I remember many years ago I had a close friend who was baptized in the spirit. It was an incredible experience for him. We were at a men’s retreat and he lay in his bed for hours praying in the spirit. I will never forget a comment of his, “Everything is spiritual.” I remember it because it could be expected of someone experiencing a spiritual life for the first time. But I also remember it because it was wrong. My friend tried for some time to live “just in the spirit.” It didn’t work. The natural still exists and must be dealt with. Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice . . .” (Romans 12:1). Sanctification means more than being freed from sin. It means the deliberate commitment of myself, body, mind and spirit, to the God of my salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.
We are talking about that nasty word, discipline. We need to discipline our bodies and minds, controlling what they consume and what they do. Remember we are called to be “perfect” and “perfect” means complete, body, mind, and spirit. If any part of our three part being is not offered to Him, we will suffer continual turmoil.
Most of us were not taught discipline as a child. I remember the life-changing experience of spending my freshman and half of my sophomore years of high school in seminary. It was a life of discipline I had never known before. Certain hours were devoted to the spiritual, others to the physical, still others to the mental. We watched no television and saw a movie once a month. Everyone played sports and had a physical job. I worked one semester maintaining the entrance visitor rooms to the seminary and the next two semesters working in a garden. (don’t tell my wife.) It was life-changing. I went from being a mediocre student to a straight A student and I developed a spiritual and physical life for the first time. What I learned in that short time got me through 11 years in the Navy, where I finished college and then law school. Regretfully, I have not continued to apply the disciplines I learned in those years.
God is not actively involved with our natural life as long as we continue to pamper and gratify it. But once we are willing to put it out in the desert and are determined to keep it under control, God will be with it. He will then provide wells and oases and fulfill all His promises for the natural (see Genesis 21:15-19).
Challenge yourself to be more than the world expects, accept mental challenges, be unafraid of hard physical labor and watch your spiritual life grow.
Present yourself as a living sacrifice in every way, and be blessed, in every way.
Nick
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