Apicontent

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Driving down the road you replay the argument you just settled with your spouse that morning. You can remember the tone of voice they used and the look on their face. Perhaps you start saying out loud all the things you wished you could have remembered to say at the time, just to win the argument. By the time you get to work you are filled with negative feelings about your spouse. When they call you later that morning your tone is less than pleasant. You have become a victim of a negative thought life. What you think will always affect what you feel which in turn gives birth to action. How do you stop the rapid downward spiral of a negative thought life? Take it captive! 

God informs us of the true enemy in the above verse. It is any thought or reasoning that sets itself up against God’s teachings. Thoughts can be subtle, because no one else hears them and cannot correct any error. That is why God has given us His Word and His Spirit to help us recognize the rebellious thoughts and take them captive. Through His Word we will know the truth as we study it so we can recognize the counterfeit when we hear it. Through His Spirit we will have the power to take the thought captive and demolish it. We need to recognize that the battle for our mind is ongoing. We need to evaluate what we think about. 

God actually gives us a measuring stick for our thoughts in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” 

Throughout your day stop and evaluate your thoughts. If they are not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy then you need to demolish them by taking your thoughts captive and stopping the downward spiral by getting rid of those negative thoughts. How do you get rid of them? You need to recognize that your thoughts have set themselves up against God’s teaching. You need to confess those thoughts as sin. When you confess, you walk away from it and don’t have anything to do with it again!

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

When an athlete decides to compete he goes into training. Regardless of the sport, he must be diligent in his training and consistent if he has any hope of completing the competition. When a runner runs he keeps his eyes focused on the finish line but use muscles that have been developing for years. The competitor has one goal in mind, to finish the race and win the prize. In the athlete’s mind the prize is worth the countless hours of training, pain, and self-denial. All the hours of training and practice make it easier to run the race. 

Paul uses the same analogy to teach us that we are also in a race with a finish line and a prize. Ours will be given to us in eternity, but it is definitely there and definitely worth the time of training. There are training tools that the Christian needs to use to help them in the race. These are the “basics” that we need to practice on a daily basis. These “basics” are bible study, prayer, and scripture memory. By using these training tools on a daily basis we will be better equipped to run the race that is laid out for us. We will be developing spiritual muscles that will make the race easier. Along the way we can benefit by having spiritual coaches who can help us grow and hold us accountable to practicing. A coach can help us develop a workout schedule that we can stick to. 

Evaluate your training schedule. Are you out of shape spiritually? Set a goal to read your bible, pray, and memorize scripture. Ask God to guide you to a more mature person who can coach you as you run the race. Meet with your mentor on a regular basis to evaluate how you are doing in your training. If there are other things crowding your training schedule, pray about what you can set aside to make practicing the basics your first priority. There is no other prize worth winning.

Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3)

Why do you need to be born again? What in the world does that mean? You’ve heard Christians talking about how they have been “born again”, or “saved”, or have “received eternal life”. Do they all mean the same thing? Yes, all of those phrases mean the same thing. God gave us the way to be “saved” through His Son, Jesus Christ. He gave us a plan explaining how we can be “born again” and “receive eternal life” in His Holy Word, the Bible. Follow along as we go through some of the thoughts and scriptures God has laid out for us.

• God loves you and created you to have a personal relationship with Him.
  John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
  
• Mankind is sinful and separated from God, so we cannot know Him personally or experience His love.
  Romans 3:23; 6:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…the wages of sin is death.
  
• Jesus Christ is the only answer to the problem of separation from God. He died on the cross and rose from the grave to pay the penalty for our sin.
  Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
  
• We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know God personally and experience His love.
  John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
  
• You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer.

God is not as concerned about the exact words you use as He is with the attitude of your heart. If you’ve never asked Christ to be your Savior, and would like to ask Jesus to come into your life so that you can be “born again,” you can use the prayer below – or use your own words.

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open my heart and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. Take control of my life and make me the person You want me to be. Amen.

