Watch with Me Depression Seeking The Kingdom Of God Distress of Nations
The Inward Man
By: Kirbbie L. Cowart
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
II Corinthians 4:16
As you look at church going people today you will see a people that has no idea what it means to be born again. They have just added going to church to fill a void in their empty life. Self-help preaching will never bring the fullness that only knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and savior brings to a perishing soul. Three out of four people going to church knows nothing about holiness or living a holy life.
We that have been born again for a great part have been deceived by a religious world in that they will tell you that nothing has changed in the believers heart. He still sins and he will always be a sinner. My friend, that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is that the old man is crucified with Jesus Christ on the cross and a new man has been quickened by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to walk in newness of life.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:1-4
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Romans 6:6
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Romans 6:13
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Romans 8:9
When we as born again children of God come to understand the meaning of having this Life of Jesus Christ in our being (body) as the great treasure it is, then I feel we will honor and reverence the presence of God in our lives and have a greater understanding of the work of God. This is what set the early church apart from the church today. The early church lived in the Spirit and walked in the Spirit more so than the church today. It was the very life of Jesus Christ in the church working in and through the lives of the believers that worked miracles, heal the sick, raised the dead and turned the world upside down. The early church valued the inward man and would rather die than lose Him, the love of their life.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
I Corinthians 3:16-17
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
II Corinthians 4:7-10
The life of Jesus Christ that is in the born again believer is not one of sinning from time to time: it is a life that is free from sin. It is the very life of Jesus Christ that will be manifested in the body of the child of God that will bring glory to God the Father.
The inward Man is the life of Jesus Christ in the believer. It is a treasure that money cannot buy; a gift of God that only comes through repentance and turning from sin and total surrender of your will and life to the Lord. You are not your own you are bought with a great price.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
I Corinthians 6:19-20
When you have repented from sin and experienced the forgiveness of the Lord in your heart, you know that you have been born again, a new creation in Jesus Christ: you are a new creature. It is not a lifestyle: it is the very life of Jesus Christ in your being. Jesus came to bring Life, not a lifestyle. To the believer it is the most precious life that one can possess.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:15-16
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 5:24
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
II Corinthians 5:17
The children of God will fellowship with the Lord because he or she is aware of the Spirit of truth that is in them. It is the “treasure in earthen vessels (II Corinthians 4:7).” The inward Man is the Life of Jesus Christ in you, the earthen vessel, and what a treasure it is. The child of God must honor him at all times and never do anything that will grieve the Spirit of God that is living on the inside of the believer. Many have grieved the Spirit of God and He "the Spirit of God" has departed and they know it not. He will not live in an unclean temple because He is a Holy God. When you love the world and worldly things and more than you love and seek God, you grieve the Spirit of God. The Bible said what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
II Corinthians 6:16
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
II Corinthians 4:7
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
John 14:23
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
John 14:17
CAN WE SEE A REVIVAL TODAY?
The answer is yes, but only if the church returns to its first love, and “loves not their lives unto the death.” As long as we live for self and the fulfilling of the lust of the flesh we will never see our loved ones saved or our nation turned back to God. I am not talking to the sinner; I am talking to what is called the church. People that know better, but continue to live in sin, and do not value the inward man’s presence in their lives will one day realize that just going to church and being religious was a waste of years life.
Ministry is what comes out of you. If it is not Jesus Christ that is coming out of you then you are not manifesting the life of Jesus Christ in your body. Some people minister hate, lies, unforgiveness, lusts of the flesh, etc. Christ will only minister those things that edify and bring life.
... that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
II Corinthians 4:10
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Revelation 12:11
HOW MUCH DO YOU VALUE THE INWARD MAN?
If you value Him will you seek after Him to know Him?
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews 11:6