The Bible plainly teaches us that we are not our own.... we are His. He is our owner, having purchased us with His own blood. How far our present day Christianity has lost this concept. When Jesus met Paul, then Saul, on the road to Damascus, this point was made perfectly clear, so much so that Saul made this statement.
"What would you have me to do, Lord?"
With that one profound statement, willful Saul became servant Paul and the rest is history. We all know we should be more yielded to God, and our spirit is willing, more often than not. But we know as well how hard it is to stay in that state, for our flesh is weak, and the things we want to do, we do not, and the things we hate, the things we want to avoid like the plague seem to come to us easily, just as they were described by Paul in Romans 7.
So we end up living in a battlefield, but it is not a battle with the enemy, but with ourselves. We end up living in the battle of the black dog versus the white dog, and it never seems to end. But is that what God willed for us, when He called us to His kingdom. Did he not promise to make us overcomers? Did He not assure us that He would make a way of escape in every single temptation? What good is that way of escape if our black dog is bound and determined to see that we do not take it, and instead give in to the desires of the flesh? What good is the whole armor of God if the traitor lives inside the armor?
There must be an answer, something we have missed.... and there is. Listen to the voice of God Himself as He gives us the answer through Paul himself.
"....but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive unto God."
There. There it is. There is the answer which has eluded us. Yielding ourselves to God is good, but even with honorable intentions, we will still fail..... unless our shield of faith is held up as to who we are. We are no more a mixture of black dog and white. We are no more children of this world and children of the next. We are new creatures and Paul tells us a great truth in Romans 8. We who are His are no more in the flesh, but in the spirit if Christ dwells in us. We owe the flesh a big fat nothing, no matter what we have been taught, no matter how we have lived up to this very moment. Nothing.
Your old nature, my old nature,it is dead, no matter how fleshly you or I might have lived. But God asks that we believe that amazing truth, stand on it, and fight the good fight of faith from that perspective. Truth sets free ONLY when it is mixed with faith in the hearer, only when it is continued in, no matter how the enemy rails against us.
The black dog is dead. Not slowly dying. DEAD. He asks that in our weakness, we believe that truth, for it is that truth that promises to set us free indeed.
Blessings to all,
Gideon
"What would you have me to do, Lord?"
With that one profound statement, willful Saul became servant Paul and the rest is history. We all know we should be more yielded to God, and our spirit is willing, more often than not. But we know as well how hard it is to stay in that state, for our flesh is weak, and the things we want to do, we do not, and the things we hate, the things we want to avoid like the plague seem to come to us easily, just as they were described by Paul in Romans 7.
So we end up living in a battlefield, but it is not a battle with the enemy, but with ourselves. We end up living in the battle of the black dog versus the white dog, and it never seems to end. But is that what God willed for us, when He called us to His kingdom. Did he not promise to make us overcomers? Did He not assure us that He would make a way of escape in every single temptation? What good is that way of escape if our black dog is bound and determined to see that we do not take it, and instead give in to the desires of the flesh? What good is the whole armor of God if the traitor lives inside the armor?
There must be an answer, something we have missed.... and there is. Listen to the voice of God Himself as He gives us the answer through Paul himself.
"....but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive unto God."
There. There it is. There is the answer which has eluded us. Yielding ourselves to God is good, but even with honorable intentions, we will still fail..... unless our shield of faith is held up as to who we are. We are no more a mixture of black dog and white. We are no more children of this world and children of the next. We are new creatures and Paul tells us a great truth in Romans 8. We who are His are no more in the flesh, but in the spirit if Christ dwells in us. We owe the flesh a big fat nothing, no matter what we have been taught, no matter how we have lived up to this very moment. Nothing.
Your old nature, my old nature,it is dead, no matter how fleshly you or I might have lived. But God asks that we believe that amazing truth, stand on it, and fight the good fight of faith from that perspective. Truth sets free ONLY when it is mixed with faith in the hearer, only when it is continued in, no matter how the enemy rails against us.
The black dog is dead. Not slowly dying. DEAD. He asks that in our weakness, we believe that truth, for it is that truth that promises to set us free indeed.
Blessings to all,
Gideon
