You Don't Have To Be What You Were Born

Phillipians 3:7-11

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead

....and...

Ephesians 6:10-12

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

We are all born destined for evil. It's a fact. All we have to do is look at our track record and see where we have fallen short in at least one area of life. Prior to our acceptance of Christ all was lost. After our acceptance and yielding to Christ in our lives as ruler we are still left to contend with the things that we were born to be.

We hear it on the news all the time: "I am like this because this happened to me or this person did this to me".

I do not look down my nose at anyone's past. I don't look down my nose at my own past. I will not, however, let it determine who I am this minute, the next minute, or the next day.

Truly many of us have been scarred, manipulated, abused, molested, and/or assaulted at some point or points in our lives. For some people the points of these crimes occurred every day for years of their lives.

And if there is any exception to what I have just stated I can say this for the remainder and for all of us as a whole: we have all been deceived.

We have been told by psychology that we are the products of our environment. We have been sold the lie that we are bound to our cultural and genetic inheritence. These lies becomes the truth when we accept it as such.

When we become self aware, and I mean truly self aware, we break the bonds of our history and truly embrace potential. The truth of the matter is this self awareness can only reach it's full disclosure in the continued seeking out of God and who He is as well has what has been given up for us. We absolutely must come to the clarity that I/you were individually and collectively of such tremendous value that God would take our place in the penalty for our own past crimes. Make no mistake crime is sin and sin is crime. And none of us, whether victim or perpetrator can escape a measure of guilt.

But where am I going after all of this? Let's see...oh yeah "We do not have to be what we are born." We may have the tendency to go that route as it is what we are most familiar with, what's the easiest, what is most deeply known, or in many cases what we want.

When we accept Christ we start to see the evil thing that we have been and the things that evil person has done. Don't get me wrong, we are still destined for demonhood left on our own. The only difference between a Christian and a non Christian is the acceptance of the gift that God has given by the Christian. With that acceptance we also an inherit a revulsion for ourselves every time that we lean the old way or fall the old way. That revulsion is a good thing. A very good thing. That means the Holy Spirit's poking at us.

What the devil does with that revulsion, however, is a perversion. He will tell you that you cannot win, that you cannot change, that you are too bad to be of any use to God, and that you might as well just go back to the old path and enjoy what you can of it. After all, what's the use? We aren't perfect right?

This is by no means meant to be a cause and effect formula but often times the closer that we get to where God want's us the more troubles people get into.

And the devil's smart. He doesn't have to get you to go 180 degrees from God he just has to bump you off course enough that you forget about where you were going. Satan and his boys will tug and tug and throw crap in the path of the faithful. If nothing else take it as flattery. Personally, if my life was going 100 percent smooth I'd be nervous.

Don't feel bad brother or sister as you are not alone. Paul, arguably the greatest of the apostles, battled it all the time. The book of Romans details a great deal of flesh vs. spirit for control of our life. I'm going to mention only a spot:

Romans 5:19-6:2

19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

It's a war friends. A war around us and a war within us. But we don't have to lose. But we do have to fight. God will make up the difference from our weakness but we must fight. And the more we fight the better we will get at it. The battles will be swifter and don't be suprised if they are spaced out a little further from each other. Just don't expect them to disappear because they won't. Don't get complacent and don't be fearful. Just stay ready and remember Who's got your back.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (New International Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXySJAqcnak