If we then are in the Spirit of Christ, God DOES require we
WALK in HIS Spirit. There is no doubt
there is such a thing as Obedience to Him.
But the operative Word is Him. The Spirit of God is a Him. He is Alive in us and Dwells in us.
Therefore if the Spirit is He, He has a mind. The Scriptures say His mind is life and
peace.
So how does one "walk in the Spirit?"
It is obvious that it is daily. Daily abiding in the One Who dwells
within. What does this mean for us?
For one, it means we can NEVER be independent selves. When we use the term "Die to self,"
what are we saying?
We are saying that the "self" we are dying to is
an independent spirit walking again, according to the course of this world,
against the mind of Christ, indulging in fleshly lusts that are obviously
qualified as sinful, etc.
It means walking against our TRUE identity in Christ Jesus -
against the LIFE of God's Son in us.
Can Christians do this?
If Christians couldn't, Paul would not have written by the
Holy Spirit things like "walk not like the Gentiles walks, in the futility
of your mind, alienated from the Life of God..." or "I cannot speak
to you as spiritual but as carnal, babes in Christ...walking as "mere
men" (people not saved). Or, the
whole letter to the Corinthians was dealing with carnality - operating contrary
to their saved spirit in Christ Jesus.
There are other things written in the epistles that address
all these things.
But let's look at all this in a glorious, positive way. We GET to KNOW the Spirit of God within our
hearts - we GET to be strengthened in Him within our inner man (the spirit man)
- We GET to increase in our spiritual wisdom and understanding. We GET to be conformed to the image of Christ
Jesus. We GET to be transformed from
glory to glory from faith to faith by beholding Christ. We GET to abide in Christ and learn from Him,
day by day - being renewed day by day.
We GET to, we GET to, we GET to.
It's only the deceptive, deceiving wiles of Satan that keep
a soul from believing this. That all
this in Christ is truly AVAILABLE to every child of God - every soul GETS the
same opportunity, the same invitation to come to God continually and grow in
the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Life, our All.
I truly believe God means for us to get real adamant about
CLAIMING this grace, CLAIMING Him to work even MORE in us and desiring with all
our hearts to obtain the fullness of Him within our hearts - all according to
His will and measure of the gift of Christ.
Will He answer? Will
He do it? Of course He will because it's
His will!
Yet I believe it's up to us.
It's up to our hearts to apply some determination to HAVE all of Christ
in us and us in Him.
God is able to make ALL grace abound. He is able to fill our minds with Truth and
have that walk in all soundness.
We need to get real "piggy" about RECEIVING the
things of God, taught by His Spirit with His Word. He will NEVER run out of His Spirit, grace,
and living Word for any soul who comes to Him.
Oink, oink!
Sue Gaither
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