The Two
Edged Sword
Jesus calls people to deny their own self and follow Him:
"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9:23)
And yet Jesus promises abundant life, more than any human can contain:
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John
10:10)
So which Jesus do you follow? Which life path are you taking? Which is
the "right" one? Both! But how can we trek down two paths that are polar
opposites? Only with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Your adversary, the devil, will settle for letting you march carefully
down either path, as long as you stay away from the other, for a Christian
with no balance is no threat to him. Believers who only deny themselves
will never walk in the level of faith that moves mountains. And believers
who never deny themselves will lack the spiritual authority that God has
called them to have. Jesus is calling you to put the two together.
Jesus issues a call to life and a call to death - because we need both.
Our flesh - the old nature we inherited from Adam when he obeyed the devil
- that flesh is never going to heaven. You can try dressing it up and
polishing it, but you will not sneak your flesh past the cherubim into
the gates of heaven. It must die if there is any hope of you living.
Our spirit - the home which God is meant to occupy in us - is dormant
and darkened until Jesus comes to dwell in us. This spirit must be called
to life by faith.
As Paul states, our flesh and our spirit are at odds with one another.
Only one can win. You cannot feed both. That is why Jesus calls us to
put our flesh to death, so that we have room for the incredible life He
offers our spirit.
The devil tries to thwart believers by mixing these two calls up. If he
can get your spirit to respond to the call to death, instead of life,
he can make you a pretty miserable Christian. And if he can get your flesh
to respond to the call to life, keeping your carnal nature on life support
instead of crucifying it, your spirit will remain dormant and fail to
hear God's true call.
The Spirit of God is seeking to clear up these mixed signals in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit will direct the call to life to our spirits, and the call
to death to our flesh, if we let Him.
For a more in depth study, sign up for our email devotion entitled The
Two Edged Sword.
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