Are You Dead Or Alive?
I have often read Galatians chapter five because it seriously burdens my heart when I compare this scripture to the present state of the body of Christ. The Bible says in I John 3:9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
It appears throughout scripture that a true transformation of Christ is done through our hearts and our mouths. Romans 10:9 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Yet we see in scripture that God says many speak of Him from their mouth, but their hearts are far from Him. Isaiah 29:13 "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:"
II Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." This requires a daily renewal of our mind (Romans 12:2). When a person truly repents and accepts Christ as Lord and Savoir of their life, it should appear to others that something has changed. A sincere transformation should be "audible, visual and personable." In other words, your speech should change. Your actions should change and others should clearly recognize it. That is where your witness is birthed.
Many times we share the transforming power of Christ without speaking a word about Him. Just as some of you may have heard people say, "You are the only Bible many people will ever read." When we look at Galatians chapter 5 how many of you struggle with one or more of these sins? How many professing Christians continue living in these sins with no acknowledgment of conviction? How many people in the body of Christ are truly born of the spirit when it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out the statistics of "supernatural healing" compared to the "divorce rate" or "sexual impurity" in the Church?
I have always said the way to be a true witness is to "keep it real, keep it open and keep it honest." That is my motto. Now the Bible says we are all a work in progress (Hebrews 13:21), and Christ will continue "His work of transformation" until the day of His return (Philippians 1:6). We have to assume that each of us, will battle at least the nature of the sin even after we truly have surrendered our hearts completely to God.
The key word there is BATTLE "Being Aware To Turn Luring Eyes." When we are born of the spirit we will be at war continually. Galatians 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." Whichever one you surrender to is the one who wins.John 3:6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Galatians 6:8 "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
How is it that we win a battle? We take out the opponent right? God always provides a way out of temptation.
Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak."
I Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]."
James 1:12 "Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."
The most important thing we must do as a child of God is acknowledge our battles. If you were in an actual war and you were split up from your platoon, would you purposely run into an entire enemy bunker by yourself? We must use wisdom when it comes to our spiritual journey. None of us are above temptation. At the same time, none of us have no weaknesses. So, with that in mind we don’t want to stop on a balance beam in the middle of quick sand in enemy territory with an opponent surrounding us with bow and arrow. When we do that, we set ourselves up for failure. The devil doesn’t make us do anything. The Bible says we are drawn away by our own lusts (James 1:14).
It always stirs me up when I hear people say "The devil made me do it." No, the devil doesn’t make anyone do anything we all have a choice and most of us know what is right and what is wrong. The devil just slithers around trying to see who is going to latch on to the bait of the sin. When we place ourselves in situations where we are tempted by our weaknesses we become our own enemy because we are basically surrendering our spirit to our flesh. When we do this we always face consequences. It always seems like each time you fall into the same "temptation", the consequences worsen each time, can I get an Amen somebody?The question is how many times does it take for us to be defeated by our own sin nature before we truly allow the spirit of God to control our lives? It doesn’t matter which one of these sins mentioned you battle with, the struggle is just as hard for one who battles with selfish ambition compared to one who battles with sexual immorality. The decision we have to make is whether or not we are willing to completely surrender our lives to God.
You see before we are saved all of us have all of these sins in our life in some form or fashion, but many times we fill the void of not "having God" in our lives with one particular stronghold. When we are still not fulfilled and decide to accept Christ as Lord and Savoir, the weaker strongholds easily fall off of our lives and Satan begins to bombard the area that was our biggest crutch before we got saved. Not that he can control your response but he can place snares all around you. II Timothy 2:25-26 "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." What we have to do is recognize that when you play with fire you will get burned.
The key to being delivered from strongholds is separating oneself from the fire. Don’t even hold your hands over it! Better yet don’t even look at it! All your flesh needs to pull your spirit into a mess is to see something and look at it long enough to pull you into your own temptation by changing your perception of it.
