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2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 6

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 6

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”  Romans 8:6

The Mind Set on the Flesh is Death

The word “death” immediately invokes images of funeral homes and cemeteries.  Most of us have childhood memories of a family pet that died.  Many of us have memories of the first significant loss in our lives, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a parent, or close friend.  The finality of these types of events remain in our minds for a long, long time.  In scripture, “death” goes beyond mere physical expressions.   In Matthew 8:21-22 Jesus responded to one of his followers, “Another of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’”  That is a strange way of speaking.  “Allow the dead to bury their own dead?”  Jesus clearly had some category for death other than mere physical death. One way of helping us distinguish between spiritual and physical death is to use the word “separation.”  When someone dies physically, their soul is separated from their body.  When people die spiritually, they are separated from God.  Jesus spoke of dead people burying dead people.  In doing so He provided for us a category of physically alive individuals who are simultaneously spiritually dead.  They look and act alive, digging graves for others, but inside they are spiritual dead.  They do things that give evidence of life, but in reality, they are separated from a relationship with God.  Paul described it this way in Ephesians 2:1, “and you were dead in your trespasses and sins…”  Again, we have this category of those who are spiritually dead while simultaneously being alive physically.  We know that the spiritually dead are physically alive in this verse because we see that these dead ones are actively involved in “trespasses and sins.” In considering these two categories of death and life, let’s reflect on Romans 8.  Though we are reading one verse for each day of the 40 Days of Prayer, it might be helpful to read today's verse in context.  As you read verses 1-8, notice that there are two types of people in the world.  First, there are those who are living according to the sinful nature (the flesh).  These individuals are outside of a relationship with God through faith in Christ.  Second, there are those who are living according to the Spirit.  Those who are alive in the Spirit have a relationship with God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:1-8

“Paul’s purpose in pursuing this series of contrasts is…contrasting two groups of people: the converted and the unconverted.  Paul’s main purpose is to highlight the radical difference between the flesh and the Spirit as a means of showing why only those who walk, think and are after the Spirit possess everlasting life.” (Douglas Moo, NICNT Commentary on Romans, page 486)  The ones living according to the sinful nature live under the condemnation of the Law of God because they are unable to fulfill its requirements.  The ones living according to the sinful nature have their minds set on the sinful nature and they cannot please God.  Those living according to the sinful nature are hostile toward God and are unable to subject themselves to God’s Law.  These spiritually dead individuals were described in Jesus’ words “let the dead bury the dead” and in Paul’s words in Ephesians 2, as those who “were dead in trespasses and sins.”  Now, contrasting the ones who are living according to their sinful nature with those who are now living according to Spirit, Paul informs us that those living according to the Spirit have been set free.  Those in the Spirit are living free from bondage of the Law.  Those living in the flesh are under obligation to fulfill God’s Law under their own power, but are unable to do so.  The Law of God can only produce sin and death in them.  However, those in the Spirit have the Law completely fulfilled through their relationship to Christ Jesus.  Those in the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit of God and are able to live a life that pleases God.  If a person is not in Christ then they are spiritually dead: separated from God, under God’s condemnation, lost, hopeless, helpless, and under the dominion of sin.  Spiritually dead individuals have their minds focused on satisfying their own sinful desires for they are incapable of anything else. 

Life and Peace

Spiritually alive individuals have their minds focused on the desires of the Spirit.  The mind set on the Spirit, which in this verse is Paul’s way of describing believers in Christ who are seeking spiritual things in their thinking, produces life.  Paul contrasted the life of those in the Spirit with a life controlled by sin’s natural consequence, spiritual death and ultimately eternal separation from God.  The mind set on the Spirit produces life and peace. 

