1 CORINTHIANS 15 :31
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:27
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Our natural man is in constant conflict with the things of the spirit. The more and more I look at self denial I realise that it’s often misunderstood. We have spent most of our Christian life and walk looking at how we can gratify our carnal man. Pleasing and giving it anything it cries out for.
We are brought up in society where self is king and services, businesses and products are created so that we can indulge in the flesh and satisfy the flesh with anything it demands of us. Whether it’s the desire to have more clothes, more food, more money, more sleep, more sexual gratification. You can name it all.
Self has now made us its slave and it send us to honour worship and adore it. Nevertheless we are called in Romans 8:3-4 to “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God.”
The scripture is saying we shouldn’t yield and feed the flesh. We shouldn’t give it fuel or anything that would keep it active and in leadership in our lives. We have to clearly not only read but understand that if we feed the flesh we will die. No question.
This is the word of God. As long as our carnal man and fleshy man is alive as long as we keep feeding it and keeping it alive we will surely die.
I don’t want to leave this point. I want to get it to really sink deep into our hearts and our minds. It so important that we grasp this and we reeducate ourselves around false Christian doctrine so we are able to understand the bible and the godly instructions in there. What often makes us ignore the truths in the bible is because we are so use to listening to gratifying sermons that feed the flesh. That is absent of self denial and full of self indulgent and gratification as a reward we should be desiring as we speak God.
In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul is calling us today to consistently descipline our flesh to be in harmony with the faith we proclaim. Also in 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul shares his testimony and encourages the passionate lover of God to die daily.
Will you die daily to please God or you will gratify the desires of your flesh?
I pray that God will truly bring us to the end of selves so that we can encounter the fullness of His king both in this life and the one to come.
In Jesus mighty name we pray,
Much love in Christ,
Your Sister,
Ruth
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