Why Is it so Hard to Live the Christian Life?
We allow so many worldly things to occupy our thoughts, the Word cannot have the pre-eminence in our lives.
We're in the greatest battle ever fought. It's a struggle of Life against DEATH. Satan is set to besiege us in all three realms of body, spirit, and soul. The only way we can have the victory is get into Christ. He's already overcome. If we are truly born into Him, we too are over comers, and can live above sin.
Because Jesus paid the price for our salvation, we can come into Christ by faith in the Word God is fulfilling in our day. To receive Him is to receive the Spirit, to receive the Spirit is to be born again. The New Birth comes only by a clear understanding of the Word God is fulfilling now.
If we can only find His promises for OUR day and through faith and obedience see that Word manifesting through us, we will be born again. There is no other way. Unless we are walking in the Light of the Word He is manifesting NOW, we are not and cannot come under the Blood, or be born again (I John 1:7). God is only writing epistles of the PRESENT Truth. In each of the Seven Church Ages, God allotted a portion of Word or Spirit, and by foreknowledge, predestinated a people who would fulfill It.
Once we're born-again, the Bible becomes a new Book. Suddenly It makes sense. Former understandings seem childish. Our victory is assured, but only our soul has been redeemed. It's born a 'spirit babe,' unskilled in the Word of righteousness. As we grow in the faith and grace of God, we apply that understanding to overcome Satan's attacks in the other realms which make us a human being: our mortal spirit and our flesh.
Hebrews 4:12: 'For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart'.
We face the same temptations Satan offered Jesus—the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The Word discerns whether our problem is Spiritual, in our mortal spirit, or our flesh. And we must overcome as He overcame, by the Word of God and prayer.
Once we're mature, we'll know our weaknesses and keep them covered at all times. Satan is a good adversary. Like a boxer who's studied his opponent, he targets those weaknesses, and if we don't keep them covered, he's entitled to punch. If we have some besetting problem, a good way to overcome it is to do the opposite. Always shun the very appearance of evil. Don't play with evil, tempting Satan to see how close you can come without actually falling. Resist the Devil, and He will flee from you.
I John 3:9: 'Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin or disbelieve the revealed Word for the faith remains in him and he cannot unbelieve because he is born of God'.
The soul has only one contact: faith, or unbelief. Faith excludes unbelief in the revealed Word which is sin. Smoking, lying, drinking, adultery, stealing, and murder are NOT sin, they're the fruit of unbelief. People do those things because they are sinners. But a life lived by the Word is the Word expressed, that puts you above sin.
Christians are not sinners (I John 3:5-6). But only our soul is regenerated, the nature of the world is still in our spirit and body because they're of the world and desire the things of the world. Once we're born again, we bring them subject to the Word.
First, apply the Word to bring under subjection the five senses through which the world contacts our spirit: affection, memory conscience, reasoning, and imagination. Next, we bring the five senses of the flesh: see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, subject to that sanctified spirit.
If we are going to overcome in this spiritual battle, we'll know our Defense and our weaknesses, and not underestimate the wiles of the enemy. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, our defense and our attack is through applying the Word of God by faith, not church fellowship and psychology.
The Anointing is not emotions; the Anointing is Supreme Power in control. The greatest Anointing ever given anyone was to Jesus Christ. We have the Spirit by measure. As we to grow-up into the Life of Christ, we lay aside our own will, and our carnal desires, maturing into the likeness of Him which is by Faith. But so long as we have mortal spirits and corruptible bodies, we'll have problems in our flesh and spirit. Yet if we're born of God, we cannot sin. Quickly we'll repent of our mistakes, put them under the Blood, make restitution where possible, and forgetting those things which are past, press toward the mark of our high calling in Christ.
So don't be discouraged, saint of God, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who strengthens us by Spiritual understanding of His Bible, quickening our mortal flesh to the Word, and every One. Faith is our victory, seek greater understanding, for no true believer is any stronger and spiritually alive than his knowledge of and adherence to the pure Word of God. strat007.htm
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