The chink in my armour
The armour of God is to be worn, to defend, to fight. Right now there is a chink in my walk with God.
I have come to realise that whilst God is in my heart, I have not really enthroned him. Or actually, I have put him in my advisory position. To make things clearer, in the journey of life, God is my navigator, whilst I am still in the driver seat. Sure, I ask God what to do next, I ask him where should I go, whether I should take the path, but by and large, I am still the driver.
In so many places in my life, I have been the driver, I have been the leader of my own life. I told people I prayed, when the truth was I prayed God, let things be my way. The truth is I am still carrying the stench of un-crucified flesh, still having the old ways in me, when the new way cannot grow. I have been the expert in pretending to be the new, without letting the old die. The old has to die, my wine skins have to be emptied, I have to be renewed, tipped over. The old wine in me has to be cleaned out.
But this is amazing, today as a speaker shared in church, be ready to be tipped over, was in line with what God told me in the morning. That right now, I have yet to put God in the driver seat. He is in so many ways the front passenger, true a front passenger but in many ways the passenger. God wants me to go all the way, and let him take over. Let him be the driver.
Gal 5:16 says, Walk in the Spirit and you SHALL NOT fulfil the lusts of the flesh. I pondered on what that mean, until literally God told me to die to self, the old self, that you may have a new creation to walk in the spirit. The old self cannot walk in the spirit, because the old self was flesh, and flesh and spirit fight.
But what then is dying to self? Dying to self is not a one time thing. It is a daily affair, as Paul says so succinctly, I die daily. I die DAILY. It is a daily thing. I asked God, ok so I have to die daily, how exactly.
God said this, Feed the spirit you want to live. The old me is still very strong, but stop feeding it, and it WILL DIE. IT cannot help but die. The spirit will die, whether old or new, if it is not fed. A new spirit needs food of the word of God, the exercise of mercy through prayer, the fellowship of God through QT. The disciplines of loving God is not to earn salvation; it is to earn what is rightfully yours, a new creation. A new spirit.
I have come to realise that whilst God is in my heart, I have not really enthroned him. Or actually, I have put him in my advisory position. To make things clearer, in the journey of life, God is my navigator, whilst I am still in the driver seat. Sure, I ask God what to do next, I ask him where should I go, whether I should take the path, but by and large, I am still the driver.
In so many places in my life, I have been the driver, I have been the leader of my own life. I told people I prayed, when the truth was I prayed God, let things be my way. The truth is I am still carrying the stench of un-crucified flesh, still having the old ways in me, when the new way cannot grow. I have been the expert in pretending to be the new, without letting the old die. The old has to die, my wine skins have to be emptied, I have to be renewed, tipped over. The old wine in me has to be cleaned out.
But this is amazing, today as a speaker shared in church, be ready to be tipped over, was in line with what God told me in the morning. That right now, I have yet to put God in the driver seat. He is in so many ways the front passenger, true a front passenger but in many ways the passenger. God wants me to go all the way, and let him take over. Let him be the driver.
Gal 5:16 says, Walk in the Spirit and you SHALL NOT fulfil the lusts of the flesh. I pondered on what that mean, until literally God told me to die to self, the old self, that you may have a new creation to walk in the spirit. The old self cannot walk in the spirit, because the old self was flesh, and flesh and spirit fight.
But what then is dying to self? Dying to self is not a one time thing. It is a daily affair, as Paul says so succinctly, I die daily. I die DAILY. It is a daily thing. I asked God, ok so I have to die daily, how exactly.
God said this, Feed the spirit you want to live. The old me is still very strong, but stop feeding it, and it WILL DIE. IT cannot help but die. The spirit will die, whether old or new, if it is not fed. A new spirit needs food of the word of God, the exercise of mercy through prayer, the fellowship of God through QT. The disciplines of loving God is not to earn salvation; it is to earn what is rightfully yours, a new creation. A new spirit.
posted by W | Sunday, July 29, 2007
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