{"id":313,"date":"2009-12-08T22:20:50","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T06:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=313"},"modified":"2009-12-09T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T16:59:00","slug":"the-opposition-of-the-natural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=313","title":{"rendered":"The Opposition of the Natural 12 9 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those who are Christ\u2019s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires \u2014Galatians 5:24<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I just had to put this one in there too…….. \u00a0 just had to.<\/p>\n

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The natural life itself is not sinful.<\/strong> But we must abandon sin, having nothing to do with it in any way whatsoever. Sin belongs to hell and to the devil. I, as a child of God, belong to heaven and to God. It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence, and my self-will.<\/strong> This is where the battle has to be fought. The things that are right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint are the very things that keep us from being God\u2019s best. Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us would debate over what is filthy, evil, and wrong, but we do debate over what is good. It is the good that opposes the best<\/span><\/span><\/strong>.<\/span> The higher up the scale of moral excellence a person goes, the more intense the opposition to Jesus Christ. “Those who are Christ\u2019s have crucified the flesh . . . .” The cost to your natural life is not just one or two things, but everything. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny\u00a0himself<\/em>. . .” (\u00a0Matthew 16:24<\/a> ). That is, he must deny his right to himself, and he must realize who Jesus Christ is before he will bring himself to do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.<\/span><\/p>\n

We should also beware of the righteous indignation of superiority as we compare our “growth and awareness” to those that have placed themselves on a high moral platform of religous legalism. In doing this we become what we just opposed. It is simply surrender to God not opposition to anything else that keeps us connected. We are not to compare ourselves to anything or anyone, except perhaps as we look back at our own lives and what God has done because and due to our surrender. JDV<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The natural life is not spiritual, and it can be made spiritual only through sacrifice. <\/span><\/strong>If we do not purposely sacrifice the natural, the supernatural can never become natural to us.<\/span> There is no high or easy road. Each of us has the means to accomplish it entirely in his own hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this may seem contradictory to the concept of grace, what we have in our hands is the ability or choice to surrender anything and everything out of our hands and onto the cross of Jesus. Connected to the Spirit of God (with\u00a0the Holy Spirit inside of us)\u00a0means disconnected\u00a0from the natural. ….JDV\/DJR<\/em><\/p>\n

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Luke 9:23<\/a><\/strong>
\nThen he said to the crowd, \u201cIf any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your\u00a0cross<\/strong> daily<\/strong>, and follow me.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It is not a question of praying, but of sacrificing, and thereby performing His will.<\/p>\n

We can and will know when we have transcended the natural because our circumstances will scream at us to “do something” and yet we remain at peace\u00a0knowing that God has us\u00a0right where He wants us to be, in His will not knowing\u00a0what will occur next. But “KNOWING” whatever occurs in our lives,\u00a0it is the will of the God of the Universe. This “knowing and trusting” is supernatural…….\u00a0JDV <\/em><\/p>\n

Phillipians 4:7 Darby Translation<\/em><\/p>\n

7<\/sup>and the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus<\/em><\/p>\n

Job 22: 21<\/a>
\nAcquaint now yourself with Him [agree with God and show yourself to be conformed to His will] and be at peace; by that [you shall prosper and great] good shall come to you. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those who are Christ\u2019s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires \u2014Galatians 5:24 I just had to put this one in there too…….. \u00a0 just had to. The natural life itself is not sinful. But we must abandon sin, having nothing to do with it in any way whatsoever. Sin belongs to hell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}