The term “peace” carries two connotations.  Peace depicts that end of hostilities, such as the declaration of peace that brings an end to a military conflict.  Peace also describes an inward sense of well-being, a peaceful soul, a soul at rest.  Both of these realities belong to those who have put their faith in Christ Jesus.  Romans 5:1 and Romans 5:10 state, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…”  Romans 5 describes the cessation of hostility between God and us.  We were enemies but God declared terms of peace by transferring our just punishment to Christ.  God made peace with His enemies through His Son.  We do not deserve the end of the hostilities, a war we declared on God, a war we initiated against Him.  God initiated the terms of peace.  He crafted the peace treaty and carried out the necessary steps to fulfill all of the terms of the peace accord.  We simply believe in Christ and the terms of peace are ours in Christ.  We have been reconciled to God. 

The other aspect of the term “peace” is also true for believers in Christ.  When Christ spoke to His disciples on the night of His betrayal by Judas and His subsequent arrest by the religious leaders, He told them that in the midst of a turbulent world that He had granted them peace.  Jesus said this in John 14:27,  “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  Fear and a troubled heart are the natural responses to a difficult world.  Christ told the disciples to not allow their hearts be troubled because He had given them His peace.  The soul rest, the soul satisfaction in Christ produces peace even in the midst of life’s storms.  Soul rest in Christ takes the fear and foreboding troubles of this life and overwhelms them with His peace.  This peace comes from Him.  It comes from our relationship with Him, trusting in the One who died and rose again to bring peace between us and our Creator.  If we can trust Him and rest in Him for our reconciliation with God both now and forever, then we can trust Him in the daily battle with troubles in this life.  In Christ, there is life and peace. 

Prayer Focus

God, help me to rest in your work of salvation.  You are so good.  Your mercies are new every day.  I thank You for giving me life and peace through Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Thank you  for giving me an abiding peace that comes from a relationship with you.  Thank you for the work of Your Spirit.  I want to live with the knowledge of Your life and Your peace today.  I confess my inadequacies to Your gift.  My sin constantly assaults my walk with You.  Far too often, I allow the busyness of my day to take this peace from me.  Help me to set my mind on spiritual realities.  Change my priorities and put them in line with Your priorities.  Lord, I ask You to help my family.  Help me to love my family more than myself.  Help me to sacrificially put aside my selfish desires.  Instead, help me to pursue Your goodness in my family, friends, and my church.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

Secret of efficiency

In the teaching of Christ, we find the last words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the 28th chapter and 19th verse,

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Here we find that the Holy Spirit and the Son are equal with the Father - are one with Him, “teaching them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Christ was now handing His commission over to His Apostles. He was going to leave them. His work on earth was finished, and He was now just about ready to take His seat at the right hand of God, and He spoke unto them and said: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” All power, so then He had authority. If Christ was mere man, as some people try to make out, it would have been blasphemy for Him to have said to the disciples, go and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and in His own name, and in that of the Holy Spirit, making Himself equal with the Father.

There are three things: All Power is given unto Me; go teach all nations. Teach them what? To observe all things. There are a great many people now that are willing to observe what they like about Christ, but the things that they don’t like they just dismiss and turn away from. But His commission to His disciples was, “Go teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” And what right has a messenger who has been sent of God to change the message? If I had sent a servant to deliver a message, and the servant thought the message didn’t sound exactly right - a little harsh- and that servant went and changed the message, I should change servants very quickly; he could not serve me any longer. And when a minister or a messenger of Christ begins to change the message because he thinks it is not exactly what it ought to be and thinks that he is wiser than God, God just dismisses that man.

They haven’t taught “all things.” They have left out some of the things that Christ has commanded us to teach, because they didn’t correspond with man’s reason. Now we have to take the Word of God just as it is; and if we are going to take it, we have no authority to take out just what we like, what we think is appropriate, and let dark reason be our guide.

It is the work of the Spirit to impress the heart and seal the preached word. His office is to take of the things of Christ and reveal them unto us.

Some people have this idea that this is the only dispensation of the Holy Spirit; that He didn’t work until Christ was glorified. But Simeon felt the Holy Spirit when he went into the temple.

in 2 Peter 1:21 we read,

“prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

We find the same Spirit in Genesis as is seen in Revelation. The same Spirit that guided the hand that wrote Exodus inspired also the epistles, and we find the same Spirit speaking from one end of the Bible to the other. So holy men in all ages have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 5

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 5

“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”  Romans 8:5

Mindset It’s all about proper thinking.  What is our mindset?  What dominates our mental energies?  Paul says that we are to set our “minds on things of the Spirit.”  In Colossians 3:1-2, Paul told the church to “keep seeking the things above.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”  Keep seeking the things above by first thinking about them.  The first step to righteous, godly living is proper thinking.   We are to set our minds on honoring Christ and then get our body to function according to our thinking.   In verse 4, Paul told us that as believers we are not to walk according to the sinful nature (flesh).  We are to walk according to the Spirit.  This new way of living involves getting our bodies under the authority of the Spirit of God.  The first aspect of this submission to the authority of the Spirit of God begins in the mind.  We must get our minds in right relationship to the priorities of the Spirit of God.  We do this by seeking Him with our thoughts, seeking His priorities with our feelings, and pursuing in our minds the things that honor Him.  We must protect our minds.  We must protect our minds from the images of commercialism that appeal to our greed.  We must protect our minds from pornography that appeals to our lust.  We must protect our minds from the worries and anxieties of this present world which seek to destroy our joy, peace and confidence in Christ.  We must guard our thinking from the trivial and banal passions of this temporary life.  In II Corinthians 10:5, Paul told the church to destroy “speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”  The purposeful work of the mind is the “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

This walk according to the Spirit involves more than stopping the process of allowing our minds dwell on things that are evil.  The work of the Spirit involves more than just the removal of that which is sinful.  Consider the juxtaposition of living according to the sinful nature and living according to the Spirit.  Notice how Paul compares those who are “setting their minds on the sinful nature” versus those who are living according to the Spirit.  Those who are living according to the Spirit are “setting their minds on the Spirit.”  The goal of sanctification is not merely to produce a mind void of any evil.  The goal is to fill our minds with that which is good.  This involves a purposeful exchange of thoughts.  We trade those baser, damaging thoughts that stimulate our sinful nature, for Christ-centered thoughts, which drive us to holy living.  Instead of focusing our thoughts on earthly lusts, we trade them in for thoughts about the glory of Christ.  Instead of focusing our thoughts on the trivial possessions of this life, we trade those thoughts in for thoughts about the eternal possessions that are ours in Christ.  We must not set our “minds on the things of the flesh, but …the things of the Spirit.”  In Philippians, Paul told the church guard their hearts and minds.  He told them,  “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”  (Philippians 4:8)  Walking in the Spirit begins as an exercise of the mind, allowing our minds to dwell on things that honor God.  When we focus our minds on the desires of the Spirit of God, we draw ourselves closer to God through the power of His Spirit. 

From a practical standpoint, in order to set our minds on the things of the Spirit and not the things of the sinful nature, we avoid places and people who push us toward destructive ways of thinking.  We also purposefully fill our minds with information that drives our thinking toward the things of God.  Reading, studying and memorizing the Scripture counteracts the sinful material that our minds struggle to clear.  Tools, such as devotional books or listening to sermons by good Bible expositors or gathering with believers in worship and study, all help redirect our thinking toward Christ and His purposes.  The Spirit of God loves it when we honor Christ with our thoughts and our words.  Today, may we focus our minds on the things of the Spirit of God and may we guard our minds against the things of the sinful nature.

