Your Calling to Prayer and Intercession in the Spirit

We continue to unfold what it means to be complete and yet incomplete especially when it comes to our understanding of prayer.  We will discover what it means to know that the Spirit intercedes for us.  There are times when we get to the place of intense prayer and we are overwhelmed at the prospect of what is staring us in the face.  It is at the moment that we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is ready to invade our inner being!  He is the one who brings clarity in the confusion and brings us into the conformity of the Son.

I want you to know that I grew up as a ‘Baptist’ and so I was taught that there were ‘foundational gifts’ that disappeared as soon as the Bible as we know it came into completion, known as the ‘canon of Scripture’.

So, I want to have a conversation about what I have learned.   I am on a journey in prayer, I haven’t arrived.  I want to share about what I have learned and what I am learning.

We also need to guard against the thought that says, ‘It can’t be true if it hasn’t happened to me.’

‘God says let me do the work, I’m not looking to you’  We need to learn to yield to the Spirit.

Nobody really knows how to pray

Intercession in the Spirit

·          

Your weakness

Paul relates that his weakness is not knowing what to pray.  My weakness is being too quick to think I know what to pray.  For the most part as followers of Christ, it is relying way too much on myself instead of allowing the Spirit of God.  I like to call that my ‘Jack ninaberness’ .

It has been said that we are afraid of the silence.  It is the greatest fear in a public prayer meeting when the meeting goes too long without hearing someone prayer and if we are leading, we think, ‘oh no, no one is praying!’.  I just want to affirm that silence is good and we need to be listening as much as we commit to praying verbally.

It has also been taught that our quickness to pray can even be a prayer of the flesh as opposed to that of the Spirit.  You know how it happens, a person uses prayer to be their soapbox or mini sermon.  Has that happened to you?  Can I get an amen?   Someone tries to convict someone else in the room or get their point across.  I don’t believe God is pleased with those kind of prayers.  

We even pray well-intentioned prayers almost trying to make sense of the situation and give God what we believe to be the best solution.

As a pastor, I also have another weakness.  It is to know exactly what I’m going to say before I even come up to speak.  God has been teaching me more about relying on the Spirit of God to give me the words that need to be said.  It is the firm belief that Jesus gave His disciples when he told them not to fear because you will be given the words to speak in Matthew 10:19,20  I believe that He still wants to do that today.  I believe He wants to direct my words.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t prepare, but that it may come out differently when I am in that situation.

·         Searching for the heart of God

 ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  NIV 2010

Paul is definitely trying to articulate an experience he is having in his prayer life and giving us the freedom to know that there are times we just can’t express it in words.

Some have referred to this as praying in the Spirit or even a form of speaking in tongues. I do not believe that it is speaking in tongues as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14.

We really need to ask the question, ‘what is God telling you?’ when we go to pray for ourselves and others.

He only answers the prayers the He prays through us.  It is what the Holy Spirit is praying through me.  I have to get to the place where my prayer life dies and His prayer life lives.

This is the only place where we find the word, ‘intercedes’ in the Bible.

Our prayer life needs to be more of God and less of us just like every other area of our life.

Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God.  ~Edwin Keith

Two times recently I have sensed and felt this incredible groaning was at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem when I was completely overwhelmed beyond words praying that the eyes of these people would know Jesus is the Messiah!

I can also remember being at my bedside on Easter morning as I prepared for the service and overwhelmed at the realization with baptizing my children, Jordan and Brynley, and my desire for them to have a faith of their own. 

The word for "intercedes" is found only here in the New Testament. It means, "meet, to turn to, approach, appeal, petition." The word "intercession" "is a picturesque word of rescue by one who "happens on" one who is in trouble and "in his behalf" pleads "with unuttered groanings" or with "sighs that baffle words." This is work of our Helper, the Holy Spirit Himself (Robertson).

The Spirit within us is actually praying for us in those agonizing longings which never find words." NEB reads, "through our inarticulate groans."

Prayer starts with God. It is His idea. The desire to pray is the result of God's greater desire to talk with us. He has something to say when we feel the urge to pray. He is the initiator. The keen desire to begin and end the day with prolonged prayer is His gift. The sense of need to pray for challenges or opportunities throughout the day is because He has wisdom and insight He wants to impart.

