Right Discerning Will Reign In Life

Thursday, September 22nd, 2016

“ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! “ Rom 5:17

We need to discern  to make right choices even though we have become righteous and sinless by faith in the Gospel of God’s Righteousness. 

Spiritual discernment enables us to decide what we want and what is best for our future, surrounding and situation.

Now, how to go about it? 

Man

According to Gen 1:26-28, man were made in the likeness of God and were given dominion over all God’s creation on earth.  The spirit dominated the soul and the body of the man.  Man was made in perfect harmony in spirit, soul and body.   There was no fear or shame because man was in right standing with God.

 

Adversary

According to Gen 2:16-17, God gave man a positive command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Their disobedience to this command will be punished with death.  However Satan deceived Eve and Adam by planting the seed of doubt in order to disobey God.  The first law was broken and man died spiritually to God and thus his soul and body merged.   Man’s eyes were opened and they became self-conscious and tried to fix their nakedness  by  fig leaves.  They became fearful  and blamed each other.  This resulted with God cursing Satan, Adam, Eve and the ground.  However, God demonstrated Himself to be the only solution for man’s predicament by providing them the tunics of animal skin.  This foreshadows the God of Salvation Who will cover us with the garment of righteousness (Christ) through the sacrificial system.

 

Solution

According to Eph 2:14-16, God sent His Son to become our ‘peace offering ‘ to remove the wall of sin that separated man and God.  Through  the  baptism  and  death  of  Jesus,  God   abolished  theLaw that stood against us by the blood of Jesus on the cross.  Jesus paid the wages of sin  that demanded death for all man.  By faith we too have died to the old man and were born again to become a new creation in Christ. The new inward man delights in the Law of God.  However, the inward spiritual transformation leads us to have both the old and the new man warring against each other.  This causes the law of our mind to be brought into captivity to the law of sin which is in our flesh. The good news is even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being  renewed  day  by day. 2 Cor 4:16; Rom 7:22-23; Eph 3:16; Col 3:9; Gal 6:15; Ps 64:6; Prov 20:27

 

Discerning – What Is So Important?

According to 1 Thess 5:23, the new man has a born again spirit, living soul and body.  We should recognize that we have carnal mind (old man) and spiritual mind (new man).  To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Rom 8:6   If we follow the old mind and lifestyle,  then we will not be able to change according to what the Word of God says.  Hence, avoiding people or problem will not solve anything but rather in moments like this we should let Christ reign in our lives.

It is my heart’s desire that we will take the step of obedience to God’s Word so that we may experience His power.  God honors our free choice.  He wants us to willingly  take the first step of faith by approaching Him in our time of need.  We should not rely on our own power, ability and confidence  to face challenges.  We ought to move ahead by doing the right things,  though we may be inclined to lean on our own  efforts and feelings at times.  This is how we should cooperate with the Holy Spirit and allow Christ to reign in us. 

 

Conclusion

Throughout the NT we are called to make every effort to grow in faith. There are several things we can do  by spiritual discernment:

  1. We should allow old things to go in order for new things to be ushered into our lives. Eph 4:22
  1. We should allow the spirit to change our thinking Eph 4:23
  1. We should allow our minds to be renewed. Rom 12:2
  1. We should put on a new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Eph 4:24
  1. We should put on the Truth and reject the lies of the world (Satan) by obedience to the Word of God.

 

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