“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.” (Psalm 28:7, NLT)
There are Christian individuals who are not experiencing a Son-powered life because of their refusal to surrender to God’s will. This is what is often referred to as being a “carnal” Christian, one who is still influenced a great deal by the world and its enticements. This principle comes from the King James version of 1 Corinthians 3:1: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” The NIV puts it this way, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ,” and the New Living Translation says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.”
The bottom line? A carnal Christian is someone who has accepted the good news of Jesus Christ, but does not want to be transformed by it. To become a Son-powered person, it takes an affirmative act of the will to choose to have the Holy Spirit control how we think, feel, and act. We shut off his power when we refuse to let him do so. It takes surrender of self.
Let’s review Galatians 2:20: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (NLT, emphasis added).
In order to have Christ living in us we must allow Jesus Christ to take control of us. We must submit to him. Our life revolves around the Son. He lives in us. He is the source of the renewable Son-powered life. He must increase and we must decrease. The power of the Son is unlimited, and he can overcome the mountain of self in our lives when we allow him to do so.
What often keeps you from surrendering to God?
Son Power requires surrendering to God’s will.