This prayer as we see is done “according to the will of God,” it is in prayer that the Spirit meets us and interprets the will of God through our selfish prayers.  It is the Holy Spirit that leads us into the will of God

Conformity to the purposes of God v28-30

·         Your character

I know that there are some here today who secretly doubt if this verse is true.  They have faced tragedy and sickness that doesn’t go away.  The have heard this verse, but to them it brings no comfort, only disappointment and hurt.  

They ask the question, “What do you mean by ‘good’?” Is sickness good? No.  Is murder good.  No.  Divorce, No.  The death of a child.  No.  What about a car accident?  No.

Here is what you need to know.

Many of us who grew up in the church memorized this verse in the KJV, but here’s the problem…the place of emphasis on God was at the end. 

King James Version: “All things work together for good to them that love God.”

New American Standard Bible: “God causes all things to work together for good.”

New International Version: “In all things God works for the good of those who love him.”

It is more accurately translated to read at the beginning because we need to remember He was there before it all happened, he is there when it happens and he is still there after it is all over.

It puts an end to this belief this ‘idea that every tragedy will be turned into a blessing, or some form of happily ever after ending.’   We know that is fine for fairy tales, but not for real life.

He was there, He is there and He is always will be there.

Second,  we need a long term perspective of this verse.

When Paul says that God causes all things to work together, we also need to focus on the ‘all’.  When you only look at life’s event is isolation, it is often hard to see anything good.  We need to to see all the events of our lives producing something good together.  There is a divine synergy that takes place even in the darkest of moments that could not be produced any other way.

Finally, with respect to this verse, we must have a clear understanding of the definition of ‘good’.

This is the heart of the matter.  For most of us, when we think of the good life, it equals good health, solid relationships, a sense of happiness, a long life, food on the table, meaningful work….all good things, but what is the end of good.  We have to read on…

It is our conformity into the likeness of Christ.  This is the good and desired end and that can look very differently in all of our lives.  

At this very moment my mom is in Egypt ministering to her sister and it was her hope that she would really be able to share the gospel.  It looks like she may be there longer than at first thought because of all the unrest.  It is my prayer that while the situation is not good that God will bring the ‘good’ through my mom’s life in the midst of it all.  It would be amazing if the peace of God that transcends all understanding is really exemplified in her life through all that happens….And yes, that she makes it home in time that we can celebrate her 75^th birthday party in the cruise that she has planned for all the Ninabers!!

·         Your calling

Don’t take predestination and foreknowledge out of their context.  This is a subject for believers and God has predestined you and has had the foreknowledge that every child of God will become more like Christ

Your calling is to be conformed more like His Son.  

The gold smith places the gold into the vat and slowly turns up the heat, and as the dross and impurity floats to the top, he skims it off, until the point where he can clearly see his reflection in the gold

And so it is with the Lord; He is purifying us through pain and suffering that He might see His face, His reflection clearly in us.

God's purposes are unstoppable. God knew in advance that he would have a people for himself, people that would listen to him and obey him. God predetermined who would be part of this family by laying out the conditions — be conformed to the image of his Son. God made the gospel call of salvation. Those who respond are justified and are glorified. Christ is the firstborn of the family as an heir of God. We are joining with him in the family with Christ as our brother when we conform to his image.

The truth is that the word foreknew in Romans 8:29 is not speaking of God's knowing the future. The word foreknowledge is never used in terms of knowing about future events, times or actions (God’s omniscience). What it does describe is a predetermined relationship in the knowledge of God whereby God brings the salvation relationship into existence by decreeing it into existence ahead of time.

“for those God foreknew,” PROGINOSKO, means to know in advance. To know in advance does not mean to make it happen

God is more interested in those who He foreknew that what He foreknew

Predestination – means to set a boundary.  It was a predetermined boundary that all who would choose to be in Christ would share in His destiny.

The Takeaway

It is the will of God that you learn to be led by the Spirit as you pray for the good in your life that results in your conformity to the likeness of Christ.

Our Hope...a new liberation movement!

Life is hard for everyone.  We all go through difficult days when the last thing you want to do is deal with the day itself whether it comes in the form of deadlines, difficult conversations that need to happen or feeling that sense of aloneness.   Life is hard, but life is not nearly as hard if there is a purpose to our suffering and pain and the reality is that we get to choose our hard as we see in this passage.  We can either suffer on our own, within our own devices or just ‘manning up’ or we can suffer with the Lord.   We can suffer with inner peace that God is in the midst of all of this stuff or continue to allow ourselves to be kicked in the gut with the inner turmoil of our lives.

