If you live to satisfy your sinful self, the harvest you will get from that will be eternal death. But if you live to please the Spirit, your harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life.
Galatians 6:8 ERV
There is a life in me and undoubtedly in you, too. It is the self-life, the sinful self or nature, the flesh, the human nature, the You in you and the I in me. The desires of the sinful self are selfish; therefore, they are contrary to what God wants. The power to decide whether sinful nature gets the stage of my life every time lies in my hand. It is whoever I bring to the stage that the people will see, which determines who they say I am.
“Some people rebel against the light. They don’t know what God wants. They don’t live the way he wants. A murderer gets up at dawn and kills poor, helpless people. And at night he becomes a thief. A man who commits adultery waits for the night to come. He thinks, ‘No one will see me,’ but still, he covers his face. When it is dark, evil people go out and break into houses. But during the day they lock themselves in their homes to avoid the light. The darkest night is their morning. They are friends with the terrors of darkness.”
Job 24:13-17 ERV
I have said the above just so that I may conclude that everyone has the power to decide the kind of life they want to live. It is either satisfying the sinful self or living to please the Spirit. Though when a man is not yet born again, when he has not yet surrendered his life unto God through Jesus Christ, he is completely deaf to the leading of the Spirit since he has not yet received him. But if you, like me, have also received the grace of God that brings salvation and are growing in faith and your walk with Jesus, the sinful life does not suddenly go out of action. A conscious effort is required to choose whom you would please at every point.
‘Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.’
Romans 6:16 NLT
Let us consider what God said to me. ‘Even though I love you and I’ve kept you from destruction and brought you into the light. I have determined to make my grace abound for you and always to help you. And though I have given you my word for you to speak to my people, I would like you to note that the right to choose how you live remains yours. Therefore, if you like to continue in the way of your sinful self and satisfy your sinful desires, I’m afraid that all you will get for that would be eternal separation from Me. You would only waste all I am releasing into your life if you continue in the way of self’.
‘It would not matter much that I have spoken to many people through you. That lives have been saved through you would only be a wasted testimony. This is if you do not have self-control and choose to live according to the Spirit. What you sow is what you will reap. A life that ignores My direction is a life in the direction of destruction’.
“If we decide to continue sinning after we have learned the truth, then there is no other sacrifice that will take away sins. If we continue sinning, all that is left for us is a fearful time of waiting for the judgment and the angry fire that will destroy those who live against God.”
Hebrews 10:26-27 ERV
God will never impose Himself on any individual. Although God’s desire is for everyone to be His child, a personal decision is the route. God is not so starved of intimacy that He will condone the life of unrighteousness in a man. God’s standard will not change. The sinful self must die.
“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”
1 John 1:6 NIV
So, you need to make a decision through the help of the Spirit to walk in the Light. You cannot afford to live things to chance. A clear direction of living must begin. Everything you do or will start doing must be according to the dictation of the Holy Spirit. There is no room for a two-faced lifestyle. As a Christian, be a Christian. Don’t thread on the path of death.
“You yourselves used to be in the darkness, but since you have become the Lord’s people, you are in the light. So, you must live like people who belong to the light, for it is the light that brings a rich harvest of every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth. Have nothing to do with the worthless things that people do, things that belong to the darkness. Instead, bring them out to the light. (It is really too shameful even to talk about the things they do in secret.) And when all things are brought out to the light, then their true nature is clearly revealed; for anything that is clearly revealed becomes light. That is why it is said, “Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you.”
Ephesians 5:8-9,11-14 GNT
