In order to overcome any problem of the flesh, as Christians, we must recognize that we are in a different kingdom and we have to follow different rules from those of the system that governs the kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of God is just the opposite of the world system which operates on fear. Satan is its ruler and causes and responds to fear. He will cause us to fear and then seize the opportunity to use that fear to torment our soul.
On the other hand, God responds to faith. Many Christians beg God for what they want or need. He does not respond to begging. That is motivated by fear. Under the new covenant, by His grace God has given us an inheritance through the gift of Jesus Christ. This inheritance includes everything we need for life and for godliness. It is ours by His grace. We did nothing to earn it. It belongs to us but we don't get possession of our inheritance automatically. We have to access His grace by faith, and faith works by love. Without love, we can't get hold of any of the things that He has given to us. If we want what He has for us we have to do it His way. Hie has commanded us to “Love the Lord thy God with all the heart, all thy mind, all thy soul and all thy strength.” and “Love they neighbor as thyself.” So, how do you comply with these commandments?
We are to love God for Who He is and what He has done for us. We can go to Psalms and use them as an example to worship and praise Him, and thank Him for His goodness. As we do so, He will begin to reveal Himself to us. Thank Him for His great love in sending His Son to pay the penalty for our sins and for making us His children, new creations, in which He now dwells. Love for Him will begin to rise up in our spirit as we give ourselves over to be led by the Holy Spirit in praise, worship and thanksgiving.
1 John 1:5 says that the love of God is perfected in one who keeps His word so, obedience to His Word is an indicator of our love for Him. As we grow in love for Him, we come to greater knowledge of Him.
Another indicator of our love for Him is our level of love for others. He asks the question, “How can you say you love Me Who you have not seen and hate your brother who you have seen?”
An indicator of our lack of love for Him is our love for the world or things in or of the world. (This refers to the evil of the world system.)
It is important to work on loving God and others, not only because God commanded it and said that these two commandments cover them all, but because our faith won't work without love. For example, there is a young woman who has a lot of anger and unforgiveness against her father, thinking that he is too strict and she gets into rebellion against him. She tries to be a good Christian but this is a struggle for her. She is familiar with the word and knows the scripture that God's angels encamp about her and He has given them charge over her to keep her in all her ways, and they hearken as she gives voice to the word of God in faith to protect her and help her. She is walking home alone down a dark street but is not afraid as she reminds herself of the angels' presence, but later as she proceeds down the street, she thoughts become filled with hatred for her father. While she is thinking along these lines, some unruly youth approach her. One of the girls in the group makes an offensive comment and begins to threaten her. Can her faith be strong enough for the angels to help her? Not likely, because of the strength of her soul, she is being led by her senses (emotions) so her spirit is too weak to cause enough faith for the angels to hear and obey. What if she answers in strife? How will that affect what the angels can do? Can her faith work to get the angels to hearken to her cry and help her if the youth attack her after she responds angrily and in strife? I think not. Why? Because faith only works by love. Faith comes from the heart (spirit). She has given leadership to her soul (her mental processes) and there is no power of faith in the mind, will and emotions.
Another example: A lady was waiting at the bus stop and it was very dark. A car with approximately four young guys were in the car. They drove the car around the block several times. One of the boys got out of the car as they stopped at the corner past where she stood. He walked towards her and went on to pass her. Suddenly, he turned, grabbed her purse, causing her to almost fall. As she gained her balance, she pointed towards him and yelled, “Jesus loves you.” The boy fell flat on his face. As she walked towards him, she heard him sobbing. He said, “No one has ever told me that before.” He held the purse out to her. She took it and told him to keep the money because if his friends saw that he had nothing, they might harm him. The difference in these two situations is the response of love that allowed the angels to protect her.
Decisions like this have to be made everyday, numerous times per day by Christians. We wonder sometimes why things happen and we believe God “allowed” them to happen. Is it because of God allowing it, or is it by our choices that some things happen? This is not always the case, but it is often enough that we should keep ourselves free of any blessing blockers that are active in our thoughts and lives.
Anger is a blessing blocker. It could be from numerous roots. Anger can be rooted in a generation curse. That is, the anger might be the result of numerous generations of persons who have been oppressed by increasing difficulty with restraining angry behavior. Anger could also have a root of rejection. If things happened in a person's life that made them feel that they were being rejected, a spirit of rejection is very likely its cause. It is difficult to discern the spiritual root of anger without revelation from the Lord. Generally, dependence on the Holy Spirit to reveal the real root is the only way to be certain of it's root. Fellowship with the Lord in worship, praise and thanksgiving, followed by reading the scriptures that relate to the problem sets the spiritual atmosphere for obtaining revelation from the Lord. We have a direct line of communication with God's Spirit through our spirit when we quiet our soul and seek Him through His fellowship. The Spirit does not speak to our mind, will or emoitions (soul). He speaks to our spirit. God encourages us to come boldly to the throne of grace for help so we are to boldly ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding and enlightenment on the scriptures we are are reading. We are not to be afraid to ask Him to reveal the root of anger, and to give us wisdom on how to apply the scriptures to resolve the situation. We should spend time meditating on the scriptures. Meditation is simply rolling the scripture over and over in your mind, taking it apart thinking about it in context of our problem, examining each word; from milk to meat of the word. We should also ask the Holy Spirit for discernment. Many times it seems that the scriptures we are being led to are not quite on point, but the Holy Spirit will begin to minister the word to us and show us things you can't see through our natural mind. He tells us not to grow weary or faint and encourages us that we will reap if we do not faint.. If we don't get an answer the first time, we should keep on trying. He says to ask, seek and knock and the door will be opened. He will give us the help we seek and strengthen us. It will then be up to us to "mortify the flesh."
I will write more in the next post on how to strengthen the spirit and break the strength of the emotional bondage on the soul.
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