Morning, Glories!

This is no new revelation at all but it just hit me in a different way this morning:

You know how the salvation of the spirit is immediate when we ask Christ in, but the sanctification of the soul is progressive as we renew our minds by washing them with the water of His Word and Truth. So we’re born into this fallen world system with essentially fallen selves until we receive New Life in Him, right? Right. Then we “work out our salvation” through the course of our lives, some more effectively than others, dependent upon a host of factors…no judgement made either now or in the hereafter. So… we have a grasp on spirit and on soul (mind, will, emotions,) but what of the body? Call me dense, but it occurred to me in a fresh way this morning (just now) that as our souls are thoroughly exposed to the deceits of this world system (under the governance of the sleeze,) we obviously must take the authority that LIVES within our spirits by the Holy Spirit to override the carnal, death-bound input. (Body and soul both = “Flesh” …until renewed, or when not actively in a state of being able to respond from a renewed position****.)

So what of the body? Well, Baby, as I look (remember: we walk by faith and not by sight!) at mine, best I can figure is that it’s in a sure nuff fallen state, subject to the physical laws that operate here and vulnerable to every little this and that that floats by…UNLESS/UNTIL I take authority over it with my renewed SOUL, which is being momently, (subject to my choice,) renewed by the Spirit within me. So, darling, fellow headstrong ones, here is where our strength of will can play a positive part spiritually! IF we REALLY line up our minds, wills, and emotions with the Truth of His Word and Spirit (who is the “Spirit of Truth,”) then we can APPLY that REAL and eternal Truth to these obviously fallen (in more ways than one ) bodies.

So I’m hobbling out to the garage this morning…not having jumped or stretched, not really having started the day out the way I’d like, and I get this intense snap! like an old-fashioned camera flashbulb flash that here I am walking around in a fallen body that doesn’t HAVE to be fallen. It’s like…what the hell (exactly!) is wrong with this picture? (This all goes with the herenow, not hereafter healing/resurrection idea I’ve been talking about…and that the glorified body maybe NOT being something completely saved up for the othah side of the big rivah. It goes with the walking through the wall thread too.) It all goes together with God’s Word. But the ridiculousness of the dichotomy of the Spirit of God dwelling in a fallen (essentially dying) body on an ongoing basis hit me like an uncovering of a huge deception. (“Pay no attention to that man behind the screen!”) A pulling open of the drapes. Okay, if we are reckoned dead with Christ, to be alive with Him, then are we? IF it is not I but HE who lives within me, then MY way needs to be dead and gone so HIS way has freedom to move in and through my life. My life. What is my life? Is my body included in my life? Of course! And it is, to one degree or another, being glorified even now if I choose to actively, consciously include it in the sanctification process….not just a hereafter thing.

So the main point, I guess, is that when we are hobbling along, mustering up our strength and stamina, bolstering our own willpower to forge forward, we might also be heeding the wrong truths. If so, we’re heeling to the wrong master! The Right Master not only wants us HEALED, but has made absolutely every provision for us to BE healed! It is way more than mind over matter. It is the synergy of our wills infused with His omnipotent Spirit of Truth over physical matter. But we have to take up the authority He’s given us and USE it. That’s where the walking through the wall happens. And you know, one day very soon that wall WILL be behind us and we won’t even know how we got on the other side! (It can happen many times in a day, but then we forget!)

I don’t think I carried this idea well (without spilling some) or said it the right way, but maybe there’s a nugget in there for you somehow.

Love,

me