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Table of ContentsPREFACE......................................................................................................................................................4

ACKNOWLEDGMENT...................................................................................................................................5

CHAPTER 1: - SELF-DIRECTED WARFARE....................................................................................................6

Dressed to Kill and Empowered to Fight................................................................................................6

Both God and Satan wants you Dead.....................................................................................................7

Object of Spiritual Warfare.....................................................................................................................8

Will the Real Idol Please Stand Up?........................................................................................................9

An Internal Warfare and not External Affair........................................................................................11

CHAPTER 2: - BE SURE TO KEEP YOURSELF DEAD!...................................................................................13

“Knowing this . . .”................................................................................................................................13

Dead indeed, the Rebel was Executed…..............................................................................................14

The Old Self and the New Self..............................................................................................................15

Christ in You….......................................................................................................................................17

The Seed Determines the Nature.........................................................................................................18

Why Keep your Nose Down to the Earth?............................................................................................19

CHRIST is your LIFE................................................................................................................................20

Reign and Rule …...................................................................................................................................21

CHAPTER 3: - HOW TO KILL THE DEEDS OF MY FLESH.............................................................................23

1. Recognize the Collaboration of Sin and Your Flesh..........................................................................23

2. A Heart Fixed on God........................................................................................................................24

3. Meditate on the Word......................................................................................................................25

4. Commune with God in Prayer..........................................................................................................25

5. Cultivate Obedience..........................................................................................................................26

The Final Question................................................................................................................................27

A. How’s my zeal for God?................................................................................................................27

B. Do I love the Word?......................................................................................................................27

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If you find this piece of writing edifying and useful, and wish to share it with others in any form; printing, copying, duplicating etc. You may go ahead without prior permission from me, but only on the condition that it is not to be sold or included in any commercial product or project.

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PREFACE

I don’t know about you but I want to have a life of virtue. I want to have a life of joy. I want to have a life of peace, and I want to have a life of usefulness to God—and this booklet highlights the path to that life. The life of grace demands responsibility. The gift of grace empowers you and I to be spiritually responsible and physically useful to God.This booklet is written for believers who are ready to engage the grace deposited into them by God’s mercy, and through faith in Christ. You may find its recommendation stringent and contentious.The objective is to share insights that will help harness and engage the grace of God upon your life for lasting deliverance from reproach, satanic manipulations, moral decadence, character failure, and demonic oppressions. And may God give you the strength to walk it; and may—through you walking it faithfully—God bring glory to His own name. That’s the purpose of everything

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I acknowledge the passive role Col Geoffrey Onyejegbu played, being used by God, as the instrument that engendered the inspiration to write this booklet. Derek Prince’s insightful teachings on “The Divine Exchange” and the transcript of the “Our Old Man was put to Death in Him that the New Man might come to Life in Us.” Was abridged, adapted, and used as the main thrust of the chapter 2: Be Sure To Keep Yourself Dead. The original transcript can be found at http://www.derekprince.org/publisher/article.aspx?id=1000085727 . this provided the needed balance for the central theme of this writing.Lastly, John MacArthur’s blog post on the topic How to Kill Sin, available on the Grace to you website: http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A180/how-to-kill-sin-in-your-life was a perfect conclusion for this booklet.

September 2015Michael Toyin-EmmanuelAbuja, Nigeria.

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CHAPTER 1: - SELF-DIRECTED WARFARE.

Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called when you made your confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

Dressed to Kill and Empowered to FightYou are not counted out of a fight until you quit fighting, and nobody is without advantage in life, it all depends on personal discoveries [revelation]. Everybody has the ability and strength to win life’s battles. Everyone is dressed to Kill and empowered to Fight the good fight of faith.As long as you take on responsibilities in consistent contribution and commitment towards your progress in life, you will definitely succeed. The reason many folks die on the battlefield of life is not because they are inherently weak or are equipped with impotent weapons. Their defeat could be occasioned by failing in any or all of the following warfare components:

1. Discovering and Knowing their Advantage2. Identifying and Appraising the real enemy3. Underestimating the strength of the enemy4. Fact and tact on how to engage the enemy.

Any kind of spiritual victory begins with discovering your strength and knowing your advantage; who’s got your back, and by properly identifying the enemy. It is the same old story, “If you don’t know what you are shooting at, how are you going to hit it?” How am I going to eliminate from my life what I don’t even identify as needed to be eliminated?The Christian journey is unto responsibility, and the calling is to fight; the good fight of faith. The worst amongst Satan’s schemes today is a disguise of his personality and misrepresentation of his identity. He uses misconception strategies by manipulating a reality to match believers’ desires. He controls and gains hold of the soul by controlling the perception of reality, and diverting their sense of responsibility. Glory be to God who has not kept us in darkness, for through the scriptures He reveals to us who our real enemy and his agents are, how to deal with them, and who is responsible for our lives’ battles and successes. As

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believers, we are saved to fight and enforce our victory unto the shorelines of eternity; the abode of rest, peace, and everlasting joy.

Both God and Satan wants you DeadAs much as you think the Devil is after your life, more so, God wants you faster DEAD. It is just that the purpose for which both of the want your dead differs, and likewise their objectives. Let’s compare and contrast:

GOD SATANObjective to give you a Better Life to give you a Bitter Life

Purpose to give you Abundant Life to give you Abounding Lies

Offers a life of Freedom a life full of Gruesome

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

In other words, God’s objective is to ensure that you enjoy a better life, while Devil’s aim is to ultimately secure for you a bitter eternal life. God’s purpose is to avail you a life of abundance, while Satan’s purpose is enclave and encircle your life with manipulation, deception, and lies. God offers freedom now and for eternity, Satan offers you a gruesome eternal experience.Surely you must die to live, just as I mentioned previously, God and Satan want you dead for different reason and to different things. Such as:

GOD SATANWants you Dead to Self Wants you Dead for Self

Wants you Dead to Vanity Wants you Dead for Eternity

Wants you Dead to the World Want you Dead for the World

Wants you Dead to Sin Wants you Dead to Righteousness

Wants you Dead to Lust Wants you Dead in Lust

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Ultimately the choice is yours to make, and the decision yours to take. But we can’t maintain a neutral ground. In this warfare, there is not demilitarized zone. Our daily choices and system of living are a pointer to what is actually dying in us, whether God is achieving His death-to-life mission in us or Satan is fulfilling his life-to-death devastating ambition in our lives

Object of Spiritual WarfareSatan is no longer an issue for the believer, Jesus Christ already defected him on the cross when he declared with loud voice “It is Finished”, and God will ultimately destroy him and wipe off his kingdom forever at a set time in the future. We do not fight against the Devil neither are we called to wrestle with him and his demonic cohorts. Wherever he crosses our path, or his agents try to hinder our advances, we subdue him and cast them out in the name of Jesus Christ; they will flee in many directions

So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Spiritual warfare in the new covenant is ALL about waging war against the FLESH and its agents rather than against the Devil and his demons. We are charged to declare and wage war on the Flesh and its members. It is a self-focused and self-directed warfare.

So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God). Colossians 3:5

The primary target of satanic forces is to establish footholds in our lives, upon which he can afflict our souls, deter our spiritual progress, thwart our destiny, and destroy our lives. Hence the battle is to mortify every object, and destroy every impulse that the devil may employ as foothold and gateway into our lives.

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Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him]. Ephesians 4:27

That is to say, give Satan no room to operate in your life. Do not allow him to ground your progress or shatter you focus in God.A ground yielded to Satan in enough to ruin a life. A foothold of lying and deceit will ruin decades of integrity. A moment of pleasure in sexual vices will destroy many years of trust and fidelity. Sensuality, lust, lies, anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances will crash, crush, and quench the spirit, destroy every spiritual investment, and retard your progress and stability in God.Satan has succeeded in ruining many believers lives, and in devastated their relationship with God and Men because they furnished a room for him in their lives. Little did they realize that the gratification that the flesh gives is a highway to the grave of ruin. Many afflictions and sufferings we experience as believers in Christ are avoidable, if we will collaborate with the Holy Spirit’s workings in our lives and destroys every works of the flesh. Praise be to God who delivers us always from many afflictions, and for His mercies we are not consumed. He is faithful and makes for us ways of escape, until we are complete in obedience and are made perfect in Him.

Will the Real Idol Please Stand Up?To put it bluntly, man is his own idol today. All the works of the flesh enumerated in the scriptures point to an idolatrous orientation of Self and to the fact that man attaches priority importance to himself other than God. We believe that we should be satisfied rather than God glorified in our desires and quests. We put God below ourselves as though He had been made for us rather than that we had been made for Him. The worship of self is the basis of all modern idolatry. We use God as a means to our ends, rather than allow God use us for His purpose and unto His glory.Today, you do not have to profess allegiance to Satan, or bow down to a statue image before you become an idol worshipper. We are the objects of our own false worship instead of God. We are the personal agents who vie for the glory and pleasure that belongs to God alone. We are the ones who foolishly boast of power by which we try to defy God's sovereignty. Satan

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and the world offer, and we selfishly employ, everything under the sun to worship ourselves instead of offering ourselves in generous worship to God. We instituted many altars of worship for the God-Self and fulfill his daily obligations committedly upon them. These altars are listed in Colossian 3:5. Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:3-5, and can be classified into three (3) types.

