From Pity to Praise

We know we are called to live by the spirit and not the flesh, but what does it actually mean, and do we actually do it?

Romans 8:1 tells us, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

That is such a hopeful verse. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Messiah Yeshua). But how many of us are truly walking as if Jesus lives inside of us? Or are we still in bondage to our flesh that we fight?

Romans goes on to say, “For those who are living, according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnally minded is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. Those who are of the flesh cannot please God. But if you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, the Spirit of God, dwells in you. If we do not have the Spirit of Jesus, we are not His” Romans 5-11 (paraphrased).

To live in the Spirit is life and peace. But so often we settle for less. We define what our flesh actually means we have to know what the deeds of the flesh are.

1. Sinful Passions – “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit of death” -Romans 7:5.
2. All of these things – “Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanliness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, division, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom” -Galatians 5:19-21.
3. The Opposite of the fruits of the Spirit – The works of the flesh represent ungodly, behavior driven by human selfish nature rather than the Holy Spirit. It’s love vs hatred and selfishness, joy vs bitterness, peace vs anxiety and conflict.
4. Being Carnally Minded – letting our minds wander into worry, fear, and anxiety. It’s not staying focused on the kingdom of heaven, but rather on our own needs and desires.
5. Selfishness – “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom that is from above is pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” -James 3:13-18.

I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of “flesh stuff” to work on. Because I fall into multiple categories of giving in to my flesh over my spirit. Thankfully there is hope when we have Jesus. And He doesn’t leave us alone to fight our flesh.

Our spirits and flesh are at war. If we want to win the war, our spirits must be louder than our flesh and we must put to death, the deeds of the flesh. Galatians 5:16-18 tells us, “Walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Many times Satan will tempt us to give in to our fleshly desires. It is important that we submit to God and resist Satan then he will flee from us. Jesus is the only way to walk this life because of the peace He gives us.

Denying our flesh isn’t easy, but we must follow Jesus’s ways if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. We cannot fight flesh with flesh. John 3:36 says, “The Spirit alone gives life, human effort accomplishes nothing.” Our flesh isn’t weak, so we must stay strong in the Spirit.

The evidence of the Spirit in our lives will be the fruit of our lives. Something that we as well as others will be able to see.

“Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” -Hebrews 12:15

Bitterness is known in the Bible as spiritual poison by which many are defiled. It is a source of countless spiritual and physical problems in millions of lives.

Bitterness can be tricky to recognize because it isn’t a symptom or visible on the surface like anger usually is. From personal experience, I suffered from it for over 20 years and never realized it had taken hold of me. I was diagnosed by doctors with many physical problems. Yet surprisingly after I chose to get rid of the bitterness I was healed. I began to heal my heart of years of anguish.

Bitterness is an underlying problem that doesn’t always manifest on the outside, but dwells in one’s head and heart.

Bitterness is a root.

A root is like a bubbling fountain that is lying under the surface. Roots do not directly manifest or make themselves known, but are a source of fuel for other elements that are on the surface. You don’t always see the plant showing off its roots because it wouldn’t survive. A root’s job is not to be seen on the surface, but it grows underground and fuels things where we cañnot see.

Bitterness shows up in a person’s soul. It’s a hidden element that lies deep inside of us and festers. It slowly gets us upset over things another person is doing around us. It waits to fuel something that is on the surface.

Countless people have bitterness about something. The trauma gets to them and leaves them in bondage because of hurts that were done to them many years ago. That’s how Satan gets a stronghold on us and begins to thrive.

Because bitterness is a root, it’s hard to identify and expose our surface issues. We will suffer until we choose to release it. If bitterness is left alone , it can grow and fester, as the ability to bring up many surface issues, such as irritability, anger, and hatred. People who have a root of bitterness will often find it easy to become upset or little things that go on around them. It becomes easy for them to look at their circumstances as the source of their problems, rather than seeing how they are handling those circumstances. Instead of letting go and forgiving, they let it devour them alive. Bitterness is a very common route by which Satan enters people today.

Due to the nature of bottle of feelings and emotions, bitterness is not always made noticeable on the surface.

