Revelation 3:1-6 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’”
Jesus tells us what his misgivings are in the text above “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” as we continue reading he then says “I have not found your works perfect before God.” Works is not what saves us, it is our Faith in Christ and His grace that saves us. As our desire to want to spend time with the Lord grows, we find ourselves willing to submit to him and it is during these times we see the Holy Spirit is guiding us to live a holy life - this is not done out of flesh or head knowledge. The bible says “trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” Proverbs 3:5-6.
If we rely on what we think is holy living, we will get it wrong every time; we will become tired, frustrated and may even fall back into a “sinful” life, because we are performing in our own strength, in our own works. There are people who believe, if they stop drinking, cursing, clubbing etc, show kindness to people, may even go to church occasionally on Sundays (or every week) and participate in church life, this will make them a “good Christian” and they will make it into Heaven. Jesus said in Matthew 15:8 “these people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honour Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”
Our walk is not prescriptive, Galatians 2:16 says “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” So, if there are some who think they just need to do X,Y, Z to make it, I guess the question you should be asking yourself is, do you have the Holy Spirit within you? And if you are honest with yourself, and realise the response is no, then ask yourself are you saved?
When we pray the sinners prayer, we recognise that we are a sinner, repent of our sins, and ask Jesus Christ to come into our lives. The Bible says, He will give us a Helper which is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit in us that reveals and convicts us of our sinful ways, which drives the desire for us to want to change, not our works or head knowledge.
When the law was given during the Old Testament, the Israelites were expected to adhere to it. The Israelites found it impossible to live according to the law because it was done out of self. Thank you Jesus, that through Him - he did not come to “abolish the law but to fulfil it” Matthew 5:17. Meaning, when we submit to Christ Jesus, we find we are living out the law without effort because, the Holy Spirit is working through us therefore, fleshly desires like drinking, clubbing etc will be things you no longer have a desire to do, because Christ is living in you.
When you walk in the Spirit you will not fulfil the the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16); as we continue to submit to the Lord daily, the lusts of the flesh is slowly being stripped away such as “… adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” Galatians 5:19-21. Don’t get me wrong, we are in a sinful body, so where we have deliverance from these sinful natures, we may find when we encounter something or being tested, that one of these characteristics (or more) rears it’s head, it is during that time we need to cling onto the Lord!
Now some of you are probably thinking, how do I get there, how do I stop operating in “flesh” and allow the Holy Spirit to move so I don’t have those desires, and importantly, be pleasing to the Lord? Well the answer is simple, you have to spend time with the Lord, even if you don’t want to. You have to be in prayer/communication, even if you don’t want to. You have to pick up the Bible and start to read it, even if you don’t understand, this is where you ask the Lord to give you understanding. You may get frustrated, or even impatient, you may even think he’s not listening, this is the time where you need to press in and push past those feelings, because you are pushing against what the flesh wants to do. It is during this time of pressing in, the Lord reveals himself to you; there is joy in spending time with Him and a burning desire to get to know Him more and more. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jesus said in Luke 10:19 “behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
Since the Lord has given us the power to overcome all things through the Holy Spirit, let’s start to change our mindset from doing things in our own strength, to depending on Jesus Christ. Jesus died a gruesome death, so that we don’t need to be bound by flesh, that we can have freedom in Him knowing that we have been redeemed, we can have confidence in letting go of all we know, and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen x