The Crucified Life- Learning to walk by faith with no condemnation

Welcome to episode 305. Let's get right into it, and we're going to finish up The Crucified Life in this video, in this podcast episode. I want to conclude this lesson or this teaching with a bunch of scripture. I know that you love when I read to you, but we need to get into this because again, we have to get into the Bible. It really doesn't matter what I say, and it doesn't really matter what you think. It is what does the Bible say. I'm here to help you get into the Bible and allow the Bible to get into you. And so with that said, let's read a few scriptures. I know you love it when I read to you. It's kind of like a bedtime story. I understand that. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. That is Galatians 2:20. Now we're going to put on top of that one of our favorite scriptures is Romans 12:1. 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Now, when you think about those two scriptures, we have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer you and I that live, but Christ lives in me. And we're going to back that up with a few more scriptures, but I just want you to kind of picture that. And then, because our body is still alive, we're still here, you can hear this episode if you're listening in your podcast app, or if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. Your body is alive and is taking these things in. That's you, you're using one or more of your five senses to enjoy this wonderful podcast. So our body is still alive, but something has died., and I want us to kind of get down to the bottom of this. Remember way back at the beginning of all of this merriment, way back in 2021, I just made a decision that I was going to do 30 podcast episodes in a row, 30 days in a row, nonstop, didn't matter. And we talked about the power of a made-up mind. And I just want to encourage you that if you're struggling in any area of your life, this is a wonderful exercise. Just make up your mind. Just decide for the next 30, 60, 90 days that there's no questions asked. You're just gonna do it. Now, I would encourage you to pray about what it is that you're gonna make this commitment to do. But once you make that commitment, you don't have to keep thinking about it. That is the wonderfulness of that commitment and the power of a made-up mind. I don't have to wonder if I'm gonna post a podcast episode. I just do it every Tuesday and Thursday. I put a new podcast episode up.. And so I don't have to think about it. Now, the one thing that happens is if I don't have one in the tank or one recorded, I need to get after it. If it's Wednesday, we need to make up our mind. And this is where Paul says, I'm begging you, please present yourself a living sacrifice. So we have to on purpose by faith, and we're going to talk about that next, but on purpose, we have to present ourselves a living sacrifice. And I think you do that in prayer. I do that every morning. I've told you that multiple times. Every morning I present my body to God, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is my reasonable service. And now I want to talk about another scripture that we love, and it is Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. And if we're talking about this crucified life, if we're talking about being Spirit-led instead of spirit dead, This is a wonderful scripture because this disarms the enemy. The enemy has nothing on us. Now, he's still going to come against you, and if you're anything like me, you, you're constantly getting these negative thoughts that you've got to fight against. And that's why Romans 12:2 is important, where it says, to be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We have to constantly clear our mind because we're constantly getting input. Most of it is negative. If you're watching any kind of TV or if you're listening to any kind of news, most of what you've got coming in is negative unless you're just steadily in the Bible. And I don't know many people that are, present company included. I mean, I stay in there as much as I can, but you know, I've got to make a living too. And next, I want to read Romans 6:3-7. And before I do that, I want to encourage you If you haven't read Romans lately, I want to encourage you to get in there, Romans 6 through at least Romans 8. If you want to read that 3 or 4 times and just pray about this crucified life thing and just see where Paul is taking us, where, where we talk about being dead, where our body dies. The Bible is pretty clear that when we accepted Christ, when we die to ourself, when we give ourselves to God, something died and something came alive instantaneously. It is a miracle. It's that wonderful miracle of salvation where your spirit man comes alive and your body dies. Now what happens is, and we're going to read it in the next couple of scriptures, is that your, your body is dead, but the spirit inside of it brings life to you. I don't claim to understand it all. I'm just reading the Bible and I'm believing what I read, and I want to encourage you to do the same thing. And ask the Holy Spirit to help get this into you and help you understand this. And just, if nothing else, just accept it by faith, because it's impossible to please God without faith. We're going to see that. But I want you to listen to these scriptures in Romans 6. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, 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. For he who has died has been freed from sin. And I want to stop there. We could go on, and that's why I want to encourage you to read Romans 6 all the way through Romans 7 and Romans 8. But this is a wonderful picture of what happens to us when we accept Christ, is our old man, the sinful nature, is gone. It has been buried. And just as Jesus was raised from the dead 3 days later, We are raised from the dead instantly by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes over. We become a new creature. We go— and I've talked about— we go from being stuck on Hell Island to now we're on Heaven's Island. We are no longer of this world. So we are still in the world, but we are no longer citizens of this world. That's why the world hates the Bible. It's really why the world, I believe, hates Christians. Is because they know we don't belong here. They know that this world is not our world, and so it hates us. And I don't understand everything about that, but I do know that the prince and power of the air knows who we