Christian Living

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Lay Down the Stones –Root Cause

July 23, 2006
By: Rick L King

The Root Cause

We know by scripture that when we are walking in God’s love, that we will not cast a stone. Casting a stone is the result of a fleshly carnal thing, not a Holy Spirit thing. God doesn’t cast a stone. Jesus said, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more (John 8:11). A stone being cast then is a result of something of the flesh. The flesh is self-satisfying. It wants what it wants to satisfy some craving of itself. On the other hand, the Spirit is about blessing others. Just as Jesus gave His life for us, the Holy Spirit always is about giving to someone else. Let’s look at some interesting scriptures.

Mr 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

The scripture in Corinthians above talks about the god of this world blinding the minds. What blinds the minds? We know that it says the god of this world does it, but with what? First, the devil is a liar and a deceiver. Remember what the devil told Jesus when He was tempted of the devil 40 days and nights?

Luke 4:
5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

The devil attempted to deceive Jesus, yet Jesus knew better, as we should also. Firstly, the devil only has the power that God allows him to have. The devil offered Jesus kingdoms and all things if he would worship him. Jesus already owned it all.

Luke 4:
1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

Jesus had to reject the power that the devil offered. Once He did, He received the power of the Holy Spirit. This whole deception of the enemy was designed to keep the power of the Holy Spirit away from Jesus. Now let’s look at the deception the enemy is still using on us.

Mark 4:19, talks of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in. These three things are deceptive stones of the devil. To our natural carnal selfish side they look real nice; but they are designed to kill, steal, and destroy. There is no life in them at all. The devil tempts our flesh with things that supposedly would bring satisfaction. What actually takes place is that when we accept this deception, we are feeding our self-nature instead of our spirit nature. This is the root of most of our problems. The devil suggests to us that it is all about us. When it is all about us, then God takes a back seat. We were not put on this earth by God and saved, to go out a build a kingdom for ourselves. When we were saved, if Jesus became Lord, then our only concern should be about what He wants or desires, not about what we want or desire. The deception of the enemy causes us to focus on self rather than on God. We spend our time self-pleasing and seeking, rather than what Mathew 6:33 states, “ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. We become blind with the blinders of the deception once we spend our time for self. We should seek His righteousness, not ours! Jesus was never about what was good for Him; He was about what was good for His Father and others. The lie in this deception tells us that if we have these things the devil offers that we will find life and power. Isn’t this what the devil told Jesus? He offered Jesus power if Jesus would worship him. For Jesus to gain God’s Holy Spirit power, He had to reject the devil’s power. We must also do the same. Scripture says, “2 Co 3:6, Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”. The Spirit of God alone is the one who gives to us life, not the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, nor the lusts of other things. It is not about money, material things, walking out the word in our strength, or any other power; it is only about the power of Holy Spirit.

The next question is, “why does what the devil tempt and deceive us with seem to work often times?” Being that it is the Spirit that gives to us life, it seems that we would just always draw near to the Spirit. The same problem exists in us that Paul the Apostle had.

Ro 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Ro 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Paul stated that he died daily. He died daily to self. When self no longer rules us, Christ can live through us. Our flesh is constantly tempted with self-gratifying things. Only as our fleshly carnal nature dies do we find real life. We are told to:

Ga 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

The remedy that God has given to us is for us to walk in the Spirit. This is how the deeds of our body will be mortified or put to death. This is not a one-time thing as we are all going to die over a period of time. We, like Paul, must die daily. God desires for us to focus on the things of the Spirit, and the devil wants us to focus on the things of our selfish flesh. Is it not rather obvious as to why? We walk in the Spirit; the devil gets defeated. We walk in the flesh; the devil has legal ground to kill, steal, and destroy; plus what God desires to do does not get accomplished.

The bottom line is that we only will pick up the devils stones if we are walking by the flesh. This is most likely why we were told that:

Ro 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Ro 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

The Answer!
Intimacy with God

The only way that we will ever be able to crucify our flesh, or please God, is when we walk in the Spirit. Everything we do must be focussed on the Holy Spirit. We must seek first His kingdom. In other words, we must seek in prayer and warfare and intercession until we know and walk in what the Holy Spirit desires instead of what we desire. The only way that we will have power and strength to resist the devils deceptions is through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives to us life. The Holy Spirit gives to us power to walk, not by our flesh, but by God’s Spirit. Jesus himself stated that He did not come to do His own will, but the will of the Father, which sent Him. He also said that what He saw the Father do, He did; and what He heard the Father speak, He spoke. Jesus was the example of giving up his carnal life for a life in the Spirit, which was pleasing to His Father. We are told in Php 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Jesus had God’s mind, not His. He did what the Father asked, not what He thought or wanted. The word “flesh” in many scriptures is translated as “mind”. We must give up our mind to have the mind of God. The word “let” is the key word. We must let, allow, or choose to have God’s mind. It is not automatic when we are saved. It is a daily conscious choice.

Before Jesus was crucified, He spent much time with His disciples. They talked back and forth. They had a personal relationship with each other. After Jesus was crucified and went up to Heaven what happened to the personal relationship? Did it stop? Did the disciples have to walk in only what they remembered that Jesus told them? Did the intimacy with Jesus stop and the disciples were left comfortless? Not at all!

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

Jesus sent to us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter! Jesus made it possible that we might still have an intimacy with the Father. He made it possible that we could still be taught, know the truth, and have all things brought to our remembrance that He had said.

I am going to make a bold statement. Don’t hate me because in light of what the scripture has said, it is true. Without intimacy with the Holy Spirit we really have no personal relationship with God. We are just being religious! WE cannot know His will, His desires, or His heart, without the Holy Spirit revealing them to us. Revelation comes only by the Holy Spirit!

1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We can only find this revelation in the spirit, not by our carnal fleshly understanding.

We may know what Jesus said in the Word; yet, we may not personally know Jesus.
I can write down a bunch of orders to an employee that he blindly follows. I can also spend time with the employee and he and I get to know each other personally. When we know someone, we tend to understand the way they think or why that they do what they do. God wants us to have an intimate relationship with Him. If He wanted robots to just follow orders then He would have made them. Our creator desires to have fellowship with us as well as us having fellowship with Him. He made it possible by sending His Holy Spirit to us. Without the Holy Spirit we can have no intimacy with God. We can only be a robot and follow in our flesh the things that He stated in the Bible (which by the way is following the law instead of walking in the Spirit).

So, if we are to not pick up the devils stones, nor give place to the devil or walk in the flesh; and truly desire to know the Father and walk in His will alone: we must learn to walk in the Spirit. This is a choice, which we all must make. If we choose to walk in the flesh (our canal mind), we will not walk in the Spirit. If we choose to walk in the Spirit, then we must do the things that will take us into God’s presence and allow the Holy Spirit to crucify our carnal fleshly mind). James said in James 4:8, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded”. If we want God to be in control and the Holy Spirit to lead and empower us, then we must draw near to God. We were given the Holy Spirit to be able to draw near. This must become our first and only priority. Seek ye first, remember?

May we learn to not only lay down the stones we already have picked up; but also to not pick them up in the first place. Let’s keep them under our feet where they belong. May we learn to walk in the Spirit and know the will and power of God in our lives that we may do the greater works that Jesus talked about in John 14:12.


Copyright © 2007
By: Rick L. King
No portion of this may be reproduced or used without written permission from the author.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you have a need for this writing. Thank You.

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