ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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How Do We Offer Our Bodies As Living Sacrifices?

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The reason some people don’t experience many faith

victories in their lives is that they are not fulfilling

their call. They aren’t finding what God wants them to

do. They aren’t pursuing Him to discover what His

absolute perfect will is for their lives.

I am personally so hungry to know God’s perfect will

for my life that I’ll do whatever is necessary to attain

that goal.

I want to know to the “nth degree” what Jesus has called

me to do,for what purpose I was born, and what

anointing s are available to me.

So in my search, the question for me was not whether I

would offer my body as a living sacrifice. I was too

hungry for God to refuse. My question was this:

Is there a way I can find out how to offer my body as a

living sacrifice? If so, somebody please tell me how,

and then turn me loose!

I want my day in court. If I fail to fulfill my call, don’t

let it be because you taught me wrong. Don’t put me in

a holding tank where some powerless doctrine like

“Tongues aren’t for today” takes away my victory until I

have no reward left.

Show me how I can walk all the way into God and

receive the best God has for me. Just give me my day in

court. Then if I fail, it won’t be because someone else

took my victory away from me.

Well, I kept on searching and studying for the answer to

my question. Then one day I discovered I didn’t have to

look any further than the Apostle Paul and the Book of

Romans to find out how to present my body as a living

sacrifice.

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Every Condemning Sentence Canceled

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Notice that in Romans 12:1, it says, I beseech you

THEREFORE, brethren, by the mercies of God….The

word “therefore” means “Based on what I’ve already

said.” In other words, Paul is saying, “Use the

information I taught you in the previous chapters to go

on and offer your body so you can find the perfect will

of God.

”Well, we don’t have to go back very far to find out

where Paul taught us how to offer our bodies as living

sacrifices. The eighth chapter holds our answer.

Let’s start at Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

That word “condemnation” is being used in the same

way we say a criminal is condemned to die.

So Jesus has given me a promise through Paul’s

teachings. He has delivered me from every condemning

sentence against me, whether of the flesh, the devil, the

world, sickness, pain,poverty, or disease. None of these

hell-inspired things can be carried out in me anymore

— if I meet one condition: I must walk after the spirit

and not after the flesh.

Paul is actually speaking of walking according to the

new nature, the reborn human spirit we received when

we were born again. The Holy Spirit has been sent to

teach our reborn human spirit all truth:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13

The Holy Spirit teaches my reborn human spirit that I

am no longer under the condemning sentences of sin,

sickness, and poverty. I no longer have to walk as an

unregenerate man in the flesh. I am to walk after my

reborn human spirit as I am taught and led by the Holy

Spirit.

The devil condemned me to die in my sins so that

for all eternity, hell would be my home.But Jesus

stepped into my shoes and took my place. He took that

condemning sentence unto Himself. Now because Jesus

was condemned, I can go free. He was made to be sin

for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in

Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

I was condemned to die under the

penalty of every damnable disease known to

mankind.But Jesus Christ stepped into my shoes as my

Substitute. He bore my sicknesses and carried my pains

(Matt. 8:17), dying under the condemning sentence of

my diseases. Now as long as I walk after the Spirit, that

condemning sentence can no longer be carried out in

me.

I was condemned to die in poverty. But Jesus

Himself by the grace of God took the condemning

sentence of poverty upon Himself: For ye know the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich,

yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his

poverty (NOT YOUR GIVING lb) might be rich(2 Cor. 8:9).

Now if I ever learn to walk after the Spirit and not by

the dictates of the flesh, that condemning sentence can

no longer be carried out in me.

So we who are born again have a promise. All

condemning sentences by the flesh, the devil,or the

world are canceled if we walk not after the flesh but

after the Spirit.

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How To Walk After the Spirit

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That brings me to this question: How do I walk after the

Spirit? Paul wouldn’t make the statement he did in

Romans 8:1 without going on to tell me how to leave

behind the walk of the flesh and begin to walk after the

Spirit.

In the verses that follow, Paul differentiates

between the walk in the Spirit and a walk in the flesh.

Notice in verse 13, he says,For if ye live after the flesh,

ye shall die:[Don’t you wish Paul wasn’t so plain about

it?] but if ye THROUGH THE SPIRIT do mortify the

deeds of the body, ye shall live.

So now Paul is telling me that to walk after the Spirit, I

must somehow mortify, or put to death, the deeds of the

body through the power of my reborn spirit as it is

edified and built up by the Holy Spirit. This is starting

to sound like Romans 12:1. There it tells me to offer my

body as a living sacrifice. But back in Romans 8:13, it

tells me that I can’t do it through will power, the energy

of the flesh; it has to be through the Spirit.

We’re going to talk more about mortifying the deeds of

the flesh later. For now, the question remains: How do I

release the Holy Spirit to edify and build up my reborn

human spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh and offer

my body as a living sacrifice so I can find God’s perfect

will for my life?

UNTIL NEXT TIME

AMBASSADOR / SERVANT

LARRY