Prayer Focus

God, I worship You for You are good and kind.  You show Your kindness in Your patience with my weaknesses.  I praise You for You are great.  You show Your greatness in Your transformational work in my life.  Thank You for saving me.  Thank You for changing me.  Make me more like Jesus every day.  I confess my sin to You.  Forgive me for the sins I have committed with my mind.  Forgive me for the fears and anxieties that I have allowed to dominate my thinking.  Forgive me for the thoughts of lust that draw me away from You.  Forgive me for letting the world’s thinking to impact my thinking.  I give You my mind.  Help me set my mind on the things of the Spirit.  Bring your Word to the forefront of my thoughts today.  Be glorified in my thinking.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

The Holy Spirit is closely identified with the words of the Lord Jesus. “It is the Spirit that quickens (invigorates/strengthens/gives live); the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life.” The Gospel proclamation cannot be divorced from the Holy Spirit. Unless He attend (associate with) the word in power, vain will be the attempt in preaching it. Human eloquence or persuasiveness of speech are the mere trappings of the dead, if the living Spirit be absent; the prophet may preach to the bones in the valley, but it must be the breath from Heaven which will cause the slain to live.

In the third chapter of the First Epistle of Peter, it reads,

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”

 Here we see that Christ was raised up from the grave by this same Spirit, and the power exercised to raise Christ’s dead body must raise our dead souls and quicken them. No other power on earth can quicken a dead soul, but the same power that raised the body of Jesus Christ out of Joseph’s sepulcher. And if we want that power to quicken our friends who are dead in sin, we must look to God, and not be looking to man to do it. If we look alone to ministers, if we look alone to Christ’s disciples to do this work, we shall be disappointed; but if we look to the Spirit of God and expect it to come from Him and Him alone, then we shall honor the Spirit, and the Spirit will do His work.

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 4

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 4

“so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:4

The Requirement of the Law

According to Romans 8:3, yesterday’s verse, Jesus condemned sin in His death.  Jesus condemned sin, but He did not condemn the Law.  On the contrary, He upheld the Law.  He upheld the Law’s requirements.  In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  He not only upheld the Law, He also fulfilled the Law.  He fulfilled every one of His Father’s commands with absolute perfection.  In order to have eternal life, we too must fulfill all of the requirements of the Law.  At the end of Matthew 5, Jesus said this, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is the great, divine transaction.  There is a cosmic, eternal exchange that occurs when we place our trust in Christ.  When we believe in Jesus, we acknowledge several truths.  First, we acknowledge that God demands a standard of behavior from us. In order for us to be in a right relationship with Him, we must live perfectly according to His standards.  Psalm 130:3 states that “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” To be in God’s presence, He demands a standard of perfection.  Second, we humbly admit that we have not and cannot fulfill this standard.  Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  No one is capable of living a life completely free from iniquity.  No one is sinless, no one except Jesus Christ.  Third, we acknowledge that God justly holds us responsible for our failure to fulfill all of the requirements of His Law.   Since God is holy, in His holiness, He must hold us accountable for our sin.  Galatians 3:10 says, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.’”  Failure to fulfill all of the works of the Law put us under a curse, a curse of separation from God.  Fourth, we gratefully acknowledge that God, in Christ, has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law.  God in Christ has fulfilled the Law in two ways: first, by Christ perfectly keeping the Law and second, by Christ paying the penalty for our failure to keep the Law. Today’s verse says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.”  We need Christ to fulfill the Law in us.  We need Him to do this because of His perfections, His perfect fulfillment of His Father’s commands.  We also need Christ to pay for our failure to fulfill the Law.  Galatians 3:13 describes the work of Christ this way: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.”  God alone accomplished this twofold work of fulfilling the Law in His Son, Jesus Christ.  As Christ died, He cried out from the cross, “It is finished.”  The entire work of fulfilling the Law had been accomplished.  What Jesus claimed in the Sermon on the Mount, “I did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill,” was accomplished in His life and death.  He declared this completed work in that moment on the cross for all of us to hear, “It is finished.”  Fifth, we humbly acknowledge and receive this righteous gift, the gift of perfect Law keeping and this gift of divine justice born in our place.  This gift comes from God through faith in His Son.  Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  It is a free gift.  Salvation is a free gift to simply be received by us.  Ephesians 2:8 states it this way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”  If Christ did not completely fulfill the Law then faith in Christ would not accomplish what Paul states here, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.”  The requirements of the Law were fulfilled in Christ.  Therefore, by faith in Christ, His accomplishment of Law fulfillment and sin bearing transfers to our account the moment we believe in Him.  We are perfect before God.  We can stand in His presence forever and ever.  We are now perfect Law keepers in the eyes of God, not because we have done anything, but because Christ has done everything.  Sixth, this gift comes to us through the work of God by His Spirit.  The Spirit of God bears testimony to all of these truths.  He convicts us of our sin and points us to the person of Jesus Christ.  In that moment, when we receive this gift of salvation, in that very moment, the requirements of the Law are completely fulfilled in us. 

