Romans 5:13-17 "... but by love serve one another... Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
In my last blog entry, I talked about being spiritually minded versus carnally minded. Walking in the Spirit is the key to being spiritually minded. You cannot have one without the other. When we are walking in the Spirit, we are not fulfilling our natural desires, thus thwarting our instinct to be carnally minded. By the grace of God, we can learn to be spiritually minded toward our spouse and our marriage. This, however, does not come by an act of our will. Remember my theme verse? "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible?" This is not just a verse to make us feel good and hopeful about seemingly impossible situations we face in life. This is, in fact, truth. So, if God says all things are possible, and God says I need to be spiritually minded, and God says I need to walk in the Spirit, how do I do that? How do these commands and truths translate into reality for me?
As I was contemplating this, a funny thought struck me. When we go on a physical walk, we don't do so by NOT doing something else. In other words, I would never say, "I am not falling, therefore I must be walking." Or, "I am not running, thus I must be walking." That would be pretty silly. Walking is a very purposed act. Though I have never been a "legalist" in terms of Christian doctrine, I do think somewhere along the line I unwittingly bought into a lie -- the lie that walking in the Spirit means I don't exhibit certain behaviors. Galatians 5 defines the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Somehow I think I believed if I don't hate, I have love; If I'm not miserable, I have joy; if I'm not worried,I have peace; if I'm not impatient, I am longsuffering -- you get the picture. It just sounds ridiculous when I put that down in print! Walking in the Spirit is defined by what we ARE rather than by what we are NOT. There is absolutely no power is NOT being something. The power is in the Person of the Spirit lived out in our lives. This is the power of God. The God who spoke everything into existence with His Words. The God who sustains all things. The God who raised Christ from the dead. The God in whose very presence we would die were it not for His great mercy. The power of this God is potentially our power. All things are possible. How?
In I Chronicles 28, David commissions his son, Solomon to be the new king, and specifically to build the temple that David always desired to build. God told David that it would Solomon that would build the temple. Thus, David very passionately passed this responsibility to Solomon. The Bible tells us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit -- yes the very Spirit in which we are to walk (I Co 6:19). So, I think we can glean something from David's instructions to Solomon. The Old Testament is full of physical pictures of spiritual truths that enhance our understanding of those truths. Here is the admonition given to Solomon by David. "And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Take heed now; for the LORD hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it." (I Chronicles 28:9-10).
We can glean from those instructions what we need to build a proper dwelling place for God's Spirit:
1. We need to know God. We get to know God just as we could get to know anyone. We spend time with Him. We listen to what He has to say to us through daily reading, studying and meditation in His Word. We also need to be quiet before Him so we can hear him. We also commune with him through prayer. As David told Solomon, if you seek him he will be found! But seeking takes effort on your part. Do you seek Him?
2. We need to serve God with a perfect heart. First, our heart is made perfect in God's sight when we give it to Him at the moment we accept Christ's sacrifice for our sins and ask Him to be not only our Savior, but our Lord. Second, we check the motives of our heart regularly. They must be pure and unselfish. Has your heart been made perfect through salvation in Jesus Christ? If so, are your motives pure? Why do you want to be spiritually minded toward your husband? It is solely for your own peace? Do you desire the best for your husband as well? Most importantly, is your overriding desire to obey God?
3. We also need to serve God with a willing mind. No commentary needed other than perhaps, if you are struggling with willingness, take your struggle to God, for "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
Before we endeavor to be spiritually minded in marriage and to view our husbands and family as our spiritual missions, we must understand this cannot be accomplished by simply an act of our will. (With man this is impossible.) We must exercise our will to prepare our temple for the Spirit of God to dwell in the fullness of His Power. Walking in the Spirit is a purposed action. We do not walk in the Spirit in our marriage by suppressing our anger (though sometimes a time-out may be necessary), or by hiding our hurt, or any other of the actions we often fall into in an effort to look spiritual. Eventually those efforts will fail. We can only walk in the Spirit by knowing God and serving him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. Then, and only then, can He give us His mind -- the spiritual mind we need to walk in the Spirit in every circumstance we face, and to "by love serve one another", specifically our husbands.
Take heed, now. The Lord has chosen YOU to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it!
Several years ago during a particularly rocky season in my marriage, I was faced with a decision. Many people were encouraging me to give up on my marriage, even telling me I had Biblical reason to leave. In a decision as monumental as my marriage, I was not about to move until I had clear direction from God. I received that direction many months after I began seeking clarity. I was surprised not only at the clarity of God's answer, but the content. Had God's voice been audible, it could not have been more clear, "Your pride is keeping you from loving your husband as you should." I immediately dropped to my knees and cried out to God, "I can't! I want to obey you, but it is impossible for me to do so." Immediately God brought to mind the verse "With man this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible." I committed to let God change my heart, knowing full well the change was not within my power. Friends, He did. I encourage you, my fellow "helpmeet", if you are discouraged, hurt, angry, ready to walk out, I deeply sympathize with you. You feel there are no good options. Please know your marriage is a mission possible. God desires your family to be whole. It can begin with your willingness to walk humbly before the Lord God as a helpmeet. Will you take the challenge? Remember, with God, ALL things really are possible. "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the (enemies) whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever" (Exodus 14:13)
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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