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| Killing My Old Man |
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Most of us sincerely desire a deeper walk with our Savior, most of us desire a greater measure of power in our lives to witness, to overcome sin, to serve God with our gifts and abilities, most of us want all that God has for us. However, few of us are willing to pay the price for such a life. We must understand that God expects for us to live on a high level of victory and effectiveness. God expects for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be used for His glory. In order to have the abundant, overcoming, and victorious life that we all want is to do one major task. All that God wants you and I to do in order to achieve and receive this victorious abundant life the Scriptures speak about is to lay down our life for Christ.
The Heavenly Father wants us to adopt the "same mind" as the Lord Jesus Christ and become obedient to the Father's will unto death, even a death on a cross. God may or may not require us to actually be martyred for Him but He does expect us to die to our own selfish wants and desires. We must starve and deny the flesh, and build up our spirit.
There are 2 natures in each Christian. There is the "old-man" , or we can call the old man the "flesh." The old man is ruled by his own selfish and natural desires. Then there is the "new-man" the "spirit-man" which you received when you became a believer in Christ. The new-man is ruled by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The Old man lives to please himself, whereas the new man lives to please God.
5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
For us who speak today's english this simply means that the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit fights the flesh. These two hate each other and they are totally opposite from one another. This war that goes on keeps you from doing the things that you would like to do for God. The Apostle Paul talks about this struggle in Romans 7. He talks about how we seem to be compelled or driven to do what is bad and what is wrong even though we sincerely want to do what is right.
7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, 7:23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. (In my body) So we see the struggle and I know you have experienced it! When you try to do good you always seems to do wrong. It is like the temptation to do wrong or to be selfish is always present. It never goes away! There is a war going on within yourself each and every day, each and every moment of your life. That is why we see such inconsistent behavior in Christians and in the church. We are all Christian Schizophrenics with split personalities. One moment we truly reflect the nature and character of God, and then suddenly we reflect the direct opposite and act like the Devil! This explains a lot doesn't it?
We must understand that we are at war with our flesh/the old man! When we are at war you must kill the enemy! Wounding him, pacifying him with diplomacy will not work. An enemy wants to kill you! You must kill him first, before he kills you! Your new man the inner spiritual man is under attack from the old man. The only way to be sucessful is to take drastic measures to kill the old man and strengthen the new man's spiritual nature. This is why the church lacks power today. This is why you and I lack true spiritual power because we are unable or unwilling to do the one thing God calls us to do: KILL THE OLD MAN!
3:5 Put to death therefore your members (YOUR BODY) which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Crucifixion is a horrible brutal death! The old man/old sinful nature is an enemy and that enemy needs to be given no quarter, no refuge, no safe haven! The trouble with most of us is that we like our flesh. It has been part of us for so long that we think that is who we are. But Paul says about His flesh: 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 6:13 Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
The Old Man needs to be killed and be burried! The secret to the victorious Christian life lies in your willingness to do battle with yourself, to deny your fleshly, normal, sinful desires and yeild your body, will, and desires over to the Lord Jesus Christ so that you may do His will. We can not co-exist with the old man. He hates the Spirit man! He hates God! He hates the will of God! I can't make it any plainer than this: Kill the old man/the flesh or become his slave. As long as you don't seriously attempt to kill him you are not going to experience victory. In fact you will suffer defeat. You will be powerless to overcome sin, powerless in your prayer life, powerless in your witnessing, you will not have a love for God, or a passion for Him. You will become double-minded, luke-warm, casual, uncommitted, apathetic towards the things of God because no man can serve 2 masters! You can't serve God and serve yourself. It is one or the other. Get serious and kill that OLD MAN! |
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| To add a comment to "Killing My Old Man" |
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| April 04, 2008 |
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Good blog Bro Todd! This is an issue that definitely lies at the heart of victorious Christian living! |
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| April 04, 2008 |
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| The Master Blogger comments on my blog! What a thrill! Seriously though, until we make a decison to deny ourselves and pick up our cross and follow Jesus, we are just playing or poking at Christianity and not really doing it. |
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| April 04, 2008 |
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| We learn something everyday! As I was reading your blog I came to We must understand that we are at war with our flesh/the old man! When we are at war you must kill the enemy! Wounding him, pacifying him with diplomacy will not work. An enemy wants to kill you! You must kill him first, before he kills you! and I thought about the spiritual battle going on all around us... we can 't see it but it is going on.... what I had not deeply thought about was the battle with my flesh. I know just as Paul stated I must kill this flesh daily but I never thought of it the way you phrased it. Thank you for challenging me to think deeper! |
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| April 05, 2008 |
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| always you bring a deeper revelation to God's word..........i have read paul saying he dies to his flesh daily....but until i read your blog i didn't quite realized how far i had to go(dying to my flesh)........you make a person stop and really think on a deeper level.........you brings to light things that people has not really consider.........keep these teachings coming....... |
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| April 05, 2008 |
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Amen! I loved the way you put it! What a great revelation that all of us need to receive so that we can be a living witness every single day of lives! Thank you!! |
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| April 05, 2008 |
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"master blogger"....lol, you're funny Todd! 
"until we make a decison to deny ourselves and pick up our cross and follow Jesus, we are just playing or poking at Christianity and not really doing it." >>>> That's some serious wisdom there! Like....are we really following Christ if we're not following?? Love ya, bro! |
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| April 05, 2008 |
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Cheryl, Jetta, Pastor RS, Mike, thank all of you for your kind words. I am so happy just to share what I have learned with others. Y'all bless me just as much! God Bless! Let's give the Devil a Black Eye! |
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| April 05, 2008 |
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We need more of this type of Word. Instead of the ear ticklers. Always speak truth, even if what you say squashes my toes, speak on! Too many times we hear excuses for sin, and so many theologies teach that we are only human, sin is a natural occurrence, you will still go to heaven. But the Word says that He will VOMIT out of His mouth the luke warm, laxidasical (?spelling), worldly ones that call themselves christians. |
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| April 12, 2008 |
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This is a great blog Todd!
You say so much here that I have to give it time to absorb. But the one thing I believe only slightly different form you is that I believe the old-man, was our sin nature before we became born again. Old things have passed away. That old man died. All things have become new. We have been given a new spirit, or the new-man.
What the old man left behind was his stinking thinking and old habits. The war, in my opinion, is right between our ears. Our spirit is perfect. But to get that perfection manifested into the physical and emotional realm takes renewing the mind.
We battle against thoughts and imagination. Those imaginations will try to exalt themselves above the knowledge of God.
I am not posting this in disagreement, or from the point of argument. Your words and the truths they represent are powerful. I am in agreement.
Blog on my friend! |
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| August 08, 2008 |
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| I guess it wasn't copy and pasted either! LOL... Well I think you agree with me! Horay! |
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