There is a moment of truth for every human soul to whom the Holy Spirit, through the human spirit, has revealed the wickedness of sin. It is so easy to become familiar with Bible language without receiving any real revelation of truth. God wants to bring you, no matter how bitter may be the experience, to the place of self-discovery, to this moment of truth. In startling reality, the truth as expressed by Paul may dawn upon your soul: “I am a creature of the flesh–carnal, unspiritual, having been sold into slavery under the control of sin” (Romans 7:14, AMP). This passage in Romans reveals how the human soul is exploited by the subtle principle of sin within, and clearly defines the conflict within you. One part of you says, “I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it…. I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self, with my new nature” (Romans 7:16, 22, AMP) In your human spirit, the Holy Spirit is bearing witness to all that is good and right and noble; to your enlightened moral conscience, every act and attitude of sin is an offense. Then there is that other part of you, “the sin principle which dwells within me, fixed and operating in my soul” (Romans 7:20, AMP). You realize “that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands” (Romans 7:21, AMP). The moment of truth comes when you quit exchanging courtesies with the flesh and repudiate it to its face, naming it for the treacherous, wicked, worthless thing it is. At this climactic stage in your Christian life you realize that there can be no compromise with the flesh, and that peaceful coexistence with a principle satanically hostile to the law of God and to the reestablishment of His sovereignty within your soul is now beyond the bounds of possibility. You realize that it was never God’s purpose to improve the flesh, to educate it or to tame it, let alone Christianize it. It has always been God’s purpose that the flesh–condemned, sentenced, and crucified with Jesus Christ–might be left buried in the tomb and replaced by the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The risen Christ must exercise control in your mind, in your emotions, and in your will, expressing Himself through your personality. Paul described this clearly in his concern for the Ephesian Christians, when he prayed for them: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:14-17). Have you repudiated your flesh, recognizing it and naming it for the evil and worthless thing it is? Have you fully realized that there can be no compromise with the flesh in your life? How are you allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to express Himself through your personality? –From The Indwelling Life of Christ by Major W. Ian Thomas
God wants to bring you, no matter how bitter may be the experience, to the place of self-discovery, to this moment of truth.