“If God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells – even though you still experience all the limitations of sin – you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from the dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” – Romans 8:9-11 (Msg)
At the moment of Salvation our spirit is marked by the Holy Spirit, and forever is pardoned from the punishment of our sins. This miraculous gift amazes me – that God would love me so much that His only Son would take my punishment on my behalf. Wow! Such joy and comfort knowing my eternal future.
But until we get to Heaven, we “experience all the limitations of sin”. The consequences of our sin and the sins of others can still impact our day-to-day living while here on earth – something hard to understand and also frustrating to walk through. But the ever-present, alive, moving, active and ruling Spirit of Christ living in us not only can help us but desires for us to live in freedom now!
Our flesh (sin nature) will always be battling to take over more of us – our thoughts, our desires, our attitude, our emotions. At the same time, the Holy Spirit is leading us to a new nature, where He guides our every step and directs us each and every day. Our flesh bucks at this, wanting us to be alarmed that we’re giving up control /being controlled; but what our flesh doesn’t want us focussed on is that it’s way of living is us also being controlled, but by sin. The apostle Paul says we’re either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. (ref. Romans 6:17-18). The battle between our flesh and our spirit is always raging.
The concept may seem odd - handing over control to allow the Holy Spirit to lead our lives, gives the allusion of restriction. The reality is when we allow the Holy Spirit to take control, He leads us to live in freedom. He exposes where we’re held captive to sin. He calls us to repentance, and He shows us how to rid ourselves of our flesh/old nature. He shows us how to truly live.
God’s desire is for us to live whole, to be healed and thriving, to live the life that He’s purposed for us to live, to experience living free.
“So Christ has made us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get all tied up again in the chains of slavery to sin.” – Galatians 5:1
Let’s choose to surrender to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to lead us in every area of our lives – the result means living in freedom!
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