I'm reading this book by Major W. Ian Thomas and each chapter is packed with incredible truths about Christians and the Christian life. I'm absolutely LOVING this book! Anyway, I thought I'd share a little from chapter 7, entitled "What Kind of a Christian?", that really impacted me today.
God is the absolute source of righteousness, but there is also an absolute source of unrighteousness--the devil. All human activity derives from one or the other of these two origins.
That is why the Bible says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23 KJV). Whatever does not derive from your attitude of total dependence on God, whatever does not release God's activity through your life, is sin...Every step you take, every attitude you adopt, every decision you make, everything you do and all you hope to be, is either in dependence upon the God who created you as His own dwelling place, or else the byproduct of the demon spirit of this world...who perpetuates his lies through a mind-set of self-reliance in fallen humanity.
He goes on to write about what Romans 8:& calls the "carnal mind." He defines it as "exercising the faculties of your personality in ways that are not dependent on the God whose presence imparts to you the quality of true humanity that He always intended for you."
He continues:
It means thinking godlessly...You take a step, you make a decision, you conceive your plans, you assume a responsibility, all without relating the situation to God and to His light and to all that He is within you...Carnal or fleshly Christians have been regenerated by the restoration of the Holy Spirit to their human spirit, but in certain ways they still repudiate the Spirit's legitimate right to reestablish the rule of Christ in their minds, in their emotions, and in their wills...their actions and decisions typically are taken for the sake of their own interests and for who they are in themselves, rather than for God's interests and for who He is...the devil is smart enough and cunning enough that he can always persuade countless numbers of professing Christians to try and be Christians without Christ.
This next part was really powerful to me as I began to think of all the things I am willing to do for Jesus:
They are willing to do anything for Jesus' sake, but they fail to understand that His presenceis absolutely imperative to do it, that without Him we are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing.
The chapter ends with this prayer:
I want nothing less than to be all that for which the blood of God's dear Son was shed.
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