Harboring the Fugitive

"I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned..." (Romans 7:18 NLT)

The only way to grow in grace and in the wisdom of the Lord is to obey the Spirit in all matters of life and consciously mortify all known sin. I have found that obeying God when it's merely convenient will not do. There is no substitution or alternative to immediate obedience in our walks with Jesus Christ. I propose that if one desires to grow in the Lord and experience a greater measure of the Spirit's presence in one's life and ministry, then one must obey His voice at all costs. This is a spiritual matter.

Anyone can accumulate knowledge and academics; the "smartest" people alive today in terms of astrophysics and philiosophy are unbelievers. The wealthiest people are of the unbelieving camp as well. Hence, I am talking about more than mere intelligence and riches - there is something incomparably deeper and infinitely more precious God offers those who are trusting and obeying and dying daily. This "something" surpasses man's understanding, and if our regenerated spirits are not seeking a greater daily measure of this glorious bestowal of God, something is amiss.

It's not easy, this quest! God's Spirit and our flesh are sworn enemies, and when God speaks, our flesh naturally rebels. This gives rise to bloody battles, and many untrained soldiers have been cut down by the swashbuckling techniques of hell. Go and look back at each one of your own defeats in the past and you will find each failure was unequivocally due to a lack of obedience in heeding the Spirit's repeated exhortations.

God is dealing with a hidden killer harbored within each of our bodies - sin. When we refuse God access to the location of the fugitive, the killer goes into hiding. We may live for months and months with no visible sighting of the killer. We soon grow complacent and lazy in our pursuing the things of God, and our undisciplined mind drifts into the dark shadows where the forgotten killer lurks. Since the time of our conversion, the Spirit has been beckoning us to give up the killer, yet we hold this fugitive in a form of spiritual amnesty. God is pleading with us to mortify. Why do we not deliever this killer over to the Authority? Has the liar promised us pleasure, a share in his spoils if we continue to conceal his identity? No doubt we have found he keeps his promises! Sin's delicacies are sweet, and stolen water quickly quenches the flesh's thrist.

It is vicious, wicked, crooked...and it attempts to master us at every given oppurtunity. Paul was right in declaring it as the "no good thing" that continued to dwell in his flesh. The only way to subdue this villian is through obedience to the Word of God. Your obedience allows the Spirit to subdue the flesh. Beloved, God calls us to surrender our personal domains, our private jurisdictions, and grant Him full authority over our vessels. We must hearken unto the Word of God with immediate obedience for this to be accomplished! There is no other way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven but through spiritual violence and bloodshed.

Are you prepared to get violent? Welcome to the business of mortification! From now until we put off our tabernacle, we must be occupied with keeping diligent watch over and systematically mortifying all known sin in our members. Any Christless uprisings within the temple must be foiled before they hatch into full-blown defilements and soil the conscience. God waits for His royal priests to lay them them upon the altar before He sends His fire to consume. Oh, precious saints, we must learn to walk in the Spirit. We must learn to trust and obey and always look to Jesus Christ.

For there is no other way to heaven, but through death and holiness.

Brother Paul

Harboring the Fugitive