Death of Sin

 

Spirit vs. Flesh (Part 3)

 (Rom. 6:23). Biblically speaking, any result of sin is a form of death. Depression, discouragement, anger, bitterness, fear, worry, sickness, poverty, loneliness, etc. are all death. If you live after the flesh, you’ll—be sick, impoverished, depressed, angry, etc.—die. 

Your fl esh is Satan’s inroad to bring death into your life. 

As a born-again believer, your fl esh is made up of your soulish and physical realms. However, before you were saved, it also included your fallen human spirit. 

My study of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) has shown me that it almost always substitutes the phrase 

“sinful nature” for what the King James Version (KJV) translates 

“flesh.” This interpretation may work to a certain degree, but I’ve found it misleading in many places. For instance, in Romans, the flesh basically refers to either someone who isn’t born again or a born-again believer who isn’t living under the control of the Holy Spirit. The phrase “sinful nature” does not accurately convey this truth. 

Spirit vs. Flesh (Part 2)

 As long as your flesh is contrary to your spirit, you’ll have conflict. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 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. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” 

Gal. 5:16-18). “Contrary” means they’re “opposed, enemies, adversaries.” This conflict between spirit and flesh is your true spiritual warfare! 

Each and every day of your life, the battle lies in whether you’ll be dominated by your flesh or your spirit. Your flesh gravitates toward what it can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. 

Therefore, it leans toward the influence of Satan and his kingdom, which operates in the physical realm. The devil is flesh-oriented, working through carnal, natural things. He tempts you to not believe God by things you can see and feel. On the other hand, the Lord operates in the spirit realm, primarily through His Word. 

Due to the nature of this intense, continual, inner conflict, you can’t just do what you want to do. Either your spirit will dominate you or your flesh will instead! 

You cannot please God in your flesh. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). It’s not just hard—it’s impossible. This means you must identify the flesh and deal with it! 

Not “Sinful Nature” 

Living after the flesh brings all forms of death. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” 

(Rom. 8:12-13). This not only means ultimate physical death (when your spirit and soul separate from your body) but includes everything that leads up to it. “For the wages of sin is death” 

Spirit vs. Flesh (Part 1)

Once you’re born again, the rest of the Christian life is learning to walk in the spirit. It’s letting what God has done through the new birth dominate you more than your physical, emotional realm. 

That’s really how simple the Christian life is! 

It may be simple, but it’s not easy! One of the hardest things you’ll ever do is learn how to turn from your natural self-rule and let who you are in Christ dominate instead. Why is it so difficult? 

You must perceive your spirit by faith in God’s Word because you can’t see or feel it. Jesus’ words are spirit and life (John 6:63). 

When you look into God’s Word, you’re looking into a spiritual mirror (James 1:23-25). The only way to really know what is true about who you are in the spirit is by believing God’s Word. You must shift from walking by sight (sense knowledge) to walking by faith (revelation knowledge) (2 Cor. 5:7). All you have to do is start basing your thoughts, actions, and identity on who you are in Christ. 

Spiritual Mindedness

 When your thoughts are dominated by what the Word says, you’re spiritually minded.

“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

A. It doesn’t matter what your physical circumstances may be—God can keep you in perfect

peace.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” 

(Is. 26:3).

B. As your mind stays on Him, your soul agrees with your spirit, and God’s peace is released into your soul and body

Carnal Mindedness

 1. Carnal-mindedness is allowing your mind to be dominated by what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel.

“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).

A. “Carnal” literally means “of the five senses,” or “sensual.”

B. Carnal-mindedness doesn’t necessarily mean “sinful”-mindedness.

C. You are carnally minded when your thoughts center primarily on the physical realm.

2. Spiritual-mindedness releases the flow of God’s life in you, but carnal-mindedness shuts it off.

A. Carnal-mindedness = death, and spiritual-mindedness = life and peace.

B. “Death” means “anything that’s a result of sin.”

C. In this fallen world, being dominated by your natural senses produces death.

Accepted

 If you’re born again, it doesn’t matter if you’ve rebelled or just aren’t everything you should be. God sees you as righteous and truly holy because He’s looking at your spirit! 

God is pleased with you! “Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved”  

(Eph. 1:5-6). “Accepted” means more than just mere toleration. 

He’s literally pleased with you! You might not be pleased with the shape your mind or body is in, but God sees you in the spirit. 

When you were born again, you became a brand-new creature, and He’s pleased with His workmanship! 

“Accepted” in Ephesians 1:6 is the same Greek word translated “highly favored” in Luke 1:28. “And the angel [Gabriel] came in unto her [Mary], and said, Hail, thou  that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women”  (brackets mine). These are the only two places in Scripture that this particular Greek word is found. Therefore, as the woman who bore Christ was accepted, so you are highly favored of the Lord! 

- Andrew Wommack

Sealed

 No human being could have dreamt up the new birth and all of the realities that took place in our born-again spirits. It’s just beyond our imagination that God would indwell us and that our spirits would be as He is in this world. 

If you’ve received the revelation thus far, you can say, “I see it! I’m a brand-new person in my spirit. Old things passed away, and all things have become new. As Jesus is right now, so am I in this world. My spirit, the real me, was created in righteousness and true holiness.” 

Many people who have seen these truths, who rejoiced over them, and who were immediately impacted have since sinned or gotten busy and forgotten. Something happened and they find themselves back in some of the same negative situations they were in before being born again (i.e., defeat, discouragement, etc.). Due to their own apparent failure, they feel, Maybe I was changed, but I’ve blown it … again.  Regarding everything we’ve discussed thus far about what happened at salvation, they argue, 

“That may have been so before, but I’ve blown it so much since then that it can’t possibly be true of me now!” 

 I have good news—what God does in the spirit always remains constant and unchanging regardless of fluctuations in your performance! 

- Andrew Wommack

Eternal Redemption

Past, Present & Future

You’ve been forgiven of your sins—past, present, and future! 

That’s what “eternal redemption” means. You might think, God can’t forgive me of a sin before I even commit it!  Well, you better pray that He can because Christ only died for your sins once. If Jesus can’t forgive a sin before you commit it, then you can’t be forgiven at all. Why? Jesus Christ hasn’t died for sin in over 2,000 years! 

Jesus paid for all sins—past, present, and future. Humans may not think this way, but God does. He’s Eternal—time, distance, and space aren’t problems for Him. Through His perfect sacrifice, God has already dealt with all sins! 

When Jesus died, He put a will into effect. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10). You were sanctified— separated, made holy—through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all time. 

Generally speaking, Pentecostals were the ones who came up with this doctrine of backsliding, that every time you sin, you lose your salvation, and if you don’t confess it before you die, you’ll go to hell despite the fact that you’ve been born again for twenty or thirty years. They erroneously interpret this verse to mean “one sacrifice for all people.” 

However, the context proves that Hebrews 10:10 means one sacrifice made you holy for all time. Notice all the words referring to time in the next four verses. “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man [Jesus], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified”  

- Andrew Wommack

God's Mirror (Part 04)

 Jesus purchased your glorified body through His death, burial, and resurrection. Although full payment has been made, you still have a corrupted body while you wait to receive your immortal, incorruptible one. At this moment, you don’t yet have the redemption of the purchased possession (Eph. 1:14).

 Your soul wasn’t saved either! This sounds strange to many people because they use terminology like “I’m a soul winner!”  and “I came to see a soul saved”  to describe an evangelist and evangelism. In reality, the New Testament only mentions “soul salvation” a few times—and none of them, in context, are talking about the born-again experience (Heb. 10:39; James 1:21, 5:20; 1 Pet. 1:9). Soul salvation happens when an emotionally discouraged and mentally defeated Christian starts believing God’s Word and then experiences victory, peace, and joy again.