Look at Eve, she fixated her gaze upon the tree of knowledge and her perception changed. Genesis 3:6 "And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." After her perception changed she took with her hand and ate her way out of the presence of God.The Bible says to bind the word upon your fingers (Proverbs 7:3) and meditate upon His word continually. Psalm 119:15 "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways." Psalm 119:48 "My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes."
If you can for a moment think about what that really says. You see if Eve would have been meditating on the Word God gave them and bound up her fingers with Gods blessings she would have never been led away into error. But she meditated on the lie of the devil and on the tree of knowledge of good and evil until her perception made it too enticing to turn away from.
When we break down all our decisions and all our choices it comes down to those two things, "Is this going to be pleasing to me, or pleasing to God?" We are naturally of the flesh yet supernaturally once saved we are also "born of God" The question is when faced with different situations and circumstances will we please "the flesh" or will we please God?
I want to define each of the sins mentioned in Galatians chapter five, and after doing so truly search your heart and confess to God which ones you want Him to purge you of.
Adultery- Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and a woman not his wife, or between a married woman and a man not her husband.
Fornication- Voluntary sexual intercourse engaged in by a man, especially an unmarried man with an unmarried woman. (anyone not united in Holy Matrimony)
Uncleanness- Ceremonially impure, morally impure, unchaste, obscene or vile.
Lasciviousness- Tending to excite lustful desires. (Women dressing provocative for example)
Idolatry- Excessive devotion to or reverence for some person or thing. (If you watch tv/social networking/video games etc. You might want to compare your time here to your time in communication with God.)
Witchcraft-The power or practices of black or white magic.(Or rebellion in the church)
Hatred- Strong dislike or ill will.
Variance- A debater, one who actively disputes or quarrels. (Ex: Believers who meet someone with different Biblical beliefs as another and want to debate instead of agreeing on the cross.)
Emulations- Ambitious rivalry or envious dislike.
Wrath- Intense anger, rage or fury.
Strife- Contention or competition fighting or quarreling.
Seditions- The stirring up of discontent, resistance against those in authority.
Heresies- A religious belief opposed to the orthodox doctrines or a church, especially such a belief specifically denounced by the church. (Example: allowing homosexuals to preach.)
Envy- A feeling of discontent and ill will because of another’s advantages, possessions, etc.; resentful dislike of another who has something that one desires.
Murders- (Self explanatory)
Drunkenness- Intoxicated or habitually intoxicated.
Revellings- Boisterous festivity (Example: Mardi Gras)
God wants to continue to mature us so that the fruits of the spirit become evident in our lives. We have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. When the Bible says, "we all fall short of the Glory of God" that doesn’t give us a license to continue surrendering to sin in the flesh.
The fruits of the spirit are what we fall short of. The Bible doesn’t say "We fall short when it comes to crucifying our flesh so that we don’t bring God glory." God’s glory is not in sin or fleshly actions, God’s glory is in the fruits of the spirit. So when we fall short it’s not talking about "the sin nature" it’s saying we fall short of good fruit.
People have taken this scripture out of context -read beyond that scripture and you will see in Romans 3:25 His grace covers our sins previously committed. Now He doesn't expect us to be perfect which is why we have the gift of repentance cause no man can be, however He also doesn't expects us to turn from that sin nature.
People have taken this scripture out of context -read beyond that scripture and you will see in Romans 3:25 His grace covers our sins previously committed. Now He doesn't expect us to be perfect which is why we have the gift of repentance cause no man can be, however He also doesn't expects us to turn from that sin nature.
James 4:17
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin."
Jesus was pure and blameless, we will always fall short of His Glory. What we don’t want to be accused of is taking the cross in vain. He died so that we could repent and turn from our wicked ways. Not so that we could take for granted His grace and not let go of "the sin that so easily besets us."
Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"
That cloud of witnesses are those reading you as their only Bible. Put on your running shoes for God! Read Galatians chapter five and evaluate yourself.
Jeremiah 17:10 "I the LORD search the heart, [I] try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, [and] according to the fruit of his doings."
Luke 8:15 "But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep [it], and bring forth fruit with patience."
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