Choose Life or Death

CHAPTER THREE

Brethren, highest greetings to my fellow laborers in the Body of Christ. Your constant prayers for my family and me have been greatly appreciated.

As it relates to my own life, I feel that my journey has been long but it is far from over. There is still so much to learn and to be manifested through the ministry that has been entrusted to me. My yesterdays are filled with the shame of failures due to a lack of love. But today is filled with the peace of knowing true repentance from dead works and that joy comes when you have been waiting to hear from the Lord and He finally answers, and allows entrance back into the Spirit.

My tomorrow is still a mystery and there will be no declarations made; only time will tell. I know in recent times I have not been content. I have been very impatient, and lawless in my heart, causing others to be discouraged and doubt. As God is my only true judge, I will bear the responsibility inside of repentance before God and man, owing no man anything. I shall proceed to live in Christ and I pray that everyone is encouraged to do the same. This lesson was derived from experience and revelation from God.

Lately, I have been seeking the Lord concerning the consistency of walking in the Spirit, which is synonymous with living holy. Why are there some sins we stop and never return to? Why are there others that seem to travel with us from one year to the next?

Have you ever asked, “Lord, will my mind ever truly change and stay changed?” I feel at some point even the compulsive liar asks if he will ever stop lying. The fornicator asks will he ever stop fornicating. The one who is very bitter asks will they ever be free from iniquity. There are so many mindsets I could list and I am sure there are many that you can list. The essence of this identification is to show the captivity of the flesh.

The reason we remain in captivity so long is because we do not view it as such. We often believe the pride and lust of the flesh is our true nature and that walking in the Spirit is just someone who is going the extra mile. This is not true according to scripture. Walking in the Spirit is a normal walk for the Sons of God.

Romans 8:9

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Paul clearly states that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us and we reside and live in the Spirit. Let us allow Paul to finish:

Romans 8:10

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Do you understand that to disobey God was a choice Adam made which ultimately seperated him from God? It was counted as sin and sin brought death and will always do so. Likewise, the choice to obey God is counted as righteousness that causes us to experience the life of living in the Spirit. This is only experienced by our choice to obey God.

Romans 8:11

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

If God is now dwelling in you, it is because one day you were slain by Him and reborn into Christ. In this process, we are resurrected back to life. God has entered into your mortal body causing it to breathe and move as it once did. God now possesses the body, meaning your body belongs to Him.

We stumble at the unwillingness to accept that these bodies are no longer ours. God is the life that causes these bodies to live and He is also the master of it. He causes it to live solely to do His will. When we truly understand this and accept it, we walk in the Spirit and operate in the Spirit.

Romans 8:12

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Because we understand salvation and agree with it in our hearts, we do not live as if we owe the flesh the opportunity to sin. Paul was very instrumental in dealing with the issue of overcoming sin. He understood that if a Son of God were not properly taught regarding his heritage he would live beneath his privileges and fall into sin from time to time. So, to aid the Body of Christ in this issue Paul wrote:

Romans 6:12

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

This scripture is so profound that you may miss its meaning. We oftentimes blame our bodies for causing us to sin. We characterize our bodies as that unholy thing that God left us in. We give it a mind of its own. I dare to say that this scripture contradicts this way of thinking. This scripture tells me not to let sin reign in my body; and that I must bear the responsibility if sin is ruling in my body. Thus, at some point, I chose to sin. When sin was considered in my heart, yes, my heart, I desired what was considered and this was lust. In my lust, I gave sin the authority to use my body so that the lust could be lived out.

James 1:13-15

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

This was all a matter of choice, but some would rather believe that the body is so powerful that it can make its own decisions, emotions and desires. It cannot, because the body is given to express the disposition of the soul. It simply reveals or manifests the desires, appetites, emotions and decisions of the soul. It can do nothing separate and apart from the desire of the soul or heart.

Our choice to obey God or disobey is all based on the preferences of the heart. If we walk in the flesh and live a life of sin, it is because we prefer it in our hearts. If our hearts do not agree with something, that thing has no power over us (Romans 1:28).

Romans 6:17-18

17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Paul has clearly written that obedience from the heart made us free from sin and made us the servants of righteousness. The only way sin ceases to be an issue is when your heart prefers to obey the Spirit dwelling in you. We must prefer the walk in the Spirit over the pleasure that is in the captivity of the flesh. This is when we must deny (forsake) ourselves. We must compare both existences, and desire to keep fellowship with the Father by continuing in His Spirit.

Sin was not a temptation for Jesus because He cherished His fellowship with the Father. He also realized that the Father’s life was only manifested in Him through obedience to the Father. What we truly are can only be manifested through our obedience and it can only be experienced when we obey and walk in the Spirit.

We must see that there is no natural life for us. We are men who shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). So if our existence is not determined by the leading of God, it is not our true life we are experiencing, but rather death. To understand this you must see death as a state of being and not just the final route to the grave. Death is simply the absence of life, the absence of God.

Romans 7:24

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

To characterize it this way is to show the state of death as a body of captivity for those who dwell therein. But most of the time, those who dwell in death do not know that they have never really experienced their true life since their salvation experience. I have heard many minister from this place of death with no manifestation of life. These are simply messages preached that are void of the anointing of God.

So now, what do you have? People with the Spirit on the inside forced to imitate the very thing they possess. They have chosen to walk after the flesh and are deceived by the fact that they are still functioning in their ministries. They convince themselves that they are still walking in the Spirit in spite of the sin they see in their lives.

In reality, we will do anything when we walk in death. You see, the moment we choose to sin, we stop experiencing our true nature or life and death begins to imitate life. When we preach from the Spirit we bring forth life and deliverance. It is now replaced with theatrics and bodily exercise to bring forth amens and emotions. The carnal mind can experience things that are forbidden in the Spirit. Death creates a world for the carnal mind to have dominion over the Sons of God. In this world, there are no rules to be broken, just desires to be filled, no fear of consequences and no living according to your knowledge of God. This is truly death.

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