But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

2 Corinthians 1:9

“The call to eternal life is a call unto death. No death, no life.”

I once had a puppy that I wore a neck chain on so I can control. As time went by, I kept nurturing and feeding it fat because I loved huge dogs and my dog kept growing. I did not realize how fat my dog had become until I came to feed it one day and this time, I met its neck chain on the ground. What happened? You may be wondering; nothing happened other than the fact that my dog outgrew the chain and as such snapped it off.

Can I say this to you today? The reason many believers are held captive and suffer the same things as unbelievers is because they have refused to grow up. Beloved, there is a place you get to in spiritual growth, that you break the yokes of affliction off your life by the level of light available to you from Scriptures. In this journey of faith therefore, spiritual growth is a necessity.

As necessary as spiritual growth is, one of its major hinderances is the failure to embrace the death sentence. Do not be deceived, every child of God is destined to die. The body of every believer carries a sentence of death and in going through my Bible, I discovered, that our body is called the body of death. There is no alternative, no shortcut, death is the ultimate for every believer. What death? The death of the outward man, the flesh. The believer who is yet to embrace the death sentence is that believer who is yet ruled, dominated and controlled by his or her senses. He is that believer whose flesh is in control of his spirit man, he is one whose spirit cannot connect to God.

Why is it necessary to die?

• Because the real you only grows and expresses itself to the degree to which you die.
• Growing daily spiritually is a function of dying daily and for as long as your flesh is not dying, your spirit cannot grow.
• This is where the real battle is, between the spirit and the flesh. Understand that in the flesh dwells no good thing, the flesh is the body of death.
• The things you say, the things you hear, the things you can touch, the things you feel are extensions of a life that is dead to the spirit but very much alive to the flesh.

Just Do It

• Deliberately discipline and keep your flesh under control.

• Sit down and work out your growth, take steps that make for spiritual growth and be committed to the process.

Prayers

• After the order of Paul, Father, grace me to mortify my flesh daily that my spirit man may come alive in the Name of JESUS.
• I subdue my flesh today and I put it under subjection to God and His will forever, in the mighty Name of JESUS.

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 CHRONICLES 7 – 9

NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 8