James 4:4 (NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Friendship with the world is spiritual adultery! Let that sink in.
Mark 8:38 (NKJV) For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
From the strong language in the above passages, we see the mandate of God to separate from the world and die to our carnal nature with its selfish desires. We should never candy-coat this. We must wake up daily and present ourselves before the Lord, laying our lives on the alter.
If we buy a house and pay for it in full, but the previous owner refuses to move out, we have a breach of contract, a violation of the covenant. We are His house. We are God’s temple. He will not fully move into His temple until the carnal man dies and is removed from the premises. He will not share space with anything unholy. God is very particular about where He abides. We can see this clearly from the Old Testament Temples and the tent of meeting.
However, God is gracious. He is patient and kind. He gives us time to move out, time to die to ourselves, and time to grow spiritually. He has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and His word to help us remove everything in His temple that is not pleasing to Him. Thanks be to God!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God’s.
Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We find a valuable truth in Exodus that will help us fight to keep the old man crucified.
In Exodus 33:18, Moses said to God, “please show me your glory.” This was God’s response:
Exodus 33:20 (NKJV) But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
Intimacy with God and exposure to His word is our carnal man’s face-to-face encounter with the Lord, and no man can see God’s face and live. Approaching God and His word daily with an unveiled face crucifies the old man while at the same time transforming us into His image from one degree of glory to the next.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto
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