The post Our New Life In Christ (Series – 5) appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

The choice really is yours!  Whatever we do, we ought to realize that you become the slave of whoever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.  (Rom 6:16-17  NLT).

Last week, we examined the sin of sexual immorality as one of the works of the flesh, which every believer must mortify.  In this post, we will look at the sins of impurity, sensuality and idolatry.  Let us quote the Scripture in Galatians 5 again, where all the works of the flesh are outlined.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-22 ESV

Impurity

Some versions of Scripture in this text refer to impurity as uncleanliness.  Webster’s online dictionary defines Impurity as:

(1) the condition or quality of being impure in any sense: defilement; foulness; adulteration.

(2)That which is, or which renders anything impure; foul matter, action, language, etc.; a foreign ingredient.

The Cambridge English dictionary also defines impurity as sexual thoughts or behaviour that are wrong or not moral.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in explaining to His disciples, what uncleanliness or impurity is, had this to say:

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  These are the things which defile a man, … Matt 15:18-20  NKJV

Juxtaposing the dictionary definitions of Impurity and what the Scripture says about this subject, I define impurity as the state of being defiled emotionally, morally and spiritually through any of your five senses: eyes, taste, touch, sight and hearing.

No doubt in our present day and age, one is bombarded everywhere with content that defiles the recipient in one way or the other; talk about what we see on the billboards, TVs, adverts that pop up when you are watching something decent on the internet.  The lyrics of popular music, the stagecraft of artistes, the list is endless.

Impurity therefore, to a large extent has to do with a distortion of one of God’s most valuable gifts to mankind: love.  When love is demeaned and equated to open vulgarity such as we see on our screens and sometimes in pubs and such places; that can be described as impurity.  Such vulgarity can be in dance, language and open display of sexual advances.  God’s love is pure (1 Cor 13) and the sexual love between a man and a woman is meant to be expressed in the context of marriage. (Eph 5).  Sad to say, impurity and not purity, seems to be the thing of the now in recent times.

It is important for the believer to be purposeful in his or her choices:  which company of people to associate with, where to go and even which internet material and sites to visit; among others.

This is because the battle ground of our new life in Christ with our old nature, is mainly our minds, thoughts and heart.  Whatever we listen to, watch, ponder over in our minds and heart, affects what we tend to touch, say and how we react. So when we watch pornography and fantasize about people, our thoughts run wild, and this is impurity.  Jesus makes this clear in the Matthew 15 Scripture earlier quoted, that what comes out of a person’s mouth is as a result of the condition of his heart (mind) and that is what defiles that person and makes him or her impure.

Watching pornography for example can lead a person into masturbation, fornication or even adultery.

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  Matt 5:28-29 NKJV

Similarly, listening to wrong suggestions and counsel may also lead a person to utter defamatory, insulting words or even poniards to another.  Here again, while the Holy Spirit will prompt us to forgive an offender, our sinful nature will on the other hand often push us to say or do something harmful to the person who would have wronged us.  The choice once again is ours. We decide whose voice we will obey.

You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living

That is why the Scripture urges us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind (Romans 12:1-2); and also urges us to also to pull down every thought that opposes the will of God for our lives.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ……  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,… 2 Cor 10:3-5 ESV

Impurity is dangerous because you cannot be sure where it will lead you to; and it can also end up as an addiction.

One of the ways to overcome impurity is to memorize Scripture.  There is power in God’s word to overcome impure thoughts; and as we fill our minds with the Word and confess it, the enemy is defeated, and we are able to submit our thoughts and hearts to Christ.  Let this Scripture be our guide to help us triumph over this sin of impurity:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Phillp 4:8-9 ESV

Sensuality / lewdness

Sensuality, referred to as lewdness in some versions of the Bible, is also a sexual sin.  The Cambridge English dictionary defines sensuality as the expression or suggestion of physical, especially sexual pleasure or satisfaction.  It can also be explained as being sexual in an indecent or lustful way; public sexual acts.  A lot has been said on sexual immorality in our previous post and this can be applied to the sin of lewdness. (Series 3)

Idolatry

The Merriam Webster English dictionary defines idols as (1) an object of extreme devotion, (2) a representation or symbol of an object of worship.

Idols are not only graven images. Our Lord Jesus Christ even referred to money as an idol.

