Shalom and Chag Sameach! Now, many of you may be thinking, half of that last sentence is clearly not English. Surprise! You are right- it is Hebrew for “happy festival/ holiday.” It is an appropriate greeting as I am publishing this post on the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths). If you are interested, you can read more about it in the book of Leviticus (Leviticus 23:33-43). Simply put, think of it as God wants to take you camping, or like me, glamping. Sign. Me. Up.
In my last post, I shared my salvation story and how God has redeemed my story from a place of self-destruction to one of joy and peace. I shared that while it looked like I had it all together on the outside, I was deeply struggling with poor decision making amid my two crises (divorces) that ultimately led me to sin. I saw my sinful nature in a repetitive cycle that desperately needed to be broken but my own flesh was powerless. Have you ever felt this way?
As I matured in my relationship with Jesus, my Lord and Savior, I began to understand that the Bible was clear about this age-old battle of the born-again spirit in us being in opposition to our sinful flesh. Paul, through the Holy Spirit, masterfully captures this dilemma in Romans where he writes: “For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15, HCSB). It seems so hopeless, doesn’t it? Thank the Lord there is a solution- JESUS!
Before we get to the solution, I want to bring the full context of the verse above. Read with me in Romans chapter seven verses fourteen through twenty-five:
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
The way this struggle was taught to me was that either my flesh is ruling and operating my actions or my spirit is ruling and operating my actions. Let’s think about this. When I was physically born, my flesh as an infant began to rule and operate the moment I took my first breath out of the womb. My infant self would cry when I was hungry, my diaper needed to be changed and or I was simply uncomfortable. It was all about me and my comfort. And to be transparent, that self-will living by the flesh didn’t change much as I grew from infant to child to adolescence to adulthood. But the kingdom of my flesh came falling when I repented of how I was living my life according to my sinful will. At the moment of salvation, my spirit was born. I was born again according to John 3:5-6: Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit” (HCSB). I was now moving forward in life with my spirit taking the lead over my flesh in my behavior. I imagine my spirit said something like this to my flesh, “You have just about ruined Lucy’s life up until this point, now that I have been born, I will be calling the shots.”
But if you are a born-again Christian, you know that transition isn’t as smooth of a process as we would like. My flesh did not take the new way of doing things so well. Rather, my flesh began to wreak havoc the moment distress began in my second marriage when my ex relapsed in his drug addiction. After months of him being in a downward spiral, I let my flesh through my emotions take charge and I sought comfort from another man. It seems like such an awful nightmare when I remember this part of my story. Just like Paul in his own distress, I relate to when he said, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death” (Romans 7:24)? How was I supposed to live a life walking in holiness when I was still easily enticed by sin?
At that point of my life, I still was not reading my Bible daily as I knew I should have been doing. I cannot remember how often I was attending church at that time, but I am sure that when I did attend a Sunday service, that was the only time I was hearing scripture. If I had been reading the Bible daily, I would have eventually read about living a life in the Spirit, understanding that because my mind had been conformed to a fleshly way of living my whole life, I needed to be renewing my mind so that I could “discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” for my life (Romans 12:2, HCSB). The verse before addresses that I was to be a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1, HCSB). The Amplify translation says being a living sacrifice is the “rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship” to God. Clearly, God has called His children to be holy, but it begins by renewing our mind, reading His written word, the Bible, daily.
