By Ken Fletcher
“If you are Christ’s, then you have two natures in your being. Your spirit has the nature of Christ–born into Christ. You are one with God through Jesus. In Jesus. Connected by His Spirit. In our spirit. Yes. We are! Now! In this present world!
But, in order to stay in this world, we have the outer man. The fallen flesh. Who is in direct contact with a fallen world. Who is the same flesh we had before we encountered Jesus. You have it. I have it.
We can receive from God revelation about ourselves. How to see ourselves properly. Accurately. To know our short comings in our flesh. To live from the inside out should be our true desire. To know who we are in the spirit in order to know what is going on in the flesh.
Who is in charge of our lives? The spirit or the flesh? The mind of the flesh is selfish. The mind of the spirit is unselfish. Last night I thought about Jesus. When he was being brutally tortured and spiked to a wooden cross by cruel men, He said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing. I thought, what amazing strength of character.
He saw through His own pain to the truth about them. And showed how merciful He is. How understanding He is. He saw through the pain and suffering to the others who were doing these things to Him. The amazing faith of Jesus. Knowing and completely trusting in His Father to raise Him up when the plan was finished.
The faith of Jesus! We should desire to live from the inside out like Jesus. Our flesh is contrary. I was reminded again last night when I had a fleshy flare up of anger. Am I immune from that ugly stuff? Are you? Well, you and I should both know that as long as we are down here, we have this baggage to haul around called the body. It does not naturally want to do what YOU the soul wants to do if you are Christ’s.
It will try and control YOU. Try and dominate you. If you don’t humble yourself and recognize that your flesh is not under YOUR control (inside in your spirit), you are heading for trouble. You, and I, need correction.
Now, the question is, who is going to do the correcting? You or God? Well, personally, I want to do the correcting. God will let us do it our way if we insist. But, are we going to like where “our way” takes us? I say, no. We won’t. The more we can join our will with God’s will for us, the better we are going to like our destinations.
I want to do the correcting of myself when I miss it. I want recognize it for what it is! Because, inside, I do not want to live that way. I’m sure, you too. Well, we had better understand that, really, the devil is no big deal to us believers anymore because we understand our authority in Christ. It’s that sneaky flesh nature that we are abiding inside and connected to. That is the bigger issue.
Of course, the enemy can work through the flesh because it is fallen. Are we aware enough of the fact that the flesh wants to run the show? It must be put down and not allowed to do what it wants.
Yes, it’s necessary. But, it is not supposed to tell us what to do or how to act. If it is, it must be put down. How? First, humble ourselves before Jesus. Recognize we were acting after the flesh. Purpose in our heart to not do it again. Understanding the hurt that may have been caused by us. Desiring to live from the inside out. And, not allow our flesh to control us!
You and I are the only ones who is going to control our flesh! Period! No one else is responsible but you and I. So, again, will we be stubborn and not correct ourselves? That’s not too smart. So, lets begin by humbling ourselves before the Master and get things right. Get His direction and wisdom. Let’s get back in control of our outer man. Let’s be who we are inside to this world.” KF KenFletcher.org
