Surrender

Romans 6:7

He that is dead is freed from sin.

What does this mean? How does one die?

Self will never stop talking and desiring. What do we do with the corrupt desires? How did Paul die daily? Why die? Sin itself is death. Self is ready to please the natural inclinations because it roots from the seed of disobedience that we opened the door for as a result of listening to the serpent instead of God. The natural man became corrupt. As a result, self is corrupt, and is ready to be swayed by the enemy of souls - the devil.

When self wants to disobey or the devil whispers in our ears to disobey, we are powerless left to ourselves to resist that. We need a power beyond us. That power is only from God. Because Jesus died for us, He condemned sin in the flesh. With this, the flesh can never be our place of refuge. It is a battlefield. It wars against the Spirit. To be victorious moment by moment in this continuous warfare, we have to be born of the Spirit. Every time we choose to do whatever it takes to honor God feeling or no feeling, we are choosing to die to the dictates of the flesh.

As we behold Christ and learn His ways some of the things that were a pleasure to us in sin become distasteful. Praise God for this miracle! Imagine always wanting sin and denying it and feeling tortured because you want the sin. This is a real issue and a battle because there are some things that can be in this category. The doors of sinful pleasures that we open can be a snare so deep, that we need the Lord’s mercy and it’s a hard stern battle. Paul said, “ye have not resisted unto bloodshed fighting against sin”

Truly this is the great controversy and it’s real. Struggles are real and victory is real too. Never give up because what then? Be a slave to sin? Especially when you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Letting Him go and choosing a life of sin would be a life most miserable because you know something better already.

God says, “no temptation can overcome man…” then why do we fall? Temptation is not sin, rather yielding to it is.

We need the Lord moment by moment. To overcome we need to not play with the flesh. It’s already a fire hard to quench. The devil knows our weaknesses. God knows them too. We therefore need to surrender to Christ every moment to keep that continuos victory in Jesus through the power of The Holy Spirit in our lives. God is ready to fight our battles and get us to Heaven. The question is, are we ready? The Spirit is willing the flesh is weak.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. We need to take a hold of the hand of faith and rent our garments of unrighteousness by abiding in Christ. Do not waiver. Jesus tells of the story of one whose house was cleaned and then did not fill it. What happened next? His situation became worse the second time.

When we live without Christ we open doors of sin. Have we closed all those doors? I appreciate the story of the flood. Noah went in and then God shut the door. We have a responsibility to cooperate with God. To enter in His ark, and then next, we need to allow Him to shut the door and not allow the enemy in. In our daily lives, this includes putting away sin, putting away any article that would kindle sin and need to Ask The Holy Spirit to show us because we are in darkness without Him, and whatever is darkness is made manifest by the light.

We then need to abide in Christ. Moment by moment. Which is really all we have. We are only alive at this particular moment and not the next, and that is the moment God is asking us to let Him live out His life within us. When we think about it, His yoke is truly easy and His burden is light. Sin makes it difficult. If I should say desiring sin while wanting to please God makes it hard. Then what? Then we need to pray. Lord, please change my heart. Please write your laws in my heart that I may delight in it. Be honest with God regarding any cherished sin, and be ready to beat back. This is a battle against self. Battle against yielding to inclination to sin, but any cherished idol will never compare to the joy of being set free from it. There is so much joy in liberty. May we let God set us free, and we shall be free indeed. It is a moment by moment journey. One most beautiful. One intense battle too. Because it’s easy to want what the flesh is used to.

Jesus our Lord paid for our ransom. Look at what He went through to set us free. May this speak to our souls to want to serve Him. This is a matter of deep contemplation. May God help us to see. John 3:16

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God. My sheep hear my voice and another they will not hear. Spend time in the Word. The word is a two edged sword. It cuts the flesh, it exposes sin and with it we hear God’s voice and get power. Ps 32:8. When we close the Bible, may we not close our conversations with our Lord. We desperately need that to remain in Him. Otherwise, the mind will wander.

Therefore, we need to put away anything that opens the door to sin (entertainment, friendships, associations, clothing….) if we really want to be overcomers. We need to abide in Christ every moment if we want to be consistently victorious. There is really no other way. Jesus showed us by example how He was able to remain victorious. He kept a constant communion with His Father. To Him, this world was ever the great controversy. He ever lived to bless others, and serve. We need this to rid of selfishness. Let this mind be in us, that was in Christ Jesus. God alone can change us that we may desire His desires. We need to ask God to give us the love of the truth everyday. To love Him. We need to be born again every single day in order to see the Kingdom. To see the beauty of Holiness. We need the Lord moment by moment, and He wants to keep us every moment too as is beautifully written in 2 Cor 10:5 ~ may we bring every thought under His subjection that He may give us the victory over every besetting sin. We cannot see, we can do nothing without Him John 15:5. May we pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives so we can walk in the newness of life. Christ is our pattern. May we follow the Lamb wherever He goes. May we keep talking to Jesus, He is our Saving Grace.

Behold I stand at the door and knock.

What a precious Saviour! The One who is knocking is the One who when allowed in, is able to shut the enemy of souls and the tide of sin in us from molesting us. He is the only One who can accomplish this: “The things that I once loved, I now hate” Precious freedom free to us all. May we lay hold of it! Amen.