Someone once asked me as I share about this life of total victory if I am saying that since I became a Christian I have never sinned? How I wish that were the case! I have been a Christian since 1970 when I was 20...39 years to be exact. For the first 38, I not only sinned, but my flesh was not "pleasant flesh"...I was not one who could make a fair show in the flesh. My sins were addictive, gross, looked down upon and although I went to severe extremes to try to stop, yet in the end, all was for nought. I found satan's ball and chain still wrapped tightly to my ankle, and the chain was not a long one before it would snap taught if I strayed too close to Jesus, just to remind me that he still "had" me.

Last year in September, I broke and in tears of humility and full brokenness, I told the Lord that I simply could not do what He asked of me. His commandments were too high, too hard, my flesh too rebellious, my self control too lacking and that unless I had a miracle from His own hand, I was destined to spend the rest of my earthly existence in Romans 7 and then eternity outside of His presence. Why? Because I still accepted as foundational truth that "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord", that "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Frankly, I judged myself as guilty and that my heart was anything but pure.

What happened next was simply a miracle. I will not get into details in this post, but I came away from my eye opening encounter with an understanding from God Himself of how to walk in victory and why the church as a whole is languishing in the doldrums of religion rather than walking in the "free indeed" that our Lord promised us.

I think one of the key problems many have here is a misunderstanding of what is "walking above sin". If this is misunderstood, all sorts of error and resistance creeps in.

1. It is not "perfection". It is having the flesh defeated, rendered totally inoperable, so that we can then truly enter into the lifelong process of being changed into his image without hindrance from our rebellious nature. You do not "glow". You do not float 4" above the ground. You simply find that when you are tempted, you can resist...every time.

2. Temptation is NOT sin. Giving into it is.

3. Walking in full victory does not mean you may not get angry, or react when you see a beautiful woman. It does mean however that you will not stay in your anger as your adrenaline wears off or harbor unforgiveness to one who wrongs you. It means you will not progress to lust but choose willingly to simply acknowledge she was beautiful, and move on, with no "mind gymnastics".

4. We never "arrive" so that we have no need of keeping our bodies under. We depend on Jesus the same as a new born Christian. Without Him, we can do nothing. But...ahhh.. with Him, we can do all things!

5. Walking above sin is not obeying any list of rules anymore. Rather, it is not offending the spirit that leads us. A man might come to Christ and be a three pack a day smoker, and to him, it may not be sin, and yet to another who has been convicted that it is wrong, a single cigarette may be sin. As the new Christian matures however, what in the beginning may not be sin for him may indeed find the spirit saying, ok, it is time to stop now. If he rebels, then it is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

6. Perhaps the biggest misconception is that it is "US" oriented. It is not us who stop sinning...it is Christ who is able to keep us from falling. How easy it is for us to judge after man's ability, for our salvation itself has eroded into a test of self effort and self denial. We cannot ever gain the victory, but we can be lifted up into a place of total victory. How we need to get our eyes of of us, and our inabilities, and onto Jesus, who can "save to the uttemost them that come to the Father by Him."

Once you get a full handle on what it is not, then the question stops being "Can I walk above sin?" but "How strong is our God?". Can God do in us what we cannot? Of course. And thank God, it is God's will for us, absolutely, for our God has said "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." The key is....HOW?

I was shown this a year ago...that we have begun our walk with God by faith alone for our salvation, but then, somehow, we have been taught that it falls back on us, onto our own shoulders, to "clean ourselves up out of gratitude." So we go back unto the law, which is self effort in the flesh, to try to kill the flesh and it fails...every time. The law will do what the law is supposed to...make us guilty before God.

There is but one way...faith in His promises. WE must, as Paul exhorts us to do, "reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God." We must put off our old nature, the flesh, by faith, and again, by faith, put on the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness. It is the only way to victory...to "free indeed".

This is no mental ascent thing. This must become a real transaction to us in the spirit, with a stake driven deep in the soiul of our heart that this truth is OUR truth and we possess it now. This truth, that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God is the armor of Ephesians 6. This is how we stand against the wiles of the devil.

How often, we say be believe the Bible, but in truth, unbelif still grips our hearts. Frankly, most of the time we do not believe them to be true in reality, and thus, they never become truth in reality for us.

This is the good fight of faith we are called to wage. The question is, will we? We have a God waiting to show Himself strong. Shall we not find again the God who can "cause us to will and to do of His good pleasure

I apologize for missing a few days here, as I have just been enjoying a week with the birth of my 10th grandchild. Now, back to the wonderful promises of God.

How often, we think that to walk victoriously in this life, we MUST keep our eyes on Jesus. Yet, the sad truth of most of our walks is this. We do not keep our eyes on Jesus, do we? So we fall. But what if the burden fell on Him to keep us, rather than visa versa? :)

Many have assumed Romans 7 was Paul's experience. It was not, but it was indeed Saul's experience. It was as it says in the first verses of Romans 7, the experience of a man under the law, not under the power of grace thru faith in a God who can keep us from falling.

There is a wonderful chapter in the old testament... Ezekiel 37..where God Himself clarifies to us what He expected the new covenant to do in our lives...straight from His mouth so that no misinterpretation would be possible.

In it, God says this...that because the weak link in the old covenant was that we "continued not in His covenant to do it", he would make a new covenant to correct this fatal flaw...us.

He would "cause us" to walk in obedience to Him! How few have seen this, or experienced a salvation like this, but regardless of the fact that there may be millions who say it is not possible, our God cannot lie.

God finishes off this amazing discourse with this amazing statement, a statement we will get to know well in the next few years.....

"I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them."

Sadly, over the centuries since the book of Acts, our Christianity has de-evolved into a religion of self effort...i.e. the law, and Romans 7 is the result. But God is about to lead all who hunger and thirst after righteousness...in their lives... into a walk of abiding in the vine where "all things are possible to him that believeth."

Consider for a moment the term "self control". Is it not central to our thoughts of walking pleasing to God? How much it is needed...desperately...in the lives of saints! Yet, how few there are who possess it, and even to those who do, it is a "white knuckle" type of deliverance at best, certainly not thew easy yoke God promised it to be for us.

Ahhh...then go to the list of the fruits of the spirit, the results of abiding in Christ. Love, joy, peace...that beautiful full list of promised benefits that God has given to those who would simply learn to abide in His Son. Look at the last one..... self control.

Does your Bible say like mine that "it is God that causes us to will and to do of His good pleasure?" And if we find we are not walking there, in that blessed easy yoke of faith in our God to keep us from falling, then let us, as God suggested we do, inquire of Him to "do it for us"!

Hope this at least starts some gears turning, LOL.

God bless.

bruce