The word for today is - Decrease !

The word for today is - Decrease !

 

 

Let's look at John 3:30, John the Baptist says of himself: "He (Christ) must increase, but I ( flesh) must decrease." Did you get that? We must do something, we must decrease (flesh), so He can increase (Spirit).Read Romans, chapters 6-8, that we have two competing natures, the flesh and the spirit. When we follow our fleshly nature we are not following God, but our lower desires. In chapter seven he says that our spirit actually desires that we do good, but sometimes we let our flesh take over and then we do what we don’t spiritual want to do. Matthew 17:20, And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of  mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. In order for spiritual growth to occur, we must be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained by God's Word.When you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you ,John 14:16-17 and you are a new creation in Christ !  How can I become more like Christ? First, you must get to know Him. We can not  grow to be like someone we don’t know. Of course, knowledge alone will not produce a Christlike character. The knowledge we gain from God’s Word must impact our hearts and convict us of the need to obey what we have learned. Read Luke 9:23-24, And he said to them all,(He said all mankind) If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. You must know that, He is a Spirit !   It's  the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit in us. We must submit ourselves to the Spirit's leading,it's the Spirit who produces the fruit of spiritual growth in our lives. What does spiritual growth look like? Read Galatians 5:22 it has the answer, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  God’s word often searches the heart to expose the unknown sin hidden inside us so we can deal with it. God’s intent is to change us. Thank you God for your word. Amen !