oh carnality...

i have been learning a lot about the battle between Spirit and flesh lately. especially coming home and being thrust out of my little YWAM bubble and into the real world...

it amazes me how much i can be so carnally minded. how easy it is to get caught up in the things of this world...how much i am impressed with them. i was thinking the other day about how the devil works, and at first i was thinking that he must sit around waiting to pounce on us at any given moment of weakness (which i believe he does) but then i started thinking about my SELF...and i began to see how things really have been set up by satan. i think that most of the time, he has us SO cornered in our own weakness, and he has blinded us over time with so many lies, that when these issues come up, he doesn't even have to feed into us anymore, we feed into ourselves with the lies he has already spoken. we walk around living and believing these LIES, and they hold us back from receiving truth and true FREEDOM from the Lord.

i know that in my life, there are COUNTLESS times when i actually speak lies over myself, and truly BELIEVE them! what is that?? that is NOT living in the Spirit. that is NOT living as a child of God. and it is the furthest i could be from where i need to be.
in doing that, i am speaking death over myself...and i am not walking in the love or freedom that God has given me through Jesus.

but through all this the Lord has been REMINDING me where i can be, and that i really am called to live as Jesus did. to live a holy life. but there is nothing that i mySELF can contribute to any transformation. all that i can do is surrender and open myself to the Lord, and let His Spirit do the work in me.

sometimes it seems so impossible to even THINK about living holy lives. sometimes it seems impossible to serve the Lord and really walk in fullness with Him. and the truth is, IT IS!
WE cannot do anything in ourselves. WE cannot give anything to the Lord except ourselves, just as we are. and ultimately, that is all He asks us to do.
simple. and He takes care of the rest. in bigger and better ways than we could ever imagine.

something from my utmost for His highest was an eye opener for me...not in terms of new information, but FRESH revelation...
"when the Spirit of God detects anything in us that is wrong. He doesn't ask us to make it right; He only asks us to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right."
BUT
"as children of the light we need to confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God"

galatians 5:16 says "walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" walking in the Spirit gives us authority to put away the sin and the death in our lives. over time, as the Holy Spirit works, we are sanctified. we are changed...and our sinful selves are faded out because of the light of LIFE shining in and through us. our carnal minds are not fixed on the lies from the enemy anymore. our minds and our hearts are fixed on Jesus.

but how do we walk in the Spirit? we ABIDE. in His word. His truth. His love...

to abide means to dwell or reside; to remain; to wait for; to await. and it is the true definition of what it means to walk in the Spirit. as we abide in Him daily, as we wait openly for Him, He changes us - He restores, teaches, disciplines, and draws us even closer to Him. the closer we are to Him, the more evident His light in our lives. in LIGHT, there is no room for darkness. sin cannot be in the presence of God. the closer we get to God, the further we get from our sin...but it is only HIM that can draw us out of our sinful selves, and into His holiness. only by His grace. only because of His love...