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matt 6:24 NLT

For the love of money is the first step toward all kinds of sin. Some people have even turned away from God because of their love for it, and have as a result, pierced themselves with many sorrows. (1 Tim 6:10)

Anything we put ahead of God in our lives is an idol and God hates it. (Exod 20:4-5)  Your idol can therefore be your phone, your money and even your spouse among others.  Scripture says:

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.  Jonah 2:8

The new believer must understand that these sins are overcome progressively and not overnight. The more we surrender to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and to His direction through God’s Word, the more control over our lives that He has, and the easier it is to overcome more and more sins as the days go by.  So when the Apostle John says “he that is born of God does not sin” it simply means the born again believer does not make a practice of sinning because that person has surrendered his or her will to God and sin no more has dominion over him!  I pray that this will be the testimony of every reader of this post.

Stay connected, for a continuation of this weekly teaching!

God bless you!!!

The post Our New Life In Christ (Series – 4) appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Cor 5:17 NKJV 

We also learnt that we do not earn salvation. Salvation is God’s gift to us. (Eph 2:8-9). So like any gift we value and cherish, we need to maintain it. This is particularly important since our physical bodies do not die immediately our spirits are born again. More often than not, we continue to live on this earth for a long while, even after we give our lives to Christ. So the Apostle Paul asks: 

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Rom 6:1-2 NKJV 

We definitely cannot continue to live in sin. We are born again and like any new born baby, we need to grow in this new life. A new born baby grows by the day; and the child that continually fails to grow, ultimately dies. So the Scripture says this to us: 

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13 NKJV 

This death mentioned here is certainly not a death of the physical body, but the spirit man. In this same Scripture, we learn that the spirit man grows, as we continually mortify the desires of the flesh! 

So as new believers, we are expected to walk in “newness of life” and our lives must begin to align with God’s will and purpose for our lives. (Rom 6:4) This does not all happen in one day! No. The entire Christian journey here on earth has to do with subduing the desires of the flesh and yielding to the will and purposes of God for your life. It is a progression, and it’s expected to get better with each passing day. 

You and I definitely cannot achieve this in our own strength; so God has empowered us to do so, through the baptism of His Holy Spirit! When you are baptised in the Holy Spirit, an overflowing dimension of His presence comes upon your life and empowers you to yield the members of your body to God. 

The Spirit of God now in you is continually at war with your sinful nature – your old man. So for every situation you face in life, you have to choose an action that will either gratify the desires of your flesh or gratify the desires of the Spirit of God in you. Therein is the continual struggle in our walk of faith. What your old nature desires, is contrary to what the Spirit of God now in you, prompts you to do. Let’s see the Scripture below: 

For the flesh DESIRES what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
Galatians 5:17 NIV (Emphasis mine) 

So probably typically, in the past, if someone hurt you deeply, your immediate reaction would be to seek an avenue to take revenge; but not so now. The Spirit of God in you will dissuade you from doing so, and probably remind you of God’s word regarding such reactions. The decision would now lie with you, whether to react like you would before you came to know the Lord, or heed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and let sleeping dogs lie, praying rather to God to help you forgive that person. 

The choice really is yours! Whatever we do, we ought to realize that we become the slave of whoever we choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. The Living Bible puts it this way: 

Don’t you realize that you can choose your own master? ….. The one to whom you offer yourself-he will take you and be your master, and you will be his slave.
Rom 6:16-17 The Living Bible 

So what are these desires of the flesh that the Scriptures urge us to mortify? Galatians chapter 5 outlines the various aspects of our sinful nature. We will begin with examining the sin of sexual immorality in today’s post. 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:19-22 ESV 

Sexual Immorality 

Some versions of Scripture in this text, refer to sexual immorality, as adultery and fornication. Indeed both adultery and fornication can be classified as sexual immorality. While adultery, is having sex with a married person who is not your spouse, fornication has to do with a sexual act between two consenting people who are unmarried. 

It is sad today, to see sexual immorality downplayed even among believers. The world says it’s ok to have sex with one another, so long as they are two consenting adults; but God says the act of sex is reserved for the institution of marriage; marriage between a male and a female. (Gen 2:15-24) Whose voice will you obey? 

Maybe you found nothing wrong with having sex with a friend or a married person before you became born again. However, once you give your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit who now resides in you, will prod you any time you are tempted to succumb to that lifestyle. The more you yield to Him, the more control He has over your life and the more you are transformed to become like Christ. However, if you continually ignore His proddings, the less control He has of your life and the more control your sinful nature has over your life. Your continual disobedience to the Holy Spirit grieves Him. (Eph 4:30) 

Remember, you choose your master – whether sin leading to death, or God, leading to righteous living. (Rom 6) 

We are however urged to put to death what is earthly in us: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; (Col 3:5-11) and not be consumed with matters of sexual immorality. So the apostle Paul puts it this way: 

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
Eph 5:3-4 NKJV 

When we become born again and God’s Holy Spirit comes upon us, our bodies become the containers of His presence and we need to be conscious of that as we live here on earth. 

