WHAT DOES IT REALLY TAKE TO KILL THE OLD NATURE?
I SEND GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS OUR LORD:
The fact that we are going to die physically is bad enough. We are also called on to commit a death before our physical death by killing the old nature that we are born into. In many ways, this tells me just how much God respects; or should I say does not respect that nature. To be blunt it is a false representation of who we really are that is being used to fool us. In the book of Ecclesiastes 1: 1-18 Solomon wrote about all of the efforts of mankind being basically a vanity, and that we could never be fulfilled by using any of the wisdom that we can accumulate through our own means to find answers to life.
"Nothing under the sun " became the final word from him one this worlds effort to answer life for there is nothing new and nothing that can be created that has not already been created. This indicates that if we can not find the answers under the sun we must go somehow beyond the sun to find them, and if we cannot find them physically then we must seek them spiritually.
Our efforts then must go far beyond us to the creator who made us; to the beginning of all that, we can understand. It also tells me that in order to find the answers we seek we must go beyond what we know is temporary to that which is eternal. Just like this world all things physically will eventually die or decay, so why do we hold on so tightly to existence here? I think it is because we are not willing to cling to our very first creation, which is a spiritual creation.
It is that spiritual creation that is the key to our life. It is realizing that we are a creation that goes well beyond anything that we can understand on a physical plain that we must reach for and we cannot do that without God. Our old nature was born with our body within this world. It contains all of the genetic sequences of our physical ancestry along with all of the tendencies and programmed responses that can and are manipulated by the principalities and the powers of this world. That also means that all of the sinful influences that have not been forgiven or dealt with by the blood and forgiveness of Christ are also a part of our makeup. We cannot kill or even die to anything that we don't even understand is a part of who we are, and so if we are to surrender our old nature to God completely we need to understand better who and what we are dealing with before we start the process. The reason that is so important for us to know is that there are both good and bad parts of that human nature that need to be either used or cast away because as we begin to build upon the foundations of Christ we may need to know where to put the shovel as we begin to dig for the best of the riches in our life.
We have a new year we can use to start digging to find the best we have to build with, and we have to use the very best in us because it will all be tested at some point by fire to see what the quality is. That tells me that God will not allow anything that is not worthy to stand in His Kingdom. Even though we might be saved it does not mean that any of what we have done is worthy to stand in the Kingdom of God. We and all that we represent will be tested by fire and some will be burnt away because it is the nature of man to cut corners because we are not perfect creatures, but we all really know what that means.
It takes a lot more to kill the old nature in us than by just saying " GO AWAY". it is a real fight. There are two very strong forces within us that are completely opposite from one another fighting for control of who we are. Which one will win? It will be the one that you cling to and trust the most. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
The fact that we are going to die physically is bad enough. We are also called on to commit a death before our physical death by killing the old nature that we are born into. In many ways, this tells me just how much God respects; or should I say does not respect that nature. To be blunt it is a false representation of who we really are that is being used to fool us. In the book of Ecclesiastes 1: 1-18 Solomon wrote about all of the efforts of mankind being basically a vanity, and that we could never be fulfilled by using any of the wisdom that we can accumulate through our own means to find answers to life.
"Nothing under the sun " became the final word from him one this worlds effort to answer life for there is nothing new and nothing that can be created that has not already been created. This indicates that if we can not find the answers under the sun we must go somehow beyond the sun to find them, and if we cannot find them physically then we must seek them spiritually.
Our efforts then must go far beyond us to the creator who made us; to the beginning of all that, we can understand. It also tells me that in order to find the answers we seek we must go beyond what we know is temporary to that which is eternal. Just like this world all things physically will eventually die or decay, so why do we hold on so tightly to existence here? I think it is because we are not willing to cling to our very first creation, which is a spiritual creation.
It is that spiritual creation that is the key to our life. It is realizing that we are a creation that goes well beyond anything that we can understand on a physical plain that we must reach for and we cannot do that without God. Our old nature was born with our body within this world. It contains all of the genetic sequences of our physical ancestry along with all of the tendencies and programmed responses that can and are manipulated by the principalities and the powers of this world. That also means that all of the sinful influences that have not been forgiven or dealt with by the blood and forgiveness of Christ are also a part of our makeup. We cannot kill or even die to anything that we don't even understand is a part of who we are, and so if we are to surrender our old nature to God completely we need to understand better who and what we are dealing with before we start the process. The reason that is so important for us to know is that there are both good and bad parts of that human nature that need to be either used or cast away because as we begin to build upon the foundations of Christ we may need to know where to put the shovel as we begin to dig for the best of the riches in our life.
We have a new year we can use to start digging to find the best we have to build with, and we have to use the very best in us because it will all be tested at some point by fire to see what the quality is. That tells me that God will not allow anything that is not worthy to stand in His Kingdom. Even though we might be saved it does not mean that any of what we have done is worthy to stand in the Kingdom of God. We and all that we represent will be tested by fire and some will be burnt away because it is the nature of man to cut corners because we are not perfect creatures, but we all really know what that means.
It takes a lot more to kill the old nature in us than by just saying " GO AWAY". it is a real fight. There are two very strong forces within us that are completely opposite from one another fighting for control of who we are. Which one will win? It will be the one that you cling to and trust the most. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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