There is a lot to be said about really coming to grips with our understanding of our adoption into God’s family and the powerful sense of identity that it can bring us.

 The Spirit of Adoption v15,16, 23

·         It is the Spirit of God that you receive  v15

·         It is the Spirit of that  testifies with your spirit  v16

·         The Spirit of God is your  downpayment v23

We have been given the Spirit of adoption.  It means ‘being given a companion likened to that of a marriage partner’.  We have not been given a spirit of fear and slavery, that is what we had before.  The hard of the old life was the constant struggle with fear and doubts.  Fear of rejection, fear of losing what we have, fear of being alone, fear of not having enough, fear of death.

It is not supposed to be part of our makeup anymore!  Self -condemnation, depression, and anxiety attacks are all based in stress and fear.  The beautiful thing is that we are His kids now; adopted into Him and His family.

When I was in Grade 8, my parents made the decision to become foster parents and how an emergency two week placement for three children turned into 10 years as a family with us.  I can remember how amazed my foster brothers and sisters were to know that there was always going to be food on the table.  They were so starved in their own home and we shared everything.  They even became my first youth group!

 You see we have been given all the benefits, rights, and provision of God.  Embrace His love for you; you are adopted!  He has given us His Spirit to set us free.

Our Identity in Christ v17-22, 24,25

We need a reconversion to Jesus!

Your Shepherd, your advocate, your Mediator, your Bridegroom, your Conqueror, your Lion, your Lamb, your sacrifice, your manna, your smitten Rock, your living water, your food, your drink, your good and abundant life, your dwelling place, your Sabbath, your new moon, your Jubilee, your new wine, your feast, your aroma, your anchor, your wisdom, your peace, your comfort, your Healer, your joy, your glory, your power, your strength, your wealth, your victory, your redemption, your Prophet, your Priest, your kinsmen redeemer, your teacher, your guide, your liberator, your deliverer, your Prince, your Captain, your vision, your sight, your beloved, your way, your truth, your life, your author, your finisher, your beginning, your end, your age, your eternity – your all and all.  

Leonard Sweet in Jesus Manifesto

·         Our identity is found in  suffering v17, 18

 N  

       Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Yes, we will suffer as believers, but we suffer within God’s family.  We suffer “with Him.”  We are ‘heirs of a kingdom,’ that is us.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but moving forward in spite of our fear.

Courage is facing our fears and giving them over to Christ, laying them at the foot of the cross and letting Him take care of them.  We have strength today because it is preparing us for the future glory.

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

2 Timothy 3:12;  read also  John 15:18-20

Some of you have come from homes where you were completely written off because of your decision to follow Jesus. You need to know that your pain is felt by Christ.  We know that in the latter days, persecution of Christians will only increase and more and more we will see our rights taken away.

·         Our identity is formed through  painful experiences v22,23

      We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

  

Now, I realize for mothers, no explanation needed but for the rest of us, we have Carol Burnett who once described childbirth like this:
“Take your bottom lip, pull it as far away from your face as you can, and now pull it over your head.”

There were two things that I learned from Sharon and the prenatal classes that we took leading up to Jordan’s birth –  focus and breathing.

When Sharon felt a contraction coming on, she would have a picture of us that she would focus on, a reminder of the family that we were trusting God for.  The moment that she would look away would be the time that she would feel the intensity of the pain of the contraction.

The focus that Paul is giving us is the glory that will be revealed in us, when our earthly bodies are fully transformed and take on our full likeness as adopted sons and daughters of the King.  We need a powerful and beautiful picture of eternity to settle in our hearts.

Prayer is our form of spiritual breathing.  We need to breathe in His presence and continually breathe out the anxiety, the stress, the fears that tie us up and get us in knots physically and spiritually.  Through the most difficult times, we need to battle in prayer with intensity.

Charles Swindoll said, “I don’t think I have ever learned any deep, lasting, life-changing lessons on the cress of success. I have learned very little from winning, but I have learned a great deal from losing.”

“God is more interested in your character than in your comfort.”

Groaning is not complaining, it is this intense longing for something more.  It is knowing I am complete in Christ and yet still feeling incomplete.

