No Longer a Sinner - God's Seed in Us

In reality, nothing good comes from our flesh. It is only Christ in us who works in and through us to produce lasting fruit (Romans 7:18; Philippians 2:12-13). The roots of the Spirit ground us and the Vine provides for us.

As Born Again Believers, we are born of God and partakers of the divine nature of Christ (2 Peter 1:4). When Christ dwells in us, He gives us the power to conquer temptation and sin (1 Corinthians 10:13).

We do not continue in a lifestyle of sin, because His seed remains in us (1 John 3:9). His Spirit empowers us and makes us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). We are conduits for His work through our life.

Sin no longer controls us because His Spirit dwells within us and conforms us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 6:18). Christ sets us free from the law of sin and death (John 8:36; Romans 8:1-2).

Therefore, we grieve the heart of God when we wallow in sin and give in to temptation and the flesh. We deny His power within us and we give Satan the attention that God deserves.

We waste our lives and fail to live up to God's best for us. When we take the wide road to destruction, we end up with little to show for a lifetime of living. We reap few rewards in heaven, because we rarely served Him with our life.

Yet, if we walk in His will each moment of the day, we accomplish His work in the earth and make a lasting contribution to His Kingdom. We reap rewards for each act of obedience and earn crowns that we can cast at Jesus' feet (Revelation 4:10-11).

We cast our crowns, because we realize that we do not deserve them. Everything we accomplish on the earth is the result of His Spirit's work in and through us, and we have no bragging rights (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your Spirit who calls to our spirit and empowers us to walk in Your will each day of our life (Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:12-13). Help us to walk in Your Spirit so we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:15-25). The more our carnality decreases, the more You encompass our life. We walk in increasing increments of spirituality, and sin no longer tempts us. We have no desire for this world's enticements.

You provide for our every need abundantly more than we even expect, and we give You all the praise and glory for every good thing in our life (James 1:17). We spend our days singing praises to You as we go about meeting only Your expectations in our life. As we listen to Your Spirit, You always work out everything for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Thought for the Day:

If we keep living a lifestyle of sin without conviction and repentance, this is proof that we are not born of God; we remain in the flesh and our spirit is still dead in sin; once we know God, His sanctifying power causes us to gradually lose our desire to keep on sinning. 

- Ephesians 2:1; 1 John 2:29, 3:6

Jesus is a Friend of Mine

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

We receive Eternal Life at the moment we walk away from our sinful lifestyle and follow God's will for our individual lives (John 3:14-15). God does the rest by perfecting us according to His will.

Eternal Life is not some ethereal state of being, or one that only occurs after we pass from this life, but is simply knowing the one, true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent to save us from our sins (John 17:3).

If we know Jesus, we know our Father as well (John 14:7). Jesus appeared to many people in the Old Testament. These are called Christophanies.

Jesus is actually the Trinity in physical form (Gen 12:7-9, 18:1-33, 22:11-18; Exodus 24:9-11; Daniel 3:23-24). He dwelt on this earth for a brief thirty-three years to give us an example of how to live.

Every day, God leads us through Christ by His Spirit (Romans 8:14). He does not speak to us in our mind, but in our spirit. It is an impression, a strong knowledge of what we are supposed to do.

The thoughts in our mind can be influenced by God, but are also influenced by the devil, our flesh and the world. Before following these ideas, we are wise to submit our thoughts to the test, to see which spirit is influencing us (Philippians 4:8; 1 John 4:1).

With practice, we begin to know God’s voice (John 10:27). Throughout the day, we do the works, which He ordained for us to accomplish before we were even born (Ephesians 2:10).

Prayer:

Father God, Thank You that Your Spirit speaks to us throughout the day. Your Spirit also communicates to other people through us (Matthew 10:20) by helping us to speak and by teaching us what to say (Exodus 4:12).

Make us ever mindful of the leading of Your Spirit in our life. Before we even put our feet on the floor in the morning, make us aware of Your will and direct our steps each moment of our day (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Thought for the Day:

We consider everything we possess in this life as rubbish when we compare it to our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

- Philippians 3:8

Yielding to God's Holy Spirit

 

Christians today are far from the Biblical norm of what we should be. We have no concept of what life is like when it is controlled and guided by God’s Spirit. We take too active a role in our life and we make our own plans instead of checking with God about His plans for us (Ephesians 2:10). We get our self stuck up a tree or circling the same mountain in life and then we get discouraged and grow weary.

We end up grieving God’s Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) by our thoughts, words and deeds. We dishonor God’s name by walking with one foot in the world and one foot in the Spirit. We walk with diminished spiritual power because we focus more on the fleshly concerns in our life than on the spiritual and eternal.

We have so much self-confidence, self-centeredness, self-reliance and self-sufficiency that there is no room for God. We are like the foolish Galatians (Galatians 3:1-3) attempting to please God by our human efforts. This type of lifestyle comes from the flesh and the flesh stinks in the nostrils of God (Acts 8:22-24). God’s power is available to every Born Again Believer...it is yours.

His Spirit wants to sanctify us and enable us to walk in God’s will every moment of every day. God continually eliminates our human strength, confounds our human wisdom and limits our human abilities in every area of life until we get tired of trying to live life apart from Him. We end up in complete shame and emptiness, lost and undone.

If we call on God’s mercy and grace, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness and helps us to walk in newness of life (1 John 1:9). This is when the blessings of God start to fall If you find yourself failing or discouraged or overwhelmed in life, you can be sure you are out of God’s will. Stop and pray. Center yourself in the mind of Christ and ask God for His direction. Then, yield to God’s Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, show us the futility of living life from our own wisdom and strength. Remind us to seek You first before we do anything, make any plans or set any goals. Allow us to see Your hand in every area of our life, to feel Your love overflowing in our heart, to have Your strength to accomplish everything that You calls us to do and to yield to Your Spirit each moment of the day.

Thought for the Day:

When God calls us to perform some function in His will, we find our self in the happiest place on earth.