The secret of living a holy and sanctified Christian life is to be led by the Holy Spirit. Born by the Spirit and indwelt by the Spirit, the wisest thing each of us can do is to submit ourselves to the control, power and leadership of the indwelling Spirit.
It can never be that we should be the boss of our life while the Lord is at home with us: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
There is one characteristic quality of all who are led by the Holy Spirit and that quality is that they walk in all the ways of righteousness; they maintain a consistent life of holiness. They walk and talk like heavenly beings. Their language is inundated with spiritual insight.
Having the Spirit means having the mind of Christ; it means having thoughts, behavioral patterns, and lifestyles that are consistent to that of Jesus Christ. It also means having desires and affections that are God-centered and heavenly-minded. It means being inundated by the Spirit — completely possessed, pervaded and permeated by the Spirit of Christ:
“May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be fi lled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).
The question of being led by the Spirit is extremely important, for without that, defeat is certain. Sin in the fl esh can only be defeated when a Christian is led by the Spirit (Romans 7:20). Every Christian must be aware of the presence of sin dwelling in the flesh and the dangerous role it seeks to play in the transcended life.
As already touched on, God did not do away with the old sinful nature during regeneration. Instead, He created a completely new man —
a qualitatively new creature. God did not repair, renovate or reform
the old nature, He left it alone.
This means that every Christian has the old man living alongside the new man in the same old mortal frame (body). This also means every Christian possesses two natures: the old sinful nature and the new divine nature. Remember, the old man is what we were spiritually before we became born again.
I guess the bible’s own defi nition of the old man is better; I do not think anyone can improve on that: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts”
(Ephesians 4:22).
The two natures living together is a problem for every Christian from the moment of salvation. The old man is of the flesh and seeks the things of the fl esh, but our new man is holy and desires the things of God. The old man has an advantage because nothing has really changed for him. He is in his old
familiar suit (mortal body), the same environment and the same evil friend, the devil. Friends and neighbors do not change simply because we become Christians. This means our new man has a potent contender from day one.
To tell you the truth, the new man, despite being created in righteousness and true holiness is no match for the old man.
But, God who is infinitely wise has this problem solved by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We do not have to worry or fear; we would not have to fi ght sin in the flesh. Our indwelling Spirit takes over the fight. Any concerns, struggle or confl ict with the old man, is addressed by the indwelling Spirit.
The Christian’s battle with sin in the flesh is the battle of the Lord. To be candid, as long as each individual Christian follows the leading of the Spirit or allows the Spirit to be in control, the old man is finished. Sin expresses itself through the mind and the members of our body i.e., the tongue, hands and feet. Indwelling sin, alive and well in the fl esh, would continue to try to use our body to his advantage. He will try to interfere with our new life, and for this reason, each of us must be led by the Spirit. We must resist the devil at all cost: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
No believer on his own can defeat sin because to fight the devil by our own power is a joke: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he falls” (1 Corinthians 10:12). The conflict between our old nature and the new nature is a confl ict between the Spirit and the flesh. The Spirit and
victory go hand in hand and so is the flesh and defeat. If we choose the way of the Spirit it is victory, but if we choose the flesh it is defeat: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).
Through the Spirit, each of us must resist sin’s eff ort to impose its lifestyle. Sin must not be allowed to use our body as a vehicle of expression to the displeasure of our Lord and Savior.
None of us can afford to grieve the Spirit by whom we are sealed unto salvation. God forbid that any Christian should yield his will and the members of his body to the works of unrighteousness. Yielding our will to the mastery of sin is death, but, yielding to the obedience of Christ is righteousness and peace: “But now being made free from sin, and becoming servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and in the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).
Born again, we must refuse sin: “God sending Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful fl esh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Jesus condemned sin by His death on the Cross, and this He did so that Christians can live holy in conduct and service through the indwelling Spirit. As far as
God is concerned, the principles of sin and death are dead in the believer; the old, corrupt, and decaying man or unregenerate self is forever rejected. With the arrival of the new man, the old man is discarded, and considered dead or abandoned.
Every Christian must know that Christians are dead to sin because of our identifi cation or union with Christ. Dead to sin means dead to the guilt of sin. It means sin has no longer control or power over us. No Christian can continue in sin, because we are born, indwelt and led by the Spirit of God. Life in sin cannot co-exist with death to sin (Romans 6:3). Buried with Christ through baptism, sin cannot make any legal claim on any Christian: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2).
Further, through baptism, Christians were buried with Jesus Christ unto His death and were resurrected together to a new life. As a result, Christians are forever separated from sin. Resurrected life is transcended and is emptied of sin; it is holiness and purity in life and service. It is the God kind of life;
a life that is eternal in quality and everlasting in duration: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
On the cross, our old man was crucifi ed with Jesus Christ, so that we may resurrect to a new man; a new beginning, a clean slate, and a fresh start:
“ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).
Christians are under obligation not to live after the fl esh, but after the Spirit. We are not debtors to the flesh, or to the lifestyle we had prior to salvation. Having the Spirit, no Christian can afford to walk after the flesh: “For to be carnally minded is death” (Romans 6:6): “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it” (Romans
8:12).
In the fall (Genesis 3), man rebelled against the rule of God; he sought to be his own boss. Instead, he became a slave to sin and Satan. Through rebirth, man is given another opportunity; a second chance to exercise trust, obedience and dependence on God.
To God be the glory for His kindness and mercy: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). God has made foolish the wisdom of this world, Because: “After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:20-21).
Truly, the ways of God are past finding; His ways are not our ways, neither His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). The flesh being weak, is not subject to the Law of God: “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans 7:23); it stands to
oppose any move towards holiness.
At times it breaks my heart when I hear Christians moaning under phrases like: ‘But I am trying;’ I am working hard on it;’ ‘I am only human;’ etc. As a Christian you are not just human, you are the son of God; you are a spirit being — indwelt and empowered by the transcended God. You are no ordinary human being.
We must have under our belt the truth of what has happened or become of us. Th e Spirit is the believer’s access to Jesus and Jesus is his access to the Father: “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18). Th e ministry of the indwelling Spirit is to produce the life of Christ in and through every believer (Romans 8:29), and
the duty of every Christian is to be led each day by the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit lives in us and we live in Him, then we are in union and communion with the Holy One: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (1
John 3:24).
To be led by the Spirit is great. Th is means we would know all the things that are freely given to us of God; we would know all the things that God has prepared for those who love Him; we would know the deep things of God; we would walk and speak of things as taught by God and not as the wisdom of men will dictate: “However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (Excerpts from “Transcended life ISBN 978-1-60643-527-4″).