John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
We're joint heirs with Jesus and everything that's His inheritance, is shared equally with us, according to the above scripture which says, "We have ALL received, ALL had a share, and were ALL supplied with these things." God doesn't have favorites, but He shares equally with His children. We see in today's Church, that some have accepted their portion and others haven't, even though we've all equally inherited.
We've failed to understand what the Gospel has revealed to us and continue seeing ourselves as who we used to be, instead of who God has made us to be in the new creation. Our new creation spirit man has been created righteous and clean, but we haven't renewed our soul, emotions or senses by God's Word. Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified) says, "But solid food is for full grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to Divine or human law."
Every individual must train by practice, for him/herself. No one cane train your senses, except you. Jesus spoke of this same training in Mark 4:13,30-32 (Amplified), where He gave "The Parable of the Sower." Thus, we read, "And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this Parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the Parables?"
This is the Seed Principle which directs us to sow, care for and watch over the words we hear and allow to be sown in our hearts. This is the same Law or Principle that governs God's entire Kingdom. Verses 30-32 says, "With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what Parable shall we use to illustrate and explain it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown upon the ground is the smallest of all seeds upon the earth. Yet after it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all garden herbs and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air are able to make nests and dwell in its shade."
God's entire Kingdom works by this Law of the Seed Principle. Jesus said, "Whosoever will either sow or allow the seed to be sown in their hearts, will always receive a harvest of whatever seed is sown." The individual is to train their senses by practice and then watch over the seed, so it won't be stolen or choked out by weeds. This is training the senses or the soul of the believer.
When the Word speaks of the "flesh,' it almost always indicates the senses. The flesh (body) can only do what the senses will allow it to do. Our body doesn't just stand up or walk somewhere by itself, without first receiving instructions from our senses. Your brain will only move by instruction from your senses. When a person is comatose, the body is immobile, because the brain doesn't receive direction from the senses. This leaves the body inactive, because the body responds to orders when the brain receives instruction.
Training the senses, like Hebrews 5 says, is the ability to allow your senses to have control when you decide, instead of when the senses decide. We have the ability to allow or stop wrong emotions to dictate to our body or brain. We can either act upon these emotions or senses, or not. Your sense can't drive you into something that you don't permit yourself. This is why Paul instructs us to "Train your senses, to only do what we allow by practice."
Depression is an outside force of pressure that can or cannot move, until the senses do. There is and always will be, pressure from the world to move us in a certain direction. The world will always pressure us to move away from God, but if we train our senses or emotions to obey our spirit man, then we won't be driven by the world. We will be led by the Spirit of God instead of our emotions.
Psalm 23:3 (Amplified) tells us, He restores my soul, and He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Name sake." When you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you were born-again and your spirit was given Life. You were made righteous, by the Righteousness of Jesus. Your body (flesh) doesn't do anything without commands or suggestion. Your soul (emotions, senses) is where the problem is, in our new creation life.
The way we lived before knowing Jesus, is the way our senses or emotions had always been trained to react. This was either positive or negative, depending on the circumstances. Our spirit was dead in trespass and sin, before being saved. We had very little help from our spirit man, because he was led by the spirit of disobedience and the prince of darkness. Our senses (soul, emotions) led our body about, with very little effort. We've fight with our spouse, over minute things that disturbed our emotions and we had very little control. When things happened at work, our soul or emotions carried these things back home, where we vented on the family or even went to a bar to do so.
Now that we're born-again and have been made alive in our spirit by the Holy Spirit, we can train our spirit man by God's Word and His Spirit. Our senses then obey our spirit, instead of our spirit being dominated by the senses. Paul instructed that we train our spirits, "by practice." This means that we must practice the training and be diligent about what seeds are planted in our spirit, so that things won't choke out the Seed of God's Word and cause it to be unfruitful in our lives. If you have no control over your senses, as a born-again child of God, then you'll always be under condemnation for things the senses dictate.
Paul writes about the senses or emotions guiding our fleshly body and lives in Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) saying, "There is therefore 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." Our senses or emotions will try dictating your life and without training the senses, they will keep you under condemnation and bondage, for your entire Christian walk. We must decide to either listen to the dictates of the flesh or senses, or listen to the dictates of the Spirit.
Both will try leading and dictating to you, for as long as you remain on earth. It's up to the individual believer, who we will listen to and who will direct our paths. If we depend on outward pressure to lead us, then we place ourselves in jeopardy and peril, because Jesus said, "The thief will come to take away or steal the Word, bringing sickness, disease, and death." We must not allow our flesh or senses or emotions to dictate our lives for us.
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