Spirit Not Flesh

Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

The Spirit, the invisible entity that is a part of us. We were created with a spiritual need in us. We were created with the ability to be born again of the Spirit. 

God is a spirit.

Jesus is flesh and spirit.

And there is also the Holy Spirit.

We are flesh and spirit.

The angels are spirits.

The angels of God are ministering spirits.

Satan and is angels are evil spirits.

We live in a VERY spiritual orientated existence that is largely not thought too much about.

The influence of the spiritual is all around us.  Our Savior told us we must be born again of the Spirit.  This is the spirit part of us connecting with the Holy Spirit of God, choosing God. If we do NOT choose to be born again, born of the Holy Spirit, then we are left with only one other spirit entity to connect with our spirit self. 

The spiritual is all around us, all the time. We choose which spirit to follow, no one chooses for us.

When we choose the flesh we are choosing to let the evil spirit guide us. 

When we choose to follow other men, rather than God… we are choosing evil.  We DO NOT WANT to believe this is true! We just don't.

Listen to this--

Mat_15:3  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Mat_15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

IN VAIN they worshipped God. Do you imagine they believed they were worshipping God in vain? NO! They did not believe their worship was in vain, not in the least.

When man worships man, when we believe that our own works, that we of ourselves can save ourselves then we're lost! 

Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

When we initially accept Christ as our Savior, believing that by faith in Him we are saved, we are being born again in the Spirit-  we have BEGUN in the Spirit.  When we STOP having that initial FAITH BELIEF then we revert back to the flesh, to life without the SPIRIT.  So while we have HAD the Spirit, we lose the Spirit by believing in ourselves, not God.  We are NEVER going to be made perfect by the flesh, we are NEVER going to be made perfect without the Spirit.

We have to LIVE in the SPIRIT.

Truly, truly we must be born again daily because our flesh must die daily! 

We live in CHRIST, not in self.

Is there any doubt that this is a REAL SPIRITUAL war we are in? There shouldn't be, not a single doubt.

Yet what will wake us up to this truth. Will the bombs raining down around us exploding everywhere? These are silent explosions, and oh so spiritually deadly.  If we could only realize the truth of Spiritual warfare and recognize it for what it is-- REAL.

Please, Father in Heaven, please, open our hearts and minds to the truth, all Your truth! Please let us LIVE IN THE SPIRIT ALWAYS, don't let us return to the flesh, please! Help us, save us from ourselves!

Keep us in YOU all by the grace, the mercy, the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Our invisible spirit

Born again.

We've all heard these words haven' t we? And it's a good thing we have because it's truth. Our being born in the flesh is not enough. We have to have a spiritual birth. If we are blessed by God to live to an age of accountability, an age of choosing, an age of decision, and the opportunity is given to us, then we truly must be born of the Spirit.

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

What does it mean to be born again? This is a question many have asked, and many have answered. What does it mean to me?

Birth is a new life.

Spiritual birth is a new life as well.

We can have the birth of an idea- it is the beginning of an idea, a new idea. We can have the birth of an era, again, it's the beginning of something.  Being born again, born of the Spirit is beginning a new.

Something in our life is new, something is begun anew. 

Born of the water and born of the Spirit. 

WE KNOW what being born of the flesh is beyond any doubt. Yet what does is truly mean to be born of the Spirit? A new flesh being isn't created, what is created, what is birthed is invisible. Remember this--

Joh 4:24  God a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is invisible.

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God…

1Ti_1:17  Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Heb_11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Our birth, our spiritual birth is invisible, very, very real, but invisible.

Perhaps if we could see the Spirit in us, witness its birth, watch its life- the nurturing, the starving.  It's true, the Spirit in us, this invisible new life created is a real life and can die.  Just because you are born again of the Spirit does not mean the new life in you lives on indefinitely guaranteeing you eternal life.  The new life must be nurtured, truly nurtured. We must pray DAILY-  Jesus taught us to pray for our DAILY BREAD.  We must study.

2Ti_2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Act_17:11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

1Co_15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Heb_3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Daily. 

