Cursed Tree- Have Faith

Jesus, living with the Spirit upon Him; Jesus, living in the Holy Spirit; Jesus, God in the flesh-  was hungry. He had needs. He couldn't live without eating just as we can't live without eating. Jesus was hungry...

Mar 11:12  And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry

Being hungry, Jesus saw a fig tree far away. Obviously not so far He didn't recognize it for what it was, but not close enough to see details.  And He DIDN'T know upon seeing that tree that it was barren of fruit. Jesus HOPED He'd find figs on the tree. Jesus walked towards the tree, just as WE would walk towards a fig tree hoping there were figs on it so we could satisfy our hunger.  The humanity of Jesus is often overlooked, but it's something we MUST comprehend. No one accused Him of not being a human being, they knew that He had all the same needs and necessities as they did.  Jesus had to be one of us. Jesus had to feel all the things we feel, see the things we see, know the things we know.

Mar 11:13  And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon

Now, the time for figs to be on the tree wasn't yet.  As if we went towards an apple tree hoping to find apples when it wasn't apple season.  Jesus walked towards the fig tree wanting figs when it wasn't time for figs to be on that tree, was He wanting a miracle?  If so, why weren't they miraculously there? We know creating food wasn't an impossibility with Him, so why weren't the figs there? The fact of the matter is, fig trees do not get leaves before they get fruit. The fruit of the fig tree and the leaves grow together. So it is quite possible that Jesus was hoping there would be something edible on the leaf infested fig tree- perhaps if there were immature fruit He would have matured it, but there was no fruit at all.

Mar 11:13…  and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

No figs.  The need for  the figs was there- a desire for figs was there, but there was a bigger picture we have to look at. Jesus had to look at the bigger picture as well. There was something more at stake here that wasn't instantly apparent.

You know how we often need things- such as food, but it doesn't happen? Does that make us any less hungry just because the need isn't going to be met? No.  Was Jesus still hungry?  Yes. His hunger didn't disappear miraculously. Jesus' hunger remained. 

What did Jesus do to that fig tree- whose only fault was not producing?

Mar 11:14  And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

Jesus spoke to the tree-  No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever.

The tree did NOT give fruit to the hungry, Jesus. Was Jesus mad? It's possible, but more likely He was disappointed. This was a learning experience, as much of Jesus' life in the three years of His ministry was all about- teaching of the kingdom of God to come.

The next morning Jesus was returning from the temple…

Mar 11:20  And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

Mar 11:21  And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.

The tree was DEAD. Overnight the tree that had great life left in it- a tremendous amount of leaves- obviously not at all dying by appearance, but defective in producing no fruit, this tree was a withered husk.  Jesus cursed the tree and the tree died.

Mar 11:22  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Mar 11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Mar 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Mar 11:25  And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Mar 11:26  But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Have faith.

The tree Jesus cursed is dead and Jesus tells His disciples to have faith. Not only to have faith, but powerful faith, a faith that has results.  And when we pray through that faith, we must forgive all others, so God will forgive us.  It's all connected.

Jesus wants His disciples to have faith, a working faith just as Jesus wanted the tree to have fruit.   Truly if WE do not have a working faith we- like that tree are cursed.  

A real faith, a working faith. 

Yes, the analogy of being fruitful spiritually is a real one as well. The truth that appearances are deceiving is true. There are a lot of truths here, a lot, and through the Spirit they can be discerned.  Please, Father, help us through the SPIRIT to understand all we need to understand.  We would have fruitful FAITH! We don't want to be like that fruitless fig tree! We need the Spirit in us to help us in this, please!  Help us also to forgive. It's so easy to forget to forgive. It's so easy to take the smallest of slights and hold onto them letting them fuel our resentment when the truth is, we need to forgive those slights, all of them! We need to forgive, help us to forgive!  Help us to be YOURS in all things!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, our LORD!  Amen!

Holy Spirit, as You were upon the Savior, be upon us!

The HOLY SPIRIT one in agreement with the LORD GOD, one in agreement with our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.   The HOLY SPIRIT- an INDIVIDUAL GOD.

Do you doubt the Holy Spirit is an individual God in His own right?

Act 5:3  But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to LIE TO the HOLY GHOST, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

Act 5:4  Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not LIED UNTO men, but unto GOD.

When Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit- he lied to GOD.

The HOLY SPIRIT IS A GOD.  And He is separate from God the Father and God the Son.  We have THREE GODS who AGREE in one.

