "gods"

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When Israel demanded a golden calf when they thought Moses would not return, he came down the mountain and burned and crushed their man-made idol. He put the dust of it in their water and made them drink it. When we create "gods" in our lives, THE God will not only crush it to pieces, but we often have to drink of its bitter consequences. "You shall have NO other gods before Me. I am your all in all!"

I was surprised to learn as I studied this review of the 10 Commandments that "before Me" literally means "in God's sight" or "to His face."  It does not mean that you as long as you have God in 1st place in your life you can have your little gods, too.  

When we create a god in our lives, whether it is a particular sin that we default to or a pervasive sinful attitude, we have actually put our god right in God's face!  This is not permissible.  We cannot claim that God is our 1st love while having other "loves" on the side!  If God is truly our first love and priority, the One we default to, then there is no room for other gods.  With God as our only God, and if we truly love Him, then we are living our lives "to keep the commandments of God".  If gods are present in your heart, you cannot fully follow Him.

What is inside your heart?  What is it that you constantly try to keep hidden from others? What is it that you have written off to "your personality" or "inherited behaviors?"  God wants your heart to be circumcised, with the flesh cut away from it, leaving only the Spirit who dwells there within you.  What does this then require of you?  Check out Deuteronomy 10: 12, 13, and 16.  God clearly states what He expects of us:

Fear Him (reverence and honor Him as the only God.)

Walk in His ways (as Christ walked, where He tells you to walk)


Love Him by intentionally setting your affections on Him

Serve Him with every bit of your heart and soul (no room for other gods)

Keep (DO!) God's commandments, all that His word tells us.




This is how you circumcise your heart; this is how you stop "stiffening your neck".  God wants your whole heart, all of you, not just the parts you choose to give Him.