Gal 4:13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh
I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
Gal 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh
ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even
as Christ Jesus.
The apostle Paul went to the Galatian church in a state of weakness of some kind and preached the gospel to them. They did not despise his weakness, his temptation or trial in the flesh, rather, they received him as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Paul could have resigned to his confining condition and stayed home instead of going out to preach, but Paul was living outside the prison that was being imposed upon him. He did not feather his prison nest and get comfortable there. He pressed forward to always live outside the prison.
2Ti 2:9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
When Paul wrote the above reference to Timothy, he was in prison. We are told that 2Timothy is the last letter Paul ever wrote. He was imprisoned for preaching the Word of God that set people free from enslaving bondages. Paul recognized that even though he was in prison, the Word that he preached was not in prison. For all his re-born life he had lived by that unfettered Word of God, and for all the attempts on Paul's life, he lived to be a victorious old man who finished the assignment the Lord had given him to accomplish (Philemon vs. 9; 2Tim.3.7). Paul was successful in finishing the job God gave him to do because he lived outside the prison by living by faith in the Word of God.
The Lesson
We don't have to live in the prisons
and confinements that have beset us. We can live outside those barriers
by faith in the Word of God. By faith in the Word, we can keep moving in
God to successfully accomplish the job he has given us to do. Grace is
given to us in Christ Jesus to do this, now it is up to us to understand
and draw on that grace and rise up victorious over all confining influences
and get moving in God. So, how do we do it?
First, we must realize that
it is OK for us to preach the totally victorious Word of God, even though
we ourselves might not be experiencing all that the Word promises us. If
we sit around mum, waiting for perfect circumstances before we open our
mouth to minister the Word, then we will never walk out of our prison.
If we believe the Word , we will speak (2Cor.4.13), and by so speaking,
we will shake the prison doors loose so we can walk out. We live by the
Word, not by our present experience.
We need to realize that there are
two realms in which we live. One is our permanent spiritual position in
the Lord, and the other is the present leadership of the Spirit on a daily
basis. As we keep our focus on our permanent spiritual position in the
Lord, that clears the way for us to be presently led by his Spirit on a
daily basis. If our focus is on our circumstances, confinements, conditions,
and our prison, then we are making our nest there, we are not living outside
the prison.
By virtue of being born of the same
incorruptible Word and the same Holy Spirit as was Jesus, you are a spiritual
child of God. You have the name of Jesus Christ to carry with you in this
earth. You are a present inheritor of all that Jesus Christ is and has
accomplished for you. You did not work for it, it has been given to you
as a gift that you receive by faith in God's Word. For example, if you
were born into the family of Bill Gates, you would be a present inheritor
of all that he is and has in the capacity that you need it and can handle
it. So it is in Christ.
Second, humbling ourselves
before the Lord, laying all bare before him, and submitting to the Lordship
of Jesus Christ is essential. Often through the grind of life, we lose
our first love toward him. Other things take precedence. We tend to independently
take control of things. We must renew our lives to his control if we are
going to receive his full benefits. A good prayer for this is simply, "Lord
Jesus take over my life", and really mean it.
We do have some responsibility to
fulfill as we do this. We are to renew our minds by "pulling down strongholds"
that have been built into our thinking and attitudes. These are concepts,
attitudes and images that are operating that are contrary to the good news
of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Paul had to do it, and we also are
to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ. If it fits with the
good news of the finished work of Jesus, think those thoughts, entertain
those images, if they don't fit, don't think and entertain them. Fill your
life up with the Word and testimony of Jesus to push out the fleshly concepts,
images, and ways (2Cor.10.3-5; Phlp.4.4-9).
Third, receive and work with
the grace that God sends your way. Having possession of a Bible is grace
to you--study it prayerfully and faithfully to nourish your spiritual man
just as you eat and drink faithfully every day to nourish your physical
body. Fellowship with other believers and the ministry that comes to you
from the church is a grace to you (if they are centered on the Lord Jesus)--receive
the ministry that comes to you. Grace can also come to you through unbelievers
and other people who God uses to help you--receive that grace joyfully
with thanksgiving to God and being gracious to thank those who God uses.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues is a grace available
to every believer--use your prayer language constantly in your worship
and daily communion with the Father. It opens up the river of revelation
to you. God is constantly working with you and speaking to you to bring
about deliverance in your life in every way. Praying in the Spirit, with
your understanding and in your tongues language, helps you turn on and
tune in to hear and be led by the Holy Spirit to walk in that enabling
grace that he has for you.
Conclusion.
Paul said that we are to be filled
with the Spirit speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. The principle to learn is this: As we walk into the things of the
Spirit, the power of the flesh is diminshed, so we are to walk after the
things of the Spirit, even if we see undesirable things operating in our
own life. How do we turn loose of them? By turning to embrace the things
of God, by giving ourselves to the Spirit of God, we lose our embrace of
the flesh and we come to live outside the prisons that are trying to keep
us confined. Then, we can fly free in the sky until the sunset of our life
and the Lord says, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the
joy of the Lord."
