Daily Devotional Day 75

Even after we have met the Lord in our initial salvation experience, we can still continue to live life without Him. We can continue to live solely on our natural man and the influence from the outside in. We love God, but we lose contact with Him inside by reacting to our five senses. We listen to the devil's interpretation of what we experience.

Most Christians never experience full salvation and die like the Israelites on the desert floor long before crossing over into the rest of God. (Hebrews 3:15). We must continually be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must increase, and our natural tendencies must decrease. That's why many of God's people, after being saved, have somewhat of a better attitude and better morals, but not a better life. We often seem to be better off, but only when outside influence is present and distract us from any temptations.

Some examples of outside influences are worship, fellowship, choir practice, and prayer meetings. All these fill-up spaces where temptation would be. Why is it harder to sin in church than any other place? It is because of the influence we have in church. A person will not drink or take drugs while singing in the choir. It is only when the outside influence is gone that the temptation comes back into their lives. If this is the case, we are still yet carnal and are living by natural senses. That is why we need the cross. We must be returned to the voice of God, not just the constant influence and pressure to live properly that we get from church. It is the church's mission to train us on how to do this and not to just provide entertainment to the natural man.

The apostles experienced this problem with ebb and flow of the spirit and talked about it. We can see this in Paul the apostle's explanation of his personal experience with the Romans. We must learn and teach people how to have a spiritual life and more. You must learn to observe and practice the laws of abiding in Christ. We must learn the laws of the house described in Ezekiel. We must become the garden from inside out with the river flowing from within. The voice is now inside of us through the person of the Holy Spirit. What worked before does not work today. This is simply because the time we are in is an important time. The harvest is white, and we need to get ready. We need to learn by faith to depend on the sensing of His voice and try it out. We need to learn through the death of the Cross to deny self and follow Him. We must be frustrated with our own abilities and become desperate for His strength.

As the prodigal son, failure is the first part of salvation. Then, the Holy Spirit can identify and work with us in each area where our compulsions are getting the best of us. At that point, salvation comes and we embrace the cross. Death is the only way out of this natural strength we are born with. We can then see that "I am crucified nevertheless I live. Not I but Christ who lives in me. " This is truly the abiding life. This is our goal, Christ, in us and us in Christ!

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you embrace the cross. Ask Him to help you die to self. Ask Him to identify and heal your compulsions and distractions.