However, when it comes to being born again, your soul wasn’t the part of you that completely changed!

If you were stupid before you were saved, you’re still stupid after being saved. If you didn’t know math before being born again, you won’t instantly know math afterwards either. In fact, if you were depressed before you got saved, you’ll stay depressed until you change the way your soul thinks by believing God’s Word.

Your soul can be transformed now to the degree you renew your mind, change your attitudes, and conform your values to the Word of God. This should happen, and it’s in the process of happening, but it didn’t automatically happen. In your soul, old things didn’t pass away, and all things haven’t yet become new.

The transformation of your soul won’t be completed until you go to be with Jesus!

- Andrew Wommack

God's Mirror (Part 03)

Confused 

Every born-again believer has undergone a complete inner transformation. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”  (2 Cor. 5:17-18). Notice how it doesn’t say that “all things are becoming new” or “have the potential of being new.” This verse declares “old things have passed (past tense) away,”  “all things have become (present tense—reality right now)  new,”  and “all things are of God.” 

  If you don’t understand spirit, soul, and body, you’re instantly set up for confusion, frustration, and ultimately unbelief when you see a verse like this. After reading about a total change and all things being of God, you look at your body and immediately start wondering because it hasn’t passed away or become brand new. 

If you were overweight before receiving the Lord, that didn’t change the moment you got saved! 

A time will come when you’ll receive a glorified body, but that hasn’t happened yet. “For this corruptible must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must  put on immortality” 

(1 Cor. 15:53). Although Christ’s atonement provided for you physically, your body has not yet been saved. It’s been purchased, but not yet redeemed. 

- Andrew Wommack

God's Mirror (Part 02)

 You can feel both your body and your soul. If I put my hand on your shoulder, you’d know that I touched you. However, I can also touch you whether I’m physically near or not. By speaking to your soul, I can make you glad, sad, or mad. Through my words, I could even “hurt” you without physically touching your body. 

It’s easy to know how you feel in your body and soul because you’re constantly in touch with them! 

By taking a mental inventory, your body can instantly tell you how it feels. You know if your adrenaline’s pumping or if you’re tired, if you’re healthy or fighting a cold, if your head aches, or if the shower’s just right. In fact, you don’t even really have to think about it because your body constantly feeds you such information. 

  You can also check your soul and know right away how you’re doing. It’s easy to tell if you’re happy or hurt, mentally worn out or sharp and ready to go, or just plain angry. You’d even be aware of fear or depression if it came because you’re always in touch with your soul. 

- Andrew Wommack

God's Mirror (Part 01)

 “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”  

 (1 Thess. 5:23, emphasis mine). Even though God’s Word clearly teaches that we are three-part beings, very few Christians practice a functional understanding of spirit, soul, and body in their everyday lives! 

 Most people actually believe that they’re only made up of body and soul. They confuse soul and spirit as being basically the same thing. Therefore, on a day-to-day level, they only acknowledge a physical part and an emotional, mental, inner part (commonly called “personality”). 

 Even Strong’s Concordance fails to distinguish all three! 

 The Greek word for “spirit” is “pneuma” and is defined as being 

 “the immortal soul.” I don’t mean to criticize anyone’s work, but my study of God’s Word has revealed a very distinct difference   between spirit and soul. Therefore, I disagree with this particular definition of the word “pneuma.” Your spirit is your innermost part, not your “immortal soul.” 

Your body is obvious. It’s the physical part of you that can be seen in a mirror. If you were talking to me face to face, you’d be seeing my body. 

However, you’d be speaking to my soul, which is my mental, emotional part. Some people define “soul” as being your “mind, will, and emotions.” While that’s certainly true, it’s incomplete because your conscience should also be included. Your soul is what most people call their “personality.” 

