“THE GORINESS OF FLESHLY LIFESTYLES!”
By: J.Farrell Fisher, August 9-11, 2018
It’s absolutely so sad to observe God-birthed individuals who, deceived by the powers of darkness, possess no fleshly desire to follow the Holy God who birthed life, eternal purpose, and holy awareness in them, with merciful God granting ‘free will’ as to whether or not one will serve Him or self! Merciful God was not out for ‘robots’ doing His ‘thing’, but willing individuals who were and are submitted to His eternal authority and His Loving Presence, following in repentance, faith, and trust in His willingness to bless and honor Him, through submission to His loving presence in the repentant heart and life!
“Falling away” from Him was assuming personal authority and lordship over one’s own life without any consideration of divine, eternal intent! In Romans 11:1 Paul asked, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life’? But what does the divine response say to Him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace…And if by grace, then it is no longer works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
THERE IS “THE GORINESS OF FLESHLY LIFESTYLES” OR “THE GLORY OF THE INDWELLING LIFE OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST”! Even the prophet Isaiah saw the ‘goriness of fleshly lifestyles’ in the imitation lifestyles of the ‘religious people, Israel’! He heard God say, in Isaiah 29:13-16, Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; they say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” Surely you have turned things around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed him, “He has no understanding”?”
Did the Word strike a reminder cord in your mind and heart about the reality of “these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed (or kept) their hearts far from Me”? How many do you know or have crossed paths with who are “trying” rather than “trusting”, resting their own “faith-fable” on ‘best effort achievement’ rather than “washed in the blood of the Lamb”, and allowing “Resurrection Presence” to knock and enter, substituting their best effort of an ‘all out attempt’ at proving their worthiness in place of “Christ’s finished work” at the Cross, AND through His third-day-Resurrection? OR, consider also that there are many who have no desire at all of considering the importance of God in their life’s journey – “that’s religious nonsense that I want no part of” – and they go their own “demented way”, void of spiritual mind or spiritual heart or spiritual Life, even fully pledged to a “godless life” in place of “eternal purpose”!
I dare you to consider, right now, in this present moment, the right, the privilege, the eternal intention of Holy God choosing your heart, your mind, your life, in which He desires to establish the extension of His Eternal Reign from Heaven to earth in your reconciled, redeemed, reclaimed body with the very Spirit of the Resurrected, Victorious Christ and His Spirit, extending His life, expressing His love, proving His power through you as His “vessel”, His “tabernacle”, with your “blood-bought life” the dwelling place of King Jesus! Does that make any difference at all in what you choose to be, to do, to try? Does your walk, your life choices, your doors of opportunity, have anything to do with what Christ wants to accomplish through you, or is it, “All that matters is what pleases and satisfies me”?
How many times growing up did you hear about the journeys of ships on perilous journeys encountering the results of “stormy seas” with the ship’s captain saying, “It’s time to abandon the ship to save our lives – the ship is fractured!” But they had available ‘life vests’ and substitute boats’! “In Christ” is the only God-declaration of “eternal safety” from fractured, disabled, sin-nature existences! More than that, only “In Christ” is there victory over world influences, flesh domination, and devilish deceit, satanic domination, and a devilish attempt at the dissolving of what IS God’s “shining Light and Eternal Glory in and through Christ alone”! Satan is not at all interested in YOU possessing even an ‘inkling of God’! In fact, he’ll promote “canned religions, false faiths, deceitful proclaimers of ‘our way of coming to God’ void of THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords”!
The ‘goriness of fleshly lifestyles’ void of, absent from, or even “not interested in spiritual things” is rampant across both the known world AND the religious worlds! But in Matthew 16:24 Jesus said plainly, bluntly, lovingly, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” But the gory lifestyle, being Godless, is determined to save its life for it’s self with no interest, time of day, or intent on accepting “the need of the Savior”! That is below and beyond his human understanding! Dr. James Dobson said in his book, “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”, (Copyright @ 1993 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), “A person who grows accustomed to life’s good things may not be drawn naturally to THE SACRIFICIAL WAY OF THE CROSS. Like the rich young ruler who walked away from Jesus, a wealthy person may find it more difficult to follow this Master who calls us to make the supreme sacrifice.”
