Sunday, May 23, 2010

Complete in Him

The Holy Spirit has done a tremendous work in my life and has convincingly convicted me about my righteousness. There is not a doubt in my mind that God has taken possession of me. He fills me completely and in the same manner as Jesus came in the flesh I have come in the flesh to manifest my lovingly Father. The fact that Jesus came in flesh simply denotes that He was a visible expression of the invisible God through His soul and body faculties. Born by the Spirit His flesh was holy and perfect. My flesh isn’t found wanting either, because the same power that dwelled in Christ now dwells in me.

There was a season in my earthly life when my flesh was filled with sin and it followed the prince of the power of the air. The problem wasn’t my flesh, but who the occupant was. My soul and body are fearfully and wonderfully made designed by my Father to mirror Him, and when He had finished making me He observed that it was very good. When the false spirit was cast out I was restored to my original purposes and design. To accuse my flesh of being of inferior quality or that it has some deadly flaws is in reality saying that God did a poor job when He regenerated me and that I have to fill in what is lacking. That is not the gospel.
Sin is no longer an issue in my life. John says that I cannot sin, and I embrace this by faith. However, I almost daily face temptations. Not to sin, but to return to a mindset where I reject who I am in Him, to doubt that I am a beloved son and that God every second of the day with minutely concern works forth His will in my life. I am tempted to fix my gaze downwards instead of upwards. I am tempted to let worries and problems smother me in their intensity. I am thus tempted to be carnal minded as a substitute to the one I really am, and that is a partaker of divine nature with the mind of Christ. Jesus faced the same temptations as I do. In the wilderness the enemy repeatedly challenged Jesus with “If you are the son of God…..
Jesus was tempted to demean His divinity in all the three parts which constituted His being, that is, spirit, soul and body. In other words both His spirit and His flesh were under attack, but Jesus with great perseverance refused to let the enemy belittle who He was in God. If Jesus had given in to the pressure He would have been in Eve’s position and concluded like she did that there was something lacking in how He was created and hence had to become like God in His own powers. Through this encounter Jesus established forever who He was in God. Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. God had purposed His temptation. In the same manner He purposes our temptations so that we can be settled and fixed in who we are in Him.

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