Monday, August 13, 2007
Know, Know, Know
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
—Romans 6:6
A Christian’s defeat on the spiritual battlefield lies largely in his or her ignorance of the facts. In Jesus Christ there is the power to no longer be under sin’s control and to live a new life. But a lot of Christians don’t realize this. They think they always will be the devil’s punching bag. They need to know what God has done for them.
Believers may think the way to overcome sin is by saying “no, no, no.” But the apostle Paul’s method for overcoming sin was by teaching “know, know, know.” We can say “no” to sin, but we don’t have the strength to do so in our own ability. We need to know what God has done for us, know about the resources at our disposal, and know what can be appropriated in our lives. It can change the way sin affects us.
Often we are defeated in our day-to-day living as believers because we don’t understand what God has done for us. It would be like trying to fight a battle without ammunition, when all the time, we have more than we could utilize in a thousand battles.
But we cannot avoid sin’s power by merely imitating Jesus. It is not trying to humanly live a divine life; it is divinely living a human life. It is God’s power in us and Christ through us, fulfilling what He has called us to do. It is not imitation, but impartation. It is appropriating the divine provision that God has for us. It is finding and using our ammunition. It is possessing our possessions.
Let Christ who is in you give you the power to do what He has called you to do.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
Copyright © 2007 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions,
