Michael writes: 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (of this worldly flesh) but spiritual to the pulling down of (spiritual) strongholds. Because of this, the next verse says, Casting down (vain) imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… bringing every thought captive in obedience to Christ.
To remain in fellowship with Our Lord Jesus Christ is to remember our priorities. One of these priorities is to avoid “lazy river Christianity.” For Christians drifting in lazy river Christianity, influenced by the secular world’s currents of current events, 1 Corinthians 3:3 says, you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere (unsaved) men? To turn away from our selfish sin nature that strives against others, is to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will unite our hearts together with God’s heart in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Jesus Christ himself is the One who reconciles. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. In reconciliation, reconnecting to God vertically through the finished work of His Son on our behalf, we can be reconnected horizontally; united with other Christ-followers through Jesus Christ in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
According to 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Our Labor according to the biblical usage of this word means to toil, to prick, to inflict pain… for where there is no pain in exerting energy, there is no gain. The strengthening is in the exercising of the muscles … in stretching toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The job of the Holy Spirit is to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted. To him that knows to do good but doeth it not, to him it is sin. This is one reason that we have been called to the body of Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:4 says, Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Before we can comfort others, Philippians 3 says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (with respect, awe, and reverence toward God.). Then the next verse says, For it is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. God has given us His Holy Spirit. Then when we work out the Spirit of Christ in us by aligning our heart with His heart and our will with His will ... when we delight ourselves in the Lord and not in the desires of the flesh, God will work in us and through us to will and to do of our good pleasure aligned with His good pleasure. In the spiritual battle, there are two offensive weapons according to Ephesians 6. One is the Word of God. The other is prayer. Our responsibility in the spiritual battle is our response to God’s ability. The spiritual battle is fought on our knees. We pray for God’s will to be done. Prayer is the work. As we bow our hearts in submission to His will, God will empower us. He will work in us and through us when through prayer, we make His delight our delight .. as we align our hearts with his heart.
Jesus Christ is trustworthy … He is the one who is steadfast and unmovable. Through Him we live and move and have our being. Jesus said in John 6:37, all those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. God is faithful to His word. Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. He is our sure foundation and the chief cornerstone of the church… the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit— fruit that will last— and so that whatever you ask in my name shall be given you.”
John 6:65 says, “no one can come unto me unless the father gives them to me.” God sent His Son to deliver us from sin and death, the consequence of sin. The grave is the end of man, unless he is born-again of God’s incorruptible seed of the Spirit of God in Christ. For flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Our eternal life is hidden with Christ in God when we are born-again of His Spirit. The wages of sin is death; however, God did not send His Son to condemn the world to death, but that the world through Him might be saved, that according to God’s steadfast love, we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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