Daily Devotional Day 70

Our natural strength must be controlled, but it can not be eliminated. We live with our body, mind, and emotions for our whole lives. This is why it continues to plague us and interrupt God's voice long after we experience salvation. It is because of our natural instinct to depend on our natural man rather than our spirit coupled with the Holy Spirit. It is the reason for many of the trials we face. Trials serve to remind us we need God and bring us back into harmony with Him. Our self life is a powerful force.

We need all salvation has to offer us to deny self. The Holy Spirit must come into our spirit and give us the strength to overcome our natural strength. Our strength must decrease first so that His strength may increase. Ezekiel described it. In Ezekiel 36, man does not return to the garden of Eden or manufacture a new garden like it. He BECOMES the garden of Eden inside out with the voice of God. Our heavenly Father cleans our spirit and then comes and joins with our spirit. What a rush! As a result, over time, the scripture says that people will notice the change, "and they will say that the land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden." Notice it says 'has become'. It is a process.

The restoration of the earth is the result of this process with God's people fulfilling their original call to be in harmony with God. Paul, the apostle, put this process another way, " he who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him." (1 Corinthians 6:17). It is both an initial experience and a lifelong process of becoming one spirit with the Holy Spirit. It is a process we often are not willing to allow or to wait to happen. Many believe it happens at salvation in a finished form, only to be disillusioned later when it doesn't happen. Salvation and perfection are promised to happen over time. It is not an event; it is a process. We must "go on to perfection and completion" (Hebrew 6:1).

This process then is a daily walk with Christ, pressing in every day in prayer and meditation, laying our self life down and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to direct our lives. It is His work in us that transforms us into "the garden of Eden."

Pray, Holy Spirit, have Your way and progressively change me from the inside out daily.