1. The Altar of Indulgence and Pleasure, upon which sacrifices to sexual immorality, impurity, and lust are offered

2. The Altar of Materialism and Worldliness, upon which commitment and consecration to Covetousness, Greed, and Selfish Ambitions are made

3. The Altar of Pride and Aggrandizement, upon which the demands of drunkenness, envy, orgies, anger, slander and rage are offered

More sadly, many churches are propagating and fortifying the stronghold of idolatry in the preaching of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel built on the idol of self-esteem. But we will never find happiness focusing on ourselves. Our hearts and minds must be centered on God.Simply put, idolatry is rejecting God while embracing someone or something else as God. But I have not reject God, you say? Now listen, the scripture says it is God’s will that you should be sanctified… Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction [ of sanctification and dedication to God alone] does not reject man but God, who gives you His Holy Spirit 1 Thessalonians 4:3,8. So, if you are not committed to the works of sanctification, by the way of holiness and righteous living, you are guilty of idolatry. You are an idol worshiper. You worship yourself and not God. You are your own God. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 1 Thessalonians 4:7

Hard saying? When we love the Lord with everything that is in us, there will be no room in our hearts for idolatry and no grip of Satan will hold upon our lives.

An Internal Warfare and not External AffairJesus inferred that, the power that Satan has over a life is relative to the amount of cooperation and control he has within the man’s life. In other words, the power and control without is equal to his influence within.

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I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.] John 14:30

Satan had no power on Jesus because he did not yield any ground to him in His life. He destroyed every ground and hold that the devil might have over His life and destiny.Amazingly, Jesus dominance was so irresistible that He was a constant threat to Satan and his kingdom. Demons screamed, begged and fled whenever He was on sight. Nature could not also resist his authority and power, for it had no power over him; he commanded the wind to cease, he dried up a tree from the root with a just word, he walked on the water and defiled its power, he brought forth money from the fish’s mouth, and multiplied insignificant 5 loafs of bread to feed to 5000 people. What a life of dominance!Jesus portrayed with His life that spiritual warfare and dominance is not in fighting an external battle, but in wagging an internal warfare by ensuring that Satan or anything else has no claim on our lives other than God. What invalidates our spiritual authority, devastates our experience, and as a result weakens our dominance over nature and Satan is our Flesh’s collaboration with sin.The devil needs your Collaboration to destroy you. He needs your Contribution to ruin your destiny.The only way Satan and his demons can manipulate, kill, steal, and destroy is gaining ground by appealing to the cravings of your Flesh; your human nature. He obsesses the soul through flesh’s gates and windows: sexual vices, lying tongue, impurity, sensual appetite, greed, unholy desires, covetousness etc.But most pathetically is the fact that Satan has so totally deceived many believers, that they never really get to the point where they honestly evaluate the reality of the agents of sin working through their Flesh; old nature. They are not dealing with the issue. They spend so much of their lives justifying their sin as a personality quirk or a product of their environment. They sugar-coat their habitual sins as simply idiosyncrasies of individuality, or some prenatal predilection that their mother had, or whatever. People can become so good at denying the reality of sin that they don’t see it. As a result, they don’t deal with it because they don’t even recognize it for what it is.11 | P a g e

If my flesh, in collaboration with sin, is out to kill me, then I ought to know how to kill it first - mortify it.No one is charged with murder having killed himself.Be sure to keep Yourself dead everydayYou will never stand guilty and condemned before God and ManKill now and don’t get killedThat’s the ONLY way to Live!

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. Romans 12:1

Devil is not ours to destroy, nor demons our duty to kill. Our responsibility in spiritual warfare as outlined in scripture is to worship God by presenting the flesh as a living and daily sacrifice to God. This alone is Reasonable!

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CHAPTER 2: - BE SURE TO KEEP YOURSELF DEAD!