God in His own wisdom, knowing that it will be difficult for man and woman to resist the sin of sexual immorality, since it is mostly an act between two consenting people, says to us to FLEE sexual immorality! I define flee as to move your body away quickly from a scene or situation. You cannot resist sexual immorality, you flee, as this Scripture states: 

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Cor 6:18-20 NKJV 

When we live in consciousness of the fact that we live our lives to please God, we will by the power of the Holy Spirit, desist from such acts if we were engaged in them before we came to know the Lord. For as the Scripture says: 

This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
1 Thess 4:3-4NKJV 

We need to remember that, in as much as it may not be possible to overcome these sins overnight, we can overcome them progressively. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, the more control He has over our lives and vice versa. This continues until we get to the point in our lives when “we are led by the Holy Spirit” in almost all our dealings. At this point, we do not make a practice of sinning. 

I pray that we will yield more and more to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in us so that we can grow in our new life in Christ. This is possible when we study His Word and stay connected to Him in prayer. 

Stay connected for a continuation of this weekly teaching. 

God bless you!

The post Our New Life In Christ (Series – 3) appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

Yes. We need to heed the Holy Spirit’s direction in our lives – primarily through the word of God; for the more we yield to His promptings, the more authority over our lives we invariably yield to Him.

Prior to committing our lives to Christ Jesus, each person is primarily controlled by his natural man – what the Bible refers to as our “old man” in the book of Ephesians. I’ll quote excerpts from the Living Bible for a clearer understanding.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Eph 4: 20-24 NKJV Emphasis mine

So the Scripture describes the life we lived before being born again as the ‘old man’ and also compares it to a garment which we are expected to put off or remove, once we are born again. In its stead, we are expected to put on the ‘new man’. The expression ‘put on’ again connotes that this new life is like a garment already provided for us by God that we wear. Our salvation therefore is a gift bestowed to us from God, once we are born again.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Eph 2:8-10 NKJV

Remember, that you have NOT EARNED your salvation. You received it, and like any gift you receive and value, you need to keep it! In as much as you have a part to play in maintaining this gift, it is important to realize that you cannot do it on your own. You need to be empowered to do so; and God in all His wisdom has made provision for you and me to be empowered to overcome sin.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
Rom 8:12-13

We recall the Scripture in John 1:12 that we receive the power to act as children of God when we believe in Christ and confess Him as Lord. Unfortunately, we see so many people who claim to have given their lives to Christ, but whose lives simply do not give credence to having “put on a new man”. Sad to say, a lot of professing born again Christians maintain their old lifestyles because they do not grow in the Christian faith. It is as if they consider being born again as their destination instead of their starting point.

We can recall that the disciples of Christ also found themselves at this point after the death of Christ. In John chapter 20, we read that as Jesus breathed on his disciples, He imparted a deposit of the Holy Spirit into them.

“Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:21-22 NKJV

So like the new born Christian, the apostles also received a deposit of God’s power. However, they were still not emboldened to testify of God’s grace and power (John 21). Later however, after Christ had ascended into heaven, we see these same previously timid disciples walking in so much authority and demonstrating the power of God wherever they went. The key to this change of life can be gleaned from Jesus’ commandment to them, quoted below:

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1:4-5 NKJV (Emphasis mine)

Jesus said to them to WAIT for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for it was only then that they would receive the power needed to live this new life and be witnesses of Him.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
Acts 1:8 NKJV

Isn’t it common to find a lot of people who claim to have given their lives to Christ, but with nothing to show of a new life in Christ? I believe that just as Jesus said to the disciples that it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that would empower them to be effective witnesses for Him, in much the same way does every believer need the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be an effective witness for Christ in our present day and age.

To be an effective witness for Christ, is to live a life exemplary of a disciple of Christ Jesus and also to be emboldened to share your faith in Christ with all around you. The believers in Berea were first called Christians by the people around them, because they observed that the lifestyles of these disciples resembled that of Christ Jesus. They no more lived like they used to, but clearly lived a new life in Christ
Jesus.

Why do we not see this situation in our lives today? Why do we not see a clear difference in the lifestyle of people who claim to be born again? Truly, without the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, there is very little one can do for the Lord! The first answer to this question, I believe is because we do not WAIT ON THE LORD.

Let me recount my own life story many years ago, as a young lady in the early teens, when I gave my life to Christ. I think I confessed Christ as Lord more than once and the reason I kept doing it was because I got convicted any time I heard the Word of God being preached so powerfully. Yet I did not see any difference in my lifestyle until I learnt of the need to desire for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I began to desire for the Holy Spirit and pray to God for it.

I was in a boarding school at that time and one day, during the compulsory afternoon siesta period, I decided to read a few Scriptures and pray for a while before taking my afternoon nap. As I was praying, I suddenly realised I was speaking in a strange language! I had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4). What a beautiful experience it was. I was so enthralled and excited, full of praise to God. That was the beginning of my walk with the Lord. Thereafter, I just wanted to live my life to please my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Being baptised in the Holy Spirit is an experience that every person who has confessed Christ as Lord must desire. For it is only when you are baptised in the Holy Spirit that you will be able to live a victorious Christian life. When you are baptised in the Holy Spirit, an overflowing dimension of His presence comes upon your life and empowers you to yield the members of your body to God. The reason why we are not empowered to overcome sin is because we do not nurture the desire for the Holy Spirit, nor do we wait on the Lord or even ask the Father for Him. Let’s see what Jesus said about this
below:

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Luke 11:9-13 NKJV (Emphasis mine)

Let’s learn to ASK the Father for an overflowing presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and like the early disciples, also learn to WAIT upon the Lord through prayer and the study of His Word for an outpouring of this Presence. He will empower us to be victorious over sin and put away the old man!

Stay connected for a continuation of this weekly teaching……

Remain blessed!

The post Our New Life In Christ (Series – 2) appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6 :1-4 NKJV (Emphasis mine)

The Christian life is like a journey, and it begins at the point of salvation: by believing in the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary, and by confessing Jesus Christ with your mouth (Romans 10). This is the starting point of the Christian’s new life. For when we give our lives to Christ, we become “new creations”. What this means is that the spirit of such a person is ”born again” (John 3:3). Of course, if a person who gives his or her life to Christ Jesus were to physically die immediately after being born again, that person would go to heaven. Similarly, if Christ were to come by appearing in the skies the day you give your life to Him, you would be raptured. For indeed … it is “by Grace are you saved through faith”… Eph. 2:8-9;

Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus.
Eph. 2:8-9 (The Living Bible)

This is really good news. The fact however is that more often than not, we continue to live on this earth even after we give our lives to Christ. We continue to live on for a long while. So how is this “new life” in Christ experienced here on earth? The Romans 6 Scripture earlier quoted clearly explains that in this new life, we cannot continue to live in sin and be controlled by our sinful desires and passions; rather our lives must begin to align with God’s will and purpose for our lives.

To explain further, it is important to note that the spirit of a person lives in its body and this body is primarily controlled by its mind and emotions. The Scripture says “as many as believe in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and receive Him into their lives, “He gave them the power to become children of God” (John 1:12). This means each person who is born again receives a deposit of the Spirit of God in him or her; and as we go about living here on earth, it is our responsibility now to allow the Holy Spirit to direct us in all we do. This is how the apostle Paul puts it:

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Romans 8: 12-14 NLT

The fact that a person is born again, does not mean he or she is automatically led by the Spirit of God in all his or dealings. No. Being led by the Spirit of God is a gradual process. As earlier explained, per the Scripture in John 1 :12, we receive the power to become children of God when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives. The question then is: What happens in between the point when we receive the power to become the children of God and the time when we are classified as children of God because we are led by the Spirit of God?

Romans 8:12-13 quoted earlier makes provision for an answer to this question. It is important to note that the deposit of the Holy Spirit in our lives at our initial stages of being born again, is latent. When something is latent, it lies dormant or hidden, until circumstances are suitable for its manifestation or development. Similarly, the Holy Spirit lies dormant in our lives at our initial stages when we accept Christ into our lives. The more of God’s word we study and the more of God’s Presence we seek in prayer, the more room we give the Holy Spirit in our lives to prompt us in all our dealings.

In this way, we can by His power, say NO to the dictates of our flesh and continually yield to His promptings. As we continually say no to the dictates of our flesh, listen to, and heed God’s direction for our lives through the promptings of the Holy Spirit (which is primarily through the word of God); the more authority over our lives that we invariably yield to the Holy Spirit. In this way, we begin to live our new life in Christ Jesus.

Stay connected for a continuation of this teaching ……

God bless you!

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