Who’s Driving?

The question I have for you today is this: Who has power over who in regard to you and your fleshly, or carnal nature? That is really what it is all going to come down to anyway. The apostle Paul clearly listed a number of the “works of the flesh,” and immediately stated emphatically; “of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21). And we should duly note that he was writing to born again believers in Christ when he said this. That is correct, born again or not, there is absolutely nobody that does NOT have power over the flesh, that will be saved. As the same apostle stated elsewhere: “Follow peace with all men, AND HOLINESS, without which NO MAN shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). And again he said it in this manner in another place: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die [spiritually]: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live [spiritually]. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, THEY are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:13,14). Obviously one has to HAVE the Spirit in order to be led by it. And if one DOES have the Spirit, he must follow after the Spirit and allow the Spirit to put the fleshly nature to death; the result of which is true holiness [being without sin]. And this great apostle to the Gentiles also clarified that for us in writing: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin… Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Rom. 6:6,12). If sin is no longer present in our life, our conscience will bear witness to the same, as he also explained: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO walk NOT after the flesh, BUT after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1). And once more: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14). That is correct friend, when sin is literally taken from the heart by the power of God’s Spirit, there is no more conscience of sin, because SIN IS GONE! Trying to do the will of God without the power of the holy Ghost is like trying to drive a car without your hands on the steering wheel. The car ends up driving the driver, rather than vice versa; and the result is going to be an nasty wreck every time.

So why do the doctrines of modern Christianity declare ‘believers’ to still be sinners, but yet “saved by grace” at the same time? I will tell you why my friend. Because Christianity, including the Pentecostal arena, does not uphold the baptism of the holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues as the new birth experience, and/or as the ONLY experience of faith in Christ that will truly take away sin and give the believer REAL POWER over sin. The result of this is that would-be believers are made to think that they are born again or saved, but they still have a conscience of sin, because THEY STILL HAVE SIN! Much of Christianity doesn’t even acknowledge the present day existence of this glorious biblical experience, and those who do acknowledge it keep it as a secondary experience to “getting saved.” That is very strange, seeing there is absolutely NOTHING in the scriptures about “getting saved,” nor is there any record in the Bible of ANYONE who ever “got saved!” And it is also strange in light of the fact that Jesus said that those who TRULY believe would receive the Spirit (Jn. 7:37,38). Now someone will say, “Well, you RECEIVE the holy Ghost when you get saved, but you’re baptized with the Spirit and speak in tongues when you come into the fullness of it. Really? Then how is it that Jesus told his disciples that NOBODY could receive the Spirit until AFTER he went away? (Jn. 16:7). And before he went away he commanded them to wait for the promise of the holy Ghost, saying that they would receive POWER after they received it? (Acts 1:4,5,8). There you have it my friend. There is no man who can have power over his own fleshly nature without the baptism of the Spirit. That is what Jesus suffered, died, and rose again for; “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. 61:1; Lk. 4:17-21). Nobody gets out of the prison of sin unless and until they have power to overthrow the captor. And that means that no one living can be saved in the end unless they have been baptized with the holy Ghost, and have followed after the same Spirit in holiness till the end; to which things the scriptures certainly bear witness (Rom. 5:5; Mat. 24:12,13; Heb. 3:6,14; I Pet. 1:3-5; I Jn. 3:2,3; Rev. 20:6; Rev. 21:27). You see friend, there is no such thing as a powerless Gospel; meaning one that does not truly and literally deliver the heart and soul from the power of sin, and give the believer power OVER sin, to eliminate it from their life (II Tim. 3:5). There is only the truth, and there is a lie; and “no lie is of the truth” (I Jn. 2:21). Amen.