INNER LIFE

 

... in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

 

Ever anew the Body of Christ is seeking to move with Paul from Romans 7 to Romans 8, to free itself from the bondage of legalism, to come out from under all clouds of condemnation and enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

 

"Lord, help us to get off this treadmill of failing to do the good we sincerely intend and repeatedly doing the very things we hate! Bring us to the place where we experience in our own lives the truth that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, where the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has in fact set us free from the law of sin and death!"

 

Surely if we ask our Father for bread we shall not receive a stone, pro­vided we keep our eyes on our Father. God will bring us into Romans 8 and enable us to experience the liberty Paul describes in this mountain peak of scripture, provided we follow his leading and refuse to be lured by the many short-cuts to freedom which are offered at this hour.

 

Not every door which promises "liberty in the Spirit" is of God. The same enemy who quoted Deuteronomy and Psalms to our Lord is busy quoting Romans 8 to a multitude of weary souls who are trying to find their way out of the prison of legalism. Satan has set up his own door which he has marked in beautiful old English — "Romans 8 — Freedom in the Spirit." And those who enter this tempting "passage to freedom" will ultimately discover that they went through the wrong door.

 

The difference between Satan's counterfeit Romans 8 and God's Romans 8 is very simple. Satan's "Romans 8" produces the momentary emotional experience of liberty but no life changes. Husbands, wives, children and

co-workers of people who have entered Satan's liberty door will see no genuine changes in these people beyond an effervescing lip service to God. God's "Romans 8" on the other hand produces a radical inner life-change that brings with it a whole new pattern of deeds.

 

... in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

 

And if the just requirement of God's holy law is fulfilled in me as I walk according to the Spirit, this means that I'm doing God's will.

 

The difference between living in Romans 7 and Romans 8 is deeds.

 

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  

                                                            Romans 7:19

 

When I enter into Romans 8 ,  I start doing God's will. I put  to death the deeds of the body and follow the Spirit into a life of deeds. I'm no longer just saying, "Lord, Lord," I'm doing the will of my Father who is in heaven. I'm no longer just hearing the words of Jesus, I'm doing them. I'm building on the rock. Following in the footsteps of Jesus and anointed by the Spirit of Jesus I, like my Lord, go around doing good and healing those who are oppressed by the devil.

 

The authentic life of walking in the Spirit is a  life of deeds which are marked with the supernatural presence of God. If the deeds aren't there, you may speak in tongues, prophesy, and spend half your day in a trance but you are not walking in the Spirit of God. And whatever feelings of liberty and joy you may have will soon pass. The first taste of tribulation will show you where you are.

 

There are very few of us who haven't, at one time or another, been lured through Satan's liberty door and who won't be tempted to again; very few of us who don't still have some delusions clinging to our minds from our trip through that door. So when the Spirit of the Lord comes to straighten us out and clear our heads, we do well to listen.

 

God's "Romans 8",  God's life in the Spirit which enables us day after day to fulfill the just requirements of His holy law, has to do with the one thing Satan is trying to get us to overlook: the inner man. Our outer man will take care of itself when God's Spirit gets hold of the throne in our inner man.

 

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not be­long to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.                                      Romans 8:9-11

 

Notice that word "in."

 

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being re­newed every day.     

                                                       II Corinthians 4:16

 

...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love...     Ephesians 3:16-17

 

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you,  the hope of glory.                  Colossians 1:27

 

Romans 8 is a description of what happens to a human being when he or

she allows the Spirit of Jesus Christ to take charge of the inner man, when the Spirit of God becomes not some momentary shot in the arm, but my inner life. So that by the power of God's Spirit my Lord Jesus is not only standing before the Throne of God in Heaven, but He is, at the same time, literally sitting on the throne of my heart.

 

If I am strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man, if Christ dwells in my heart by faith, I will perform righteous deeds. I will throw the bottle away, if the bottle has been my problem. I will clean up my imagination, my speech. I will absolutely give up my grudges and get right with every brother or sister with whom I've been wrong. And then I will go forth and start proclaiming God's word with such authority that it will be confirmed with signs following. Jesus looked at the scribes and Pharisees putting on their little show of goodness and declared the whole thing a sham because their inner man was evil. They were agents of the inner death. They were like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Cleanse the inside of the cup and all things will be clean. Get some life in the inner man and you will have life everywhere.

 

If you want to live in God's "Romans 8", if you want to truly have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you, ask yourself if you are willing to pay the price. The price plain to be seen, is often overlooked. To have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in my inner man, there are several things I must understand and agree to. I must understand that His life in me puts my old life under the sentence of death.

 

...for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.                                                         Romans 8:13

 

When Jesus comes to dwell in me the first thing He brings is not life, but death. There are things in me, in my thinking and living and memory and habits and attitudes that must die if I am ever to walk with Jesus.

 

I can't walk with Jesus as a mental adulterer, or as a drunk, or as a gossip, or as a snob. These things have to die. By the power of the Spirit of Christ I literally put to death the deeds of the body. I kill them. I crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts day after day.

 

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.                                                             Galatians 2:20

 

Paul could say that because he was continuously letting the death of Christ work in his mortal flesh. But many of us cannot say we are crucified. How often when God gives us an opportunity to deny self, crucify self, we back away.

