SDCCM Blog

James 1:21 – Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
In his letter to the church, James helps us understand that salvation is not a matter of simply believing, but that we must participate in salvation’s application to our soul in our daily walk. It is impossible to save one’s self through human effort. Through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, one can apply salvation’s provision daily.

There are areas of the soul which I call “the senses of the soul” that need to be washed, cleansed, and surrendered to Christ each day. The soul is to become dependent on the work of God’s grace that took place in our spirit man when we were “born again.” It is by grace through faith our life is lived in the Spirit (see Ephesians 2:8). The five senses that were once fully controlled through the natural man and influenced by the world are: reason, imagination, affection, memory, and conscience.

First is our reasoning. “Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?” (Mark 2:8). Jesus knew in His spirit man how the religious leaders were thinking about the healing of a crippled man through Jesus’ words, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). They determined in their minds that Jesus was “blaspheming” because only God can forgive sins. The Holy Spirit wants to lead us to “reason” by God’s word and not from our natural thinking. Their reasoning was rooted in their evil hearts which affected how they viewed the ministry of Jesus. READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE

Romans 8:5 – Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Paul describes two categories of people, those of the flesh and those of the Spirit. The believers are to set their minds on the things that concern the Spirit of God. Today, we will consider five specific areas the Spirit of the Lord wants to develop in our spirit. Each of the five is a characteristic of God’s nature. Faith, love, peace, joy, reverential fear, and true worship are in us because of the new birth. Each one provides a basis for everything else the Holy Spirit accomplishes in our life.

Faith is an attribute of God’s heart, not simply a mind-set. Jesus said, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). A close look at this verse reveals that the original language should be translated “have the faith of God.” This kind of faith is given to the believer through the Holy Spirit. God’s faith is made alive through the new birth and resides in our spirit. Faith is: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). The hope spoken of in this verse means a “sure expectation.” READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE

Romans 7:22 – I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.
When the Scriptures speak of the “inner man,” they are referring to the human spirit which has been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before the new birth, our human spirit was dead in its knowledge and relationship to God. It is simply our natural life which had its beginning in Adam. He lost his standing before God when he chose sin and death over obedience and life (Genesis 2-3).

When one is “born again,” their human spirit is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7). We know by the Scriptures and through life experience that the soul of man is not born again of the Spirit. The soul is changed as one allows their spirit to take control and help change the thoughts of the mind. That is why Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 KJV).

The inner man must be renewed “day by day.” READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE

John 3:3 – Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is one of the most familiar Scriptures. During his 1976 presidential campaign President Carter made it a popular saying when he declared that he was born again and served as a Baptist Sunday school teacher. The phrase originated with Jesus when he was speaking to Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher. Nicodemus understood that Jesus must be from God. Because of the signs Jesus was performing such as healing and miracles. Nicodemus was trying to figure Jesus out through his intellect. Jesus gave Nicodemus a new paradigm to consider. Even though Nicodemus saw the signs, he had not truly seen the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God in not an intellectual experience, it is a “spiritual birth.” Many today are still trying to get to God through their intellect, but that is impossible to do. READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE

2 Corinthians 1:10 – God delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.
As Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he is describing the comfort he knows even in times of affliction. The kind of affliction he is speaking of was “beyond his strength” (2 Corinthians 1:8). Paul says, “We had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). In verse 10, Paul reveals the threefold order of God’s salvation. First, God delivered us from “so great a death.” The great death is what the Scriptures call the “second death” (Revelation 20:6). We were dead in our “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Through the blood of Christ, our sins have been forgiven and washed away, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Ephesians 1:7-8). Salvation begins in our spirit and is renewed and made alive in Christ daily. READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE

Hebrews 11:40 – God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
What an amazing statement the writer of Hebrews makes as he sums up this chapter! This chapter is known as “The honor roll of the faithful.” None of those listed in the honor roll of the faithful experienced the full purpose of God. His full purpose could only be experienced in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The faithful of the Old Testament were those waiting in upper Sheol for the Son of God to come and release them to the promise of perfection. The “better” spoken of in this verse is the Lord Jesus Christ, who we receive through the Spirit.

The Spirit of God spoke of Christ throughout the Old Testament. The Spirit created the Holy One in the womb of Mary. The Holy Spirit revealed the Father through the earthly ministry of our Lord. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to suffer and die for our sins. It was the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the grave. Along with Jesus, many Old Testament saints arose from the dead and testified to many in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). READ MORE – CLICK TITLE ABOVE