Our Lord is mindful of our day to day life.  Our Lord is mindful of us daily. We need to be mindful of ourselves, of our New Spirit. And even when the New Spirit in us is old, having been with us for many years it's a life we must cherish and nurture forever.

We truly NEED to believe in our Spirit Birth, our Spirit self.  We have NO trouble believing in our flesh it's tangible.  Yet the Spirit self calls for FAITH, believing without seeing, knowing, hoping.  A reality, even if invisible, very much a reality, a real force.

By the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, more tomorrow!

All in HIS LOVE!

Amen.

Sufficient in Christ

Those closest to Jesus our Savior, as He walked the earth said these words--

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God

They took NO honor, NO glory, NO praise to themselves at all! They did not boast of themselves. They did not tout self sufficiency.  Their sufficiency was of GOD.

They KNEW they were not special, they weren't equipped with some personal uniqueness that enabled them to be used of God. They comprehended that on their own they were nothing. 

We don't like to hear that do we?  People rail against being called nothing.  People rise up and shout their specialness just because they exist. Everyone everywhere wants to believe they are amazing and wonderful just because they live and are a human being.  We want to teach our children that they are wonderful all on their own with all their quirks and such. We want our children to believe in themselves outside of everything else.  We shun being told we are nothing without God. We say it sounds cruel to tell anyone they are nothing. We ALL want to be told we are special.

AND we are ALL special ONLY in that we have the potential to belong to our Savior.  We are special, so incredibly special in Christ that He thought we were worth dying for! He gave up His Spirit form and took on our flesh so He could die for us, that's how special we are to Him.

No one can EVER judge whether a person will accept Christ or not, even the most stout atheist, or devout Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem, Pagan, etc. we cannot say beyond any doubt any of those people will not come to know Christ as their Savior.

So, YES, we must LOVE each other, truly LOVE each other no matter what- literally- no matter what. We must love each other as each of us has the possibility of being God's. We don't love each other because of our kindness, our generosity, our charismatic personalities, or at least we shouldn't love each other because of those things. If we love only those who love us in kind, we truly are not loving as God loves, as God would have us love. Love your enemies, we are told. Do good to those who abuse us, we are told. Yet we have been taught to only LOVE those who love us back in word and deed.

Are we each special in and of ourselves?  If we were, would any of us ever face eternal nothingness? Would any of us face the wrath of God? Would any of us be destroyed completely, burned in the lake of fire until we are nothing, if we had a specialness on our own, would those things happen?  Our God is special, and with HIM in us He makes us special.  And truthfully as already said, we are all special with our potential to be God's.  Without God we are NOTHING.  You don't have to like it, you can hate it in fact, because you are allowed to choose to be God's, never forced.

Our sufficiency, our worth is found in GOD. We are no longer empty husks of human beings when we have God's spirit in us, a new heart, a new spirit.  Yet we can be empty husks of human beings. We can claim self-sufficiency but that is only a lie we tell ourselves. 

We can do all things through CHRIST, as well as the opposite, we do nothing without Christ, nothing of any real worth.

We are sufficient in CHRIST!

Please, Lord, please be our sufficiency, we know we are nothing without YOU and YOUR LOVE.  Bless us, keep us, in YOU always! Through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!

Amen.

This our success....

A new heart.

A new spirit.

We are to be receptacles of ALL that will enable us to be God's.

This include receiving a new heart and a new spirit.

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

A car engine does not produce oil, you must add oil to that engine. Take all the oil out of the car and you're left with a hunk of useless metal that might be good for spare parts, or a non-moving, eventually rusting and empty shell that could be used for all sorts of things other than what it was intended to be used for. 

There is no doubt in my mind a person could find many uses for a non-moving vehicle. Some could make art sculptures from it. The less fortunate might even convert it to a tiny living space to keep them out of the elements. While we have all probably seen rotting cars as eyesores filling up the yards of people who have refused to have them towed away to a yard full of useless cars, that doesn't mean that's all the non-working car is good for.

Sometimes someone will come along and take a disgusting piece of metal garbage once called a car and they'll painstakingly and lovingly as a hobby restore that car to working condition. In order for that car to ever work again though, oil will have to be reintroduced to it and flow freely to all the place it is needed to keep the engine running smoothly.