·         Our identity is fuelled by a new and living hope v24, 25

The purpose of suffering is to make us long for our ultimate REVEAL, our full revelation!

 The spirit of adoption has given us light and has given hope for something we can’t see right now.

What we are saying is that we are groaning; we are longing for our real home.

Check out the book, 

 

http://www.theboywhocamebackfromheaven.com/

for an incredible real life story about heaven!

What we are really saying is “I want to see my wife there, my kids, my parents, I want to see my brother and my sister, with no worries about starvation, injustice, terrorism.

We have a new HOPE. The Spirit has given us a new vision for our life, but it will never be fulfilled completely until we are redeemed.

We are ruined for this world.

Biblical hope is never an escape from reality or from problems. It doesn’t leave us idle, drifting or just rocking on the front porch. If our hope is biblical and not just a heavenly cliche or like the sign, “in case of emergency, break glass,” it will put us in gear.  J. Hampton Keathley

The Takeaway

What is your hope?

Let the brightness, the fulness of your identity in Christ and adoption into God’s family become so real to you that it shines into the darkest corners of your life.  So, continue to expose the lies and walk in His newness!

I want to close by sharing on how God’s Spirit has testified to my spirit and how He continues to renew my hope.   Here is what I wrote as I allowed Him to speak to me.

Dear child, you are concerned about many things, you must make your rest in me.  I am the one who will give you the words to speak.  I am the one who will wash over you with the oil of my love.  I am the one who will rejoice over you with singing.  I am your rock, your deliverer, your right arm, your joy, your victor.  Rest in me and I in you.

My response…forgive me Lord for not being here enough.   I need you every day, every moment, help me to not run on empty.

The Father Heart of God

.

Confidence is one of those qualities that if a sports team or an individual has, can propel them to great victories, come from behind wins and great winning streaks!  The difference between how we pray and how the rest of the world might pray to God should stem from the confidence we have that God does answer our prayer.  The reason for that must be rooted in our relationship to our father.  

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:16  

 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  Romans 8:14,15

We know that it is all so important to really understand what it means to be led by the Spirit of God:       

When we are led by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  It is an appetite thing.  The more you gain an appetite for the Spirit of God, the less the sinful nature such a pull on our lives.

      When we are led by the Spirit – our lives will produce fruit – Matthew 12:33

When you are led by the Spirit of God, the Spirit will speak through you.  Matthew 10:20

When Jesus sent out his disciples to minister, he told them not to worry about what they were going to say.

“For it won’t be you doing the talking – it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you!  Matthew 10:21

 Just a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch at my friend's house who I have had the chance to meet through my son's hockey team.  The church question came up… what kind of church is your church anyways??and the conversation flowed from there. It was amazing but I really sensed God completely taking over my thoughts, my passion and gave me the words to speak to his spirit.

  I really believe that God can give us the words, the verse, the encouragment or the prayer when we learn that sensitivity to His Spirit's leading in our life.

 Our view of our fathers will definitely shape how easily we come to accept God as our heavenly Father.  We need to expose and remove distored views whether that has the result of the following:

An absent father is typical of so many of today's fatherless generation and there is no father, but only rejection and abandonment.  Starting out  as a youth pastor, my heart and my personal ministry was being drawn to those youth from single parent homes.  

A passive father is one who not responsible, uninvolved and often emotionally withdrawn.  For us men, it is so easy for us to be wrapped up in our work and carry that into our homes and it is killing our families.  I know I have been guilty of being home but not really being home and it takes energy that God will give us to emotionally connect and show real care and love.

A performance oriented father is one who only sees you when you perform well and there is a fear of failure, disappointment and obsession with success that can drive obsessive behaviours.

An authoritarian father is one whose focus is always on the rule of the house and adhering to set standards or else... and finally the abusive father who completely betrays his children and the safe, protective place that his or her children are to find in him.

The Good Father is the one who we need to embrace, the one who pours out His love on us, 'how great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!'

He is the one who unconditionally pours out His love and affirmation on us in tangible ways even in the midst of discipline.

I through the Spirit of God that we connect to the Father through journalling as he speaks to us.  We see His words of approval and see His hand opening doors and opportunities.  We are impacted deeply as we let His love and His embrace wash over us and that often comes in that quiet and still place that we meet with Him.  It comes in worship singing too and it can flood our souls as well.