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, [that’s Jesus] that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” Romans 6:6

“Knowing this . . .” The scriptures through Paul says our old man was crucified in Jesus when Jesus was crucified. What is the old man? He also uses here the phrase “the body of sin.” Actually there are about four different phrases that Paul uses. First of all, there is the “old man, the body of sin.” In one place he uses “the body of the sins of the flesh.” There is one more phrase that Paul uses and that is “the flesh.” We need to bear in mind that, if a young man was going to become an electrical engineer, he would expect in his study book to encounter certain technical terms that have to be used because of the nature of the subject that may not be understood by people who had not studied that subject, but that are essential for proper communication. And any young man that was going to become such an engineer would be prepared to learn those terms. The same is true of a Christian. In the New Testament there are a few technical terms that have a specialized meaning that you can only come to understand as you study the New Testament. And there is a whole list of some of them. “The old man, the body, the body of sin, the body of the sins of the flesh and the flesh.” In certain context—and it is not in every context—those do not mean what they seem to mean. In other words, when Paul talks about the flesh you might think he is talking about my physical body. But he is not. Likewise when he speaks about the body. In some places he is actually talking about the body, the physical body. But in many other places he is not talking about this physical body but he is talking about the old nature that is born into every descendant of Adam. He is talking about a nature. You could call it the Adamic nature. And that nature is summed up in one word, one very simple word; Rebel. Now here is an unpleasant fact about each one of us. Inside each one of us there is a rebel. We have no choice in the matter, we were born that way. And God has a program for that rebel. Do you know what his program is? He does not send them to church, or Sunday school, or teach him to memorize

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scripture. His program is very simple. That is right, you’ve got it, execution. God has no future for the rebel.

Dead indeed, the Rebel was Executed….The message of the gospel, the good news is the execution took place 19 centuries ago when Jesus died on the cross. Our old man was crucified in him. It is an objective, historical fact. Whether we believe it or not does not change the fact. But our knowing it and believing it will change our experience. You see, Paul says in Romans 6:6, “Knowing this.” And then in Romans 6:11 he says: “Likewise also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God.”

That order is logical. First of all you have to know the scriptural fact. Then by personal reckoning you have to apply it to yourself. You have to reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin. It is a really interesting question what it means to be dead to sin. You see, all this is part of the provision of the cross. I have used in my books this little, simple illustration about this terribly bad man. I mean, he is the kind of man that churchgoing people just have no time for. He drinks whiskey, he smokes cigars, he watches pornography on the television and he is mean and beastly to his wife and children. Now his wife has become a believer and so have the children. So they sneak out on Sunday evenings to the local gospel church to just get away from him. And one Sunday evening they sneak out and leave him sitting in his chair with a glass of whiskey by his side, a cigar in his mouth and some unedifying program there on the television. They have a wonderful time at the local church, come back so happy they are singing choruses. As they come in they suddenly freeze and realize if he hears them singing choruses he is going to swear at them. And they tiptoe a little further, the cigar is beside him, the smoke is curling up in the air, the whiskey glass is on the table, he is not drinking it. He is not watching what is going on on the television screen. And he does not shout at them, he does not even get angry with them. Do you know what happened? He had a heart attack. That is right, he died. He is dead to sin! All right. I mean it, that is exactly what Paul is saying. What does that mean? Sin has no more power over him. Sin has no more attraction for him. Sin produces no more reaction from him. That is to be dead to sin. Paul says reckon yourselves to be dead to sin. Why? On the basis of what took place on the cross. Because God executed the old man in Jesus. Our old man is

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executed. But we have to know it and we have to reckon it. When we do those two things it becomes real in our experience. You see, there is a lot of difference between having your sins forgiven which is wonderful and having the rebel executed. For instance, when I grew up in church as a boy, every Sunday morning we went to church and we confessed our sins. We really did not have any option, everybody did it. And I somehow walked out of the church wondering or hoping maybe something would happen. But I knew full well that during the next week I would be committing the same sins that I had already confessed. And I came to wonder whether it was better to confess them and go on doing them or not confess them. But you see, that is just a form of religion. That is not the message of the gospel because God not merely deals with the past. That is wonderful to have your past forgiven, it is tremendous. But it still does not solve your problem if there is a rebel living inside you. Why? Because the rebel will cause you to go on doing rebellious acts. So the provision of God is not merely to forgive us of the past, but it is the execution of the rebel inside me. God’s program for dealing with the old man is quite distinct from the forgiveness of sin. The forgiveness of sins is wonderful but you are never going to have a life of victory or real fruitfulness as long as that old rebel is still alive inside you. God’s provision is the execution of the rebel. God’s mercy is the execution took place when Jesus died. Our old man was crucified with him. The Old King James says “is crucified” which is the perfect tense. But the more correct translation is “was crucified.” It’s a simple past tense, it’s an actual, historical fact that took place. This does not matter whether we know it or believe it, it is true. But knowing it and believing it is going to change you and me. “Our old man was crucified that the new man might come to life in us.” That is the exchange from the old man to the new man.

The Old Self and the New Self Now let’s look at the picture of the new man for a moment. The Old Self and the New Self; these are two persons who are central to the whole revelation of the New Testament about whom most Christians know very little. They are never named, they are just the old man and the new man. And it is interesting that when it comes to the old man, there is no distinction of race. It never talks about the Jewish old man or the Gentile old man or the Greek old man, he is just the old man. The Adam in every one of us. You see, Adam never begot any children until he was a rebel. And every child that is descended from Adam has got in him the nature of a rebel.