The modern, Godless mind? “Go after a religious ‘freak’ in the Christian world when I have before me a highly enjoyable opportunity of ‘flesh indulgence in the natural world of ease, of comfort, of indulgence in what gives me pleasure,but not in what your God demands’?”
The modern, Godless mind laughs, mocks, and insults Holy Scripture, like when in Romans 5:3-4 Paul said: “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Even some modern-day ‘theologians’ (?) mock at “taking the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh”! “Death to self daily when I’m determined to honor Him in all I do,” totally blind to “Christ in you, through you, for you – your hope of glory”?) “But suffering? Why? You’re telling me that it produces perseverance, birthing and releasing more and more of His Holy Presence in me, chipping away the natural to unveil more and more of the Eternal Christ in me, even allowing the ‘storm-winds’ to blow in our ship of faith so we can “see” Him standing up in us to say to our raging storms: “Peace be still”; and the ‘winds of opposition’ stop, the ‘troubled waters’ around us calm, and we hear Him say to us, “Yes! Peace be still in My servant, My child, My faithful family member!”
No wonder Henry Lyte, in 1824, was inspired to write the words to “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken”, saying: “Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow You; Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, You from hence my all shall be: Perish every fond ambition, All I’ve sought, and hoped, and known; Yet how rich is my condition – God and heaven are still my own!
Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain! In Your service, pain is pleasure; with Your favor, loss is gain. I have called You, “Abba, Father”; I have stayed my heart on You; Storms may howl, and clouds may gather; All must work for good to me.” (Have YOU ever known “the peace that passes all understanding”?).
The goriness of fleshly lifestyles! It doesn’t take long in modern America to learn how Hollywood has almost fully embraced “godless living as natural as breathing”! The ‘seas’ of one’s life can often upsurge in ‘stormy waves and ways’, with James, the brother of Jesus, telling us in James 1:13-15, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is DRAWN AWAY BY HIS OWN DESIRES AND ENTICED. THEN, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” What PATH are you walking on today? That PATH producing more and more of death OR the PATH OF CHRIST ALONE with “joy unspeakable and full of glory”?
Continuing in James 1:16-25, the brother of Jesus said: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. OF HIS OWN WILL HE BROUGHT US FORTH BY THE WORD OF TRUTH, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be DOERS OF THE WORD, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
What an awesome unveiling of conflicting, diverse, totally opposite life-choices or life-styles – one aware but forgetful of what God says, or one aware and yielding to what he/she hears God say to them determined, settled, resolved, and committed to, “Yes, Lord, whatever You say, I want to be obedient to Your way, Your Word, and Your will!” Are you simply a “hearer” but not a “doer” of His Word? Is your testimonial walk one of disobedience or obedience, a walk of “Yes, Father-God”, or “Lord, that request doesn’t fit what I think and desire for myself”, or “Lord, You have demanded of me more than I’m willing to be submissive to; can You, God, not accept me as I am?” NO! You were crucified with Christ! And Holy God is honed in on repentant men and women who are completely dissatisfied with the “flesh-walk” and truly hungry for ALL Merciful God has to offer them! In James 2:17-24 and Verse 26 we read, (Remember! This is the brother of Jesus enlightening us!!), “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works (or obedience to Christ’s revealed Word!), is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God (obeyed God), and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only”, followed by Verse 26 which says: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
In a modern-day ‘Christian world’, there are many who have assumed that “Now, since I’m in Christ, I don’t have to be concerned about my sinning; Jesus forgives and keeps on forgiving”, not convinced but deceived that sin doesn’t breed death, nor unveils the fullness and blessing and completion of “Christ in me my hope of glory”! The ‘old man’ void of Christ? It’s that life under the domination of the world, the flesh, and Satan! A life convinced sin does not lead to death is a life whose mind is twisted, and even blind to the scriptural truth that sin always breeds death! But the hopeless life that looks to “Jesus only” is the life aware of sin and death but “rests” in Christ’s “finished work at the Cross”, with Christ crucifying sin and death, and through death and Resurrection Power, offers eternal Life, eternal Presence, and eternal Hope in “the fullness of the blessing of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ” within the truly repentant heart! In fact, in Colossians 4:12 Paul wrote: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a BONDSERVANT OF CHRIST, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that YOU MAY STAND PERFECT AND COMPLETE IN ALL THE WILL OF GOD.” (And is THAT ‘trying’ or “trusting”?).
