Good words Grant and lots of encouraging Scripture. Thanks.
Vicki
----- Original Message -----
From: Grant E. Metcalf <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, May 24, 2014 2:18 am
Subject: Re: just really struggling with things blindness
>
>
> Andrew, Brad has provided some beneficial general advice. I have been blind
> since 1948, when I was 8 years-old.
> During my years of involvement with the church and other Christians I also
> have encounted occasionally ignorant or porrly taught church attendees. Many
> of these have been involved in the charismatic movement and have a man-made
> definition of what true Bible-based "faith" means.
> Also, sad to say, most do not understand the three enemies of the true
> believer or how to deal with them. Doubtless you are familiar with these
> three enemies, the Flesh, the World, and the Devil. I put them in that
> order, because that is the order we most often have to deal with them on an
> individual spiritual basis.
> 1. The devil can only attack as God allows, 2. the world system has many
> lusts/cravings as described in First John 2:15-17, and then 3. their is the
> "flesh" or our old sinful nature which is always with us and we will only
> escape its lusts/cravings when we go to be with Christ either at the rapture
> or by physical death.
> First, the devil gets blamed for a lot of things which he does not do. One
> example is drunkenness.
> Specificly in Galatians 5:19-21 drunkenness is listed as one of the lusts of
> the flesh which can best be dealt with by allowing the part of the fruit of
> the Spirit, self-control or temperance to help us gain the victory.
> A desire for the so-called "devil's brew" does not come from Satan but from
> our old sinful nature's cravings. When that lust comes to us, it is the Holy
> Spirit that provides the strength to say "no". The devil being a liar and
> the Father of lies, wil say "Go ahead and have a drink, it won't hurt
> anything."
> If you know what the Bible says about drunkenness and the Spirit's provision
> for self-control, you have the answer to his lie. A careful study of the
> Bible teaches us that most all attacks from Satan are lies. You will find
> most of his attacks described in Ephesians 4:17 through 31.
> And as mentioned, the lusts of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 list things
> like sexual lusts, emotional lusts, religious lusts and sensual lusts which
> can all be overcome by allowing the fruit from the Holy Spirit to provide
> the victory as you direct a specific aspect of the fruit toward its object.
> Secondly, the world system is full of all kinds of lusts/cravings, including
> those of our old sinful natures as well as the lies of Satan, et cetera. If
> we direct our "self-sacrificial-love" Agape love" toward anything other than
> God, we become carnal or fleshly and thus are not in fellowship with God.
> Anything that takes our agape love away from God and focuses on other things
> is going to break fellowship with God. John tells us, 'STOP LOVING THE WORLD
> SYSTEM AND THE THINGS THAT ARE IN IT!" Or as Nancy Reagan used to say,
> "Just say NO!" smile
> Thirdly, our old sinful nature is the greatest cause for our spiritual
> defeat when we give in to those lusts/cravings. Paul had a great deal to say
> about this issue in his letter to the Romans, chapters 5:12 through 8. What
> Paul discovered was that he could not defeat his old sinful nature in his
> own strength even though he had a new God quality of nature. He discovered
> that when the Law said "You shall not covet", his sin nature said "Oh yes I
> will!" In his own strength, even having a new nature, he could not win that
> battle. However, what he discovered was that he could gain the victory when
> he "got out of the way" and allowed the indwelling Holy Spirit to provide
> the power to overcome his sinful nature.
> With Paul, I have discovered that the most important key to this is given in
> Romans 6:11: "Consider yourself to be dead to your old sinful nature and
> alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." When He died, He died not only for
> ours sins but also for our sinful nature. When we are baptized into Christ
> death and resurrection by the Holy Spirit when we first believe, we are
> placed into His death, burial and resurrection by the Spirit. That is how
> God sees us and that is how we should consider ourselves in this present
> life. Such a mind set allows the Holy Spirit to then produce His fruit in
> us.
> Galatians 5:16-18 tells us to order our lives by the instrumentality of the
> Spirit and we will never, no never fulfill the lusts/cravings of the sinful
> nature. That is because the Holy Spirit wars with our old sinful
> nature/spirit and cancels it out and then produces His quality of fruit in
> our lives. In my own strength, I cannot produce love, but I can direct the
> part of the fruit of the Spirit called love toward the appropriate object.
> The same is true with the other parts of the singular fruit of the Spirit.
> But one must be spiritual to do this having his mind set in the right place.
>
> On the Bartimaeus website there is a book entitled "Maturing in Christ".
> This book is a compilation of several small booklets written by a former
> pastor of mine who helped me greatly in my personal spiritual life. The
> book contains chapters on "The Enemy within", our sin nature, "The World
> System and Other Appeals", "Satan, The enemy without" and other chapters
> regarding the Christian's thought life and spiritual living. It is under
> copyright and so you need to become a qualified member of the Bartimaeus
> Alliance of the Blind reader's list to access it in HTML format. However, if
> you read braille, it is available in braille format in the braille library
> and can be read on a refreshable braille display or embossed.
> You may not want to read such a detailed book, but I would recommend it to
> everyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the Biblical teaching
> regarding our basic spiritual life, how to understand it and live it. Not
> everything will agree with things said and/or taught on this list, but I
> personally have found it of inestimable value for my personal relationship
> with God and other believers.
>
> Listening for His shout!
>
> Grant
> Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Inc.
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Website: http://bartimaeus.us/
>
> -----Original Message-----
As Always, Vicki
To get information on how to purchase my CD write me at:
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