Christian Living

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Not by Might

Nov 15, 2006
By Rick L. King

Ac 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

The above scripture says that we shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon us not when our head is full of the word. Our power is the Holy Spirit.

Yes the word is powerful yet it must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. I once asked the Lord a question concerning why in some church services, that even though the word was being preached that people just went to sleep and there was no presence of the Holy Spirit. I was told that “My word will always produce some results yet when it is led and empowered by me, it will do many wondrous things”. Any person can preach the word, saved or unsaved. The difference is in the fact that a person that has sought the Lord and waited to hear what God wanted to say over just deciding by their carnal mind what to say produces a great difference in the outcome or fruit. In Ephesians 6; 17, we are told to take the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. This does not mean we take up the Bible and quote scriptures by our carnal man. This means that we seek the Lord till we get a “rhema word” from the Holy Spirit. The sword or rhema word is a weapon of the Holy Spirit, not a weapon of our carnal fleshly mind. Let’s look deeper.

Ro 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. The word flesh here denotes our human mind. We cannot please God by operating out of our own mind, period!

2 Cor 10:3-4, states that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Carnal means in the Greek; the flesh, denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God

This once again agrees with Romans 8:8. 2 Cor 10:4 states that we are to: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

An imagination is a thought, a carnal thought or reasoning. If we hold to any thought over allowing God’s thought then it is an imagination or image or idol in our mind and must be gotten rid of if we are to have God’s thoughts or His knowledge in us. Often we interpret “the knowledge of God” as the knowledge about God, yet what it is truly saying is God’s knowledge. We can have God’s knowledge if we will get our own imaginations and knowledge out of the way. God desires us to walk in His knowledge, not ours. We are told in Php 2:5 to: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This mind is the mind of God. Jesus said in John 6:38: For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. Jesus laid down His will, mind, desires so that He might do the Father’s will alone. Jesus was our example. If we are to have the mind of Christ, God’s mind, then we must lay down our own mind and will or according to 2 Cor 10:4, cast down every imagination. We must get rid of our own mind to have His. Also, if what Paul said is true, which we know that it is, He said in 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. Paul was saying that he was dead to his mind and self. The reason that he was living was only because Christ was living in and through him.
If we are dead, then how can a dead man have anything, teach anything, or be empowered to do anything? The only way is when we have God’s mind and Holy Spirit working through us. It is and has never been about what we can do for God; it is about what God through the Holy Spirit can and will do through us if we will just get out of the way. It is about having the mind of Jesus, the mind of God working in and through us.

Ga 5:24 And they that are Christ‘s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. The word “Christ’s” means anointed. They, which are anointed-empowered by the Holy Spirit, have crucified or put to death their flesh (their own natural carnal mind). Only under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit is our flesh crucified. It is His work and power, not ours. We are told in 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.

If no good thing dwells in our flesh (our carnal mind) then how can any power come from it to change our self or any one else?

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God’s ways and thoughts are powerful and are available to each of us as we allow self to die and stop running the show. If we are dead as Paul said, then we must walk only in the power of the Holy Spirit. We must be sent with a rhema word from God in our mouth, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Anything else is religious and of the flesh or our carnal nature, which displeases God.

Zec 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

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

If we walk in our flesh, we will not walk in the spirit. We must apply 2 Cor 10:3-4 and get rid of imaginations to allow the mind of Christ to work in and through us. Walking in the spirit is basically allowing all of our desires, will, emotions to die so that the Holy Spirit can be in control instead of our flesh (our carnal mind).

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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