“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
I cannot take my inner man, my spiritual man out for you to look at. So, you can only tell something of my spiritual being by the way I conduct myself.
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13).
Suppose that on Sunday morning the flesh takes over and I have a little headache, and I choose to stay home from Sunday School and morning worship. Later, I mess around and watch a ballgame in the afternoon, but Sunday evening my head is still hurting so I miss service again. On Monday, I get up late for work, so I leave off my Bible reading and prayer time until after work. When work is over, I get home really late and I am so tired that I just go to bed. What is happening to the spiritual man? Remember Romans 8:13? “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die...”
In order for me to get 30-40 pounds off this natural body, I must first have a desire to leave off the chocolate, push back from the table, and eat healthier. You cannot see how spiritually healthy or how weak my inner man may be. I can’t see yours. But God, the All-Seeing Eye, sees. God sees what we put into our spiritual man. God knows if we are bringing it into subjection or not. He knows the nights we can’t sleep. He knows what I’m doing at midnight.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Do you remember how the Spirit of conviction would draw you to come to the Lord? I do. On November 16 it will be 49 years since I gave my heart to the Lord. I will never forget. I had made up my mind to serve the Lord. I had a determination to live my life in service to God. Do you know what it took? “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” When I went to the altar that night I meant business. Did you? From the moment that God washed away my sin, I began to hunger and thirst for the things of God. I was hungry for God and only He could fill that hunger and thirst. I went to God. We need to go to God. God led me in the Scripture for my divine revelation of The Church of God. He baptized me with the Holy Ghost and on December 31, 1965, I joined the Church. I am still a member of that Church today.
Since I was a little girl in Sunday School and learned about heaven, I’ve wanted to go to that place. Remember Romans 8:13. I want to go to heaven. We can shout over that. To go there, we must, by the help of God, mortify, or put to death the flesh. My wants, my desire of fleshly things, my will, must be put aside. We must get what God has for us. The only way we can make it, get it perfected, is when we bring our bodies under subjection. That’s so hard for us to say. There is a song which says, “I can hear my Saviour calling.” It is okay until the part that says, “I’ll go with Him through the garden.” Am I willing? “Where He leads me I will follow.” That’s hard to say. I often want to go the other way. I do not want to be a castaway or (disqualified) at the end of the way.
When we can bring all things—self—into subjection to God, then, and only then, can we truly say, “Have Thine own way, Lord; have Thine own way; hold o’er my being absolute sway. Filled with Thy Spirit till all shall see Christ only always living in me.” Is the Spirit of God touching you? That’s what I want. We must fight this spiritual battle every day and bring this body under subjection. If each individual can do this, think what the Church worldwide will be like.
“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).
We are all in this together. Nobody knows how I struggle. Nobody knows how you struggle. Let us bring all of our weaknesses and struggles to the Lord. The Lord will hear us, if we come boldly to the throne room. Let the Lord help you bring all things under subjection to Him.
This message was originally shared at the 109th General Assembly of The Church of God.
