By Theresa Ferraro
When a Christian finally realizes—some after decades of trying—that no matter how hard he tries, everything he touches turns to dust, then he can come to understand what it is to die to oneself.
Paul says, “For I through
the law am dead to the law,
that I might live unto God”
(Gal. 2:19).
This is another concept I couldn’t understand—reckoning yourself dead. Another piece of the puzzle just snapped together in this latest revelation. When you find that all your efforts to perfect the flesh are fruitless, then you finally give up; and that is when you are ready to draw closer to God, curled up in a fetal position and say, It’s useless, God.
Nothing I do, not even my best effort, is any good. I have nothing to offer you.
Then God finally gets what He has wanted all along—a relationship with you. God wants you, each of us, to talk to Him, to hunger to really know Him (not just know facts about Him), read His Word and really listen to Him. When we focus on Him, seek Him, ask Him to make Himself
known to us, talk to Him throughout the day like we talk to the people we live with, we will find that He talks back. It’s true!
This world would have people
believe that those who think they hear God talking to them are delusional. He really does talk to us! What about living a Christian life?
It is still there, but it has a different
source, a different focus and a completely different life.
“This I say then, Walk in
the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh:
and these are contrary the
one to the other: so that ye
cannot do the things that
ye would. But if ye be led of
the Spirit, ye are not under
the law” (Gal. 5:16–18).
Do we not trust that if we are in constant communication with our Father, He will lead us into a Christian lifestyle? When we fall in love, we tend to be distracted from all other areas of life. When we fall in love with our Father, we are then able to set everything else aside and just focus on Him.
He will put life together. He will provide. He will guide us through relationships. He will see us through the hard times. The ways of the flesh will fall away, especially as the Holy Spirit convicts us and teaches us Christ.
Then Christ can truly start living through us.
This may be a huge learning curve, and every one of us is on that learning curve. We can be understanding and empathetic toward others knowing that we are all learning Christ.
We can stop judging others, scrutinizing their Christian walks. We will not see perfection in those who are born again because they still have the tendencies of the flesh in their minds, but teaching the Christian life is done best by the Holy Spirit in God’s time. The book knowledge just leads the new believer to try to perform as expected.
The best Christian teaching humans can do is first to have an intimate Father-son relationship of their own. That will be a testimony in itself. Then we can point others to God and say,
“Seek Him; He is real! Talk
to Him and listen. Fall in
love with Him, and He will
take care of the rest.”
When a Christian finally realizes—some after decades of trying—that no matter how hard he tries, everything he touches turns to dust, then he can come to understand what it is to die to oneself.
Paul says, “For I through
the law am dead to the law,
that I might live unto God”
(Gal. 2:19).
This is another concept I couldn’t understand—reckoning yourself dead. Another piece of the puzzle just snapped together in this latest revelation. When you find that all your efforts to perfect the flesh are fruitless, then you finally give up; and that is when you are ready to draw closer to God, curled up in a fetal position and say, It’s useless, God.
Nothing I do, not even my best effort, is any good. I have nothing to offer you.
Then God finally gets what He has wanted all along—a relationship with you. God wants you, each of us, to talk to Him, to hunger to really know Him (not just know facts about Him), read His Word and really listen to Him. When we focus on Him, seek Him, ask Him to make Himself
known to us, talk to Him throughout the day like we talk to the people we live with, we will find that He talks back. It’s true!
This world would have people
believe that those who think they hear God talking to them are delusional. He really does talk to us! What about living a Christian life?
It is still there, but it has a different
source, a different focus and a completely different life.
“This I say then, Walk in
the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh:
and these are contrary the
one to the other: so that ye
cannot do the things that
ye would. But if ye be led of
the Spirit, ye are not under
the law” (Gal. 5:16–18).
Do we not trust that if we are in constant communication with our Father, He will lead us into a Christian lifestyle? When we fall in love, we tend to be distracted from all other areas of life. When we fall in love with our Father, we are then able to set everything else aside and just focus on Him.
He will put life together. He will provide. He will guide us through relationships. He will see us through the hard times. The ways of the flesh will fall away, especially as the Holy Spirit convicts us and teaches us Christ.
Then Christ can truly start living through us.
This may be a huge learning curve, and every one of us is on that learning curve. We can be understanding and empathetic toward others knowing that we are all learning Christ.
We can stop judging others, scrutinizing their Christian walks. We will not see perfection in those who are born again because they still have the tendencies of the flesh in their minds, but teaching the Christian life is done best by the Holy Spirit in God’s time. The book knowledge just leads the new believer to try to perform as expected.
The best Christian teaching humans can do is first to have an intimate Father-son relationship of their own. That will be a testimony in itself. Then we can point others to God and say,
“Seek Him; He is real! Talk
to Him and listen. Fall in
love with Him, and He will
take care of the rest.”