Like this attempt at an analogy between the car and the oil it must have in order to work, we, to belong to God, must have His Spirit within us and it's a constant in filling of the Spirit, a constant renewal, just like oil must be checked and replenished in a car.  No, the analogy isn't perfectly matched but you get what I'm saying.

Us human beings can live every day of our lives without the Spirit, but we are just living, breathing, empty husks, we are dead cars turned into something else. We seemingly work but we are NOT working for the purpose we were created to work for.

How many of us have become husks and don't even know that's what we are, and frankly, don't even care?  A shiny well polished, painted and decorated car turned into a fancy restaurant booth has certainly made its new use special and comely, even coveted perhaps by those who would dine in it, but for all that it's serving a new reinvented purpose it is NOT being used for what it had been created to be used for.  Us human beings may be special, lovely, amazing husks of intended human beings, but unless we are being made new, unless we are being given the Spirit of God, we are not living as we were intended to live. 

The lowliest of people living in rags, barely surviving on crumbs and the good will of others, if filled with God's Spirit are living their lives as they were created to live it, more so than the wealthiest person living without the Spirit of God. The measure of success we measure with ia NOT the measure of success God measures with.  We measure success so differently that it's hard for us to truly imagine any thing else. To say a poor, homeless widow is closer to God than the Pastor of a mega church seems ludicrous but it's closer to being true than anyone really wants to admit.

How do we measure our success as human beings? It truly does depend on whether or not you are living contently as an empty husk void of God's Spirit, or seeking to be made new and given a new heart, and a new spirit.  Empty husks strive for material success and look at the world with the same standard, labelling successes those who have money enough to afford a good home, car, etc, etc, etc.  We don't call those struggling to make ends meet a success, we label them inferior.

God wants to give us a new heart and a new spirit--

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

This is our success-- being given a new heart, and a new spirit. 

This is our success- having God's spirit within us causing us to walk in God's ways.

We do not find success on our own, not spiritual success, not true success as the human beings we were created to be.

Don't we need the stony hearts taken out of us?

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2Co 3:4  And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God

Our sufficiency truly is of GOD and GOD ALONE.

In His GRACE! In His LOVE ALWAYS!

Amen!!!!

This world is Un-fixable by human might and power.

Zec 4:6  ... Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Might and power- two things people wield to gain control of other people and situations. Those who gain might and power and get others with might and power to follow them are often people of great influence over others and they've won wars throughout history this way. They've won wars, leadership positions, marriages, you name it, the earthly treasures are at their fingertips. Is it any wonder people are often lustful for such power- for riches, power and might?  People want to live their lives comfortably  without excessive worry. People want to have their needs taken care of and to throw in a little extra for comfort.  People here in the western world live lives of extreme ease compared to those who suffer, and scrounge just to survive.  We know this, but it doesn't stop our excessive desire for comfort, for material security and ease.  We believe that money will take care of all that worry for security and ease, and I'd be lying to say money doesn't offer a certain degree of assurance that our earthly needs are taken care of.

Might and power give riches and security on an earthly physical level and people seek this often above everything else.

'Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.' 

Yes, might and power have done many things but ultimately it truly is only BY the Spirit of the Lord that we have the greatest success in life- and that success is the  assurance of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing else, no matter what it is, matters if we forfeit eternal life. This is truth.

You can have ALL the might and power the world has to offer and it will NOT give you eternal life.

Even with all the might and power the world has to offer there is one thing you still have to do, you have to live in this world KNOWING all your might and power cannot bring  peace to everyone in the world. All your might, power, influence, money cannot rid the world of evil and all it's affects.

This world is UNFIXABLE by human might and power.

However, the Spirit of the LORD alone has guaranteed us HOPE for a world made new. This world will only be made new AFTER all evil is destroyed and that is something mankind can never do, destroy evil. It can barely contain a tiny portion of the evil that exists, and that containment is only achieved by the creation of an even more evil place- concentrated evil with just tiny bits of supposed non-evil to control the evil.  No, mankind cannot and NEVER will be able to rid the world of evil, it's an impossibility. Mankind has no control over the spiritual realm beyond choosing to believe in God over Evil. Once we choose the spiritual side we wish to be on, the battle ensues and our choice must be renewed daily as it is tested, tried, and tormented. 

