The Bible tells us to draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to us. As I seek to see this fulfilled in my life, I am learning the process I must go through. The Bible tells us that there is nothing good in our flesh. But what is our flesh? Is the Bible telling me that my body is bad? No that is not what the Bible is telling us. Our flesh is that part of us that fell in the Garden of Eden. When Adam sinned he was relying on himself. And of course, God did not make man to rely on himself but on God. The reason we have to be born again is for the Spirit of God to return to our lives. Only then can we seek to draw near to God. The Bible tells us to walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. When we are born again the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and we now again have the ability to seek the Lord and walk in righteousness.
The War Inside
So now after being born again you would think that the war is over. The war for our soul and our salvation is over and complete. We are now children of God and will live eternally with Him. However, the war for how we walk out the remainder of our lives is just beginning. The Devil can not change our position in Christ but he can tempt us to walk in such a way that our testimony for God is ineffective and possibly even detrimental. The Bible tells us that the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. We now struggle with making decisions based on our flesh versus the Spirit. We are told to walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. That is why we are to draw near to God. We are to draw near to Him in order to be filled with the Spirit and walk in righteousness.
Flesh is out
So, what I have learned is that when I start to draw near to God my flesh will rise up. This is part of the process the Lord takes us through because as we draw near to Him our flesh can not come. Only the Spirit in us can draw near to God. He is Holy and only that which is from Him can draw near to Him. So as I draw near to Him the things in my flesh like anger, lust, fear, worry, doubt, depression, etc, etc. will be exposed. The Bible tells us that God test our faith and our faith is our trust in Him for all things. And the flesh, all those areas of the flesh, fear, worry, doubt, etc. does not trust in God. So He will take us through situations to allow the flesh to be exposed and our reliance on Him and the Holy Spirit within us to grow. So when you get an unexpected bill or bad report from the doctor or lose your job do you immediately go into fear, worry and doubt? Or do you trust in the Lord? Our God is real and He has real answers for our everyday life. He knows how many hairs are on our head. So He is so close to us that when one hair falls out He recalculates how many hairs are on our head. Now how often does that happen, everyday?
Spirit is in
When we are born again we are given the promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is so we can draw near to God and mature through tests and situations to learn where we are relying on the flesh and change to rely on the Spirit. The change comes by growing in the word of God as it says, "....faith comes by hearing and hearing Gods word." Our faith grows from spending time in His word. So we draw near to God through studying the Bible, spending quiet time with him, praying, and learning to mature in faith and trust in Him. As we do this we will draw nearer and nearer to Him and He will draw nearer and nearer to us and we will become more like Him in our ways and will be a brighter light of His Love, Grace and Mercy towards us and the world.