Now you may be thinking, come on, you really think a Christian needs to be reading the Bible daily? If you are only asking my opinion, then, yes, I do think a Christian needs to be equipping themselves daily by reading the Bible based off the fruit that has resulted in my life from doing so. There is a fascinating study that my Messianic Jewish Pastor shared with us this year regarding the behavioral difference between Christians who read the Bible three times a week or less versus Christians who read the Bible at least four times a week. It says their research demonstrated “those who read the Bible at least four times a week are less likely to engage in behaviors such as gambling, pornography, getting drunk, and sex outside of marriage” (page 2). It continues saying, “A significant minority of self-identified born-again Christians, particularly those under 35, has cohabited, and divorce rates are just as high among born-again Christians as among other groups” (page 2). The study concludes stating, “we also find that there are no statistically significant differences between those who read or listen to the Bible one to three times a week and those who spent zero days doing so. In other words, for adults, engaging scripture for less than four days a week does not appear to have the same protective factor as doing so for four or more days” (page 12).1
Wow. It’s clear this study proved my theory that by not being engaged with God’s word daily resulted in me being spiritually immature. Therefore, it makes sense that I walked straight into sin’s trap because I had not pursued God’s truth for my circumstances. This study is fascinating, and I highly encourage you to read it; I have provided the link below.
It is evident that to be holy, it requires some effort on our end to read the Bible and learn what it says about walking in holiness. Later in Romans Paul says, “so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires” (Romans 13:12-14, HCSB). Let me make this practical. When I wake up every morning to change from my pajamas to regular clothing, my pajamas do not magically transform into my regular clothing like the scene from Cinderella. But wouldn’t that be nice? What really happens is that I must put in the effort to change. I may have to lean, bend and stretch to make the wardrobe change. In the same way, as a Christian, I need to put in the effort to reading the Bible daily, so I know the character of Christ and can partner with the Holy Spirit to walk according to the spirit and not according to my flesh.
That leads me to what the book of Galatians teaches about walking in the spirit versus the flesh:
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Did you notice that verse 19 listed sexual immorality as the first sinful behavior? I did. That was the greatest struggle of sin in my life before marriage but then it would flare up when push came to shove each time my first two marriages had begun to crumble. I did not like the way I felt after I would commit that sin. I knew sin’s allure had deceived me each time. No one had to tell me.
If you read my last post, you learned that I celebrated ten years of marriage with my husband, Dustin, this year. I have been living in victory in the blessing of marriage so long that I do not even recognize who I was before my marriage to Dustin. I remember that Lucy, but I do not miss her. You may be wondering, why is this marriage different? Well, my friends, it is because Dustin and I determined to make Jesus Lord over our marriage. He had also experienced divorce before me and was not interested in repeating it. “Division” means two visions. When you have a marriage with each person having separate visions of what marriage is, division is inevitable. And if Jesus is not the Lord over your marriage should division occur, well, just take it from me- life will get messy. I remember feeling so much shame for a long time about my past. I never wanted to bring it up. But as Dustin and I attended classes at church learning about how God wanted to heal our wounds, even the self-inflicted ones, we were all in. I began to tell my story and each time a beam of light would shine through the darkness of my past until the light overcame the darkness and set me free from shame. Praise God because shame no longer has a hold on me. And as I became a serious student of the Bible, my mind was getting renewed with God’s truth. And part of His truth reveals we need the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in this Christian life that should aim for holiness as our everyday standard in life. We cannot afford to rely on our own strengths.
Jesus shared much revelation of the Holy Spirit with His disciples. He revealed another name of the Holy Spirit to them, the Counselor. He said that God the Father would send the Holy Spirit in His name and that he “will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26, HCSB). He went on to say that “It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness and judgement…” (John 16:7-8, HCSB).
Hopefully I have made a case that for myself and other Christians to walk in holiness amid this world that is full temptations and sin, we need to be actively walking with the Holy Spirit who enables us to do so. Galatians says, “the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23, HCSB). If I want that fruit to be evident in my life, I need to partner with the Holy Spirit. It is through the enabling of the Holy Spirit that I can walk in the holiness that Jesus died to give us access to. As Christians we are called to be holy just as it is written in 1 Peter:
So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:13-16).
Holy Spirit, would you continue to lead me and enable me to walk in the beauty of holiness. Amen.
_________
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New Living Translation.
1 https://bttbfiles.com/web/docs/cbe/Scientific_Evidence_for_the_Power_of_4.pdf