Keeping It On
LAMPLIGHT DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”
Psalm 119:105 (NIV).
“Living From the Eternal Perspective”
A Devotional From
PATHH Ministries
DATE:
Friday, January 28, 2011
HEADING
Keep it On
By Teddy A Jones
TEXT (Gal. 5: 16)
16But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God). [AMP]
16Let me explain further. Live your life as your spiritual nature directs you. Then you will never follow through on what your corrupt nature wants.[GW]
COMMENTARY
“It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." - Edmund Burke. Any honest reader will admit that the desires of the flesh, the old self from which we walked away from when we died and were raised with Christ are passions within. Passions that are like a vice grip and if unbridled becomes our chains. One reader of the lamp commented that we do shed the old clothes when we come to Christ and we do shop in God’s mall for his custom made clothes, but the challenge is keeping the new clothes on and not taking back up the old clothes.
How do we keep the new clothes on? How do we avoid going to take ill fitting soiled., mucky, reeking clothes to wear again? I suppose it’s easier to avoid in the realm of the analogy than in the reality of the living of the victorious life of a disciple. Paul calls us to ‘walk in the Spirit, to submit to the Spirit, to be obedient to the Spirit, to surrender to the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit, to be guided and controlled by the Spirit in order to avoid giving in to the will of the flesh. This must be cultivated as a matter of course, this must become a habit. It must become, not our second nature, but our first nature.
There lies the key to keeping on the new clothes. But there too lies the colossal perpetual rivalry between the Spirit and the flesh. Habitually and consistently we must lose the battle with the Holy Spirit. Like Kirk Franklin describes in ‘The Fight of My Life,’ we must stay down, down on the mat and say to the Spirit ‘You win’
Something to Meditate on:
How many fights with the Holy Spirit did you win this week?
A decision I need to make
I will stay down so that the new clothes can stay on
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”
Psalm 119:105 (NIV).
“Living From the Eternal Perspective”
A Devotional From
PATHH Ministries
DATE:
Friday, January 28, 2011
HEADING
Keep it On
By Teddy A Jones
TEXT (Gal. 5: 16)
16But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God). [AMP]
16Let me explain further. Live your life as your spiritual nature directs you. Then you will never follow through on what your corrupt nature wants.[GW]
COMMENTARY
“It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." - Edmund Burke. Any honest reader will admit that the desires of the flesh, the old self from which we walked away from when we died and were raised with Christ are passions within. Passions that are like a vice grip and if unbridled becomes our chains. One reader of the lamp commented that we do shed the old clothes when we come to Christ and we do shop in God’s mall for his custom made clothes, but the challenge is keeping the new clothes on and not taking back up the old clothes.
How do we keep the new clothes on? How do we avoid going to take ill fitting soiled., mucky, reeking clothes to wear again? I suppose it’s easier to avoid in the realm of the analogy than in the reality of the living of the victorious life of a disciple. Paul calls us to ‘walk in the Spirit, to submit to the Spirit, to be obedient to the Spirit, to surrender to the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit, to be guided and controlled by the Spirit in order to avoid giving in to the will of the flesh. This must be cultivated as a matter of course, this must become a habit. It must become, not our second nature, but our first nature.
There lies the key to keeping on the new clothes. But there too lies the colossal perpetual rivalry between the Spirit and the flesh. Habitually and consistently we must lose the battle with the Holy Spirit. Like Kirk Franklin describes in ‘The Fight of My Life,’ we must stay down, down on the mat and say to the Spirit ‘You win’
Something to Meditate on:
How many fights with the Holy Spirit did you win this week?
A decision I need to make
I will stay down so that the new clothes can stay on
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