Practical Wisdom from the Word of God

Romans 8:11(NKJV¹¹But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

This week we have been dealing with the question, “What do we do about our flesh?” The ultimate solution is to walk in the spirit. We know that in order to do so we must build up our spirit so that it is strong enough to take the controlling position in our life. We know that we must also renew our minds so that they become clear channels for the Word to affect our spirits and for the voice and power o God to touch our outward life. However these things take time.

While we are developing the walk of the spirit there are still things that we do which are not pleasing to God and that release death into our daily living. What do we do about those things? We cannot just ignore them. We must do all that we can to resist them. God hates sin and we must hate it as well. If we do not we will never develop to the point where we will walk in the spirit.

The first thing we must do is realize that, if we are born again we are already in the spirit. This does not mean that we walk around in an “otherworldly stupor.” It simply means that we are alive in the spirit. We are not like someone who is not saved who has death inside of them and therefore sin is his natural state. We have Jesus in our hearts. We can resist sin because it is no longer our nature. We need to believe this truth. When we do it will help us successfully resist temptation.

We must also accept and meditate on the truth that Jesus died for our sins and we can now see ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. (Romans 6:11) This is our true spiritual condition. Granted, it is not always easy to walk in that condition, but the more we accept it as the real truth the easier it will be to resist the temptation that comes from the devil.

In today’s verse we see another powerful truth that, if we accept it and believe it, will help us win the battle over sin. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead can and will give life to our mortal bodies. Mortal means death doomed. Our bodies are dominated by spiritual death. There will be a day when they are changed, but for now we still have these same bodies so that we can reach out to the cursed physical world. However that does not mean I have to be dominated by this death doomed body.

We have the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead inside of us. That Spirit is the Holy Spirit of God. In this verse Paul tells us that Spirit can directly affect these “death doomed” or mortal bodies. We cannot overcome sin by will power. We cannot allow sin to continue while we develop the walk of the spirit. We can believe for the Holy Spirit to help us and to put pressure on our bodies to do the right thing.

How do I cultivate this. I do it by faith. I acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit. I cultivate an awareness that he is there and believe for his help. As I meditate on this reality, it begins to be manifest in my daily living.

There are two dimensions to how this works. On the one hand we can develop the “phantom police car” mentality. Many years ago there was a TV ad campaign to promote safe driving. It told viewers to pretend there was a “phantom police car” following them all the time they were driving. As we all know, if a real police car is behind us we drive very differently than we normally do.

In the case of the Holy Spirit it is not a “phantom” presence it is a real presence. The Holy Spirit is with you everywhere you go. He sees everything you do and hears every word you speak. That is the truth. If the physical Jesus was with you throughout your day, what would change? Would you do some of the things you do now? How would his physical presence affect your response to temptation?

We have a real problem, even in the church, with internet pornography. The reason it is so prevalent is the illusion of anonymity. You do not have to buy a magazine or go into the back of the video store, you just go to a web site and no one knows. Sometimes we treat all the sinful things we do the same way. No one knows. After the fact I will go to the Lord and repent.

If you do God will receive you assuming your repentance is sincere. However, if you begin to cultivate the knowledge that the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is already in your mortal body, it will make resistance that much easier. He is there. Do you really want to do that in front of Him? Think about it.

We also need to realize that there is a power that can help us because the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is there. He will strengthen you by giving life to your death doomed body. You are growing in the walk of the spirit. You are building up your spirit and renewing your mind. You have not, however, arrived yet.

I remember teaching my children to ride bikes. I would run alongside of them while they were learning. At some point I would let go. Sometimes they would fall, but I was right there to catch them. I would help them until they learned to ride on their own. In a similar way the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will help you with your mortal body until you can walk in the spirit on your own.

This is not to say you will come to a place that you no longer need the Holy Spirit. There will come time where you will not need the same kind of help, or influence, from Him to overcome every sin. Look at this scripture.

Hebrews 5:14(NKJV) ¹⁴But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

As we mature the life that comes from the Holy Spirit will cause our senses to be able to discern good and evil. What does that mean? I believe it means that as we grow in our walk of the spirit there will be a time where our senses, our death doomed bodies, will reject sin. This is the condition described in Galatians 5, which says if we walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

In the meantime we trust in the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead to give life to our mortal, death doomed, bodies so that we will be able to resist the temptations that come against us. Once again I must say that we will have days when we fail, but the Holy Spirit will be there to pick us up. The most important thing is that we must continue to resist. We must continue to agree with God’s definition of sin and accept that certain things are wrong and can bring death into our lives.

If we do that, the Holy Spirit will give life to these mortal, death doomed bodies, so that we can control them as we grow. He will also help us use them as affective witnesses to a dying world.