- Andrew Wommack

God Disciplines those whom He Loves

 It is a hard truth, but also an intuitive truth: God disciplines the ones he loves and chastises his children. After all, what father does not at times have to correct his son, for what son does not at times need correction? In this way discipline is proof of a father’s concern for his child, evidence of his paternal affection. No good father leaves his child to run rampant according to his own whims, according to his own folly. No good father withholds loving correction, patient discipline, from the child he loves.

King David once fell under God’s chastening hand. For reasons left unrecorded, he had become ill and was near to death. It was in this desperate condition that he cried out for help. And when he cried out, God reached down and lifted him up from the gates of death. God drew him up from the depths of suffering like a man draws up water from the depths of a well.

With his life preserved and health restored, David sang of God’s kindness, God’s love, God’s comfort. “His anger is but for a moment,” he said, “and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” There are encouraging contrasts here: Anger is set against favor and moments against lifetimes. Weeping contrasts joy and night contrasts morning.

“His anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime,” exclaimed David. God’s righteous anger toward his people is real, but lasts only as long as necessary; his favor toward his people is equally real, and never ends. God’s anger is like the pre-dawn mist that gives way before the morning sun, like the spring frost that settles to the ground in the night and melts with the first light of day. God’s favor, though, is like the mountains that stand strong forever, like the seas that never run dry.

“Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” No discipline is pleasant, and it often results in tears of pain and penitence. But while weeping is fleeting, joy is lasting. Here weeping is described as an uninvited lodger who moves into a home for a single night and then packs his bags and is gone. Joy, though, is the resident, the one who makes the home his fixed address, his permanent habitation. Weeping sometimes settles into our lives for a while, but in balance, our lives are made up of far more smiles than frowns, of far more laughter than tears. And, indeed, when we consider that life extends beyond the grave, that when we die our lives are only just beginning, we know our deepest woes here are but light and momentary afflictions that will soon give way to an eternal weight of glory.

As David passed beyond his valley of the shadow of death and re-emerged into life’s green pastures, he knew he had experienced God’s brief chastisement. And we too, as children of that same heavenly Father, sometimes fall under his loving discipline. We may not have David’s certainty that our gruelling circumstances, our painful illnesses, our losses and setbacks, are evidences of God’s disfavor. But we must at least consider it, we must at least pray with David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” For it could be that we are experiencing God’s holy paternal anger toward children who have veered too far toward sin. It could be that God is lovingly drawing us back to himself.

Having prayed to God and having searched our hearts, we can patiently submit to our circumstances, trusting that whatever their cause, God is using them for our good and his glory, trusting that though weeping may be an uninvited lodger in our lives, it will soon pack up and move away. Sorrow will give way to joy and mourning will give way to dancing just as surely as night gives way to day. We will join our voices with David’s to say, “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”

Do All Lives Matter?

 Should we believe that all lives matter? That’s a radical thing to ask, isn’t it? Seriously, though, what makes people equal? We aren’t obviously equal. People aren’t equally smart, funny, beautiful, good, productive, or anything else. We all don’t even have the same desire for life. Some are excited about the future, and some are contemplating ending it all tomorrow. In what way are we equal that would justify our belief in equality? Can you answer that question?

This nation has a Christian heritage. Part of that heritage is the belief that God loves us and made us in his image. This belief is a firm foundation for equality. If God exists, our lives are intrinsically valuable. We are valuable because of what we are rather than what we can do. This truth is personally liberating and socially protective. I am unimaginable valuable, and so are you. We are both made in God’s image.

What is the justification for believing that we are equals if God does not exist? This is a challenging question. Our country is becoming increasingly secular, and I think people are waking up to the reality that if God doesn’t exist, we aren’t equal; we are merely useful to each other.

There is no purpose, no inherent meaning to life in an accidental universe. Therefore, we must create meaning for ourselves. But in this kind of reality, what use is there for those standing in the way of the world we are trying to create? Why should we love and respect our enemies? Why not just get the power we need to control and cancel our adversaries? Sound familiar?

