Step Into the Light

Rom 13:12 October 13, 2015

The idea is that one should realize in these most incredible of times that; “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

The born-again Christian must never be content with just being spiritually alive without purpose or consideration toward growth and maturity, any more than it is reasonable for a person in their fleshly existence to expect to remain an infant or never mature to adulthood. It is God’s desire for all that are allowed to live and walk in His saving Grace to mature and become a disciplined follower of Jesus Christ. But the reality of things are such that some, even most, born-again Christians follow at such a great distance behind Jesus that He has to continually yell at the top of his lungs just so they can hear Him. Others follow here and there as it suits their purpose, swerving off the path into the woods or taking illicit excursions to unseemly places. Some don’t even care to follow, thinking it is no concern of God’s, now that they are saved from going to Hell. They are quite happy to believe the fallacious doctrine of ‘once saved always saved’ and that God is content with having them be content with just being ‘saved’. They feel that if he wants them for some reason he can look them up on facebook or get in touch with them somehow. He knows where they live. Others think that God needs their good judgment on matters and their wise help. How has God ever gotten along without their wise counsel. They run ahead of Him, telling Him where to go, what to do, why He should do things, or what is needed. They think He should be happy to get their counsel on important matters. But get real. He’s not.

These things only amount to ‘leading’ Him, which it is not hard to see is a really ridiculous thing for someone to do who claims to be a follower of somebody.

Then there are those, real disciples, who follow so closely that they are following in His footsteps one step behind, so close they can hold His hand and hear His most quiet and intimate whispers. They cleave to Him and do not let the World, their Flesh or Satan cleave them from Him. Regardless of your distance, whether you need to get closer and stop fooling around, or whether you are close enough to touch the hem of His garment and look into His eyes the big question will always remain – did you seek the righteousness of God today and forsake your own ways and your own forceful Will? Did you? Did you repent from self?

Not That Hard a Concept;
Though it May Be Hard to Do
Dying to self may be a simple concept, easy to understand. The incredibly hard part is having a sentence of death worked in us.

But the Holy Ghost is faithful to work this “operation of God” for us, if, and only if, we will allow Him to perform it. If we have faith that God’s power of love is great enough to perform a death in us, as the sign of water baptism shows, then we can be free. Not until this happens, however, can we be free to move on in our journey to perfection, for spiritual perfection requires we be ‘dead’. The Bible tells us in Romans that only the dead are free from sin. Without faith it is impossible to please God; because anything that is not of faith is sin and faith is demanded if spiritual perfection in Christ is to be achieved. Therefore if we want to go on unto perfection (as Hebrews 6:1-3 tells us) in our journey to bride-ship of Christ we must die in order to be free from sin, free to live in the Spirit, free to live by faith. Then we can be raised up in the likeness of Christ, to the resurrected life, having our worldly and carnal desires and aspirations converted into His spiritual will by believing and trusting in the Spirit of Christ to manufacture this in us. We can be perfect in that we are freed up to “hear the Word of God and do it” Luke 8:21.