We need to get a fresh revelation of the heart of God and know that He loves us so much that He doesn't leave us the way we are.

The rest of my blog is dedicated to some of the thoughts that my brother Lloyd shared as he spoke at Grace this past Sunday.

The question that we need to challenge ourselves with is this-

Are we at a distance with God or is He so personal to us?

A personal God desires that you get to know Him.  The story of the Chilean miners who were resuced reminds me of the truth that in that country they will not let a son and a father work the mine together because they know that in a crisis, the father will do everything possible, even risking his own life, to save his son.  

Stories that teach us about the love of God is seen in the true story, 'Amish Grace' which relates the story of the families who lost their daughters at the hands of a gunman who shot down 5 girls in a school.  The classic, 'The Cross and the Switchblade' is a reminder of David Wilkerson's statement to Nicky Cruz who told him that he could cut him in a million pieces to which David responded, 'every piece will love you'.

It is the kind of love that Tony Dungy showed Michael Vick in prison when he reached out to him and never gave up on him.

We can read the Bible and be meaner than a junkyard dog!  

Lloyd Ninaber

We have to let the Word penetrate our heart and life.

God will not force himself on you.  We need to get a revelation of the Father and how he has created us for initimacy.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Lloyd finished with the story of a man who gave a Bible to a drug addict.  The addict told the man that he who going to smoke his Bible.  The man made him a deal and told him that he could only do it after he read each page.  The man started reading and using the pages for smoking until he got to the gospel of John and he was done in by the love of God!!

Get done in by the love of God.

The Battle...The Spirit vs The Flesh

Romans 8:5-13

We have started a journey on breaking free from the lies of the enemy and learning to live in light of who we are.  We are living free of condemnation because Jesus was condemned for us, He took our place, He took the full force of the punishment of the law and we receive this incredible freedom to live the Christian life.

You feel great on Sunday and then Wednesday hits!  You were leading 3-0 after two periods and that your spiritual life takes a blow and the enemy has knocked you down and you are barely holding on...what happened??

However just like the Canadian JRs, as many have noted is like life.  It is at the moment that we think we have it made, we are in the clear that we can get the life sucked right out of us.   We might as well realize right now that as great and glorious it is to live in freedom, there are chains that are more than ready to shackle us.

OK, the enemy isn't Russia, and the battle is not for hockey supremacy.  We do have an enemy and the battle is for Christ's supremacy in our lives!

So, then, we get derailed, we lose sight of our destination and we find ourselves back in a slump.  How did it happen?  How did we get here and even then when we to get back on track, we can even ask the wrong questions like

·         How do I live the Christian life?  and the point is this, if you ask the wrong question, you will most likely arrive at the wrong answer because the question is not how, but who! This isn’t a course that we take or a syllabus that we have been given to study, we have the living Jesus!

It is Jesus Christ, It is only because we are in Him, He fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, He defeated sin and death.

In the story of Noah and his family in the Ark, God told Noah in Genesis 6:14 to make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

“pitch” is the same for atonement (Kaphar). It is a picture of salvation!  

The rains came down and the Lord shut them in.  He didn’t give them 6 tent pegs, rope and a tarp and tell them to hang on.  Noah and his family were shut in the ark and you are in Christ.

No matter how much the storm rages around you, you are covered and you are in His grip, in the palm of his hand, the apple of His eye.

TWO mindsets v5

The mindset that we must have must be tenacious in guarding the spiritual life within us.  The understanding of setting our minds includes the whole action of our affections, our will and our reason.

It is our mind, our soul that determines which direction we are going to go, how we are going to be entertained, how we are going to feed our flesh.

Flesh – is your natural learned tendencies.  Age of two when you said NO

Who is going to control the mind, the body or the Spirit?

Is my flesh controlling my thinking? If so, I am   and I am experiencing death!

The mindset of the sinful nature

The root of the sinful nature is ‘my will, my time, my way’

The mindset set on what the Spirit desires

The heart of the Spirit desires to teach us ‘your will be done, in His time, pursuing His way’

There is a recognition of a divinely enabled obedience under the influence of the Spirit

Danish Theologian Soren Kierkegaard best summarized this when he said, “Life in Christ is best understood backwards but lived forward.”

