The Spirit Within

"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:9-11

I think that many of us Christians have been on a diet of hogwash. As I read these verses over and over, I see so much truth within, except that it's truth that hasn't been lived by. It says right there in verse nine that we are not controlled by our sinful nature. Yet how many times have we heard from our friends or from a preacher in the pulpit that it's okay to sin- it means we are human. We hear that it's okay that we mess up, because that's what forgiveness is for. So we ask for forgiveness and move on, chalking it up to being human until the next time. Then we go through the process of confessing our sin again.

When are we going to stand up and rightfully claim what is ours as the Sons and Daughters of God? If the Spirit of God lives within us, we are not controlled by a sinful nature at all! The devil certainly wants us to think otherwise- he wants us to think that it's human nature to sin... except that it's not human nature to sin. It's worldly nature to sin. Those who are unsaved are natural born sinners- until they meet Jesus Christ and ask for forgiveness from their sins. Once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior,we can receive the Holy Spirit into our lives and then we can "go and sin no more". Meaning that it is entirely possible to live a sin-free life!

Once we have the Spirit Within- we are no longer of this world- we are dead to the world but alive in Christ, and we should not let the devil talk us into this "to sin is human" garbage. To err is human- but forgiveness IS divine.

"She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, " I do not condemn you, either Go From now on sin no more."" John 8:11

When Jesus forgave that woman, and told her to sin no more, what do you think happened after that? She had been cleansed of all her sins, and accepted the forgiveness that Jesus showed her. Do you really think that she walked away and started sinning again? I happen to think not. I happen to think that she left and that she never sinned again after hearing the truth. She became a new person- a divine person who lived by what is right, and the truth set her free of the bondage that caused her to sin in the first place.

I think that if we as Christians would open up our Bibles and claim what we read as truth for ourselves, we would show the world that Jesus is indeed our Lord and God and that we serve a God of love and peace. All these books and words of the Bible were not merely assembled to give us encouragement or to give us warm fuzzies every day. The words in the Bible were written to tell us the truth. They were written to show us the keys to heaven- and how to behave as citizens of heaven- not as citizens of a world devoted to sin. Let's take hold of what we read inside and truly go and sin no more. The next time sin comes at us and rears its ugly head, we can remember Romans 8:9 and simply laugh at sin. Speak the verse that comes to mind and remind the devil that we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and sin has no place in our lives. The Spirit within will help us to become the sinless creatures that Jesus made possible for us.