Living Sacrifice Part I

INTRODUCTION

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

As a son of God, there are guidelines, character traits and family qualities that we all must obtain and adhere to. The Apostle Paul admonishes us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. He says that we must be holy, which is acceptable unto God, it is also our reasonable service. In other words, we owe it to God to live holy and acceptable unto Him for the mere fact He saved us from hell.

Jesus Christ bought us with a price (I Cor. 6:20) and we are no longer our own. We belong to Him totally and completely . . . body, soul and spirit.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.

I Peter 2:2

To move from one spiritual location to another is called growth. Growth is accomplished by:

I. DESTROYING NEGATIVE MINDSETS

A mindset can be destroyed momentarily. It should not take weeks, months, or years to change a mindset. The enemy has sought to make us believe that because we have been in these negative mindsets so many years, it is going to take long periods of time to retrain the mind to perform righteousness.

The truth is, the time involved in destroying a negative mindset should only be:

A. The time it takes the teacher to teach what the Word of

God says about the circumstances, situations and

relationships.

B. The time it takes you to hear the Word.

C. The time it takes to comprehend the Word.

In other words, “The day you hear my voice, harden not your heart” (Hebrews 4:7). You must accept and agree with what the Word says about your response to life’s situations. You must accept it as truth and law for your life. Otherwise, you will always rest in a mindset that will war against the new creature.

Mindset - 1. The method and element by which we judge situations, circumstances and relationships. 2. The position the fleshy mind takes as it responds to the circumstances, situations and relationships in our lives.

Banks’ Expository

Mindset - A mental disposition or attitude that predetermines one’s responses to and interpretation of situations.

Webster’s Dictionary

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

II. CREATING NEW EMOTIONS

You must remember that old mindsets are so powerful because they carry or create very strong emotions in you. The way you interpret life’s experiences are not without emotion. Even if that emotion is suppressed, it is emotion that strengthens a mindset. An emotion is also that driving force that will push the flesh to carry out the will of the mind. Emotions such as carnal love, anger, hate, worldly joy, hurt and iniquity are powerful weapons against spiritual growth.

However, in order to accomplish spiritual growth, each of these emotions must be destroyed. The destruction of such powerful emotions may seem impossible, especially when the church accepts the world’s psychiatric method of dealing with such feelings. The enemy has convinced us that this is such a difficult thing. We have all but laid saints out on the couch week after week, month after month and year after year, counseling them about the same negative dispositions. They have not grown and the church has accepted and accommodated their deficiencies.

If the body is to grow up into the stature of the man, Jesus, then this must change. “The day you hear my voice, harden not your heart.” The heart is the seat of all emotions. It is that part of the soul which creates spiritual feelings. These feelings are manufactured from ingredients supplied to the heart by the fleshy mind. That which the mind accepts as truth, enters the heart, where the created emotions are strengthened, established and settled as a part of your being.

That which is established in your heart will produce your personality or “personal reality.” For example, hurt caused by unforgiveness can create a very angry or sad personality. Iniquity can make one mean and unbearable.

The only emotion strong enough to destroy any and every negative feeling or disposition is “agape love.” This is the love that comes from the inner man, not the mind or the flesh. Therefore, it is always constant. It stays the same, never changing because of circumstances, situations or relationships. AGAPE IS GOD ON THE SCENE. It is the way we put him on display to the world.

Moving inside of agape love should not be a long, drawn out process. But the enemy will deceive us into believing otherwise. There is only one operation involved: accept the Word of God in your heart. You must accept it as law for your life. Once the mind accepts the Word as law, it will supply the heart with that law. Once the heart receives the Word, it will produce agape, which is the only kind of emotion that can be produced by the Word. This love will destroy all other negative emotions, thus destroying negative mindsets.

BELOVED, ACCEPT GOD’S WORD AS LAW FOR YOUR LIFE. You are the workmanship of His hands. Harden not your heart. Allow the potter to mold the clay. The flesh will submit if the heart is won. I guarantee you will begin to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God to saturate your being.

Through the Holy Ghost we can overcome negative emotions.

Emotions are powerful weapons against spiritual growth.

The heart is the part of the soul that creates spiritual feelings.

III. CASTING DOWN EVIL IMAGINATIONS

In my series on Thought War, we learned how easy it is to live out of the imagination. We have also learned that evil imaginations are created by the workings of the fleshy mind. Here, we will examine the root of all negative thoughts that linger in the heart to form such imaginations. Remember, the only way to destroy evil imaginations is to first identify each thought as a lie, and then refuse to negotiate with it.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1

We are the sheep and the Lord is our shepherd. He is the One responsible for our well-being. He sent us out into the world to labor in His vineyard.

Imagination – 1. A mental extension of those things that you have been exposed to: origin is from the earth. (Genesis 6:5). 2. The ability of the soul to produce images or ideas (by either directly or indirectly experiencing them), that at present may only be lived out in the mind. 3. A holding place for thoughts for future consideration. a place of refueling; the manufacturer of plans; designs that are pre-lived desires of the flesh. 4. The act or power of forming mental images of what is not actually present or experienced. 5. The contemplation of action as the result of a verdict of the conscience. It carries evil purpose and reasoning. Imagination is most frequently translated as thoughts.

Banks’ Expository

PURPOSE vs. WANTONNESS

22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

23 The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

St. Luke 12:22-24

For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

St. Luke 12:30

If men and women of God could move to a place where they wanted nothing, Satan would be spiritually powerless against them.

Satan is the god of this world. He knows that if there is any wantonness in us, then he has a stronghold inside us. Therefore, he is standing ready to either supply the want or make us believe that it will be fulfilled. He does this to take our focus off God’s purpose for our life and places it on fulfilling that desire.

Once he has successfully moved our focus from purpose to worldly acquisitions, he can create a whole new world for us to abide in. Manifestations of this operation which alienate us from those we love or those who love us are envy, strife, restlessness and helplessness. These iniquities must not be tolerated. Remember, the devil wants to accomplish one of two things when he deals with a man or woman of God. He wants to destroy your ability to minister, and/or cause you to self-destruct.

Wantonness is his character. He created it, therefore, he knows all the emotions it carries. Wantonness makes us most like him. Why? Because wantonness is a desire of the flesh. The new creature was designed to live above and beyond that desire. He was created to be like Christ: to take no thought for the things of this world.

Satan has trained the fleshy mind to create this wantonness of the heart by exposing it to the things and pleasures of the world. The same is being done in the church. Consider Peter’s oversight of proud, gain-seeking men operating in the church:

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness . . .

II Peter 2:15

17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

II Peter 2:17-22

There are those in the church (leaders) who have forsaken the righteous way. Greed, lust and wantonness have replaced the Holy commandments of : “take no thought” or “be content in whatever state we find ourselves in.” Because they seem to prosper in things (reputation, authority or finances), their “great swelling words”, or as Strong’s defines: their loud boasting, lures those who had once escaped. This is tragic, because oftentimes the lure is camouflaged by religious doctrine.

Satan’s purpose in our life is to take our focus off God.

Wantonness – A lust for things, ministry, control, authority, flesh, etc., not kept in due restraint; unprovoked; lustful; lewdness (II Peter 2:18, James 5:5). Lasciviousness, insolent luxury; when you will break the laws of God to fulfill your desires. Readiness for all pleasure; one who acknowledges no restraints - who does whatever he desires and his unmanageable boundaries dictate (St. Mark 7:22, II Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 4:19, Romans 13:14, II Peter 2:18).

Banks’ Expository

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1 John 2:15-16

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:6

I SHALL NOT WANT

Learn this principle of wanting nothing and accept it as law for your life. If you do, the devil will never gain an advantage over you. Peter makes this operation very clear:

A. Great swelling words or the boasting of others is the lure or bait.

B. Your lust in the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are the fish swimming in your heart.

C. This evil fish was created by wantonness.

You cannot destroy the fish without destroying their life source. They were created by want; destroy the want and the lust dies. Then the operations of the world are no longer temptation. Try it. Destroy want; sanctify yourself to the truth you heard and I promise, your whole perspective of righteousness will change. If you will submit to God’s truth and present yourself, your livelihood, and your desires as a living sacrifice, then you are well on your way to becoming a manifested son of God.

Wherefore brothers and sisters give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.

II Peter 1:10

For it is then you will find rest in the Holy Spirit and He will rest upon you with an anointing capable of changing the lives of others.

REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

OLD TESTAMENT

Deuteronomy 6:5 -Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart

II Chronicles 30: 18-19 -The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God.

NEW TESTAMENT

Matthew 15:19 -For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts

Romans 12:1 -Present your bodies a living sacrifice

I Corinthians 7:37 -He that stands steadfast in his heart having no necessity

II Corinthians 10:5 -Casting down imaginations and every high thing

Ephesians 5:2 -A sacrifice to God for sweet savour and hath given himself for us an offering

Philippians 4:8 - A sacrifice well pleasing to God

James 1:4 - Perfect and entire wanting nothing

I John 2:15 - Love not the world