Ephesians 5:13 tells us “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” I think this verse emphasizes the importance of bringing hidden emotions into the light for healing and understanding. Every hidden emotion can lead to emotional healing and clarity.

If there is a root of bitterness in us it needs to be cut off and removed from our soul. We need to choose to release all the hurt and bottled-up feelings inside of us, and repent for holding that poison in us.

The root cause of bitterness is unresolved emotional pain, particularly when it’s tied to injustice, betrayal, or unmet expectations that one feels powerless to change.

Bitterness is a means of defilement and many sicknesses and diseases.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” James 1:5

If we lack wisdom, we can go to God and ask Him, and we will get the answers we need.

But, before God will open His heart and give us the wisdom we need, there is a condition we must meet. We must have a one-on-one relationship with Him or it will be like us asking a stranger for wisdom. If we want wisdom, we must walk along side of God like close friends.

God doesn’t want to just really hand out Andrew to our problems. He wants us to come to Him. He wants us to walk alongside Him, He will open His hand and reveal everything we need to know and understand about the situations we are facing.

So often, we allow ourselves to become too busy with the affairs of life, and we fail to take time out of our busy schedules to get into the intimate presence of God. They want God to meet their need on demand, but they don’t want to fulfill God‘s desire to become close to Him.

We rush into the presence of God, and stay just long enough to make a request known to Him before we rush out again and resume our busy schedules. We don’t stay long enough for God to enjoy us and to speak to our hearts about the deeper subjects of life that may be the real root of our problems and shortfalls.

When James tells us to “ask” God for the wisdom we need, he means we can be very bold and insistent. But for us to receive the request, we must come right up among side of Him and get as close as possible, only then we can make our request to God. When we open our hearts to Him He will gladly open His hand and show us every answer we need.

But we need to prepared for God to show us any additional things we weren’t expecting to see. When we come to Him glorious light, that light penetrates us and reveal defects and dark places in our soul and behavior patterns we need to change. Most people avoid the presence of God because they are afraid of what His light might show us.

Once we fulfill the requirement of getting alongside of God, He is obligated to give us the wisdom we need. God is not the one who refrains from giving us the wisdom we need when we need it. It’s our choice to be in an intimate relationship with Him or not.

Never forget that God is a giving God who wants to meet our needs. But for that need to be met, we have to come right up along side of Him. That means we have to make a room in our busy schedules for spending time in His presence.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” -2 Timothy 1:7

We all experienced times to stress, pressure, and fear, when we become a so exhausted, we can’t think straight. And we have probably asked God “what is wrong with me, I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

Even though we feel like we’re going crazy, I assure you you’re not. God‘s word declares that we have been given a sound mine that works even in the craziest and most difficult situations.

When Paul wrote the second book of Timothy, it was a very difficult time for the early believers. Due to Nero’s insanity, he was prosecuting believers everywhere and his methods of persecution for gruesome and cruel. At that time, Timothy was over the church ofEphesus. And he knew about Nero’s secret police. And how they would take pleasure in killing him in some barbaric way if they ever got their hand on him.

As Timothy considered the threat against his life, a spirit of fear, tried to grab a hold of him. That’s why Paul told Timothy that God had not “given us a spirit of fear, but a power and a sound mind.”

And one of Rick Renner’s devotions he said a “sound mind” is taken from the Greek word Sophronea which is a compound word combining Sodza and Phronea. Which means both delivered rescued and revived -safe and secure. Someone whose frame of thinking is logical and rational. A mind that is functional and can come to conclusions.

 Even if we are rescued revived, safe and secure, and we are tempted to succumb to fear like Timothy was, we can allow God‘s word in the Holy Spirit to work in us and rescue and revive us. That means our rationale, logic, and even emotions can be shielded from the illogical, absurd, ridiculous, and unfounded thoughts, that have tried to grip our minds in the past. All we have to do is grab hold of God’s Word and His Spirit.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and love – He has given us a mind that has been delivered, rescued, revived, salvaged, protected, and brought into a place of safety and security, so that it no longer is affected biological, and found it, and absurd thoughts.

When our mind is guarded by the Word of God, we think differently. When the Word of God is it allowed to work in our minds, it’s safeguards our emotions, defends our mind from demonic assault, and shields us from the arrows of the enemy, who may try to shoot in our directions in order to bring the spirit of fear inside of us.

If we begin to believe in a life of faith, we can reach out to do the impossible. The enemy will try to assault us mentally and emotionally in an attempt to stop any progress. For instance, he may speak to our mind saying things like, “You can’t do this.” or that doesn’t make any sense -are you crazy?

Satan loves to try and convince us that we’re losing our minds or confuse us due to stressful situations and tempt us to fear so much that we can’t think straight. That’s when we need to turn to God and give God our concerns. When we focus on Jesus and release all our worries, we will find that our minds are working fine. 2 Timothy promises us a sound mind, so we have the right to tell Satan to shut up and then declare by faith that our mind is sound, safe and secure. We can declare by faith that our mind is guarded by God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction” – Proverbs 1:7

Many writers in the Bible view people through different frameworks. In Hebrews, people are seen as immature or mature. The Apostle Paul divides people into Jews and Gentile, from this distinction, he considers them to be justified or condemned. Jesus often distinguishes people by their faith or lack thereof, being for Him or against Him, sheep or goats, or wolves.

These different frameworks are not mutually exclusive, they represent different perspectives or intentions of the part of the person writing.

In Proverbs, Solomon organizes people into three main categories : the wise, the foolish, and the simple. These categories are not dependent on age, class, race, gender, or economic status. They are determined by one’s direction in reference to the Lord.

Three different kinds of people:

1. Those people who are moving toward the Lord are called wise. These are not perfect or intelligent people, but people who will gain understanding and change their life based on what they hear in scripture.
2. Those who are moving away from the Lord are called foolish. These are not ignorant or uneducated people, but do not want to change. They think they are doing just fine one their own and they don’t want help, especially from the Lord.
3. Those who are not moving at all with respect to the Lord, because of age, inexperience, or incapacity are called simple.

When these crossroads are before us we have a choice to make, however no one can remain simple forever. It’s okay for a baby to make messes, but by the time they are adults more will be expected of them. A person cannot remain still a person who does will end up clinging to wrong or false ideas being misguided, and rebellious and turn away from God.

I thought that while we waited for the Psalm study to start over, I would share a few important lessons from the Bible every Saturday. These is a few I’ve been trying to get from my head to my heart.

This is a lesson for the doers -the ones who need a divine nudge.

If God has put a dream on your heart, don’t wait for human approval. The voice of the Holy Spirit is the only permission you need. Don’t let fear or “what ifs” paralyze you.

Bold plans requires bold faith Trusting in God gives us the courage to take action, even when it’s hard.

Many of us go through by reacting to circumstances rather than pursuing a clear direction. We might have vague aspirations, but without understanding our deeper needs, we can end up drifting without a purpose instead of running with intention.

A good example of this is Moses in Exodus. When God first called Moses at the burning bush, Moses actually reacted with hesitation and doubt rather than bold faith.

In Exodus 3:11, Moses asked, Who am I? Moses questioned his own worth and ability, asking God why he should be the one to go to Pharaoh.

Moses offered different objections and excuses to God, including a lack of eloquence, that he didn’t know enough, that he didn’t have the right answers and fear that the people would not believe him. He even bluntly asked God to send a different messenger instead of him.

God showed patience and gave Moses miraculous signs. And despite his deep fears and human weaknesses, Moses ultimately accepted the call, packed up his family, and journeyed back to the dangerous land of Egypt, trusting in God‘s promise, “I will be with you.”

We still have that promise today that God will be with us. And living in boldness and purpose. Today we need to rely on the Holy Spirit and not our own strength to walk out our unique purpose. Real strength comes from spiritual empowerment, not a personality type. Boldness is not about human arrogance, loudness, or political aggression. Instead, scripture defines true boldness as a quiet, steady and courageous obedience that is rooted in grace and truth.

We need to refuse fear and comparison. I think that’s where we all lack something. Worrying and comparing our journey to someone else’s can paralyze our calling. We need to accept who God made us to be. It can allow us to step forward without second-guessing.