It certainly seems that things are getting worse, but hope is not lost. The world that birthed Christianity was considerably worse than ours. Enemies were hung on crosses as spectacles for all to see. Jesus turned this world upside down. Rather than conquering and crucifying his enemies, Jesus served and died for them.

Are we following the example of Jesus today? Are we acting like we believe that all are made in God’s image and are loved by him? It is time once again for the followers of Jesus Christ to love like we have been loved. It changed the world once. It can change it again.

The World is Passing Away

 The Apostle tells us that “the present form of this world is passing away.” Horatius Bonar once reflected on this and wrote a beautiful bit of writing that shows just what that means and how we should live accordingly.

The world is passing away — like a dream of the night. We lie down to rest; we fall asleep; we dream; we awake at morn — and lo, all is fled, which in our dream seemed so stable and so pleasant! So hastens the world away. O child of mortality, have you no brighter world beyond?

The world is passing away — like the mist of the morning. The night brings down the mists upon the hills — the vapor covers the valleys; the sun rises, all has passed away — hill and valley are clear. So the world passes away, and is seen no more. O man, will you embrace a world like this? Will you lie down upon a mist, and say: This is my home?

The world is passing away — like a shadow. There is nothing more unreal than a shadow. It has no substance, no being. It is dark, it is a figure, it has motion, that is all! Such is the world. O man will you chase a shadow? What will a shadow do for you?

The world is passing away — like a wave of the sea. It rises, falls, and is seen no more. Such is the history of a wave. Such is the story of the world. O man will you make a wave your portion? Have you no better pillow on which to lay your wearied head than this? A poor world this for human heart to love, for an immortal soul to be filled with!

The world is passing away — like a rainbow. The sun throws its colors on a cloud, and for a few minutes all is brilliant. But the cloud shifts, and the brilliance is all gone. Such is the world.

With all its beauty and brightness;

 with all its honors and pleasures;

 with all its mirth and madness;

 with all its pomp and luxury;

 with all its revelry and riot;

 with all its hopes and flatteries;

 with all its love and laughter;

 with all its songs and splendor;

 with all its gems and gold — it vanishes away!

And the cloud that knew the rainbow knows it no more. O man, is a passing world like this, all that you have for an inheritance?

The world is passing away — like a flower. Beautiful, very beautiful; fragrant, very fragrant, are the summer flowers. But they wither away. So fades the world from before our eyes. While we are looking at it, and admiring it — behold, it is gone! No trace is left of all its loveliness but a little dust! O man, can you feed on flowers? Can you dote on that which is but for an hour? You were made for eternity — and only that which is eternal can be your portion or your resting place. The things that perish with the using only mock your longings. They cannot fill you — and even if they filled, they cannot abide. Mortality is written on all things here — immortality belongs only to the world to come — to that new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

The world is passing away — like a ship at sea. With all its sails set, and a fresh breeze blowing, the vessel comes into sight, passes before our eye in the distance, and then disappears. So comes, so goes, so vanishes away this present world, with all that it contains. A few hours within sight, then gone! The wide sea o’er which it sailed, is as calm or as stormy as before; no trace anywhere of all the life or motion or beauty which was passing over it! O man, is that vanishing world your only dwelling-place? Are all your treasures, your hopes, your joys laid up there? Where will all these be when you go down to the tomb? Or where will you be when these things leave you, and you are stripped of all the inheritance which you are ever to have for eternity? It is a poor heritage at the best, and its short duration makes it poorer still. Oh, choose the better part, which shall not be taken from you!

The world is passing away — like a tent in the desert. Those who have traveled over the Arabian sands know what this means. At sunset a little speck of white seems to rise out of the barren waste. It is a traveler’s tent. At sunrise it disappears. Both it and its inhabitant are gone. The wilderness is as lonely as before. Such is the world. Today it shows itself — tomorrow it disappears. O man, is that your stay and your home? Will you say of it, “This is my rest!” There is an everlasting rest, remaining for the people of God.