How Have You been Living?

To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace. – Romans 8:6 (GNT)

If you are living solely for your own pleasure, and according to your own reasoning, without consultation and guidance from the Spirit, you are spiritually dead. You may be enjoying life by the world’s standard of enjoyment but you are not living an authentic life – that life that brings peace to your very soul. 

How have you been living?

Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 6:8 (NLT),

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

What have you been sowing into your life? Remember whatever you sow, you will reap (v. 7)…that’s just how it works. And those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind (see Hosea 8:7), in other words, sowing to your flesh is worthless, of absolutely no value and from that you can only reap a storm of consequences that will literally blow you away.

Think for a moment about the principle of sowing and reaping…a single seed planted produces an abundance of fruit. In the same way, the sinful-nature-seeds you are planting will bring forth an amplified amount of the same which results in decay, destruction, and death. On the other hand, if you plant Spirit-seeds, you will reap the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) – which results in life and peace, both now and forever. 

Beloved, the simple truth is this: the satisfaction you receive from living controlled by your sinful human nature is temporal, perishable, but the satisfaction you receive from living controlled by the Spirit is eternal, imperishable. 

Amen†

How Have You been Living?   Shelley Johnson 13-Jul-2016