The believers in Corinth were fleshy. They failed and fell and were far from spiritual. They committed adultery, had jealousy, strife, divisions, and lawsuits, and committed many other sins. As they were “babes in Christ;” they were still growing, therefore they were still of Christ. As it is today, we see the fleshy Christian running rampant…
The key to receiving Christ and the Holy Spirit is first understanding your death to flesh. If we do not die daily, we will live as fleshly people and as you know, the flesh can stink!.
Christ died for the sinner on the Cross to redeem us from sin so that God can forgive us. When we die to our flesh, by faith, we die with the Savior on the Cross, and in this transaction, we are no longer ruled by the flesh. Our spirit man takes over and gains the control. In this, our body becomes the servant on the outside, and the soul is the medium in between. This is the original order of spirit, soul, and body when God first made humans and our natural order is restored when we die to flesh and live unto Christ through the Holy Spirit.
The Bible does not tell us to be crucified. Rather, it tells us that we are those who have been crucified, because it is not that we are to be crucified by ourselves but that we have been crucified with the Lord Jesus (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6). Since we are crucified with Christ, at the moment Christ was crucified on the Cross, our flesh also was crucified on the Cross. No one can crucify themselves. It is finished! It is a one-time event. Jesus, at the time when He was crucified, also carried us up onto the Cross supernaturally by Spirit. Therefore, in God’s eyes our flesh “has been crucified” on the Cross. This is not based on experience but an objective truth. People have the experience or not, God’s Word says, “They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh.” In order to experience the crucifixion of the flesh, we do not need to pay attention to experience. Of course, experience is not wrong, but do not give it too much of a position. We need to believe God’s Word. “God said, my flesh has been crucified—I believe my flesh has really been crucified.” “God said my flesh has been crucified on the cross—I confess that God’s Word is true.” In this way we will have the experience. We must first pay attention to God’s fact; then we pay attention to man’s experience.
“But they who are of Christ Jesus” refers to everyone who believes in Jesus. Everyone who has believed in Christ has been regenerated and belongs to Him. Now, it does not matter who we are, what our cast is, our spiritual level is, our race, our color, male or female. Our spiritual level does not matter here because we are meant to grow anyway.
We have to have the right perspective for our faith walk. It does not depend on us, but on Him. We start with saying “We belong to Christ, we are forgiven, washed by the Blood, then we state that we die daily, and have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” Today, some of us may be still living in some trappings of sin. So, by faith, we declare as God says, “You have been crucified on the cross.”
We may still struggle with unforgiveness, rage, lust, greed, so here, we have to die to our experience. It does not mean we deny its reality, but if we allow its magnitude to shake us, it will overpower us. If I keep looking at a cobra, it will hypnotize me. The same is with sin. If we keep looking at our weaknesses, and downfalls, it will swallow us up. So, we have to turn away from the cobra and instead look at the Cross, declare that you die in your flesh by faith, and then look at Jesus and the Holy Spirit will show now a new picture. He will give you a victorious vision of your new life, hidden in Christ and faith will rise within you. In this new faith, pay attention to God’s speaking to you moment by moment. Read His Word. However, if you look at every low experience, every fall, every bad experience, you would never be able to crucify the flesh daily because guilt will pin you down.
We have to listen and believe God’s Word first—then we will have the Holy Experience. God said to you, “Your flesh has been crucified.” You need to answer, “Amen! Yes, my flesh has been crucified on the Cross.” By doing this, you will see that your flesh has indeed been crucified and you will start to experience spiritual victory. We think we will lose everything when we die to self, but in fact, we gain everything. In losing ourselves, we find ourselves, our feelings and emotions become more pure, clean, our senses more sharp, we hear from God more easily, we start to light up showing ourselves powerful in the supernatural realm and things start to happen in our lives.
These series will continue.
Rita F. Kurian
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