You must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. (Colossians 3:8)

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Have you ever gone to the doctor only to be told that he didn’t know what was wrong with you but he could give you some pills to make you comfortable? You are comfortably sick. That is what it is like when you find relief from sin instead of obtaining cleansing. Relief from sin allows you to be comfortably separated from God. 

As a follower of Jesus you need to take the subject of sin seriously. If sin is the diagnosis, there couldn’t be better news! There is a cure for sin. Jesus died to cleanse us from sin. The cure is fast if you use the proper diagnosis and treatment. If you fail to get a proper diagnosis for your outbursts of anger, and hostility towards others, you can spend a long time being sick. 

The Bible calls anger and hostility sin. If you accept this diagnosis, turn to God, confess your sin, and repent. You will receive forgiveness, cleansing and renewal. If you reject the sin diagnosis you will continue to look for another source to blame, probably family or friends. 

If you are going to deal with your sin, you must turn to the Creator and Savior for cleansing, strengthening, and changing. If it is sin, society did not put it into you; society only stirs up what is already in you. If it is sin, society can’t help you. This diagnosis of sin requires a supernatural cure. 

The cleansing process is like taking off dirty clothes and putting on clean clothes. The Colossians verses above instruct us to put off, or get rid of, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. We are then told to put on, or clothe ourselves with, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 

The choice is yours. Are you a Christian who turns to God for a cure? Are you a Christian and partial humanist who turns to the world for relief from sin? What will it be, a little relief or a real cure?

When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp. (Romans 7:19-20, TLB)

Have you ever decided to get your life in order and do what is right before God, only to find out that you couldn’t get through a day without messing up? You agree with the Bible that swearing, anger, and pride are wrong, and you decide you are going to stop doing those things. You don’t even make it to work! While you are driving, someone cuts you off and you start yelling obscenities at them. You didn’t mean to do that. You really wanted to do what is right! Those words just flew out of your mouth before you knew it! What happened? You were swearing, angry, and your pride took over because you felt like your time was more important than the other person’s. You failed again. It isn’t fair that the Bible tells you to do something and after you decide to do it you find out that you just can’t! 

The Romans verses above give us a clear answer as to why we can’t do what is right even when we decide to. Sin still has us in its evil grasp. That sounds simple enough. We just need to get rid of the sin by confessing and we’ll be ok, right? There is still another step that needs to take place after we are cleaned up. We need the power to walk the way God wants us to. 

2 Corinthians 3:5-6, CEV tells us: Not that we are in any way confident of doing anything by our own resources—our ability comes from God. It is he who makes us competent administrators of the new agreement, concerned not with the letter but in the Spirit. The letter of the Law leads to the death of the soul; the Spirit alone can give it life. 

It is only through God’s Spirit that we can walk uprightly and do what is right. It is through His resources that we will succeed. Left on our own we will try, try, try, only to find we will fail, fail, fail. Take a moment to talk to God in prayer and ask Him for the power, through His Holy Spirit, to do the things He commands in the Bible. Then go out and walk, by faith, in His strength and not your own.

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

“How are your quiet times lately?” my mentor asked during my accountability session. “Well…kinda dry. I feel like I’m not as close to God as I used to be.” I replied. “I just don’t know what happened.” 

Do you sometimes feel that way? Maybe your relationship with God used to be vibrant and alive. You felt like you had a two-way conversation going with Him all the time. Your Bible reading was rich and your prayer time left you with a peace that lasted all day. Now you sit down to spend time with God because you know you have to. God seems distant and not listening to your prayers. You try to do all the things you think a “good Christian” should do. You smile when you don’t feel happy, you say “you’re fine” when you really aren’t, you say all the right things but you feel dead inside. You don’t really love your neighbor but you try to act like you do. Do you realize that you’re just acting? Acting loving is not the same as being loving on the inside. 

