Gloria Copeland — Practice Godliness

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Gloria Copeland

The whole world around us is pushing sin. Television
and radio are pushing immorality and adultery. The
world’s voice urges your flesh to follow after sin. The
devil pulls at your flesh to get you to go the world’s
way. The world tries to convince you that you’re
being deprived of all the fun and glory of sin. If you
expose yourself to the things of this world, your body
is going to dominate you. But you don’t have to
conform to the world!

In Galatians 5:17 we find that the flesh lusts against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. In the Greek,
the word lust means “desire” or “strong desire.” The
body has a strong desire to rule the spirit. The inner
man, or spirit, desires to control the body.

Practicing the things of the spirit will cause you to
overcome the desires of the flesh. It will cause your
spirit to dominate your flesh. You can live without the
torment of one being pulled against the other. Simply
expose your flesh to the things of God instead of the
things of this world. People become addicted to alcohol
or tobacco by exposure. In the same way, practice
godliness. Romans 8:6 says, “…to be spiritually minded
is life and peace.”

icharAs you retrain yourself, you’ll find your unholy
desires will subside. The good news is that it works
both ways. If you continually expose your flesh to
God in your mind and body you’ll enforce the things
of God instead of the things of the devil. You’ll
develop new habits and come to the place where
you habitually live after the things of God instead of
the things of the world. Your desire will be for God
and not sin. God’s way will become your natural way
of life.

The Lord has made some things very clear about
Romans 6-8. These chapters all deal with the
weakness of the flesh and the strength of the spirit.

Romans 6:11-14 says:

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto
God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are
not under the law, but under grace.

When you are born again, you no longer have to be
dominated by sin. You are re-created to live in the
spiritual realm of God. You can walk in the spirit while
you’re here on this earth. Verse 16 says, “Know ye
not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to
obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?”

You walk in the spirit by yielding to and obeying the
promptings of your own spirit, instructed by the Holy
Spirit. “I speak after the manner of men because of
the infirmity [or the weakness] of your flesh: for as
ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity unto iniquity [by training and practice];
even so now yield your members servants to
righteousness unto holiness [by practice]” (verse 19).

Most people yield to the things around them because
that’s the easiest way to go. But the spiritual walk is
in direct opposition to the world around us. If we are
going to let the world entertain us through their
television programs, newspapers and magazines, then
it will be very easy to walk after the flesh. On the other
hand, if we decide to spend time in God’s Word and in
prayer, it will become easy to follow after the spirit.

Gloria Copeland

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Permalink | Comments (0) | Jul 2, 2009

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