What kind of a Christian are you?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
God is the absolute source of righteousness, but there is an
absolute source of unrighteousness – the devil. All human activity derives from
one or the other of these two origins.
That is why the bible says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin” (Rom 18:23). Whatever does not derive from your attitude of total dependence
of God, whatever does not release God’s activity through your life, is sin. It is sin
because it stems from an attitude of independence that makes you open to any
and all of Satan’s deceptions in his long history of usurping God’s authority.
Every step you take, every attitude that you adopt, every
decision you make, everything you do and all you hope to be, is either in dependence
upon the God who created you as His own dwelling place, or else the byproduct
of the demon spirit of this world, “who now works in the sons of disobedience”
(Eph 2:2), and who perpetuates his lies through a mindset of self-reliance in
fallen humanity.
The bible calls this attitude of independence a “carnal mind”
(Rom 8:7). It is a mindset that is set “on the things of the flesh” rather than
on the “things of the Spirit” (Rom 8:5). It means exercising the faculties of
your personality in ways that are not dependant on the God whose presence alone
imparts to you the quality of true humanity that He always intended for you.
It means thinking godlessly. In other words, thinking
lightlessly, with a mind still in darkness. You take a step, you make a
decision, you conceive your plans, you assume responsibility, all without
relating the situation to God and to His light and to all that He is within
you.
This carnal mind can be in the believer just as much as in
the unbeliever. Carnal or fleshly Christians have been regenerated by the restoration
of the Holy Spirit to their human spirit, but in certain ways, they still
repudiate the Spirit’s legitimate right to reestablish the rule of Christ in
their minds, in their emotions, and in their wills. Although they profess
Christ as redeemer, their actions and decisions are typically taken for the sake
of their own interests and for who they are in themselves, rather than for God’s
interests and for who He is. Their minds are still the plaything and the
workshop of the devil, for the devil is smart enough and cunning enough that he
can always persuade countless numbers of professing Christians to try and be
Christians without Christ. They are willing to do anything for Jesus’ sake, but
they fail to understand that His Presence
is absolutely imperative to do it, that without Him we are nothing, have nothing,
and can do nothing.
To be a carnal Christian is to still claim the right to
exercise your own jurisdiction, make your own decision and plans, choose your
own pathway. But you will be useless to God, and you will make it into heaven “as
through the fire” (1 Cor 3:15)
What kind of a Christian do you want to be? To choose to be
a carnal Christian is to choose spiritual oblivion. But if you decide genuinely
that Christ must be everything and have everything in your life, if you say in
your heart, “I want nothing less than to be all that for which the blood of God’s
dear Son was shed,” then He is ready to lead you into discoveries that can
completely revolutionize you whole humanity for time and eternity.
Here’s a verse to ponder upon: “He who sins is of the devil”
(1 John 3:8)
Taken from The Indwelling Life of Christ by Major Ian W Thomas.
Read more...
