Walk in the Spirit not the Flesh

Romans 8:6-15
Romans 8:6-11
We set our minds on the things of the Spirit to have life. Christians have the Spirit in them which was given at salvation. Eph 1:13 As we follow the leading of the Spirit and not the desires of the flesh we have spiritual life.

Romans 8:12-14
To live by the Spirit is to make no provision for the flesh (Rom 13:14) and to put to death the deeds, desires, wants, wishes of the flesh.
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14

verse 15 is the first step of this life of the Spirit. God is our Father and we can call Him Abba, Daddy.

The Lord's prayer starts out with, “Our Father which art in heaven. Prayer to God is the beginning the middle and the end of spiritual life. Life flows from this interaction. We can't deny our flesh if there is nothing to replace it with. Now people do deny it in action but not in thought. Sometimes people can deny both action and thought and not live in the Spirit but they are not happy. Joy comes from the flow of the Spirit. And they are unfruitful because life flows from the Spirit not ideas or rules.

A W Tozer

I have been listening to A W Tozer on mp3

Here is a link to 400+ sermons

He always seems to try to bring the listener to a deeper walk with Jesus.

Unanswered Prayer

Ps 66:18
“If I regard wickedness in my heart,
The Lord will not hear; “

We can not on the one hand have sin in as a purpose and on the other hand ask God and expect Him to answer. We are followers of Christ. We are following what Jesus taught. If on the other hand we decide to reject what He taught how can we at that point expect God to honor our request?

The basis of Christian walk is humble belief in what God has given.

1 John 3:20-22
20in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
22and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

An honest heart before God and reading the Bible with an open heart will show us if we are walking in the light of God or not.

Isa 59:2
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. “

Sin separates us from God. In the Lord's prayer we ask forgiveness for our sin and are forgiven because of the promise of 1 John 1:9. But if we do not repent of our sin then there is a separation and our sins are not forgiven. The blood will wash away our sins and as we ask forgiveness we are cleansed by the blood.
The Holy Spirit convicts of sin (John 16:9)

Ezekiel 14:3
"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity Should I be consulted by them at all?”

What is an idol? Something I worship instead of God. Western world worships personal peace and affluence. I want to give up my personal peace to reach out to others.

Booze

My 19 year old son called me from Baltimore at a wedding reception and asked if it was OK to drink beer. I told him I could not anymore tell him what to do.

He said that he respected my opinion and whanted to know what I thought. I told him no don't drink.

Later I sent him this PM on face book:

I was asleep on the couch when you called. I needed to be woken up.

The issue of booze.

I can't tell you in the long run anymore what to do. The decision is yours.

My thinking on booze is this. You may reject my reasoning but it did not come without seeing many people ruined because of booze.

I think that it is of no use to drink booze. Name me an on fire Christian that is leading others to saving faith in Christ that drinks! Now maybe you know people but in my experience I do not know any.

There is the issue of the flesh Romans 8:5. Booze is of the flesh. It is of the world. 1 Jn 2:15-17

To just have a rule not to drink is of no use. Col 2:20-23

But to have a mindset to not live according to the ways of the world so that you can be a light to the lost, will work. Romans 8:6

Have you ever heard of people that gathered to pray for the lost and brought a bottle of booze to pass around while they were praying?

Jesus Habit of Prayer and Prayers

Jesus Habit of Prayer and Prayers

Luke 6:12 Prayed all night
Matthew 14:23 Sent crowds away, went alone to mountain to pray.
Luke 5:16 Jesus would often slip away to the wilderness to pray.
Luke 9:18 While He was praying alone
Luke 9:28 went to the mountain to pray with the 3
Luke 9:29 while He was praying His appearance became different.
Mark 1:35 Early morning while it was still dark He got up and left the house and prayed in a secluded place.
Luke 3:21 While He was prayi8ng heaven opened.
Mark 6:46 After bidding them farewell He left for the mountain to pray.
Luke 22:41-44 wrestle in prayer before the cross. Garden of Gethsemane
John 17 all High Priestly prayer
Luke 4:1,2 40 days in the wilderness
John 11:41,42 prayed before raising Lazarus from the dead
Luke 22:31,32 described prayer for Peter.
Matthew 6:9-13 Lord's prayer outline
John 12:27,28 A pre garden of Gethsemane prayer
Luke 23:34 forgiveness prayer from the cross
Mark 15:34 A prayer of desperation from the cross
Luke 23:46 A finality prayer from the cross
Luke 11:1 Jesus prayer in in a certain place

Have Initiative

I was reading 2 Cor 6:1
"And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain--"
"Mark 16:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.. . . ."
NASB

We work together with Christ. Is it possible that Christ will work with us as well as us working with Him? I am thinking that doing things for God will have Him working along with us. As we are in union with Christ we can take the initiative.

It is important for people to have initiative in doing things for God. Otherwise you are stuck.

Updates

I found an explanation of the Full Gospel at Cho's website.

I have put some mp3 sermons on my website Water From the Rock.