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Now let us look in Ephesians 4:22–24. This is part of an exhortation to be real Christians, that’s really what it boils down to. And the figure that is used is the taking off of one set of clothing and the putting on of another set.

That you put off [or take off] concerning your former conduct the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man, which [or who] was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22–24

So there you have a description of the two persons, the old self and the new self. Now the key word that describes the old self or the old man is the word corrupt. Sin has corrupted the nature of the old man. He is morally corrupt, emotionally corrupt and physically corrupt. He is going to die. The end of corruption is death. God made something very vivid, which is that corruption is irreversible. Once anything becomes corrupt there is no way of reversing the process of corruption. You can slow it down but it has to go through. And so when God wants to do something for us he has to give us a totally new beginning. He does not try to remedy the corruption, he does away with the corruption and replaces it by a new non-corrupt nature. If you look in Ephesians 4:22, and with a little more literal rendering of it, it says: “The old man who grows corrupt according to the lusts of deceit.” You see, the essence of the problem of the old man is he was deceived by Satan. And out of his deception has come what the New Testament calls lust. And in the New Testament lust frequently means desires which were implanted by God and which were originally natural and healthy but which through sin have become perverted, evil and harmful. So that is the result of the deception of Satan that the desires implanted in us by God have become corrupt, harmful. And God says there is only one solution: execution. But he says, “I am going to replace it with a new man.” Now you look at the description of the new man in verse 24, “You put on the new man who is created according to God [that is, according to God’s standards and God’s purposes, fulfilling God’s design] in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

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It is important to see that the old man is the product of the lie, the new man is the product of the truth. And the truth brings forth righteousness and holiness. That is why it is so important that we see the truth about both in the scripture. Now, what is the old man or, who is the old man? If you go back one chapter in Ephesians to chapter 3 and verse 17 Paul prays one of his tremendous prayers. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith . . .”

Christ in You…So who is the new man? It is Christ. You go also to that tremendous statement in Colossians 1:27: “To them [that is to us if you can receive it, to the believers, the saints. I like to say to us.] God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.” And it is a mystery which has been His from previous ages and generations. That makes it exciting. Honestly, if you do not get excited about the gospel, you have never really grasped what it is telling you. Now, what is the mystery? It is Christ in you. Three short words. That is the new man, Christ in you. But, and I do not know whether I can explain this sufficiently, it is not the person of Jesus Christ who is at the Father’s right hand, obviously. It is the nature of Jesus Christ, the Christ nature. Because the purpose of God was to bring many sons to glory, to reproduce Jesus in every one of the believers.

Let us take it a step further. If you look in 1 John 3 for a moment and verse 9 you find a very startling statement.

“Whoever has been born of God does not sin; for his seed remains in him [God’s seed], and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” 1 John 3:9

Now does that tell us that a born again believer never sins? That would leave out a lot of us here including me, believe me. One interpretation is “does not regularly commit sin.” That is stretching the meaning of the Greek tense far

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beyond anything that is justifiable. But it actually says he cannot commit sins. Now is there any one of us here truly born of God? Of whom it would be said he cannot commit sin? I do not believe it is. So what is the answer? What cannot sin is the new nature that is been born in us. This is a nature that cannot sin, it is the Jesus nature. It is the new man. Now let us support that from 1 John 5:4:

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” 1 John 5:4

Now John says they are not whoever but whatever. Okay? So it is a person but it is also a nature. It is the new man. It cannot sin, it is incorruptible. Do you know why it is incorruptible? Because God’s seed remains in him. What is the seed? Turn to 1 Peter 1:23. This is the middle of a sentence; we do not need to go through the whole thing.

“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:23.

The Seed Determines the NatureWhat is the nature of the seed of God’s word, what is the key word? Incorruptible. Understand? It is exact opposite is the nature of the old man which is corrupt. Now, in all the universe, there is this principle. The nature of the seed determines the nature of that which is produced by the seed. For instance, you plant an orange pit, you do not expect to get an apple. You plant an apple pit, you do not expect to get a banana. The seed determines the nature. So, if we are born again of incorruptible seed, what kind of nature do we get? An incorruptible nature. That is the nature of the new man. Now, listen, I am not telling you that a born again Christian cannot sin. I would have to rule myself out if I told you that. What I am telling you is that in every truly born again Christian there is a nature which is incapable of sinning. It is the nature of Jesus and it is born of the incorruptible seed of the word of God and nothing can ever corrupt it.

