THE INWARD STRUGGLE
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
We've been speaking a lot in the last couple of weeks about what it takes for us to bring our lives into step with God's Holy Spirit. Being born again takes a moment of faith but becoming like Christ is a lifelong process. Paul, in the book of Romans 8:5-8 begins to explain some of the real battle that takes place between our nature as men and women, and the new nature of God's Holy Spirit that is instilled in us when we come to Christ. "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mine is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." Paul also compared Christian growth to a strenuous kind of race or fight ( 1 Corinthians 9:24-27) in fact Paul tells us in the very beginning of the book of Romans that"that no one in the world is innocent and no one deserves to be saved not the pagan who doesn't know God's laws, and not the Christians or the Jews who know them and tries to keep them. All of us must depend totally on the work of Christ for our salvation."
Having said all that it makes us realize that we are dealing with more than just the cry of few desperate men, because it describes the experience of any Christian struggling against sin are trying to please God by keeping the rules and laws without the Holy Spirit's help. We all tend to fold under the weight of having to keep God's Commandments, but we have to remember to never attempt to fight this battle on our own strength. The enemy of God is much more crafty than we are, and he usually comes in to our mind with the myriad of different excuses. "The devil made me do it"which really means that we are trying to find an excuse for ourselves by saying"I didn't really do it it was the sin in me that did". You see that's the temptation that we always come up with in our natural flesh as an excuse because like it or not we most of the time are defeated by a much more cunning enemy without Christ's help. The sin of this world is simply stronger than we are and sometimes were unable to defend ourselves against its attacks.
Can I ask you a question? Have you ever worried about whether or not you are really Christian? A Christian as anyone who has a spirit of God living in him or her. If you have sincerely trusted Christ for your salvation and acknowledged him as Lord, then the Holy Spirit is come into your life, and you are a Christian. Along with that is something else that will happen in your life. God will begin to work with you through your soul to change the attitudes and the desires of your heart. You may not know that the Holy Spirit has come if you're waiting for certain feelings to happen to you you're going to know that he is come because Jesus promised he would, and you can begin to feel the Holy Spirit is working within you. Your faith and your belief that Jesus Christ is God's son and that eternal life comes through him will begin to take an action in your life just as 1 John 5:5 says"who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the son of God". It begins to be your relationship being built with Christ that will change you. It isn't the good works that people perform that change them, but the good works should be a simple byproduct of our relationship with Christ. You're going to find that true injured daily problems and in your daily prayers. You will be in powered to serve God and to do his will and you will be, part of God's plan to build up his church.
Paul was constantly trying to put to death the misdeeds of the body. He wanted to regard these misdeeds as dead so that he could get closer to God's power. When we regard since appeal as dead and lifeless, weakening door temptation when it comes. The first step for all of that to happen in our lives is for us to put ourselves in a place where we can test God's word to be true for the life we live. That will mean that we will have to in some way trust God enough to tensed his word for our lives and to be willing to take the chance for God to prove himself trustworthy to us. After we have found that his word is true for our lives we will begin the journey needed to have witness and testimony to those in the world around us. God has never told us to go out and save the world, he has told us that we are to go witness to the world as to one God has done in our lives. There's a big difference in the two things. If we are no longer going to be controlled by our sinful nature and if we are going to allow God's Holy Spirit to be Lord of our lives we are definitely in for a transformation of our mind and our heart. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We've been speaking a lot in the last couple of weeks about what it takes for us to bring our lives into step with God's Holy Spirit. Being born again takes a moment of faith but becoming like Christ is a lifelong process. Paul, in the book of Romans 8:5-8 begins to explain some of the real battle that takes place between our nature as men and women, and the new nature of God's Holy Spirit that is instilled in us when we come to Christ. "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mine is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." Paul also compared Christian growth to a strenuous kind of race or fight ( 1 Corinthians 9:24-27) in fact Paul tells us in the very beginning of the book of Romans that"that no one in the world is innocent and no one deserves to be saved not the pagan who doesn't know God's laws, and not the Christians or the Jews who know them and tries to keep them. All of us must depend totally on the work of Christ for our salvation."
Having said all that it makes us realize that we are dealing with more than just the cry of few desperate men, because it describes the experience of any Christian struggling against sin are trying to please God by keeping the rules and laws without the Holy Spirit's help. We all tend to fold under the weight of having to keep God's Commandments, but we have to remember to never attempt to fight this battle on our own strength. The enemy of God is much more crafty than we are, and he usually comes in to our mind with the myriad of different excuses. "The devil made me do it"which really means that we are trying to find an excuse for ourselves by saying"I didn't really do it it was the sin in me that did". You see that's the temptation that we always come up with in our natural flesh as an excuse because like it or not we most of the time are defeated by a much more cunning enemy without Christ's help. The sin of this world is simply stronger than we are and sometimes were unable to defend ourselves against its attacks.
Can I ask you a question? Have you ever worried about whether or not you are really Christian? A Christian as anyone who has a spirit of God living in him or her. If you have sincerely trusted Christ for your salvation and acknowledged him as Lord, then the Holy Spirit is come into your life, and you are a Christian. Along with that is something else that will happen in your life. God will begin to work with you through your soul to change the attitudes and the desires of your heart. You may not know that the Holy Spirit has come if you're waiting for certain feelings to happen to you you're going to know that he is come because Jesus promised he would, and you can begin to feel the Holy Spirit is working within you. Your faith and your belief that Jesus Christ is God's son and that eternal life comes through him will begin to take an action in your life just as 1 John 5:5 says"who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the son of God". It begins to be your relationship being built with Christ that will change you. It isn't the good works that people perform that change them, but the good works should be a simple byproduct of our relationship with Christ. You're going to find that true injured daily problems and in your daily prayers. You will be in powered to serve God and to do his will and you will be, part of God's plan to build up his church.
Paul was constantly trying to put to death the misdeeds of the body. He wanted to regard these misdeeds as dead so that he could get closer to God's power. When we regard since appeal as dead and lifeless, weakening door temptation when it comes. The first step for all of that to happen in our lives is for us to put ourselves in a place where we can test God's word to be true for the life we live. That will mean that we will have to in some way trust God enough to tensed his word for our lives and to be willing to take the chance for God to prove himself trustworthy to us. After we have found that his word is true for our lives we will begin the journey needed to have witness and testimony to those in the world around us. God has never told us to go out and save the world, he has told us that we are to go witness to the world as to one God has done in our lives. There's a big difference in the two things. If we are no longer going to be controlled by our sinful nature and if we are going to allow God's Holy Spirit to be Lord of our lives we are definitely in for a transformation of our mind and our heart. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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