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In 1Corinthians 6:12(NLT), through the Apostle Paul the Lord tells us, “You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.” It’s clear in this verse that, as it pertains to how we live our lives, we have the right to make any decision we want to. God gave us dominion and authority from the very beginning, and we know from Romans 11:29 that God never does a ‘take-back’ with His gifts. We call the shots by the choices and decisions we make. And as shot-callers and masters of choice, we need to be incredibly discerning between the truth and a lie, and between light and darkness. Not doing so may cause us to get sucked into an evil vortex, where we’re robbed of the blessings that are coming our way.
As God’s spiritual children, there are some truths regarding the spiritual dimension that we can’t ever overlook. One of those is pertaining to the discernment of what God will or won’t do, and what the enemy will or won’t do. If a person doesn’t live for God through the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no protection against the evil actions of mind and body manipulation from the enemy. This means that their minds and bodies can be possessed by demonic spirits. Many people are defenseless against this kind of darkness, and it is because they don’t know the difference between light and darkness, or worse, they do know it and choose darkness any way.
The Spirit of God will never come into a person and takeover that person’s mind and heart. We would be in a much better place if He did, but this isn’t how God operates. Love doesn’t takeover or usurp a person’s will. God gave us liberty through Jesus Christ. He gave us free-will, and 1Corinthians 6:12 affirms that we are allowed to do with this gift as we choose. As spiritually mature men and women, God expects us to be exceptional stewards of His goodness. In other words, He expects that we honor the reality that just because He’s given us extremely generous legal rights here on earth, it doesn’t mean that everything we do is ok with Him.
Heavenly Father holds His children to a higher standard. Jesus Christ told us in Luke 12:48 that to whom much is given, much is required. With greater knowledge comes a greater responsibility. God has given all of us free-will choice, and He gave us the opportunity to shape and mold the kind of life we desire. The challenge for many Christians becomes problematic when our desires don’t line up with the guidelines that God set forth. This is where we get into trouble.
As God’s kids, our creed is to walk by faith. We call those things which are not as though they were; we understand that the things that are unseen are more real than those that are seen, and most importantly, we trust the power of God without hesitation. We are spiritual beings operating within a natural realm, and we are operating in this natural realm BY the Spirit of the Living God. This means that it’s our responsibility to ensure that nothing in the natural realm has dominance over us. As the Apostle Paul put it in 1Corinthians 6:12(NLT), “I must not become a slave to anything.”
If we become a slave to anything in this natural realm, including our own physical bodies, we will injure our relationship with God. We will join ourselves to the realm of darkness and become one with it, rather than remaining in the realm of God’s glorious light. 1Corinthians 6:13,15-17(NLT) tells us, “13You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!16And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”17But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.”
We are allowed to do anything we choose, and with the grace of God, sometimes the impact of making the wrong decision isn’t too harsh, but this does not give us a pass with God. Galatians 5:16 (NIV) tells us “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” We should never compromise or give up on our Godly standards for the sake of pleasing fleshly desires or for any reason. We cannot allow our vision of Godliness to become watered down by societal pressure. God’s way is best. It’s protects our hearts, it sustains and covers us physically, and it works!■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Watch out for Mind and Body Manipulation”, written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2018. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.
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