Old Walk, New Walk

Paul’s description of our life as believers is quite captivating at this point in Romans 8:4.  We have been saved by the work of the Spirit within us.  This work of salvation comes at the initiative of God the Father through His Son.  God took the initiative to glorify His name by exalting His Son’s life, death and resurrection for all eternity.  God took the initiative in human history by sending His Son into the world in the “likeness of sinful flesh” to be a sin offering on our behalf.  God took the initiative in our lives by bringing us into this plan of salvation.  The Spirit of God is the One who revealed these truths to us through the Word of God and by the Spirit’s work of conviction within our lives.  When we heard the good news of Jesus Christ, we believed because the Spirit of God comes along side us in the work of saving faith.  Paul transitioned from these global, eternal truths captured in the opening phrase of this verse “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us” to the daily implications of living in the here and now.  He focused on the work of God in human history and on the work of God in bringing these glorious, eternal truths into our personal history.  However, Paul does not think only in these past terms.  Paul also did not think about salvation in purely future terms.  Truly, our eternal future is secure in Christ.  Therefore, though these truths dominated human history and our own personal history and these truths dominate our future as well, these truths matter right now.  Believers are also those who are currently walking in His Spirit.  We embrace what God has done for us in our past, when He saved us from the eternal consequences of our sins.  However, we also walk with God in the present.  We used to walk purely according to our sinful desires.  We only knew life from our sin nature.  However, when Christ came into our lives a new life followed.  Now we live in the power of the Spirit.  He did not save us just to the send us back to living our old futile life.  God saved us to transform us right now and forever.  The work of God in our past began a long journey of walking with Him every moment of every day.  God in Christ saved us from His wrath.  God in Christ now abides with us continually in His Holy Spirit.  We once were separated from God due to our sin.  Now we live every moment in the presence of God.  How then shall we live?  We should live a daily life that reflects the work of God in setting us free from sin and death.

Prayer Focus

How great You are, my God.  You have saved me by meeting all the requirements of Your Law on my behalf.  You have fulfilled Your Law in my life through Your Son.  God help me to walk with You.  Help me to walk according to Your Spirit.  Overcome my tendencies to wander from You.  Establish me firmly in Your Spirit.  I ask You to do this work in my life, in my family and the life of Your church.  Amen.  

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

Some skeptics assert that there is no other vital energy in the world but physical force, while contrary to their assertions, thousands and tens of thousands who cannot possibly be deceived have been quickened into spiritual life by a power neither physical or mental. Men who were dead in sins - drunkards who lost their will, blasphemers who lost their purity, libertines sunk in beastliness, infidels who published their shame to the world, have in numberless instances become the subjects of the Spirit’s power and are now walking in the true nobility of Christian manhood, separated by an infinite distance from their former life. Let others reject, if they will, at their own peril, this imperishable truth. I believe, and am growing more into this belief, that divine, miraculous creative power resides in the Holy Spirit. Above and beyond all natural law, yet in harmony with it, creation, providence, the Divine government, and the upbuilding of the Church of God are presided over by the Spirit of God. His ministration is the ministration of life more glorious than the ministration of law, (2 Corinthians 3:16-10). And like the Eternal Son, the Eternal Spirit having life in Himself, is working out all things after the counsel of His own will, and for the everlasting glory of the Triune Godhead.