 

If you're not willing to have your old life put under the sentence of death, you're not serious about living in Romans 8. All you're doing is putting some whitewash on the outside of your life while the inside is the same old tomb filled with dead men's bones and all uncleanness. If you want inner life you must put your old life, your self life, totally under the power of Jesus' death. Then the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal body by His Spirit who dwells in you.

 

I must understand that His life in me will quicken me if my mind is set on Him. Many of us think we can get baptized in the Holy Spirit and then go on thinking the way we always thought, filling our minds with the same trash which has cluttered and corrupted them for years. Some of us even think that if there is to be a change in the set of our minds God has to reach down and do it for us. God has to turn off the garbage we're watching on the T.V. God has to come along with emergency inspira­tion when we're indulging in some adolescent fantasy. No. God isn't going to set your mind for you. You're going to set your mind.

 

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the

things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set

their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh

 is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.      

                                                               Romans 8:5-6

 

When I set my mind on the Spirit, who comes before my mind's eye? Jesus. The Spirit never witnesses to Himself, always to Jesus. I think Jesus, eat and sleep Jesus, worship Jesus, adore Jesus, learn from Jesus. And as I concentrate my mind on Him I come to life with His life. I see things His way. I receive a vision of His Body on earth and how I fit into it.

 

I must understand that His life in me will come forth as it came forth when He stepped out of the tomb, if I go where He leads.

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.   

                                                            Romans 8:14

 

To go where the Spirit of Christ leads means something much more specific and clear-cut than this vague excuse many of us use for doing what we want

to do by saying, "I feel led," or "I don't feel led." When the Spirit of the Lord is leading you, you don't feel, you know. If you don't know, beware of your feelings. Many of us go wading into all kinds of absurdities under the pressure of weird feelings because we're evading a step we already know God wants us to take. Isn't it strange how I can "feel led" to go to California just at the time when circumstances are closing in on me in Detroit in a matter I've known for two years I was to take care of.

 

To be led by the Spirit means that I take that clear, obvious step which God has shown me to take and let Him worry about what lies two miles up the road. A debt to be paid, now. A wrong to be righted. A wife to be loved. A child yearning for some attention. Neighbors who need some sacramental friendship. A job that needs more effort. Streets that need to receive the gospel. "But I don't feel led to do street work." Lift up your eyes and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The Spirit is moving and the wonderful thing is that when we follow where He moves, when we take the step He indicates, life flows out of us every time. A risen living Christ steps forth from our inner man which is no longer a tomb. Miracles and signs confirm the word. People repent. Saints start praising God.

 

I will be quickened by the life of the Lord in my inner man if  I am prepared to share in the birth pangs of the new creation:  suffering.

 

...and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.                                        Romans 8:17

 

Many of us want the Spirit, but we don't want to suffer. We want baptism in the Spirit, but we don't want baptism in fire. And don't let anyone tell you the two baptisms are the same. When our Lord came out of Jordan, He was baptized in the Spirit, and His work as the Christ began. Much later we hear Jesus saying, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!" Here Jesus is talking of His approaching baptism of fire — suffering: His cross. And if we want to live in His Spirit we too will move toward a baptism of suffering which will bring us into fellowship with our Lord deeper than any we have ever known and will cause a stream of life to flow from us that will open blind eyes to Jesus.

 

I will be quickened by the Lord in the inner man if I am willing to let the Spirit teach me to pray.

 

Our first lesson begins with the admission that we don't know how.

 

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, be­cause the Spirit intercedes for the saints accord­ing to the will of God.  Romans 8:26-27

 

After all those fruitful years as an apostle, Paul still never thought of himself as an expert on prayer. He gives us such wonderful words of encouragement, as one who himself had been helped again and again.

 

...the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought...                                           Romans 8:26

 

Of course, to be helped by the Spirit, the least we can do is provide the time. Time given to nothing but prayer. Prayers prayed while we go about our daily duties are helpful and God-pleasing, if they grow out of a daily period devoted to prayer alone. But prayers prayed while driving, shaving, and washing dishes border on blasphemy when the disciple of Jesus never manages to find time to concentrate on prayer alone. How we need to return to that school of prayer, daily, and submit our minds, wills, and bodies to Him who has been interceding for us all along! "Help me, Spirit of God. 0 how I need your help to enter into genuine prayer with the Father!"

 

I will be quickened by the Lord in my inner man when I am willing to take off the insulation and really live by faith. God help us to give up our easy circumstances and be more than conquerors in the midst of tribula­tion and distress.

 

 

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.                                                           Romans 8:35-37

 

The life of following Jesus is always a life of disruptions, insecurities, and frequent exposure to persecution! When we play it safe we simply lose touch with the One who keeps walking through the chaos and conquers it. How can we conquer with Him if we forever lag back out of danger?

 

There are steps we are being called to take that put us in situations that will tax every nerve and perhaps press our sanity to its limits. But in the process we will experience the strength of God as never before. There's nothing God wants to do for us more than to strengthen us with might by His Spirit in the inner man, to cause Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith.

 

Here are some questions to consider before reading farther in the book:

 

Are we willing that His life in us should put our old life under a

daily sentence of death?

 

Are we willing to set our minds on Him day after day?

 

Are we willing to go, not where we "feel" led, but where we know He is leading us — even if it means taking some specific step right now?

 

Are we willing to share in the birth pangs of the new creation?

 

Are we willing to let the Spirit teach us to pray?

 

Are we willing to take off the insulation and live by faith in the midst of difficult circumstances?

 

God help us to think these things through as we read on.