The Holy Spirit of the Father GOD, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Holy Spirit a Comforter, a convicting power, a teacher. This Holy Spirit reflects perfectly the will of the Father and the Son, and it's own, which are the same will.  Just like we can have the same will of another person- in agreement.  We can agree the same.  They- God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit- all agree the same in ALL things. This is where us humans falter- we can't agree the same in ALL things because we are selfish, self-centered, self-focused and this stops us from agreeing in all things with another, as a rule.  We call people who agree in all ways with someone spineless. The husband who will agree with his wife in all things is called 'under her thumb'. The wife who will agree with her husband in all things  is called meek, mousy, subservient and all in derogatory manners. For us humans to agree on the same things it takes so incredibly much. We've lived on this earth for a long time and in the thousands of years of our civilizations we've yet to figure out how to agree on things so that all of us get along with each other. Our wills are different and we commend their differences rather than try to unite them. We do that with good reason though, mankind's will are not God's will and subject to many, many flaws.

The Spirit of the LORD GOD was upon the SON-

Isa 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Isa 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn

Luk 4:14  And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

The Spirit, the Holy Spirit can choose to give power, to teach, to convict, to reprimand, to help others.  The Holy Spirit was sent to US by Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was sent to Jesus by the Father God. The Holy Spirit agrees to utilized by those He is in agreement with. The Holy Spirit agrees to live in us because the Son sacrificed Himself, and would have us be with them, one in agreement with them!

Please, Holy Spirit, as you were upon our Savior, be upon us!

By the love- the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, please be upon us undeserving ones.

Amen.

The Reality of the Spirit

The Spirit of the Father upon the Son.

Isa 11:1  And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Isa 11:2  And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

Isa 11:3  And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

Isa 11:4  But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

Christ - is the BRANCH - Mat 1:6-16

The Spirit of the Father would rest upon the BRANCH.

The Spirit of wisdom would rest upon the BRANCH.

The Spirit of understanding would rest upon the BRANCH.

The Spirit of counsel would rest upon the BRANCH.

The Spirit of might would rest upon the BRANCH.

The Spirit of knowledge would rest upon the BRANCH.

The Spirit of the Fear of the LORD would rest upon the BRANCH.

Jesus LIVED IN THE SPIRIT, just as we are to live in the SPIRIT.

The SPIRIT gave the Savior His power!   The Spirit brought so much to Him, everything to Him really.  And we need this Spirit power, we need to live in the Spirit. WE need a FORCE outside of ourselves to live in us, to act in us, to work in us, to be in us. We have to acknowledge that there is a force, that there is the SPIRIT a living, breathing, real, intelligent, loving, creative entity, a BEING that will live in us if we allow, if we choose.

Jesus recognizes the Spirit.

God recognizes the Spirit.

The reality of the Spirit.

Living through the Spirit is truth, is life, as Jesus lived through the Spirit, and then sent the Spirit to us!

Holy Spirit.

The SAME Holy Spirit that INTERACTED with our SAVIOR, interacts with US!

Joh_14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever

Joh_14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Joh_15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me

Joh_16:7  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

We desperately need the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to abide with us for ever.  We are to walk (live) in the Spirit. We are to seek the Spirit. We are to deny our flesh nature and nurture the Spirit nature in us. The Holy Spirit will teach us all things. The Holy Spirit will bring all things to our remembrance- the things of our Savior. They Holy Spirit will testify of our Savior. The Holy Spirit is REAL.

We pray to the Father, through the Son, and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us- this is truth!

Rom_8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in groanings which can't even be spoken, praying for us, interceding for us because we often truly do NOT know what we should pray for, not really.

The Holy Spirit is real!  We must believe, because it is through faith it is all real.

Some might say faith means it's not real because you can't see, touch, etc. But there are just too many things in life that we can't see, touch etc  that are real for us to use that as proof.

We must believe .

Please Father, let the Holy Spirit live in us! The very same Spirit that brought you to life in the flesh, the same Spirit that took on the form of a dove when You were baptized. The Spirit that visited the apostles. The Spirit that we need so desperately to be in us. Bless us and keep us in the Spirit, not because we deserve it in any way at all, but because we don't deserve it and know we need the Spirit by Your grace and mercy!

Bless us, Lord, through the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Amen!

Chosen

Why did God take on Flesh and sacrifice Himself? Surely there had to be an easier way, another possibility, a better course of action that He could have taken, right?

Wrong.

Created in His image, we know on a small level what we would do as human beings to save our creations- children, inanimate objects and the like. Most people would go to great lengths to protect something very, very dear to them that they created. People have actually chosen death to protect their creations, so it's not something that is preposterous to comprehend.  Hearing about a person who sacrificed their own life to save that of another makes us think of them as heroes. We've given medals and held celebrations to honor those who die for others.  The big difference here between us and God, is we know that as the Creator, God could have chosen to simply end our entire existence, chalk us up as a failed experiment and try again.  We're talking about the power to do whatever you choose to do. 

Regardless of what a  human being may boast they'd do if they were God, or think God should have done, we know what He chose to do. He chose to take on Flesh and He chose it  because He is love.

