Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
From Out and About to In and Within
From Out and About to In and Within
Being a disciple of Jesus is no easy task anytime and anywhere. We have been dealing with our attitude when we are out and about, what we are like when we are out in the world with others, our self-conscious movement relationally. Outside among others with things to do and people to see we are constantly being challenged by circumstance. It’s time for a shift. We need to go ‘in and within.’ It’s not that we haven’t been doing that. This is not an exercise in introspection but realizing that what is within shapes how we act without. Obviously we question our motivation, check our emotions and rehearse our beliefs as we move about but that’s because we’re under the judgment gun of others so to speak. We are on stage, performing, and the audience is watching and evaluating. How much of our appearance is fear induced? Is pride running the show?
It’s those questions that the Spirit moves within to answer. It’s time for a shift. We need to see where our mind, heart and spirit are really located. Where are these parts of our ‘God-image’ moving when we are alone, in and within? Here is where the Word of God makes its greatest contribution as the instrument through which the Holy Spirit comes as our gut-checking specialist. Scripture is God’s personal letter written in detail to allow the Holy Spirit to touch every area of need in our mind, heart and spirit. Paul makes this very clear, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2Tim.3:16-17).” The time we spend in Scripture determines the way we use our time in everything else.
Wherever we are in variance with God the Scripture will challenge our thinking, tug at our heart and unsettle our spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is penetrating the barriers and strongholds sin has erected within, barriers and strongholds we have put up to protect us from the pain of aloneness, guilt, self-centeredness, fear and death. Remember, sin has been at work in us from birth because of the devil’s manipulation of Adam and Eve, from whom we are spiritually descended. So we not only have our own sin but the evil it has been multiplying generation by generation ever since. This is precisely why John wrote, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1John 3:8).”
Know that every word of Scripture can do something to take the edge off of sin and its productivity. It is reading, studying and contemplating its words, phrases, paragraphs, chapters and books, the spiritual context it presents that exposes the wayward mind and heart and, with God’s grace, forgiveness and love, remolds the spirit within. This is why we are reborn spiritually.
We are spiritually reborn for the renovation of the mind with belief in the truth Scripture presents so that we begin to think spiritually. We open our heart to let the Holy Spirit move us to trust spiritually and allow faith in Jesus to activate our spirit with His Spirit. What we do in Scripture is to allow it to restructure our whole being by the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture returns the image of God in us to its Creator for His work and will to be accomplished. This is why John wrote so lavishly about God’s love and His will for us to experience it, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever (1John 2:15-17).”
What John is telling us is that sin dominates the world and God has sent His Son to bring the world into order by spiritually restoring His images through a relationship with His Son. As we read Eph.5 it becomes quite apparent that His Son Jesus is the Word made flesh, as it was first intended. Therefore, His written Word is the continuing life of Christ coming through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, who truly defines our humanity. This is why the brutal honesty of Paul’s words in chapter 5 grates against the sinful nature in all of us. He lists in detail the offenses that sin has used the flesh to multiply from generation to generation. He covers everything from the use of the body, emotion, spirit and thought. He warns against their function without God as being a darkness out of which the believer has come and now is covered by the light of Christ (quoting Is.60:1).
The light of Christ is the Spirit coming through the words of Scripture to bring the new life of relational growth that negates our aloneness with its spirits of fear and pride. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Ps.119:105).” So let’s continue with what happens in the ‘in and within’ reality that is our image being restored.
Being a disciple of Jesus is no easy task anytime and anywhere. We have been dealing with our attitude when we are out and about, what we are like when we are out in the world with others, our self-conscious movement relationally. Outside among others with things to do and people to see we are constantly being challenged by circumstance. It’s time for a shift. We need to go ‘in and within.’ It’s not that we haven’t been doing that. This is not an exercise in introspection but realizing that what is within shapes how we act without. Obviously we question our motivation, check our emotions and rehearse our beliefs as we move about but that’s because we’re under the judgment gun of others so to speak. We are on stage, performing, and the audience is watching and evaluating. How much of our appearance is fear induced? Is pride running the show?
It’s those questions that the Spirit moves within to answer. It’s time for a shift. We need to see where our mind, heart and spirit are really located. Where are these parts of our ‘God-image’ moving when we are alone, in and within? Here is where the Word of God makes its greatest contribution as the instrument through which the Holy Spirit comes as our gut-checking specialist. Scripture is God’s personal letter written in detail to allow the Holy Spirit to touch every area of need in our mind, heart and spirit. Paul makes this very clear, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2Tim.3:16-17).” The time we spend in Scripture determines the way we use our time in everything else.
Wherever we are in variance with God the Scripture will challenge our thinking, tug at our heart and unsettle our spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is penetrating the barriers and strongholds sin has erected within, barriers and strongholds we have put up to protect us from the pain of aloneness, guilt, self-centeredness, fear and death. Remember, sin has been at work in us from birth because of the devil’s manipulation of Adam and Eve, from whom we are spiritually descended. So we not only have our own sin but the evil it has been multiplying generation by generation ever since. This is precisely why John wrote, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1John 3:8).”
Know that every word of Scripture can do something to take the edge off of sin and its productivity. It is reading, studying and contemplating its words, phrases, paragraphs, chapters and books, the spiritual context it presents that exposes the wayward mind and heart and, with God’s grace, forgiveness and love, remolds the spirit within. This is why we are reborn spiritually.
We are spiritually reborn for the renovation of the mind with belief in the truth Scripture presents so that we begin to think spiritually. We open our heart to let the Holy Spirit move us to trust spiritually and allow faith in Jesus to activate our spirit with His Spirit. What we do in Scripture is to allow it to restructure our whole being by the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture returns the image of God in us to its Creator for His work and will to be accomplished. This is why John wrote so lavishly about God’s love and His will for us to experience it, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever (1John 2:15-17).”
What John is telling us is that sin dominates the world and God has sent His Son to bring the world into order by spiritually restoring His images through a relationship with His Son. As we read Eph.5 it becomes quite apparent that His Son Jesus is the Word made flesh, as it was first intended. Therefore, His written Word is the continuing life of Christ coming through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, who truly defines our humanity. This is why the brutal honesty of Paul’s words in chapter 5 grates against the sinful nature in all of us. He lists in detail the offenses that sin has used the flesh to multiply from generation to generation. He covers everything from the use of the body, emotion, spirit and thought. He warns against their function without God as being a darkness out of which the believer has come and now is covered by the light of Christ (quoting Is.60:1).
The light of Christ is the Spirit coming through the words of Scripture to bring the new life of relational growth that negates our aloneness with its spirits of fear and pride. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Ps.119:105).” So let’s continue with what happens in the ‘in and within’ reality that is our image being restored.
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