IS YOUR FLESH DYING?
By Pam Clark
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There are many who speak constantly of the dying of the flesh. And while it's true the flesh dies that the Spirit might live in us, are we focusing on the garbage or the Life?
What happens to the seed when it falls into the ground? It dies on its own accord and disintegrates as the MIRACLE of the new life occurs. Many feel that they are a part of their own dying process and thus exercise control over their new life as co-managers with God over it. Not so! That is pride and vanity.
By the time the new life has risen in its glory, the old shell is no where to be seen, not even as a trophy! Many want to hold on to the stinking past as a trophy of their own efforts and cooperation. God is not looking at it, nor fellowshipping with it, nor is He giving awards for it!
Our efforts in Christ are our worship. When our worship pleases Him, the old is shed and the new comes through in its proper season of glorious growth. When we hold on to the past and our efforts and struggles with it, we have not truly died to it. Instead we have praised our own efforts and held on to the decay.
And the decay gets mushy and stinky and wormy! It is those times where our tap root needs to dig in deep to His Living waters for life and strength. When we compare our efforts of dying to someone else's, we yet remain in the world.
When we judge someone else's lack of progress, we only define our own lack of it. Our worship of God does not involve others! Others may challenge us but if our worship includes others, it has become defiled and is not pure and therefore we are not seeing God!
Our focus and our vision must be on His Life and Light, or how great is our darkness. We may see shadows, but in Him there are no shadows.
If we see our own efforts as something to be held on to and as tokens of His Grace, we have missed His Life. We have missed the Great Exchange of the Life He has offered and freely given. In Him is the death, BURIAL and the Resurrection!!!
In the new life, the old life is FORGOTTEN, because the better has come. The past is not to be remembered as the new dimension is so much better, and it has only compassion and love, and not judgments for its fellow brother and sister.
When we compare ourselves one to another, we invite strife. When we find jealousy within ourselves, we are not looking to Him. When there is a lack of understanding, do we cry out to Him, or do we give honor and glory to our efforts rather than His and the work HE is doing in us?
There is a big emphasis in the Body yet still of our own efforts as trophies of righteousness. It's a deceit of the enemy designed to hold us back in our fleshly lusts declaring what's dead to still be alive.
In reality, it stinks to High Heaven, but the Good News is that Life is still coming through from the Seed received in the soul of our earth.