Trusting the Word!

(Romans 12:1) “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice…”

A living sacrifice is something far different to a sacrifice that was once alive but now is dead. A sacrifice speaks of death and yet we are instructed to die through life. It is an ongoing ritual and not a one off event as it was in the days of Moses where sacrifices were introduced through the institution of the law, God’s Ten Commandments. An animal could only ever be offered once as a sacrifice, he would be alive before the procedural and then dead after it. We have been instructed with this imperative from our beloved brother Paul, to be a living sacrifice, that means a continual sacrifice, a way of life and not a one off event; “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)   

He stresses this point because I believe he understood the importance behind being “a living sacrifice”, it is a “trigger” to bring forth fruit unto God, call it pruning a fruit tree if you like. Without a self-denial of all that opposes God’s will and His character in our lives we are rendered fruitless. What is the fruit we are after? The fruits of the Spirit, which are; “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” They have become a living sacrifice.

What would make a man boast with such boldness if he hadn’t understood the way in which God blesses his children with fruit; “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2Corinthians 12:2-10)

I hope we are beginning at least to understand if we haven’t already understood that we are at our strongest in faith when we are hard-pressed. Paul is very clear on this; “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  When everything seems to be running smoothly from a worldly perspective, life’s achievements and the like, then we think we are strong and yet we are actually weak in the faith. It is when I understand this type of requirement from God my Father; I then begin to understand this statement with a lot more clarity; “that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1Corinthians2:5)

It is the trial of life that places a dependence upon us to look to God for strength, but the world preaches another message and that is self-sufficiency. God will bring down that message with a great crash, He has already defeated their leader, Satan has been overpowered in and through the work of God’s beloved Son the Lord Jesus, where and when He defeated him once and for all on Golgotha’s hill. All praise belongs to our glorious King; praise His name now and forever more.

For Christ sake God the Father will continue to work under this banner; “that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” It has been this way from the beginning and so it will continue. Have we learnt to accept it and have we welcomed adversity just as Paul learnt to do? Will we learn to align our wills with His? Which was; “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

I am persuaded that the battle to relinquish our own will takes place in our own minds; but until we accept the truth and what the Word of God teachers on any given subject, we will never change. There must first be an acceptance to what is taught before we will experience change. Fight the Word and we will never experience spiritual grow, we will remain infants all our lives.

The trick of deception is to get someone to believe a lie as the truth; Satan’s foundation to all of his lies. The cornerstone to all his trickery; “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say,’…” (Genesis 3:1) 

God help us to have eyes to see, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone