Living the Low Life or the High Life
Living the ALow Life@ or the AHigh Life@
Romans 8:1-12
How many of you are ready to live in the high life? How many are tired of living in the low life?
"I am tired of living in the low life, I am ready to live in the high life" Ready to live higher than what I have ever lived before in Jesus Name ‑ that is our prayer for you today.
Teaching you how to get out of low life living and get up in high life living!
Verse: Rom. 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Key here is are you in Christ Jesus? If your in Christ Jesus, born again living for Jesus condemnation is not for you, you should have it out your life no matter what is going on.
Spirit of Life is where we live in the high life, The law of sin and death ‑ is where we live in the low life. What is in that low life? Poverty is there, sickness and disease; crisis and turmoil; anxiety and fear; all those sorts fellowship there, it is called low life. (Low living, low standards of living).
Now just because you want to come out of that and live higher in life does not mean you get too: Just because you want to have more money; better health; want everything to go your way doesn=t mean it always does. But if you and I can find the ladder to climb out of low life living and come up here and live on the higher plan that God has for us: that old hymn ‑ ALord lift me up let me stand, by faith on heaven's stable land".
I am not looking for promotion and attention and a big name, I am just looking to be closer to Him. Get out of some of this stuff down here that bugs me and affects me. You and I have to admit that almost everything around us all day long brings you back down to the blunt reality that you live on the earth. We are not suppose to be living down here, were suppose to be living up here in the realm of the spirit!
Now let me make my self clear ‑ we are not talking about being a fat‑cat, made in the shade:
I am not talking about just having more natural things, more goodies. I am talking about being spiritual, having revelation knowledge, inspired, walking with God, hand in hand, you and I in the Master hand. Talking about living in a place where not everything bugs you, not everything effects you and your not offended all the time.
Even if something does happen around you and its painful and hurtful, it does not drag you out, it does not ruin your day or your life. You don't ignore it, but life is filled with a lot of things that you and I don't like. But that they don't get inside of us and eat us up is important. But it will if your down here living low.
There is no reason for those who are in Christ Jesus to serve sin as if they had never been pardoned and never been liberated from the prison-house sin.
No condemnation does not mean its not real hurt and real pain when things happen: It just means your not condemned for it. Keep it out here..... Connection ion (in Christ) takes place before the pain overtakes us. Yes! Glory to God there is a place to find more of God's grace. We have a law working in us and its not the suppose to be the law of sin and death.
There is a law connected to sin ‑ there is a law connected to death. Just law there is a law of gravity connected to height or when you get elevation off this earth. You climb up on something and jump off, the law of gravity will kick in automatically you can't stop it. Because that is a law!
There is a law to sin ‑ you think (connect with) sin, talk (connect with) sin, and practice (connect with) sin, and you don't have any choice but to face the blunt attachments that come with connecting with that sin. Sure God can forgive you if you confess sin, but sin can and will leave scars. Keep it out here.....Yes!
There is a law connected to the spirit of death ‑ you flirt with things that bring death, and it can kill your marriage, kill your health, kill your attitude, kill your countenance and its amazing what you can kill all day long, just by the law that is attached to the spirit of death and you get (connected) messing around over in that sin realm and that law works just as sure as gravity works.
The beauty for Christians is that there is also a law that is connected to the spirit of life that is Christ Jesus
Living in high places, praying and fasting and studying the Word, worshiping God, fellowshipping with the right people, and you purpose to climb up and live in this realm with God, though your still on the earth, your not down here wallowing around on your belly.
The devil is suppose to be on his belly, not you and I.
$Verse 3‑4 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Now notice! There is a difference in walking after the flesh and walking after the Holy Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
Mind ‑ means to pay attention too, mediate on and in, think upon. So pastor how do I know if I am living after the flesh or after the Spirit? Its an easy test you can give it to your self: What are you thinking about, mediating in, and reasoning over? Where does you mind go? Do you have faith or do you have fear? Do you pray or do you worry? Do you study the Bible or do you go for something else? See this is an easy test you can give yourself to see if your going after the way of the flesh or whether were going after the way of the Holy Spirit.
Now you say why is that so important for us Christians?
$Verse 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
Now if my mind stays on natural and carnal things what does it bring me? It brings me death. But if my mind is spiritual and thinking on things of God and about the things of God, what does it give me? Life and peace.
What is better than life ‑ life in your body, in your marriage and home, life in your mind, finances, what's better than peace? Having turmoil inside of you. Your nights are not sleepless living in fear and torment. What is better than peace? Peace among you and people and even you enemies? Tell me what is better than peace and life? (I can't think of anything can you?)
Peace and Life ‑ everybody wants it, but not everybody has it. Many people live in turmoil all the time. Always has an argument going with someone all the time. Has a debate all the time going, always somebody mad at them. It is almost like they live that way on purpose. But its not suppose to be that way.
You want peace and life‑ you have to do what the Bible says. You have to become spiritually minded. If you don't want life and peace, then don't do anything. Because your mind automatically runs to what it wants and what it fears. Your mind will automatically bring up to your attention everything it wants, everything it fears.
Let me tell you something else about the mind ‑ it is enmity against God which means ‑ if it is allowed to run it natural course everything it thinks of will be against God. That is why if you just let your mind go and do what ever you feel like, say what you feel like, give people a piece of your mind, it is breeding death into your life and sin. That is why you just keep staying down here in the low life.
Listen you can go to church and be down in the low life: you can read your Bible and be sometimes down in the low life, you can be a tither and still be down in the low life. I am talking about where things don't affect us the way they use to.
$Verse 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Who cannot please God: Cannot ‑ what does that mean to you?
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you
How does it work? (By His Spirit that DWELLS in you.) See the whole key to coming out of low life living and coming up to a higher plain of life already lives on the inside of you if your born again.
Galatians 5:19‑21 List the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [21] envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;
See all this can and will happen to anyone who does not live after the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And we live in the low life, after the law of sin and death. Read them they are all listed in there.
12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation -- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. (NIV)
God says you can do all things in Christ ‑ and you say no I can'tY
God says I will supply all of your need ‑ and you say well you haven't yetY
God says your healed by my stripes ‑ and you say well you haven't healed me yetY
God says those who keep there minds stayed on me, I will give them perfect peace‑ but you say what am I going to do?
God wants us to live up there with Him, and then we choose to go back and live down here ‑ just like we never met Jesus! (I am not going to do it any more).
Things to do to come out of the Low Life Living
Realize that condemnation is not of God. Conviction is.
(difference is condemnation makes you feel dirty and guilty about what you did, but it won't release you from it ‑ conviction make you feel dirty and guilty about what you did wrong, but it will lead you to the scripture and Holy Spirit so you can get delivered from it so you don't have to feel that way again.) Condemnation will keep pressing you down until you quit or give up. But the anointing on God's conviction will cause you to want to make it right and never do it again.
Pay attention to and mediate in the things of the Spirit of God. Every chance you get, think about God or something about God's word. Be thankful and grateful, force your mind to think right! Not what your mind wants to think a free from all. Command your mind to think on the things of God.
Do you know Him today? You can know Him!
Life and peace come to you from being spiritually minded and connected to the Holy Spirit.
Surrender your heart to God afresh.
God treats you like His Children when you are led by His Spirit.
Say to yourself AGod lives in me!@
God talks to me! May I hear His voice.