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Why Keep your Nose Down to the Earth? Now the kind of life we live will be determined by the interplay of two natures: the old man and the new man. The new man cannot sin, the old man cannot help sinning. So in order to live a life of victory, we have to accept the Biblical pattern of dealing with the old man which is? Crucifixion, execution. But it is not enough just once to reckon yourself dead. If you turn to Colossians 3 Paul makes it clear it is an ongoing process. In fact, it is an ongoing battle. Looking now in Colossians 3:

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1a

Paul has been teaching both in Ephesians and Colossians we are identified with Jesus Christ in death, burial, resurrection and ascension. So he says if we have ascended with Christ why keep your nose down to the earth?

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:1b

Is not that a wonderful statement! You died. When did you die? When Jesus died on the cross. You died. You say, “Well, where is my life now?” Paul says you have got a secret, hidden life that the world does not understand. It is hidden with Christ in God. What could ever be more secure than that? With Christ in God. Then he goes on:

“When Christ, who is our life, appears . . .” Colossians 3:4a

CHRIST is your LIFE.Brothers and sisters, everything you need is in that one statement. Christ is our life. Victory over sin, healing from sickness, power over the devil. It is all in that one statement. Christ is our life. It is so simple. But then he goes on to say:

“[When Christ appears,] then shall you also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:4b

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Then the world will really see what you are like. Meanwhile it is hidden, the world cannot see it. Now then, verse 5:

“Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5

See, the Bible is very realistic. It says all right, you died when Jesus died on the cross. But be sure to keep yourself dead! So he says mortify, put to death, keep dead. So that is God’s provision for victory over sin. I would have to say lots of born again Christians really do not have ongoing victory over sin. They are continually struggling up and down. One day they have the victory, the next day they do not. I think in most cases it is because they have not seen God’s provision made through the cross. Let us go back to Romans 6:6 for a moment.

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with.”

Notice the body of sin? That is another word for this thing in us that is always motivated to sin. “Might be done away with,” it is very hard to find a good translation for that word, I would say put out of action. It does not cease to exist. There is some holiness teaching that teaches that the old man has ceased to exist. Well, who is doing his job, that is my question? It just does not answer to experience. One thing about theology, it has to work in experience. Otherwise it is not much use. “The body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” That is the ultimate purpose, to escape from the slavery of sin. And that is only when we recognize that our old man was crucified with him. Merely having our past sins forgiven is tremendous but it does not deal with the slavery of sin. Our old man was put to death that the new man might come to life in us. In other words, your old man was put to death that the new man might come to life in you.

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Reign and Rule …In conclusion, we do not wage war against sin through the flesh – old man because he is a worthy opponent. Rather, we are to exercise dominion and enforce our victory over him. Despite the fact that the old man was crucify in essence and reality on the cross with Christ, we need to constantly reckon him dead indeed and reign over him as Lord. We now have dominion over him and not him over us. Up until Christ, “sin reigned in the flesh through death, but righteousness now reigns through life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Romans 5:21

Our disposition should be that of Lord and not of Slave, Not that of a Victim but of a Victor. Not that of Weakness but of Power, Not that of Struggle but of Strength. We us to be slave to sin, but now sin is a slave to us. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:27:

“No[w], I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:27 emphasis mine

We are encouraged by Paul to take radical approach in enforcing our victory over sin and making the finished work of Christ Jesus a reality in our daily experiences.Our dual responsibility is now, first to acknowledge and reckon the Flesh - old man dead, and secondly to keep him dead by taking daily radical actions and strong attitude against him in accordance to the spirit of Power, Love – righteousness, and Self-discipline that now works in/through us.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of Power, Love, and of Self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Since in accordance with the scriptures, we are now kings of righteousness and priests of holiness, and we now reign as sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us be alert and self-controlled. 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6Dear friend, be sure to keep yourself dead!That’s wonderful.

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The next chapter provides us practical tips and steps on how to keep ourselves dead daily.

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CHAPTER 3: - HOW TO KILL THE DEEDS OF MY FLESH

Put to death, there, whatever belongs to your earthly nature… Because of these, the wrath of God id coming. Colossians 3:5,6

The question is, “How do I subdue and kill the deeds of the flesh in my life? How do I do it?” Let me give you some little principles — very basic and straightforward.If you live by the Spirit and are headed towards eternal life because of your salvation, the Spirit in you gives the power to be killing the deeds of the flesh.The question is, “All right, how do I do that? I agree that the power is there, that is the bent of my life, that is the way I am going. I want to see the Spirit do more and more of it. How do I get to that point? How do I gain that victory? How do I establish that habitual pattern? What do I do?”

