Believing (Part 2)

THE DAILY WORD
By Jim Seekamp

Wednesday December 5, 2007

Mark 11:23 (NIV) (Jesus speaking)
"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

As mentioned previously, the heart is the human SPIRIT, NOT the soul. When Jesus said 'if you do not "doubt in your HEART"', He was not referring to the mind, but the human spirit!

Jesus was talking in Mark 11:23 to people who were NOT born again (nobody was ever born again until Jesus arose from the dead [Romans 10:9]), so they had more of a problem with doubting in their hearts. As born again believers, our problem is mainly the "saying"!

When the human spirit is born again, it becomes "like God in true righteousness and holiness":

Ephesians 4:24 (NIV)
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

But notice that you still have a choice of whether to PUT ON that new self! Paul tells the believers at Ephesus to "put on" the new self; it does not automatically dominate just because you have it! Your born again human spirit has the righteousness and holiness of God, so you WANT to always do what is right; but as Paul said, you can't; because you're still in your "body of death":

Romans 7:18-25 (NIV)
18. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my [flesh]. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. 20. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23. but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
24. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25. Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the [flesh] a slave to the law of sin.

Notice verse 22: "in my INNER BEING being I delight in God's law!" That's your born again human spirit he's talking about! It has the nature of God, and it delights in God's ways! But our flesh; our "members"; our "body of death" is always dragging us down with the desire to be lazy.

Understanding that this battle is constantly happening will help a lot with believing God. When we believe God's Word in our heart (spirit), the battle is not the believing; that part comes naturally to our born again human spirit. The battle is in the choice of whether or not to speak and act like it's true!

The part of our minds that is unrenewed will side with our flesh, and will always guide us in the direction of laziness. It's much easier to just speak whatever comes to your mind than to hold fast a confession of faith that doesn't look like it's even true!

The nature of God in your born again human spirit will always lead you to act like God; who calls things that are not as though they were:

Romans 4:17 (NIV)
As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed-- the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

God has no problem with calling things that ARE NOT (present tense) as though they WERE (past tense). That's part of who He is! The nature of God in us is to do the same thing; so let's make the decision to speak and act on what we believe in our hearts based on God's Word, whether it looks like it's true in circumstances or not!

PRAYER
Thank You Father for Your life-giving Word. Thank You for sending Jesus Christ to save me by His work at the cross. Help me to remember the importance of my words, and to be careful about what I say.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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