We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

To me, spiritual maturity is coming to the point where we leave the wilderness of our walks and enter the Promised land of Canaan. Saved people are all out of Egypt. The blood saved them. However, between Egypt and Canaan is a wilderness. And Canaan does not depict heaven since there's no giants and walls to overcome in Heaven!

The spies of Israel brought back huge grapes of Eshcol, requiring two men to carry them back. BIG FRUIT!

But there was also BIG FLESH in the land. Giants.

The big flesh that we have to overcome is OUR OWN! We've been delivered from SIN when we were saved, but that does not mean we've overcome the flesh in our lives yet. Overcoming our flesh is a mark of true spirituality.

God's will was for them to enter Canaan.

When the spies saw the obstacles in the land, they feared and spread the fear to the others. God was enraged.

Joshua and Caleb spoke up and agreed the giants were bigger than they were, but it was not just them versus the giants. GOD WAS WITH THEM.

We face struggles that are bigger than us! And they ARE bigger! But we totally forget the fact that GOD IS WITH US, too. He's bigger than giants. When we can keep in mind the fact that God is with us, and it is His will to step into whatever it is we are threatened from stepping into, that God will intervene, then we have learned to walk after the Spirit.

Most believers never enter this realm. They treat their struggles in the way the world does -- a world that doesn't know God. If the threat is bigger than they are, they don't deal with it. God's will is never enjoyed by them.

The enemy will not sit there and watch us enter God's will. He will raise up threats that are bigger than us. But that';s when we must remember that God is with us, and He's bigger than anything. So, we step forward and go on anyway.


It wasn't until the doubting element of Israel -- the older generation -- died off that the newer generation entered. It's not until the doubting element of our flesh is overcome that our NEW man can enter the full will of God and enjoy all the cross paid for, and not just salvation from sin.

There's more IN THIS LIFE RIGHT NOW to enjoy, than just being saved and holding on til Jesus comes. But we have to have faith and overcome our OWN FLESH.

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

Daniel's lions' den was very much like the tomb of Jesus.

Daniel 6:17 KJV And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.

Matthew 27:60 KJV And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Matthew 27:66 KJV So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

That is no coincidence. The Holy Ghost was giving us a message!

Any struggle we go through is like the enemy's threat of death against us. Picture every struggle like a test of faith of Daniel in the lions' den. But those struggles that are intended by the enemy to slay us, are so much like the tomb of Jesus in which He died but resurrected out of!

We're one with Jesus since we've been baptized into His death. That means when He resurrected we did as well! And when we enter a tomb-like struggle, with Jesus at one with us, we know we can have victory, if we just exert faith in it all. The faith we need to remember is that we are one with Christ. The last time Jesus was in a tomb like the struggle I'm now in, He resurrected out of it in victory over death! I arose with Him! So, He's here with me now, and we're just going to resurrect out of this one all over again!

Then, BOOM (!), God sees that faith in our unions with Christ, intervenes and anoints us, and we overcome the struggle.

Most of the lions we must overcome in such struggles are our own fleshly fears. We stress out since the lions are stronger than us. But JESUS IS WITH US, as He was with the Israelites ready to enter Canaan to overcome the giants.

Let's resurrect out of ever den of lions we enter. They're only tombs. And Jesus is with us -- THE TOMB BREAKER!

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

Great message!!!!!!!

:cheer

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

The Bible is FULL of such truths in Old Testament stories.

Sisera was captain of the enemy army. Jael was a woman in whose home Sisera stayed. During the night, she drove a nail through Sisera's temple piercing his head and killed him.

The nail always points to the cross. The nail in the head speaks of our carnal minds that need the truth of the cross to destroy it so we will believe in faith and overcome the enemy rather than doubt and remain defeated all the time.

God cannot anoint and intervene in our situations when we always doubt and fear when attacks occur in our lives. He wants to, but our unbelief hinders Him. We have to take a step of faith and use the understanding the New Testament provided for us and destroy our carnal thinking.

The manner in which we do that is by really coming to grips with what we are taught about being crucified with Christ. We died to sin through Christ's death, having been baptized into His death. When Christ died, we read in Romans 6:9-10 that He died ONCE to sin, having no more need to die to sin any longer. And after that single, solitary death, he now lives in Kingdom dominion and victory. Likewise, verse 11 says, we died to sin with Christ and are also alive unto God all because of our baptisms into His death.

