Greetings, dear friends! Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! We have been talking about the necessity to renew our minds and to allow God’s truth to change our thinking patterns. We also established that any changes require me to learn to identify with the new nature I received through the new birth.We change and become the partakers of God’s nature through the knowledge of God and His promises.
«..as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust» (2 Peter, 1:3-4).
Through this knowledge we escape the corruption that is in the world and become more and more like Jesus Christ. We read about it in the Epistle to Ephesians: «..that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness» (Ephesians, 4:22-24).
The more we learn about our new nature and the promises of life in Christ, the more we distance ourselves from the lusts that rule in this world. Devil is able to deceive the old man with his lustful suggestions only if we do not have the revelation of our new nature and life in Christ or if we do not want to identify with the new nature. But in order to have this knowledge or revelation we need to make an effort: «But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ» (2 Peter, 1:5-8).
We already pointed out that any changes require of us to deny ourselves. «When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, „Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me»(Mark, 8:34).
To deny oneself means to deny the self-centred ego and self-will. It means to take off the „I” which sits on the throne of our hearts. When we deny ourselves it means we put aside the “I” in order to allow God to take the throne of our hearts and to take charge of our lives. It means to forget the phrases like: „I want to…”, «This is what I desire…”, «It won’t happen because I said so!”, «I don’t want to…”, «I cannot…”, – because you ask the Lord what He wants and He tells you. To deny oneself means to put aside all desires and objections and to obey the word of the Lord Who has taken the place in the centre of your heart.In order to experience real and radical changes in our lives we must choose the will of God for us again and again. We grow into the likeness of Jesus when we live according to this principle: «Not my will, but Yours be done!» Our humility before God is demonstrated when we submit our desires to God’s will, and you know that God gives grace to the humble.Grace is God’s power that brings changes into our lives and our circumstances. We are not able to change ourselves, but God is able to change us by His grace. In order for it to happen we need to allow this grace to enter our lives. God’s grace not only saves us, but also teaches us and makes us zealous for good works. «For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works» (Titus, 2:11-14).
We will continue about it tomorrow!I wish you God’s abundant blessings!Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