The greatest sacrifice ever had to be made so that erring humans could regain the choice that was given to them upon their creation.

Think about it.  Upon creation Adam and Eve were given a choice- to eat or not to eat of one tree in a garden full of trees. The choice was really between - obeying their Creator or not obeying their Creator. The choice was- love or evil.  The choice was- others or self.  And you know what, we made our choice. We chose- game over. We picked between two things and that was supposed to be that.

No more choice left to make. 

Have you ever faced a situation where you long for a do-over?  I think we all have.  And have you ever been given a do-over? I think (though I could be mistaken) that most of us have been given a do-over or two during our lifetimes.  You especially desire a do-over when extenuating circumstances have interfered with the choice you made, right?

Human beings left alone, left without outside tempting, could have made a DIFFERENT choice that possibility existed.

So why weren't we left alone? Probably because the one in whom evil was birthed - a former covering angel close to the Creators- told the Creators that unless tempted the Creators would never know whether or not their human creations would truly choose them over themselves.  It wasn't enough to give everything to your creations and not expect them to love you, where is the real TEST of that love. The TEST comes when tried. 

There we were us first human beings living the perfect lives with our Creator. We are given a single restriction, a small thing really and we're fine with that. We listen, we have NO reason not to listen, no reason to disobey, no reason to doubt what we've been told, so we listen, we obey, we don't doubt not a single bit.

We are at one with our Creators.

But then we are inspired to doubt, where we'd never doubted before we are told we should doubt.

Do we listen? Do we doubt?

We all know the answer to that one and it's an answer we don't like- yes, we listen to the tempter, we doubt our Creators.  Given NO reason to doubt other than an outside influence, we do so.

The test was allowed, the trying was allowed and we failed.

Yet had we been left without the outside influence we wouldn't have failed. There was a cause of our failure, a source, an instigator, a mitigating circumstance.

NOW- rather than chuck the whole human creation, our Creators determined to prove that a human being could face that tempting influence and prevail against it. To do this, one of the Creators had to become human and do so in a way that would leave NO doubt to the humanity of this Redeemer.

Our Father God- became the Father God to the God made Son, made human, and that God made human HAD to rely wholly upon the Father God in the way we as created humans were supposed to have done.  Only, this God made human was birthed into a world full of temptations on every side, too numerous to number, and He was birthed with the SAME ability to fall to temptations as we all are. To save fallen human kind, the God made flesh HAD to experience all that fallen human kind experienced, and then if the God made flesh could prevail IN THE FLESH, then and only then could mankind be redeemed.

Promised this Redeemer, mankind lived with the hope, the promise, but it wasn't something accomplished for thousands of years. Until our Redeemer came and saved us - all we could truly know was our sins warranted death.  Our Redeemer's sacrifice  did away with the surety that sin and death was all we had to look forward to.

The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us when we walk after the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from sure death. The law we are to follow- obedience to God on all points, is something we fail at in our flesh and it's only in Christ's Spirit that we succeed, because He succeeded FOR US. If we WALK after the SPIRIT, we are walking after our Savior. 

We must MIND things of the Spirit, not things of the flesh.

Our carnal minds mean our death.

Our spiritual minds mean life and peace- knowing we are Christ's and saved through Him.

We must have the Spirit of God in us, living in us.

We are indebt to the Spirit.

We MUST live in the Spirit, the Spirit that our Savior promised to us once He returned to live with the Father God in heaven.

We must CHOOSE often and always, daily over and over again and again, choose Christ.

Please, Father God, please, help us to choose our Redeemer always!  You both chose us! You revealed You are LOVE in choosing us! You made the choice to redeem us, please, we would be redeemed!

Man has screwed things up so totally, we would live for You and the promised home You offer to all of us who would believe. We would be YOURS beyond the here and now, beyond the sinful, carnal flesh we are encompassed in. We have HOPE in our SAVIOR, we BELIEVE! WE would serve You through the Spirit always!!!!!! To this end we pray for YOUR endless love and guidance so we may be YOURS, all YOURS.

All through the sacrifice of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our LORD!

*******

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 

Spirit Before Flesh

Walk not after the flesh.

Walk after the Spirit.

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Imagine for a moment- what is it like to walk after the Spirit?

'Gal 5:22,23-'….love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…'

We get in the way of the Spirit.  Our FLESH gets in the way.  When we CHOOSE to put our flesh first we are automatically pushing the Spirit out of the way.

It's not a matter of not being able to live to care for your own needs, if we didn't, we'd be absolutely no good to anyone else. No one is advocating you live a life like John the Baptist, stripped of all comforts wandering the deserts, the wilderness preaching. If all were called to such a life there would be no one to plant crops, tend to them, harvest them; there would be no one to tend sheep, etc, etc.  We are NOT all called to be preachers, teachers, evangelists. We ARE all called to walk after the Spirit in whatever life we are called to lead. How is it possible? By putting the Spirit before the flesh.

