Pressing On

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:13–23)

In learning what it means to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh, I’ve found this is not about outward actions as much as inward motivations. Am I listening to God and doing what He commands, or am I doing what I do for personal reasons?

At my age, I’m aware that if I don’t eat right and exercise, my body will suffer. So do I eat right and exercise to avoid suffering? Or to avoid problems that will keep me from serving the Lord?

I make quilts to give to needy people. Does the desire to show off the design skills God gave me motivate my sewing sessions, or am a motivated by a love for those who suffer from various things, including a lack of love?

Am I polite to telemarketers just to be nice, or to show compassion to a caller who may be in a slave situation and making the same calls over and over because they cannot escape?
Closer to home, do I help my hubby with his computer woes because I love him, or to stop his complaining so I can get on with my own work?

The Bible often uses extremes and outward behaviors to identify the flesh:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:5–10)

Yet I know that all of these begin inside my head if I walk in the flesh. Most of them might never show up in actions, but God wants a pure heart. How much easier to walk in the Spirit who gives these attitudes than to fake it with “right” actions: 

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12–15)

The rest of this reading says I’m to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” for such thinking and the results are from His thoughts, not the selfishness of my flesh.

Lord, sometimes I put on the right behavior, but having it flow from Your Spirit which motivates all parts of me is what You really want. Not that I have arrived, but I’m so thankful that You have shown me the difference as You persist in changing my heart. I will keep pressing on and looking forward to being like You when I see You face to face.

 

Union with Christ

 
It is an amazing thing that God should unite Himself to those who believe in Him. It is a difficult and life-long process to learn that this is not only true but how to put it into practice — by living in His power instead of my own.

My friend LS said last week that our problem is discernment. Knowing the difference between ‘my will’ and His voice. For both of us, being a Christian most of our lives means that we have many good thoughts and ideas, yet we realize not all of them come from Jesus. Sometimes our ideas are just our ideas, not something the Lord is saying to us. Discernment between what is flesh and what is Spirit becomes more difficult as we age. He weeded out the obvious but that sinful self combined with the enemies lies seems to become more subtle.

That said, the Scriptures are so necessary. My old self will even try to twist them if I don’t keep  checking my ‘good ideas’ out before acting on them. On the other hand, there are some occasions when the difference is obvious. The will of God is so impressive and I know that I could never have thought the amazing ideas that He puts in my mind.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14–16)

Learning the difference — that is discernment, but having the mind of Christ and the Word of God makes the difference.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12–13)

God did not leave me to figure this out with my own resources. Otherwise, clueless me would never know what is from Him and what I dream up. In my union with Christ, I can draw on His mind to help me discern what is what. Not only that, He already knows. I cannot hide anything from Him. I simply need to let Him and His Word do their job.

If this sounds like something only for mature believers, today’s reading points out that the following passages were spoken to new believers who were still very fleshy…

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? (1 Corinthians 3:1–3)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

This indwelling God is the possession of even the weakest and most immature believer in Christ. It is for babes in Christ as well as those who have been Christians for decades. Every believer is a “temple of the Holy Spirit” and all of us have access to the mind of Christ and to the Word of God to help us understand His will.

I’m thinking, the problem is not in having the ‘tools’ but not having the desire. That old sinful nature is dead, separated from God, yet it still tries to run my life and be glorified instead of yielding to God. Sin wants to be comfortable not disciplined, and do its own thing rather than the will of God. This is why we say our enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

PRAY: God, I can resist the world, and I can realize the devil’s schemes, but my old flesh is somethings more subtle. Thank You that You gave me Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Your Word to help me discern the flesh and also say NO to it.