Daily Devotinal Day 67

Satan wants us to believe that our battle is just about good over evil. He wants us to believe it's about sin. If we get the sin out of our lives, we are spiritual people. It's deeper than that. It is a matter of spiritual strength vs. natural strength. We sin as a result of the failure to depend on God and using the independent strength of the natural man. We become too self-reliant and independent.

This natural man eventually becomes too connected to outside senses and begins to respond again to temptations. We lose the Holy Spirit's energy in our lives, and eventually, we die spiritually. In order to win this battle, we must look not only at sin but also at how our natural life's independence (the natural man) plays into our lives. We must deal a fatal blow to the natural man in order to overcome our sin nature.

John the Baptist came and commanded us to, "lay the axe to the root of the tree," not the fruit! What is the root of the tree? It is where our source of strength comes from. We must deal this fatal blow to the source of our strength and turn to the one who can truly fix us. If there is no carnal root, there is no carnal fruit! When our root is Christ, our fruit is spiritual, of Christ!

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you in what strength you are operating. Ask Him to give you His power. Pray for His will and the strength to carry it out.

"not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord" Zechariah 4:6