Turning Natural Life into Spiritual Life

This devotional from Oswald Chambers really hit home with me and the fact that Jesus has already conquered our sins for us then next step we take is making our life spiritually based on Christ through moral decisions we make every single day and demolishing our worldly habits and bringing glory to Jesus.

Oswald writes:

Do It Yourself (1)

. . . casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God . . .

— 2 Corinthians 10:5

Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord . . ." (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier "against the knowledge of God" is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).

It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers "against the knowledge of God." We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).

Proverbs 24:30-34

"I went past the field of the sluggard,
past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;

³¹ thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.

³² I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I saw:

³³ A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-

³⁴ and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man."

-Proverbs 24:30-34

I learned a amazing lesson from this passage: if you become lazy, stop thinking and living for God for even a moment all you have worked hard for could be lost. Learn from the sluggards mistake here. Continue to work hard and strive in all you do in the name of Jesus Christ our savior.