Dear Friends,

Fall has arrived and, as usual, I’m so excited!  I know I always say it, but this time it truly is a new season in the natural as much as in the spirit realm, as my husband and I are in the midst of moving to a new home.  I really sense that this move is so significant not just to our physical location but to our “spiritual location” as God moves us forward in every area of our lives.

Just like our Canadian children are heading into a new grade at school, so I believe we are heading into a new “grade” in our walk with Christ.  God has been calling me personally to a greater place of maturity, and I know that what He is doing in me is what He is doing in His entire body.  Where we were in the last season is not where Almighty God is calling us to stay in this new season.  He is calling us to “grow up”!

The Holy Spirit has directed my attention over these past few weeks to what Paul talked about in Romans 8:1-9; “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

The spiritual atmosphere around us is becoming increasing volatile as the enemy becomes more and more aggressive in his siege against the body of Christ.  This is why you and I have been battling so much with the things of the flesh.  But as God calls us to maturity and growth, what the Holy Spirit is impressing so strongly on my spirit is that we must learn to no longer be “carnally minded”.  Yes, the situations we’re facing are real, and the emotions we feel are real – anxiety, inadequacy, fear, doubt, heaviness and even, for some, depression – but the truth is that we do not have to come under those things.  When we take these things on as our own issues and embrace them (by entertaining the thoughts and emotions), we become inward and self–focused.  Then we begin to try to fix things on our own, or, we just start feeling sorry for ourselves and/or bad about ourselves.  And then we really can’t hear or see or feel God or recognize His leading.  Why?  Because the real root of self-focus is pride, and God resists the proud.  When we go by our emotions and allow ourselves to get caught up or overtaken by what’s battling us, the Bible says that we are like “infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14), and are therefore “double-minded and unstable in all our ways” (James 1:7-9).  The word of God says that, “such a man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (God opposes the proud).  However, when we confess that we truly do not desire to be affected by or come under these things, but that we cannot overcome them on our own, and we cry out to God for help (humble ourselves), then He will lift us up and lift us out of that place.

We must remember that these things – anxiety, heaviness, rebellion, frustration, etc. etc. – are not ours unless we receive and welcome them; our battle is not against flesh and blood.  The spirit realm is active, so we need to be active ourselves.  What do we do?  Just as aggressively as those things are coming after us, we aggressively submit to Christ.  God will share His glory with no other, and His headship with no one else.  We cannot submit to God and to man’s ways at the same time.  We cannot walk in submission to Christ and still come under the enemy’s yoke.  The Holy Spirit lives in us – we are His home – and He leaves no room for anyone or anything else!  He is the husband of but one bride – US.  He is a jealous God and will not allow us to be friends with Him and with the world at the same time.

It is when we submit ourselves to Christ and resist the devil that God comes near.  If we desire relationship and intimacy with God, and if we desire to win the battle we are in (simply because we belong to Christ and we have an enemy who hates us), we have to make a choice – God, or the enemy/the world and ultimately ourselves and our own glory.

Many times as Christians we sense the battle and we grow so weary that we feel like we just can’t fight any longer so, just like when we were kids, we say “UNCLE!”  But do we say uncle to the situation and allow what’s battling us to overtake us, or do we say uncle to GOD and allow Him to take over and carry out the victory that He has already promised and won?

It’s time to stop saying “uncle” to the world and start saying it to God – “I give up, Lord!  You win!  Please take over from here!” We have to determine in our hearts that we will no longer come under the carnal ways of the flesh, but only under God and His Way.  This must become our daily declaration – “I submit myself to no man before Jesus Christ.  I bring myself under submission to no spirit but the HOLY SPIRIT!”

So friends, this month let’s dedicate some time to reading through and meditating on Romans 8, remembering first of all that we are not condemned – these issues are not because we are doing something wrong or have failed in some way – and secondly that we do not have to let the “spiritual atmosphere” around us change us, but we can change it!

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

Walking According to the Spirit,