We must live in light of who we are, who God has created us to be and then move out and live out His divine calling on our life.

Identifying your mindset v6-8

A death mindset:

·         It is hostile towards God.   There is this extreme enmity and hatred towards the ways of God.

·         Is non submissive

·         It cannot please God

A life mindset:

·         Filled with peace

·         Focused on the Spirit

·         The word for control here means ‘to be under the domination of’

·         Submissive to God

·         Pleasing to Him

 The cancer in the believer’s life is that I can receive all this, believe all this and my life will be completely unchanged.

TWO masters v9-11

 Identifying your stronghold

Who is going to control your soul? Is it your flesh, by that I mean is your hope for happiness wrapped up in your house, your cars, your hobbies, the next vacation  because that is death and it will always leave you wanting more.

 The average person, thinks “I’m almost happy.  I just need a little more money, a little more house, a little more….more, more, more…”

Well I have seen people first hand who have won the lottery and visited in their home. The toys – all there, every last one of them, but joy so completely missing.  They are gripped by alcohol, stealing, broken family relationships.

What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

A counterfeit god [idol] is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.

An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought.

The true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about?

Tim Keller in Counterfeit Gods.

The sinful nature

·         Does not belong to Christ

·         The sinful body (flesh) is alive

·         The Spirit is dead

  The Spirit of God and Christ

·         Belongs to Christ – owner identification

·         The sinful body (flesh) is dead

·         The Spirit is alive

·         Resurrection power

 V9  The Spirit of God lives in you!

Dwells in you – Is He at home in you, can He kick back and rest in your thoughts, attitudes and in your heart?  Do you enjoy His presence, His life?  Or is He being quenched by the activities, the conversations that quench and choke out His presence in you?

The choices that we make affect our spouse, our children.

The reality is that your feelings on all this may check in and check out on you, but we can’t be driven around by our emotions.

In this battlefield where Satan loves to mess with your mind, you need to continually affirm out loud and claim over yourself who God says you are even when you don’t feel it.

Eventually, in time, our emotions will catch up after some serious reinforcement.

The homeless man with the golden radio voice has sure caught our attention this week.  I’m not sure if he was a Christian, but he spoke about continuing to give thanks to the God no matter if he made 25 cents an hour or whether he made in his mind a significant amount.  He made his mindset clear regardless of what took place in his circumstances.

 How much better to begin each day thinking victory not defeat; to awake to grace, not shame; to encounter each temptation with thoughts like, Jesus, You are my Lord and Savior.  I am your child – liberated and depending on your power.  Therefore, Christ, this is Your day, to be lived for Your glory.  Work through my eyes, my mouth, and through my thoughts and actions to carry out Your victory.  And Lord, do that all day long.  

 Charles Swindoll in Grace Awakening

The Ultimatum! v12,13

 Live according to the sinful nature and death becomes you. 

Live in the Spirit and rip the heart out of the sinful nature.

I have seen a young man in my previous ministry gripped by pornography now overwhelmed by the love of Christ to the point that he has no desire to go back.

Galatians 5:16  Live by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the sinful nature.

Galatians 5:17,18   

There is a real conflict going on between our Spirit and the flesh.

I also believe the blessing of living my life in the Spirit is that I become more fixated on walking in the Spirit and less on trying to stop fulfilling the desires of the flesh.  I believe the more and more my appetite grows for the presence of the living God, the less attractive and appetizing the flesh becomes. 

How do you perceive Scripture – does it look like, ‘you should’, ‘you must’, ‘you ought’ and is experienced as a demanding, nagging voice

OR is it perceived as an invitation – a revelation of what God intends to do in us and through us? 

Faith hears the guiding of the Spirit’s voice and it is less about trying and more about surrending.  It is more about what Jesus is doing in us than what I am unable to do myself.

Now if you are thinking that the difference between the law and the Spirit about the spiritual life is the difference between listening to the Spirit and just reading the Bible then you are missing the point because it is all in our approach.

The battlefield is how I’m going to engage in this battle between the flesh and the Spirit

Am I going to struggle to keep the law or am I’m going to be more focused on yielding to the Spirit?

The battle is between self- effort and will power vs enablement and the power of the Spirit

How do you relate to God?  Is it about feeling good about ourselves?  To me it is being more and more overwhelmed about the goodness of God in me.