For many years, we've teetered with being in the spirit and being in the flesh. It seems like Christians have split personalities for centuries. How many times have we heard the age old statement about "being in the flesh" We've mostly been frustrated with trying to walk in the spirit and then ended up walking in the same old traditions and religious rituals.
We find scriptures or are preached the same sermons that have kept us in bondage to the old life. Instead of simply believing what the scriptures say, we put our faith in the testimonies of other Christians. We seem to need a justification for whatever goes on in our lives and for some reason we omit the truth that this world is still in a fallen state.
As Christians, we seem to think we're either exempted from trials or that God's subjecting us to them. I've often wondered who or what we blamed things on before being saved. I don't remember my old friends and I (before I was saved), thinking God was testing us when trials occurred in our lives. We mostly, picked ourselves up and went on with our lives despite trials. The same trials and problems that confront Christians, are the same trials and problems that confront the unsaved persons. The devil knows no boundaries (as far as he is concerned). He is consistent in what he does because he hates all of us, both saved and unsaved.
We seek out certain Bible verses and use them as cover for whatever occurs in our lives. Romans 8 is one such verse and seems to sum it all up for us. We bypass all the other verses in that chapter and focus on Verse 28 which says, "All things work together for the good of those who love God." We mostly misquote this verse and make it say what we want it to say.
We customarily quote this scripture to mean that, "Whatever happens to us as Christians is God and the mostly bad things happening are God working for our good." This covers a wide assortment of trials and such bad things as car accidents, cancer, death, child abuse, poverty, sickness, divorce, homelessness and storms of Biblical proportions that occur in our lives. We say that "All these things are working together for our good."
If our earthly father treated any of his children like that, then he'd be put in prison for child abuse. Even the laws that govern our natural life have determined that this isn't acceptable behavior. Do we honestly believe that we are more loving towards our children than God is towards us?
We also misread Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) which say, "Therefore, (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who (live and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the law of our new being) has freed me from the law of sin and of death."
Romans 1:8(Amplified) is where those looking to justify their actions read, "So then those who are living the life of the flesh (catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature) cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him." They say, "See, Brother! We are back in the flesh." That's not true. Read on to Verse 9 which says, "But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the (Holy) Spirit of God (really) dwells within you (directs and controls you) but if anyone does not possess the (Holy) Spirit of Christ, he is none of His (he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God)."
So, then, we are either saved and in the spirit or we are unsaved and still in the flesh. You cannot go from being in the Spirit to being in the flesh. You are either walking in one or the other. If we make mistakes as we grow in Christ, we haven't returned to our fallen state, but we simply don't have enough of the Word in us to walk properly.
I can't understand how something as positive as the new birth and the victory of the resurrection have become so negative to so many people. We spend most of our Christian walk reading Job and identifying with him rather than reading about Jesus and identifying with Him. We focus on Paul's fight to get the Word out rather than identifying with Paul's receiving great revelations from God. How can the children of God be so powerless against all the things that the children of satan seem to overcome?
We glean the scriptures looking for ways to fail and declare it to be for the glory of God and God's will for our lives? Do Christians have trials and troubles? Of course, we do. Is our heavenly Father bringing them to us? Of course not. If God is our problem, then we don't have any recourse. God is not our problem, but He is the answer to the problem.
When trials and problems arose in the Apostle Paul's life, he didn't sit down and quit. He went on with what God called him to do despite the problem. Everyone who has ever done anything at all for the kingdom of God, has suffered persecution from the devil and the world, but not from God. If you're looking for an excuse to sit down and quit, then don't use Jesus as that excuse. He is the only help you have to rise above your trials. If you think that Jesus is the origin of your problem, then where do you go for help?
When we read the Bible, we need to read it from the perspective of those who are redeemed and not like someone who is still without Christ. God's Word is still a mystery to the world, but it's our victory and revelation of newness of life.
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