The Progress of Faith is Dying - Greg Gordon

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Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm. - 2 Corinthians 1:24
Down is actually up! Wrong is actually right. Worldly wisdom is actually foolish. Dying is actually living! Of course you might be scratching your head wondering what am I talking about? The ways of the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ our Lord are opposite to almost all the ways of this world. For God to humble oneself down is to actually go up spiritually. We are all wrong, we have all failed, admitting we are sinners and that is actually the right thing to do. The smartest intellect apart from God's wisdom is foolish. Dying to your own self-life is actually the way to resurrection of life and peace with God. It is when we are holding onto our self, fighting to always get our way that we end up actually truly dying. When we get our of a situation but do not actually forgive we actually put ourselves in bondage. When we do not submit to leaders in the body of Christ we actually are not free or at liberty in the Lord. Festo Kivengere says, "Every time you ask forgiveness it takes a little dying, and so also does submitting one to another in the fear of God.” This 'little dying' is what the Lord requires of us daily. One way of dying is to submit under godly leaders in the body of Christ, submit to spouses in marriage, submit to bosses in the work force. Our faith thrives only as we put ourselves under the death blow daily to the self-life.

Joyless christians are those who are always trying to be soveriegn and the boss of their own lives. To never submit under godly counsel, humble themselves they find themselves in great bondage. Paul the Apostle was labouring with the Corinthians not for their harm but their very joy. His disciplines and corrections were to not "lord over" (1 Peter 5:2-4) but to impart to them life. The message translation states of this verse: "We’re not in charge of how you live out the faith, looking over your shoulders, suspiciously critical. We’re partners, working alongside you, joyfully expectant." Paul was essentially saying to the believers, our pointing our problems, correcting or speaking in this way was actually for your good. Paul was saying we had better things to do then to worry about your personal lives but we were interested in your spiritual progress of faith. Human nature has not changed, to submit to leaders, allow others to guide our lives is very hard. Marriages have many troubles because each spouse wants to be in the drivers seat, directing their own way. We have a choice each day to make to hold onto what makes us the most comfortable and feeling in control, or to "die alittle" for the progress of our faith. This dying many times happens through spiritual leadership or offenses in our lives where we need to condensed. The reality was that Paul the Apostle was dying more then them all. He was suffering immensely for the sake of the Corinthians, and their fighting him all along the way added to his burdens. Are you looking at your life today by faith and seeing each circumstance as a chance to progress in the Lord and die to self? Are you able to submit to pastors and leaders in your life and allow these spiritual brothers to guide you in a way of dying? Surrender and death to self hurts but it brings us joy as we grow closer to our Lord in the end.

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