Spirit before flesh.

Love before self.

Joy before self.

Peace before self.

Longsuffering before self.

Gentleness before self.

Goodness before self.

Faith before self.

Meekness before self.

Temperance before self.

This is the SPIRIT before FLESH!

And we CHOOSE to put the Spirit before the Flesh, because we are MORTIFYING the flesh so the Spirit will live in us. And we are doing this THROUGH the Spirit.

Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

We can no more mortify the flesh by our flesh and live in the Spirit than we can save ourselves, it's impossible!

Our flesh is mortified by the Spirit which manifests in us when we choose to follow our Savior.   When we make that desire a living part of our lives, choosing our Savior over self, we are putting ourselves in the position for our Savior to send the Comforter to us, to live in us.  When we are faced with FLESH deeds we CAN'T flesh fight against the flesh deed itself, we must seek our SAVIOR! It is ONLY through our Savior that the Spirit can dwell in us.

The Spirit in us will give us the love, the joy, the peace, the longsuffering, the gentleness, the goodness, the faith, the meekness, the temperance we need. 

We must choose JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOR FIRST!

SPIRIT before FLESH!  Jesus Christ our LORD before us!

By His mercy, love, and grace! All through Him in all things!

Amen!

War- Flesh and Spirit

War!

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Flesh and Spirit.

We are to walk in the Spirit but our flesh nature will not make this easy. They'll war because they truly are CONTRARY to each other.

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin

We must choose to serve the law of God, the moral law of God that has revealed right from wrong to us.  The law of God which we all know encompasses a moral standard that most people follow even if they claim no religion at all whatsoever.  We must choose to serve God with our minds, with our hearts, hating the sin our flesh draw us towards.

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

THROUGH THE SPIRIT- MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE FLESH!

(((MORTIFY- STRONG'S CONCORDANCE-

G2289 From G2288; to kill (literally or figuratively): - become dead, (cause to be) put to death, kill, mortify.))))

Through the SPIRIT-  we cannot ignore that part! We make a grave mistake when we leave out the SPIRIT.  The mortification of the deeds of the flesh that would keep us from living in the Spirit for Christ, MUST be killed through the SPIRIT, not through flesh. Our flesh nature -destroying our flesh nature? If we even try to do that - we are automatically taking glory to ourselves for our own salvation. 

Salvation comes through our SAVIOR, not us, not our power. Through the HOLY SPIRIT we have hope! Allowing the HOLY SPIRIT to live in us, accepting our Savior's sacrifice, choosing to be led by Him, learning of Him, following Him, recognizing Him, this is our life! 

Our flesh nature will rise up constantly so that we do cry out wondering how we are to ever be saved from it, but just as that flesh nature rises up, the Spirit will rise up and mortify that flesh.  WE have to believe the SPIRIT is doing this within us! Through all we are called to endure we must trust that the mortification process is taking place and our hope is to be found in Jesus Christ! 

We don't know how the Spirit works, we don't know what fires we will be called to walk through. We don't know what tribulations, what lessons we must learn, what refining is necessary within us. We know the chastising exists and we know that we are far from being rid of our flesh nature, and we know that it might not be until the last moment of our lives that we are truly where Christ would have us be. We must CLING to the hope found only in Christ, outside of our selves! Our Hope cannot be within ourselves, but outside in CHRIST to save us! 

Through the Spirit the deeds of our flesh will be killed, will be destroyed so we may be God's and this is the battle we are engaged in.  The battle to remain Christ's, to CHOOSE Christ over self, seduced by Satan, this is our life, this is the race we run.  We will not let go of Christ until He blesses us!

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1Jn 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We must confess our sins!

We must recognize our helplessness and cling to our HOPE.

Through the SPIRIT the deeds of our flesh must be mortified. We must die daily to self, choosing our Savior!  Please, LORD, please help us to constantly CHOOSE YOU, letting YOU live in us.  Help us NOT of our own pretend we can save ourselves in any way. Live in us truly, wholly, fully, know us, let us know You. Please, save us from ourselves!

We are at war- flesh and spirit. Help us to choose Spirit always over flesh. And when we live to our flesh help us to repent, to confess, to seek forgiveness through You.  Be our all in all, always!

We believe, Lord, help our unbelief.

Help us to live in the Spirit, help us to live through the Spirit. Do for us all that WE cannot do for ourselves in the weakness of our Flesh, and help us to allow the Spirit to do all that You need the Spirit to do in us so we may be wholly yours! All by YOUR grace, YOUR love!

In Jesus Christ, always!

Amen.