The battle has been WON.

It's which side YOU choose to be on that remains.

Satan will stop at nothing to bring you to his side, and God stopped at NOTHING to bring you to His- sacrificing His only begotten Son for us.

Will we through the Spirit choose God? Or will we choose Satan?

Not by might.

Not by power.

But by God's Spirit!

Amen!

Constant Spiritual Assault

Cares of this world.

Deceitfulness of riches.

The Lust of other things.

Enduring for a time, then giving up.

Affliction, persecution arising.

Satan instantly distracting.

Who among us can say we aren't susceptible to such as these?

Constantly we are bombarded by things that would steal the Word of God from us!

CONSTANT SPIRITUAL ASSAULT, this is the life of one who belongs to Christ Jesus, our Savior.

Our Savior would have His WORD of truth go to all! 

Yet as soon as His word touches the heart and the conversion begins Satan is right there doing all he can to stop that conversion. Satan does NOT want a single person to be converted, not a single one.

In the world of eternal life there is not ONE single person who is more important to God than another.  Likewise, there is not a single person on earth that is more important to Satan than another.  God and Satan want all of us, a single person is the same to them as any other person as far as eternal importance.  It is only US here on earth, us human beings who place more importance upon one person than another.

Before you start talking about God's prophets- His chosen- realize this- those who are His chosen are those who chose to belong to Him, their hearts belonged to God, not to themselves, by their choice. None were FORCED to be His. 

To Satan the richest person is a notch in his belt just the same as the poorest if they choose to be his, not God's.

To God, the richest and the poorest doesn't matter, their choosing to be His is all that matters.

You and I will face ALL manner of situations and each one will be geared towards luring us from God.   As long as we keep living, learning, loving the truth the Word of God, through all those situations, we will remain God's. It's when we are drawn away from the Word of God that we falter, and fall.

Please FATHER, keep us in YOUR WORD OF TRUTH letting NOTHING draw us away, not a single thing!  All through our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Mar 4:5  And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:

Mar 4:6  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

Mar 4:7  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Mar 4:8  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

Mar 4:9  And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Mar 4:10  And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.

Mar 4:11  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Mar 4:12  That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

Mar 4:13  And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

Mar 4:14  The sower soweth the word.

Mar 4:15  And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

Mar 4:16  And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

Mar 4:17  And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

Mar 4:18  And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

Mar 4:19  And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Mar 4:20  And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

*******

Overwhelmed Spirit

Psa 143:4  Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

Such emotion.  Being God's is NOT easy.  Being God's means opening up yourself as fair game to Satan and all his evil followers- angels and humans.  Being God's paints a spiritual target all over us so that there isn't an inch of us unmarked for all to see that we belong to God.  When we are so spiritually marked you can just imagine how much unwanted attention is focused on us by the evil ones who want to keep us from Christ.  Is it any wonder that one who belongs to God can cry out with David-  My spirit is overwhelmed within me, my heart desolate.

Being a Christian does NOT mean you are guaranteed any sort of happiness, as far as earthly happiness is concerned. Can we as Christians be content and consoled with the promise we are given? We truly are living on a promise for future peace, future happiness.  Here and now we are almost guaranteed a hard life of constant, non-stop spiritual attack.  We aren't promised any lulls in the attacks either, the evil spiritual entities do not ever grow tired of their work. Our only safety is found in our Savior who overcame so we through Him can overcome.

When we are overwhelmed, when our hearts feel desolate, we can still cling tightly to the hope we can only find in Jesus.  Everything around us can fall apart, but we still need to cling to our Savior and the hope He died to ensure we'd have.  The future hope this is our aim, this is the goal we long for, this is the prize we are running our Christian race towards. Many who run races train long and hard, some train years and years for a single race with the aim to win that race. We, as Christians have to run in this spiritual race with the aim to win the race, and the race does not end until our Savior returns, or we enter the long sleep.  Truly it is a race, a long, long, long race we enter when we become Christians.

Are you spiritually overwhelmed?

Is your heart desolate within you?

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Amen.