Preventing Spiritual Necrosis (Deadness)

"Mortify, therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection (pathos), evil concupiscence (results of pathology), and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them."  Col. 3:5-7

Paul's great letter to the community Colosse presents the incomparable Iesous as the head of the ekklesia (church).  The ekklesia (called out ones) of the New Testament are those who are joined to the Iesous in an organic relationship.  The relationship that the ekklesia enjoys with the Iesous is substantive and vital.  The Iesous is the Creator of the assembly of Called Out Ones.  The Called Out Ones are those who were purchased or redeemed with God's own blood (Sacrifice).

How different this message is from the 'health and wealth' salesmen and women.  There are no amusing theatrics or muttering of supposedly speaking in tongues (other languages).  There is the reality of the living Iesous and his church.  In not one of Paul's thirteen letters of the New Testament did he advocate either 'health and wealth' nor 'muttering speech' which are done today to bring attention to a particular individual, and not to the Iesous.

We are to cultivate a relationship with the Iesous because he purchased us at the cost of his own life.  He alone is to be the focus of our protracted gaze.  No one could do for us what he has done through his suffering on the tree.

According to Paul's letter to the church at Colosse the Iesous is Lord of All.  His kingdom and dominion extends to both the visible and invisible realms.  Isaiah wrote that his kingdom is greater than the largest number imaginable and then multiple times beyond that number and so on...you get the idea.

Our lives are to be the living narrative of the new thing that God has done through the Iesous. God designed the plan of the new life in the Iesous in eternity past.  The only way to live the new life is by submission of our human will to God's will.  This is the decisive step that must be taken if one is is truly serious about the upward call of God in the Iesous.

This is not an emotional act.  It is a volitional act.  It is an act of the faculty of the will.  The will is the starting point of the new reality.  The will involves the capacity to decide one's course of action(s).  The writers of the New Testament understood that in order to serve God in an appropriate manner the human will must surrender to God's will.

The New Testament writers knew that the will can be very subtle and cunning. They knew that the will could fabricate evil and selfish ends.  They understood that if the individual did not place his will upon the altar to God, there would be no capacity to serve God.

God is not naive and neither were the New Testament writers.  The idolatry of self-worship is within our spiritual DNA.  It is counter intuitive to submit one's will to another without some type of gain or advantage.

Paul wrote that the Called Out Ones are to mortify their bodily members.  Mortify is an old word that means to 'submit to death' or to make dead.  This is a striking picture of spiritual self discipline. Note, that this is written to the Called Out Ones who have come to know the Iesous as Savior. However, to have the Iesous as Lord of one's life requires this vital step in the direction of a willful death of one's bodily members.

Some of the sweetest sounding, and the most godly sounding Called Out Ones have not taken this step of mortifying the flesh massive corruption of the inner person will definitely happen.  The human will alone cannot control or stop the corruption of the inner person.  The human will  cannot stop the corruption of the inner person because it too is corrupt according to deceiving lust patterns.

This awareness is revelation psychology.  The therapeutic intervention enjoined by God for all the Called Out Ones is the complete suspension of their bodily members for selfish ends.  The prescriptive treatment is to 'mortify' one's members.  There is no other way.  Looking for another way means that one is not satisfied with God's way.  It is the folly of the self seeking to keep its lie alive.

The self lie does not want to die.  It loves the secret corrupt 'life.'  It loves to rejoice in its covert activities.  The flesh-self must be put to death by an act of the will that has submitted itself to God. We cannot do it on our own.  Without Iesous we can do nothing.

We are our own worst enemies when we stand off from the revealed will of God for our lives. Necrosis is the killing of health tissue.  Necrosis does not stop in its determined process.  Necrosis does not stop until it has consumed all healthy tissue.  Necrosis of the spirit acts in the same way.

Paul's diagnosis and prescription for spiritual necrosis is to render it dead in one's life by the surrendering of one's will to God.  Healthy spirituality is the result of coming to terms with one's great need to follow God's will.

It is very rare to find the word 'driven' used in the New Testament. Even in the above passage there is no use of the word 'driven'.  We are not 'driven' we are Spirit led.  We follow the Good Shepherd.  There is no doctrinal basis for the word 'driven' in the Spirit led life. Mark used the verb 'thrown' when speaking of the Spirit snatching up the Iesous to be tossed into the wilderness to be tested by the Adversary.

The Called Out One will know her/his purpose when it is understood that the word 'mortify' is an imperative and calls for a once for all decision.  Mortify is demarcation of will.  Mortify is to crucify the flesh with its affections and lust patterns.

Crucifixion is an intrinsic biblical term.  Even scholarship that is not sanctified under the blood of the cross may lead astray.  There is no autonomy in the life of the Called Out One.  S/he is completely dependent upon the Iesous for all things.  There is nothing cute about this word.  It is forensic.  It calls for a precise and decisive act.  How the flesh rebels against the thought of its demise.

The Pneumatikos One (spiritual one) has competed the process of the unspeakable act of mortification of the flesh.  S/he is on the other side of the process.  S/he knows the life of superabundance because the flesh is mortified.

Today, if God has been speaking to you about mortifying your members answer Him with a decisive and precise, Yes, Lord.

Do not be deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man sows that he shall also reap.  He that sows to the flesh will reap corruption, and he that sows to the Spirit will reap life and peace. Amen.

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