The Isaiah verses above tell us that when we have sin, or iniquity, in our life it will make God seem distant. The first thing to do when you feel far away from God is to sit down and look for sin in your life. If you don’t find anything, ask God to show you. God knows sin hurts us and will show us sin because He wants us to stop sinning and turn to Him. When He shows you sin, confess it. Then you need to admit to God that you are helpless to produce the fruit that He wants in your life, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Since love is a fruit of the Spirit, if you don’t feel loving towards a person, ask God to give you His love for them. First comes cleansing, then comes strength; a strength not your own but God’s. Only God can change you deep down in your heart. Jesus was the only person who lived the Christian life perfectly. Only Jesus, in control of your heart, will enable you to live the Christian life today. 

The Holy Spirit is like a hand inside of a glove. Whatever the hand does, the glove can do. On its own the glove is powerless. When the hand comes inside the glove, the glove takes on the same strength that the hand has. Together they can get the work done. You are the glove and the Spirit is the hand. Go find a glove, either a garden glove or a rubber cleaning glove. Put your hand in the glove and move your fingers. Remember that the power you have, as the glove, comes from God. Now thank God for the power that He gives you, and trust in Him today!

He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13, NKJV)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NKJV)

Imagine what the world would be like if there was no longer any sin. Sounds like paradise, right? Unfortunately we live in a world where we will struggle against sin until we go to heaven with Jesus. Do you know what God calls a sin? If you don’t know what sin is, you will suffer from its effects and probably wonder why! The Proverbs verse above says that if you cover your sins you will not prosper, but if you confess and forsake them you will have God’s mercy. 

What is sin? One dictionary defines it as “an offence against God.” So what exactly is an offence against God? There are many places throughout the Bible where God tells us what His desires are for our lives, where He instructs us on how to and how not to act. Specifically Mark 7:21-23, Romans 1:28-31, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:25-31, and 2 Timothy 3:1-5 are passages where you will find lists of what God calls “sin”. Read through these verses and make a list of all the sins you find. Evil thoughts, lust, covetousness, adultery, lying backbiting, quarreling, anger, rebellion, selfish ambition, deception: pretty depressing reading, right? But that is not the end of the story! 1 John 1:9 above says that if you will confess your sin, God will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 

The good news is that no matter how many sins you have, you are just one prayer away from a supernatural cure! It all comes back to one thing; Will you agree with what God calls sin? If you do not, you will look for the cause of your pain and a solution for it in the world around you. But if you will call your pain what it is – sin, you are looking at the simplest problem in the world to solve. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins.

Take the list of all the sins you found in the above verses and ask the Lord to show you any that you are guilty of. Then confess and get cleaned up. You are just a prayer away from victory over your sin.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:19-23)

There are things in this world that we cannot see, but we can see the influence they have. For example, we cannot see the wind but we can watch the influence it has on the trees as the leaves move. The wind is made visible through the trees. 

So it is with the Holy Spirit. We cannot see Him, but we can see His influence in our lives when we turn to God and receive the Holy Spirit. When I ask Jesus Christ to come into my life and give me eternal life, He gives me the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an it, but a person. The Holy Spirit is God. (Acts 5:3-4) What does the Spirit look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When I reflect those attributes I am filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled by the Spirit simply means that the Holy Spirit is in control of my life. 

Imagine that the control of your life is represented by a chair that we will call the “Throne of your life.” Who is sitting on the throne and in control? There are only two options to choose from. Either your sinful nature is in control or the Holy Spirit is in control. The differences between each nature are described in the verses above. The influence they have in our lives is easily seen by those around us. 

What qualities describe what you are feeling right now? Would you describe what is going on inside you as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Would others? If not, and you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you simply need to let the Spirit have control of your life. You can do this with a simple prayer: 

“Father, I am sorry that I took over control of my life. Forgive me. I give you back control and ask that you will live through me and make yourself visible to those around me through my life.” Amen.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

When we invite Jesus Christ to be our personal Savior and Lord, He actually enters our life. He promises to be with us forever through the power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus died and was raised from the dead into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us and give us power to live godly lives. (Ephesians 3:17, John 14:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:19). This is not a second event, it happened when you were “born again”. God put His seal of the Holy Spirit on us. (2 Corinthians 1:22) You cannot lose the Holy Spirit but you can quench Him. To quench means to “put out the fire.” 1 Thess. 5:19 says “Do not (quench, subdue) put out the Spirit’s fire.” It is a personal resistance to something that God wants you to do, and you will not do it. God does not force His power on us but gives us the freedom to make mistakes. When we quench the Holy Spirit, God allows us the freedom to take charge of our lives. When we yield, or surrender, to the Holy Spirit we agree with God that we were wrong and allow Him to be in control. Letting God be in control of our lives is what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is an ongoing process. We get ALL of Him, instantly, with our new birth. But… He does not get all of us. That requires learning, teaching, submission, faith, and trust. Our flesh always wants to be in control. If you find that you have taken over the control and want to give it back to God, you can do this right now if you:

• Sincerely desire to be directed and powered by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 5:6; John 7:37-39).
• Confess your sins. Then by faith, thank God that He has forgiven all of your sins—past, present, and future—because Christ died for you (Colossians 2:13-15; 1 John 1; 2:1-3; Hebrews 10:1-17).
• Surrender, or give God permission, to come into every area of your life (Romans 12:1-2).
• By faith claim the full power of the Holy Spirit based on His command and promise found in the Ephesians and 1 John verses above.

You are filled with the Holy Spirit by faith alone. However, prayer is one way we have of expressing our faith. If you desire to have the Holy Spirit take control of your life, pray the following prayer and by faith trust God to fill you with the Holy Spirit right now.

Dear Father, I need You. I acknowledge that I have sinned against You by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I now thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit.

Adapted from “Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit-Filled Life?” by Bill Bright. 

Other Resources:

Abidingroom.com

Know God Personally

The Saving Life of Christ by Major Ian Thomas

The Spiritual Life by Andrew Murray

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16, NKJV) 

“Walk in the Spirit” is a command God gives us. It is followed by a wonderful promise… “you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Most people get this backward. They try not to sin, or fulfill the lust of the flesh, so that they can walk in the Spirit. That is not possible! The Bible calls our flesh our sin nature. When we are walking around controlled by our sin nature, we will sin. The Holy Spirit is God, and because He is God, He cannot sin. If we are walking in the Spirit, we cannot sin. It is when we slip back into our flesh that we sin. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? 

God never gives us a command that He doesn’t give us the power to obey that command with. The power to walk in the Spirit comes from God. No human being has the power to say “no” to sin apart from God. It was by His power that we were saved, and it is by His power that we will walk obediently. Charles Trumbull says it this way:

“As someone once said at the Keswick Convention, we Christians all know that we are justified by faith, but somehow we have gotten the idea that, for sanctification, we must paddle our own canoe. Praise God, we don’t have to paddle our own canoe for anything that the grace of God offers. ‘Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 15:57, NKJV). God made your life plans before the foundation of the world. He just wants you to yield yourself to Him, and He’ll take care of your life plans. Surrender completely and unconditionally, or you’ll never have victory. The secret of complete victory is faith: simply believing that Jesus has done and is doing it all. The effortless life is not the will-less life. We use our will to believe, to receive, but not to exert effort in trying to accomplish what only God can do.”

Trying to do good in our own efforts is like a man who is seen pushing a powerful sports car down the road. He is moving along, but with his own effort. Walking in the Spirit is when the man gets into the car and starts the powerful engine and now goes down the road fully powered by the engine. We are to surrender in faith trusting God that He has given us the victory and the power already. Walk in faith. Walk in the Spirit! 

Today as you are riding in your car thank God for the power He has given you and trust in Him and the victory that He gives. Then walk “fully powered” by His Spirit.

Other Resources:

Victory In Christ by Charles Trumbull

The Spiritual Life by Andrew Murray