1. Recognize the Collaboration of Sin and Your Flesh.Do you know why most Christians are most commonly defeated by sin? It is because their sin has so totally deceived them, that they never really get to the point where they honestly evaluate its reality. They are not dealing with the issue.They spend so much of their lives justifying their sin as a personality quirk or a product of their environment. They sugar-coat their habitual sins as simply idiosyncrasies of individuality, or some prenatal predilection that their mother had, or whatever. People can become so good at denying the reality of sin that they don’t see it. As a result, they don’t deal with it because they don’t even recognize it for what it is.Any kind of spiritual victory begins by identifying the enemy. It is the same old story, "If you don’t know what you are shooting at, how are you going to hit it?” How am I going to eliminate from my life what I don’t even identify as needing to be eliminated?Sin is not only wicked, it is deceitful. And it is there inside each of us. John Owen was right; he says of sin:

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It has no doors to open. It needs no engine by which to work. It lies in the mind and in the understanding. It is found in the will. It is in the inclinations of the affections. It has such intimacy in the soul.

It is there! But inevitably it is covered up. As the Psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me” (Psalm 139:22).We must ask God to help us see our sinfulness, if we want to recognize it for what it is.Do not be deceived about how good you are. It is wretched and it spurts forth between the cracks of your supposed righteousness. It comes out in anger and bitter words, unkind thoughts, criticisms, self-conceit, lack of understanding, impatience, weak prayers, immoral thoughts, and even overt sins. You need to know your weaknesses.Haggai the prophet, in chapter one of his prophecy, repeats the command , “Consider your ways! Consider your ways!” (vv. 5, 7). In other words, take a good deep look at yourself. First Kings 8:38 says, “Know the plague in your own heart.” And Paul in Ephesians 4:22 talks about deceitful lusts. From these and many other passages, the Bible makes the point: If you want to put to death the deeds of the flesh in your life, you must begin by examining your own heart to see the reality of what is there.

2. A Heart Fixed on God. Second step. In order to gain this victory, its triumph, and to see the power of the Spirit of God begin to give you the power over the unredeemed flesh that you desire—that God desires—you must have a heart fixed on God. A heart fixed on God. The Psalmist said in Psalm 57:7, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” What do I mean by that? Undivided devotion to God! That’s that wholeness in spiritual life where I am given wholly to God. What do I mean by that? What I am really saying in this context is, you cannot have sin in one area. You cannot just sort of clean up a lot of it but leave it in one area. You cannot starve it out and kill it in one spot and feed it so it lives in another spot. If it lives anywhere it will crawl all over everywhere. It is the most noxious, fastest growing weed in existence. It will not confine itself to one flower bed, it will be everywhere.

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The psalmist said in Psalm 119, verse 6, “Then shall I not be ashamed.” When? When will you not be ashamed? “When I have respect unto all thy commandments.” My life is not going to be right; my life is not going to be without shame until I give proper respect to every command of God. And that is to deal with every issue of the works of flesh in my life. The only unashamed life is the life of one who is totally fixed on God; everything has been dealt with.

3. Meditate on the Word.Meditate on the Word. The filling of the Spirit is equated in Colossians 3, to letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. When the Word controls you, when it controls your thinking, when it is there as the psalmist said, “To meditate on day and night,” when it is there hidden that “I might not sin against God,” then you have a control factor in your life. The way to kill the flesh and its collaboration with sin in your life is to feed it Scripture. It is a poison. It will poison sin. Just feed a sinful life Scripture—it will poison it! Whatever really controls your mind, controls your behavior; so you learn to close out the garbage and you feed the sin—the remaining sin—in your life a steady diet of God’s glorious truth and it poisons sin. And so you must give yourself to the Word. I mean the sincere word of God and not the kind that will further fuel the lust of your flesh and stimulate its appetite You must saturate yourself in the Word. You must hear the Word preached and taught. You must learn it yourself and you must meditate on it day and night.

4. Commune with God in Prayer.Very importantly, commune with God in prayer. This sort of circles back around to the first point that I gave you. True prayer gives the heart a sense of its own vile character and renews the hatred of sin. True prayer does that. John Owens said, “He who pleads with God for the remission of sin also pleads with his own heart to detest it.” Somewhere along the line, in your own prayer life you need to get honest. You need to get honest. And you need to begin to say to God, “I want you to reveal every collaboration of my flesh with sin, I want you to stir it up in me. I want you to show it to me. I want you to blow away the dust that is covering it. I want you to peel off the things that have been hiding it away in my life, so that it

