Scriptures: Proverbs 25 v 28; John 3 v 3; Acts 2 v 38-39;
Romans 12 v 1-2;
Proverbs 25 v 28: "He that hath no rule over his own
spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." Conversely
he that does have rule over his own spirit is like a city that is built up, and
with walls. So which is better? Broken down and no boundaries? Or built up and
protected on all sides?
On the diagram our first wall is Salvation. Do you have a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Is your name written in the Lamb's
Book of Life? Has your lifestyle changed since you believed? Have you stopped
doing things that pollute your body and mind like drugs, porn, sex sin,
prostitution, alcohol, cigarettes, lies, fraud, rebellion and self will?
If you have answered yes to those questions you have
built a secure wall on one side of the city that is YOU. If you are still
indulging your flesh then your wall of salvation has many holes in it through
which the enemy can shoot at will.
The second wall is Water Baptism. Jesus was baptised in
water by John the Baptist at age 30. What Jesus does, we do too. It is the
outward expression of our inner commitment to Jesus. Our sinful nature dies
under the water and is exchanged for the righteous nature of Jesus. Peter said
- be born again and then be baptised.
People who say that their infant baptism is sufficient
are misled and need to rethink that deception. In Acts 19 Paul rebaptised some
believers who had been baptised by John the Baptist which was only for
repentance and not for the exchange of sin nature to righteous nature. If you
neglect this wall your city is very vulnerable to attack. (Sin, illness, debt,
fear, torment, theft, death.) Those who were rebaptised were filled with the Holy
Spirit and spoke in tongues and prophesied. This is the 3rd wall of your
city. The flowing Baptism in the Holy
Spirit. All the gifts working in you and through you, on behalf of God in
harmony with His Will. The gifts are found in 1 Corinthians 12. The fruit of
the Holy Spirit, which is our new Christlike nature, are found in Galatians 5 v
22-23.
If you have never been taught about the power of the Holy
Spirit and His gifts and fruit, find a Christian who has and ask them to lay
hands upon you to pray for you to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Without this
wall your city is incomplete and your spirit is vulnerable.
I was in a Presbytarian church in 1978 where this
blessing was not taught but I read a book by the Bennetts called "Nine
O'Clock in the Morning" and asked Jesus to baptise me in the Holy Spirit.
By lunchtime I was praying in tongues and have never looked back. The power to
witness, pray and worship is incomparable.
Wall number 4 is the dedication of your body to the
service of God Almighty. You become a living sacrifice with no more worldliness
in you than a corpse. You forsake the attraction of the world for the desire to
win the lost into the kingdom on God. Your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit and where He wants to be, you go.
We learn to bring our fleshly, worldly ambitions and
pleasures under control of the Holy Spirit. We seek deliverance of things of
the soul that manifest in the flesh like lusts, bitterness, pride, domination,
anger, racism, religiosity, division and error. It is a process not achieved in
the short term, but the more we surrender the faster we change. If we ignore
this section of the wall we will find ourselves blocked and our spiritual
growth at a standstill.
The Mind is the 5th part of wall. This is truly the
devil's playground. The surrender of the mind to the pure will of God is a true
battle as all we have learned both good and bad is stored in there. It is a
lifelong process to conquer it all completely. But as we read and heed the Word
of God so our minds become renewed and we unlearn strange philosophies, false
religious ideas, bad memories, nightmare experiences, wrong thinking and learn
from the manufacturer's handbook (The Holy Bible) how we ought to think and
believe.
The last segment of the 4th wall is the WILL. When you
totally surrender your free will to doing the uncompromised will of a holy God
forever you will experience complete unity with your Heavenly Father. Jesus had
His final surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest and crucifixion.
He sweated drops of blood and cried out to God the Father "Not My will but
Thine be done!" We will have a "Garden" experience at some stage
of our walk and once that decision is made you will never be under your own
will again.
It is at this point that Jesus Christ becomes the true
Lord of your life. Your city is complete and secure and you are a vessel meet
for the Master's use.
