Through God only

Faith Fellowship Church…PO Box 1586…Broken Arrow, OK 74013…Pastor Terry Dashner

These things are possible through God only…
Have you ever stopped and wondered why your behavior sometimes falls short of what the Bible requires? I have. Yes, even ministers of the Gospel fall short. Trying as I may to serve God with all my heart still, at times, I find myself wrecked and distraught from having been caught off guard and slammed by a side of me that’s certainly not godly. Further I must admit that, afterwards, I am puzzled at how such a base nature could still possibly reside inside me—a man “sold out to God.” Some time ago I began looking at this reality and decided it was time to analyze it to get victory over it. There were several things I discovered during this search that I want to share with you.

First, I rediscovered that all life forms grow or die based upon their food and water source. Knowing that the Bible declares a believer reborn by conversion, I began to meditate upon scriptures that dealt with feeding and nurturing my “rebirth” in Jesus Christ. The New Testament is filled with scriptures that speak about the “born again” spirit of man. When I called upon the name of Jesus many years ago, the Holy Spirit birthed me into the Body of Christ. God did a supernatural work inside me that was unseen to my physical eyes, but very evident to my new “spiritual eyes” that He gave me. As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit recreated my spirit that had been inoperative from my birth because of my sin. As a Christian I’m not only physical and needing to make contact with my physical environment to live, but now I am also spiritual and needing to fellowship with God to stay spiritually alive. Whereas before conversion I was preoccupied solely with my physical needs, now I must nurture my spiritual desires in Jesus too. If I neglect either one, I pay the price. For example, if I neglect my spiritual need which is basically my time alone with Jesus, I suffer spiritual defeat. On the other hand, if I feed my spirit at least as often as I feed my physical body, I suffer fewer humiliating defeats at the hands of the enemy.

Secondly, I discovered that the base nature in me still tried to oppose my desire to live in victory. The Bible talks about the “old man” of sin still being present within man when he becomes a believer. The reality is such that every time I advance forward in victory over sin, at any moment I can forfeit my advance by giving in to petty cries from my old nature. Some days I find myself doing nothing but wasting time and pampering my woes. For example, if I don’t bring my thoughts into focus, they will soon become completely self-centered and brazen. The best remedy I’ve found to reclaim my thoughts and place them into proper focus is to begin a blatant, unexpected boasting of who God is and how He loves people through me. I immediately get my thoughts off myself and onto God where they need to be. If I find myself down-in-the-dumps because of some negative circumstance, I try to find somebody to lift up with a word of praise or appreciation. These simple things are like miracle cures. I have found that all my problems and successes begin with my attitude of mind. Knowing this, I make a habit daily of feeding my mind with power scriptures. With these scriptures, I think on them. I pray them out loud throughout the day (I feed my body at least three times a day so I try to feed my spirit at least that many times for equal attention). I memorize them. I write them as topics for devotional studies. I teach them and I believe them. Thinking on the Word of God, all these years, has NEVER failed me.

Faith Fellowship Church…PO Box 1586…Broken Arrow, OK 74013…Pastor Terry Dashner

Thirdly, I discovered that my strength to put down the old nature when it pops up is relative to the strength of Jesus Christ in me. The Bible tells me that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Yet I can’t do “all things.” I can’t write speeches like Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln. I can’t write plays like William Shakespeare. There are many things I can’t do because I don’t have the ability or the intellectual capacity or even the desire. So, what does it mean for me to do all things through Christ Jesus? It means that I am able to do everything and anything in spite of my human limitations when God calls me to do it because He will do it through me. God gave me a purpose and a plan for my life. I can say one of two things about my calling before the Lord. I can say, “God, what you want me to do is impossible.” Or I can say, “God, what you want done is impossible in my own strength and power, but I know that in you I can do it. And I can do it well!” At that time, I surrender to God my willpower and ask Him for His, to complete the task. Immediately, a burden of defeat lifts from my shoulders. My mind becomes peaceful. My heart fills with God-like faith. God begins to bring people across my path to help me. He gives me new insights, new ways of looking at old problems. And somehow God gets it done through me. That’s key. The strength to do it is not my own, and my arm extended in action is not mine--but HIS! For example, I might have a difficult time being friendly and caring to some knucklehead that just gets on my nerves. Try as hard as I might, I find myself powerless in resisting the urge to punch him in the belly. If I feed on that thought, BAPD may soon be arresting me for assault and battery. For a minister of the Gospel, that’s a bad position to be in. Therefore, instead of feeding my mind with the norm, I ask God to love the difficult person through me. I begin to think upon the scriptures in Genesis that talk about all people being created in God’s likeness. I think about the Bible scripture that tells how Jesus loved all of us, even the knuckleheads of the world. Over time, I begin to notice a real difference in how I view that person. Here again, these simple and little things work wonders for me and bring me the victory.

And now that I have shared these tips, why don’t you try these simple things the next time you get slammed? If you will consistently feed your spirit as actively as you feed your body, you will begin to take on a new attitude about life. If you will not drop out of the race because you think something is wrong with you because you can’t seem to “live” the Christian life but instead consider yourself normal and simply under attack by the old nature, you will have more success putting down the old nature than giving in to it. I can speak affirmatively in this regard. And also learn to let God work not only in you, but through you. Surrender yourself completely to the Holy Spirit by saying often, “Holy Spirit I surrender my will to your leadership for my life. You know what’s best for me. Work through me now.” You see, we can’t love like we should because human love is self-centered. We can’t do caring things for others like we should because we mostly care about ourselves. We can’t do the impossible that God calls us to do for His glory because we are too limited by our humanness. This is our dilemma. Thank God though that we don’t have to admit defeat in Him. As we live in Him, He love with His perfect love, loving through us (Romans5:5). He rescues the unlovable through us. We provide the willingness; He gets the job done by His own power. Really, all we have to do as Christians is to provide the work space for Jesus by allowing Him to live and rule in us, then He goes to work through us to get the job done. He gets the glory, and we get the joy. Pastor T. Keep the Faith! AND by all means stay the course because Jesus is soon coming.