The Apostle Paul was totally honest when in Romans 7:18-8:8 he, illumined by the Holy Spirit, tells us of the “overcoming Life of faith and trust in Christ only, one’s hope of glory”! He said: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do (in ‘flesh’ choices!), I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice (in ‘flesh rebellion’!). Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” The Holy Spirit came, and still comes, yes, to convict of sin, opening the heart’s door to the opportunity of repentance and rest in Christ alone, OR, choosing to live in self-condemnation rather than Christ-restoration!
Romans 8:1-8 continues! “There is therefore NOW (Since he’s surrender to Christ’s Lordship, fully in tune with Christ’s every demand!) NO CONDEMNATION to those who ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. FOR THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS has made me free from the law of sin and death.For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh (or according to one’s old sin nature!) but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live ACCORDING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” ARE YOU LIVING YOUR LIFE TO SATISFY OLD SIN-NATURE ACTIVITIES OR ARE YOU, “IN CHRIST”, LIVING IN SUBMISSION TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN OBEYING HIS EVERY WORD, TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY THAT CHRIST”S RESURRECTION LIFE MAY BE MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL BODY? Now, examine Verses 12-14! “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
I doubt that there is one single believer that doesn’t understand or comprehend “the goriness of fleshly lifestyles”! But MANY true disciples of Christ are living, ‘trying their best, but blinded and deaf in the ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit who guides us into all biblical Truths! Did the Word say, “It’s by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that one learns to put to death the deeds of your old man, or what you once were without Christ, but in Christ you are anointed with the resident Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth! And the Spirit certainly emphasizes that “man does not live by physical bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”! Which explains why many ‘believers’, void of the discipline of the Word of God, live clueless concerning the overcoming, victorious life of the Indwelling Christ; they ‘try’ rather than “Trust”!
Do YOU “trust” the Holy Spirit in your daily walk for the “overcoming, victorious, life in Christ”? In Romans 8 also, I want you to see Verses 26 through 27! Paul says: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints (“set-apart-ones”!) according to the will of God.”
How many in the Christian community have you encountered who look upon Holy Spirit dependence as a weird and strange thing, even with Christ instructing His own disciples that when the Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth? Also, how thrilling is it for you to read in Acts 8 about the Holy Spirit’s ministry intended for ALL true believers? Acts 8:14-25 enlightens us saying: Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” Then Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.” So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.”
Dare I tell you? Believe I will! This is the moment, the hour, the day, the time, for YOU to cry out to God for the full manifestation of the Holy Spirit in your life, your walk, your ministry as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ! Are YOU willing to be indwelt of the Holy Spirit, to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, to abound in the gracious gifts of the fruit of the Spirit, even daily greatly enlightened by the Holy Spirit in all the truths of the Word of God? I tell you, the Holy Spirit is your heavenly armor against Satan and his demon armies!
FOR YOU, IS IT “THE GORINESS OF A FLESHLY LIFESTYLE”, OR IS IT “THE GLORY OF THE INDWELLING CHRIST AND THE FULLNESS OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT”? There’s an old “prayer hymn” by Isaac Watts in the old Broadman Hymnal entitiled, “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove”, that says: “Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With all Your quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours.
Look! How we grovel here below, Fond of our earthly toys; Our souls can neither fly nor go To reach eternal joys… Come, Holy Spirit, With all Your quickening powers; Come, shed abroad the Savior’s love, And that shall kindle ours.” IS YOUR HEART “QUICKENED, KINDLED, OVERFLOWING IN SPIRIT-ANOINTED LOVE FOR OTHERS?” OR, DOES CHRIST’S PRESENCE IN YOU ABOUND IN SPIRIT EMPOWERED LOVE FOR THE LOST, THE UNBELIEVERS, THE GODLESS MASSES?