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becomes manifest and visible to me. I want to see the reality of my carnality. I want you to show it to me just the way it is.” That is part of your communion with God. When you pray to God—that is an honest confession. You can say you confess your sins, but until you pray, “God show me all the sins of my life, reveal all of them, uncover every little corner of my life. Bring it up and may it become as detestable to me as it is to you, and may you give me the strength to see it go away.” Those are the kind of prayers that are the true prayers of repentance. I have always believed that when you really confess your sins there is a little P.S. that you add to the end of it, when you say, “Lord please forgive me for that sin,” and you always add, if your confession is true, “and Lord may I never do that again.” That is my heart’s cry. And then prayer exposes secret sins. Prayer weakens prevailing sins. Prayer finds strength in fellowship with the Holy God to kill sin in our lives. What must I do if I am to know victory over sin? First, I have to recognize the sin in my life. Do not kid yourself, do not gloss over yourself, do not underestimate your wretched condition as Paul didn’t in Romans, chapter 7. And then fix your gaze wholly on God and become totally devoted to Him, so that everything in life, center and circumference, is Him. As the psalmist said in Psalm 16, “I have set the Lord always before me,” and that is the only way to live. And then it is also equally essential that you cultivate a knowledge and understanding, and a deep comprehension and application of biblical truth, and that you spend time in honest prayer before God, bringing the truth to life in His presence. And in those kinds of simple spiritual exercises comes the death of sin. Then there is a fifth and last in this little pattern of victory.

5. Cultivate Obedience.Now we go out of that private place, where you looked for your sin and where you fixed you gaze on God. And where you meditated on the Word, and where you communed with God in prayer, and we move into the public place and now the pattern of your life is set on a course of obedience. Paul said, “I have not attained,” I love this, “but,” he said, “I press towards the mark.” I have not reached the goal but I am on the path. What path was he on? The path of obedience. Peter said, “Our lives should be characterized,” 1 Peter 1:22, “by obedience to the truth.” And we walk a path of obedience. If you want to engage yourself with a real battle with sin, just set your course, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, one step at a time, on a path of

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obedience. At first it seems hard, at first the progress seems slow, but you stay with it and eventually you become habitually obedient. Habitually obedient. It becomes a habit! You stay on the path that God has laid out in His Word. That path will lead you to grow in grace, to perfect holiness, to renew the inward man day-by-day, and you will train yourself towards godliness.

The Final QuestionNow, it would be fair, I think, to ask a final question, and that is, “How am I doing on this?” How can I do a little inventory and say to myself, “Soul, Soul, how are you doing? How’s this working out? Are you doing these things?” Just ask yourself some simple questions.

A. How’s my zeal for God? Is my heart cold towards God? Has sin made me indifferent to times of communion with Him? Do I have little or no interest in His presence? In the glory of His name? Do I love His Word? Do I love His law? Can I understand what the psalmist meant in Psalm 119:136, when he said, “Rivers of water run down my eyes, because they keep not thy law.” Do I have such a love for God’s law that I am devastated when His law is disregarded? Do I earnestly contend for the faith? Do I live to uphold truth? To live it? To proclaim it? What level is my zeal at?

B. Do I love the Word?Do I find myself drawn to the Word? Almost pinned to it by some divine wrestler who has me on the canvas and I can’t get up until its truths have become my own convictions. Do I find myself indulging in the deep things of the Word? Ask myself this, “Self, do you love the time of prayer? Do you love the place of confession? Do you eagerly rush into the place where you can confess your sin and ask God to do the self-examining process by the light of the Holy Spirit, so that every dirty thing can be brought to light. Do you seek that? Do you delight in worship? Is it your great longing to be here with God’s redeemed people? Is it precious to you to spend the Lord’s Day in the church? Is it your soul’s highest delight to sing His praise and know Him better, that you might offer Him honor?” Or do you say with the Jews of Malachi’s day, “What a weariness worship is!”

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Ask yourself this, “Are you sensitive to sin in the church? Are you sensitive to sin in the world? Does it tear your heart up when you see sin around you any where? In your own life?”

You see those are just the basic principles I gave you, just flipped around and turned into self-examining questions. Spiritual victory is there if you recognize that you are not under any obligation to sin. If you recognize that the Spirit of God has already bent you towards life, and so He had already killed sin in your life, and the power to put it to effect in your experience is resident in you. Then all you need to do is tap into the means, and I gave you simple principles by which you can begin to do that in your life, and a little test by which you can examine where you are. I don’t know about you but I want to have a life of virtue. I want to have a life of joy. I want to have a life of peace, and I want to have a life of usefulness to God—and this is the path to that life. And may God give you the strength to walk it; and may—through you walking it faithfully—God bring glory to His own name. That’s the purpose of everything.

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