PASTOR OLUWASEYI OSANYINBI
TUESDAY 21ST JUNE 2016.
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”
Galatians 4:19;
[biblegateway passage=”Colossians 1:21-27″ display=”Colossians 1:21-27″];
Many of us do not understand that our past, present and future salvation is all tied to some conditions. These salvations had been procured by Christ but we have to continue steadfast in the faith to be guaranteed access to this salvation There is a mystery which is now among the gentiles and it is that Christ will now dwell inside of us, and this mystery comes with a glory and the glory comes with riches. There is a glory which is our end point in life.
The mind is a faculty of our understanding, feelings and desires. Mind is the place where our thoughts and imaginations are being processed. Thoughts come from the human spirit but they are processed in the mind through the instrumentality of imagination. Man became God’s enemy because his imagination was continually evil. The question now is “how do our inner man interface with our physical body”?
[biblegateway passage=”Ecclesiastes 12:1-7″ display=”Ecclesiastes 12:1-7″];
“Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”
James 3:11;
There is attachment somewhere that connects our spirit to our body. The forming of Christ inside us is the forming of His image. Many of us are drawing out bitter water. When we are talking about image, we are talking about changing our thoughts. That is why no amount of man’s packaging can cleanse a man. Only Christ can change the heart of a man (not that Christ is changing our physical heart). The source of our thoughts needs to be cleansed. A man’s life produces fruits based on the source of his life, that is his spirit. Once the spirit is polluted, evil fruits are inevitable.
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”
Colossians 2:13-14;
There is no sufficient means to define flesh. But the flesh is usually manifested in the ways and desires of a man.
[biblegateway passage=”Colossians 3:1-5″ display=”Colossians 3:1-5″];
The early monks believed that it is the human flesh that is responsible for our problems with God, so they devised a means to kill the flesh. Flesh is not a physical being. Every component of man (emotions, intellect, will, memory, etc.) needs to be saved. Even if we have properly dealt with our emotions, our intellect can still undo and unsave us.
The bible instructs us to mortify all our members against all sins: sexual vices, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, all greed and idolatry. All of these are mostly generated in our mind.
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
James 1:13-15;
God can try you; He can test you but He will never tempt you. Temptation comes when the mind is drawn away from that place of our hope (our security) by ungodly and unholy desires. The evil desires is translated in little or no time into sin and sin is translated into death. But we can learn to abort this evil thoughts and desires else we get trapped by the enemy. We get drawn into temptation when there are desires in us that align with our object of temptation.
[biblegateway passage=”1 Peter 4:1-3″ display=”1 Peter 4:1-3″];
The primary reason Jesus came into this world (to die for our sins) drove Jesus to do what he did. We have a problem of majoring on the minor and minoring on the major. There are some particular things that pivots many of our actions, if we do not recognize them and ensure that they are godly motives and intentions. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that even if we give up ourself to be killed for others, it is meaningless without love.