We have victory over sin now, too! That's why we read that we're seated with Christ above all powers at the right hand throne of power where He is seated since He ascended into glory after His resurrection.

When we know we are one with Him and seated with the one who is over all powers, imagine the faith we will have when we face troubles in our paths! That truth of the Word will kill the carnal mind of doubt and fear, and encourage us to overcome anything! God waits to see that in us. And when He sees us face struggles with THAT IN OUR MINDS, he anoints and empowers and steps in to do wonders!

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

:thumbsup :happydance :nod

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

I especially like the story of Esther where the gallows for hanging that were made by Haman for Mordedcai, Esther's uncle, wound up being for Haman, himself! Haman is the enemy.

The link to the cross here is that the gallows in the Bible were not contrived with a noose for the neck. They were gibbets, which were for hanging a person by their hands, just as Jesus was hanged on a cross.

The enemy Haman instituted a law that remained intact after his death. That stated that the Jews would be killed on Adar the 13th (sort of like a Friday 13th, ;) ).

Esther 3:13 KJV And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

Esther 8:5 KJV And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:

Similarly, although the devil was defeated by the cross, he still got man into a mess with the law of sin and death that so many Christians are defeated by.

In Paul's teaching in Romans 7, he explained how fleshly effort to serve God does not work. He said the law of sin and death functions whenever we use fleshly effort to please God. That is where Paul stated that the good that he willed to do was never accomplished, but instead the evil that he hated would occur instead. Paul was not saying this is the plight of Christianity and that we will never be free of that defeat. That is what most think the chapter teaches. No. Paul was speaking in the place of someone who did not know better when he wrote that. It was a literary tool to get across a point.

Paul said that this LAW was powerful and very effective against Christians. But if a Christian would learn THE HIGHER LAW, the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, the law of sin and death could be overridden!

When the king heard Esther's plea regarding the law Haman initiated, the king could not revoke it. Similarly, God cannot change the fact that the law of sin has a right to slay us if we try to serve God in the flesh. But the king told them they could see another law put into effect and he would authorize it with His name! This represents going forth against this law of sin and earth to see it nullified by acting IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

What it is to do something in the name of Jesus is to not go in our own power, but in the conscious awareness that we are one with Christ by the work of the cross. We have HIS POWER upon our lives to depend upon. Holy Ghost power! And when we TRUST GOD to empower us by faith to live and serve Him, we are not relying upon our own strength to serve God. This renders the law of sin and death ineffective.

The law Esther and Mordecai initiated to counter the law of Haman was for every Jew to take up arms and FIGHT BACK. Come against this law of Haman bearing arms, with the authority of the name of the King.

Esther 8:11 KJV Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,

The victory was so overwhelming that people WANTED TO BECOME JEWS afterwards!

Esther 8:17 KJV And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.

When we go forth in reliance upon the Spirit to fight back against the defeatism of the law of sin and death, this HIGHER LAW of the Spirit nullifies the law of sin and death and our lives will shine in righteous behaviour. People will want to be Christians when they see this in our lives!

Romans 8:2 KJV For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Walking after the flesh is trying to serve God and do good things IN FLESHLY WILL POWER alone. Not many know that, they think walking after the flesh is only giving into the lusts of the flesh. Not so. In the context of Romans, it is trying to serve God using fleshly power by resorting to rule-keeping with no faithful reliance on the Spirit to strengthen us with power beyond what is natural, that we might overcome fleshly lusts in our selves!

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

Bro. Blume, you have an amazing talent of seeing spiritual insights in simple biblical stories! This is a very powerful spiritual insight that you have shared.

If only every soul who has decided to follow Jesus could understand the reality of the overcoming power availed for us at Calvary!

One of my favorite verses is in Philippians 4:13 where Paul says "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." It is because I recognize and know my weaknesses and realize that abiding in Jesus and trusting in HIS strength is really the only strength that I truly possess. That thought has helped me through many times of fear, and to realize that it is in my darkest hour, and weakest moment that I can depend on the strength of Jesus to get me through. And He always has.

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

Thank you Bro. Blume for sharing these encouraging
messages! :nod

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

Great message!

Re: We've Got More than Our Fleshly Abilities
 

Ditto, this reminds me of some of the old testament teaching from the past. Just don't hear someone delve into it like that much anymore. Thank you Brother Blume.