“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience; In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”.
Colossians 3:5-10, KJV
Mortify means to kill, to deaden, to crucify. Victory is through the crucified life; the crucified way is the way of the cross. Victory is through the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on mount Calvary. The crucified way is the way of comprehensive victory, the way of the cross. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest symbol of victory; victory over self, flesh, works of the flesh, sin, satan and all his agents, and enemies of our testimony and joy. All the things mentioned in this scripture are meant for us to deaden our internal adversaries. One thing I have found out about how people are taught to engage in spiritual warfare in many places today is that they are led to focus more on the external enemies meanwhile the worst enemies are the enemies within.
Jesus made it clear in Matt. 10:36, “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” You are a house. Before looking for the enemy without, ensure that you deal with the enemy within. Many prayers are not answered today because a lot of people who are praying have not cleaned up their inside. Psa. 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me”. You can imagine the number of people who are carrying iniquity in their heart and praying. The prayer of the wicked is an abomination before God. When people try to simplify this, they end up creating their own theology that takes them farther and farther away from God. The only prayer from a sinner that God will answer is the prayer of repentance. It takes honesty and humility to be able to do thorough repentance and clean up so that your prayer can fly.
Today, if you catch some Christians violating the principles of God, they will defend their acts. Something is terribly wrong with a system that produces people who go to Church who you cannot entrust with anything. If Church goers cannot change then there is no hope for the nation. This is because the healing of the land must start from the Church. There is idolatry in the Church – corruption that works through lust. The Church has left the cross; the Church left the message of crucifixion. How much do you really need to be comfortable in life? These are the things that constitute enemies of our peace, enemies of our joy, enemies of our progress.
Pray –
- Heavenly Father I thank you so much for the wonderful gift of salvation. I ask you to empower me by your spirit to be an enforcer of righteousness in Jesus’ name, amen.
TO BE CONTINUED.