are. He knows if you've accepted Jesus. He knows that you are Christ. He knows that you've been changed. Now, you may not understand it all, but I promise you, all those demons know. And if you use the name of Jesus against them, they will flee. If you submit yourself to God, you then resist the devil, he's going to flee. That's James 4:7, I believe. And I want to go to Romans 8, and we're going to explain kind of what I've just talked about, how our mortal body has died but the spirit has come alive in us. And I, you know, I try not to make any of this stuff up. I try to read the Bible and then bring it to you kind of as I see it. If you're a frequent flyer here, you know I've got to kind of picture things, and so this is how I picture it. And let's go to Romans 8 and start in verse 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit of life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. And that's Romans 8:7-14. And that's where I get where your body is dead, but the spirit man who is alive inside of you, the Holy Spirit, your spirit man is alive. And it— that life that's in your spirit gives life to your body. That is where I believe is your, quote, first death. And that is why if you've accepted Christ, you've already died one time. When your mortal body dies and you are put in the ground, I believe for Christians That's the second death, and that's why we don't fear the second death when we get to heaven, because we've already died twice. They— God doesn't talk about a third death, so we're not to fear. And death, it says, death, where is thy sting? Jesus came and conquered hell and the grave. He— Jesus has done it all. It is finished. Three of the most powerful words Jesus ever spoke. He did it all, so we don't have to do anything. Our job now is just to believe. Believe and receive, or doubt and do without. So we just want to believe. And one more thing, as you were listening to me or as you were reading along, in Romans, I think, 8:8, it says, so then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And in Romans 8:7, it says that the carnal mind is enmity, which means it's an enemy of God. That if you're in the flesh, if you're just thinking with your 5 senses, that's why we got to renew our mind. We've got to get our spirit man thinking, or at least getting our mind thinking like our spirit man. And this is why we can constantly renew our mind. And this is a constant deal. It is a daily deal that we have to renew our mind constantly. We've constantly got to cleanse it. We've constantly got to be in the word again. That's why I say get in the word. Let the word of God get in you. And I want to read one more scripture before we sign off and pray, and that's in Hebrews 11:6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And I want you to contrast that. That's Hebrews 11:6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, and that is talking about God. We have to walk by faith and not by sight. And that is this whole crucified life. This is walking in the Spirit. This is trying to learn how to walk in the Spirit. And I want to contrast that with Romans 8:8, "So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God." So if we take the "us walking in the flesh cannot please God," but "without faith it is impossible to please God," we take those two scriptures— I want to remind you one more time that Father God is not mad at you. Father God is perfect. He loves you. You are God's favorite. If God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. And so I want you to be able to picture Father God just encouraging you through his word, through me teaching on this crucified life, to just take a step of faith. It doesn't have to be a huge step of faith. You don't have to go try to raise somebody from the dead, or you don't have to try to go cure cancer or anything like that. Just do something by faith. And the more you try to do something by faith, or the more that you do by faith, the more you start seeing God do things. And, and if it's just writing down a prayer request and just journaling, write down what's going on in your head and then look back and see how God maybe was speaking to you. And just try to exercise your faith. And that's all I'm saying, because if you can picture Father God as being perfect— and I've talked about this before— when my son started walking, first person I called was my mom. Hey, Mom, Seth's walking! And no, he wasn't walking. He took a step and busted his butt, and then he got up, he took another step or two, and then fell down. And I got all excited saying, hey, Seth's walking! But in reality, Seth was learning. He was taking steps. He was learning to walk, but he was mostly falling. And I want you to think about this when you're trying to walk by faith. You're going to make mistakes. You are going to fall down. But I want you to see, if I was an imperfect father trying to get my son to walk in this physical world, what do you think God's doing in the spirit realm trying to get you to take a step by faith? Because I think the Bible is trying to coax you into, hey, it's impossible to please God without faith. That does not mean God's got his arms folded. And he's all mad because you're not taking a step of faith. No, that's trying to get to encourage you to take a step. Hey, take a step of faith and then read Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So if you're walking in the Spirit, there is no condemnation to you. You are learning to walk in the Spirit, and this is a learned behavior. We have to read the Word of God because the Word of God is Spirit and it is life. We have got to commit to getting into this Bible. And I know I'm going all over the place and I just keep saying the same thing over and over again, but I want you to just commit right now that you're going to spend 30, 45 days in God's word and just try to do some things by faith, because we walk by faith and not by sight. And so with that said, let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for everything that you've done. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this listener or this viewer, and I want to encourage them that you are just saying, walk, take a step. It— I don't care, I don't care if you fall, just get back up and take another step. And I want to pray that in Jesus' name that this person would just continue to try to take a step of faith and try to take another step. And Lord, we thank you and we love you And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.