Darlene Rose

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.           2 Cor 5:16

Ps 43: 5  Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

I wasn’t depressed or in despair, but I was struck by a truth I had known, yet forgotten.   David spoke to his flesh as if it was not he himself, but a disciple of the Lord that he was commissioned to raise up and train. 0

“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me?  Hope in God!”

He speaks to his soul, or his flesh, as if it is a separate being near him, yet not him at all.

Paul says in 2 Cor 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.

Paul judges no man according to the flesh.

1 Co 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Not even himself.

1 Co 4:3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

If we judge ourselves or others according to the flesh, we will never escape the flesh or the accusations of it.

Why are you in despair, soul?  Follow me as I put my hope in God and praise Him this morning!

Ps 134: 1 Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD,
Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!

Behold: 

• To perceive by the visual faculty; see: behold a tiny figure in the distance.
• To perceive through use of the mental faculty; comprehend: “Behold the man of the future”
• To look upon; gaze at

Romans 6:19 I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.

Romans 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did

When we first chose to sin, we didn’t love it the very first time.   It was awkward, we were not skilled,  we had anxiety.

We didn’t pick up a cigarette the very first time and say “ahhhh, that went down smoooooothe.” We didn’t take a drink of alcohol the very first time and say “mmmm I’ll have another pitcher.” We didn’t lie the very first time, without our conscience being pricked, yet we allowed the members of our body to be used as servants of impurity and INCREASING lawlessness because we had a vision in mind.

We knew what image we wanted to walk in, therefore we worked at becoming skilled at sin.

In the same manner, we are to desire to look like the completed work our Creator sees when He sees us, when we were still a twinkle in His eyes, not looking after the flesh, but after His design, and  call into being what is not, as though it already was.

He didn’t see disease when He planned us.

Call your blood pressure to return to normal and serve (bless) the Lord!

Call your joints to become flexible and serve (bless) the Lord!

Call your eyes to see and your ears to hear and to serve (bless) the Lord!

Call your pancreas to produce insulin and serve (bless) the Lord!

He didn’t see depression when He planned us!

Call your mind to be focused and serve (bless) the Lord!

Call your emotions to be filled with joy and to serve (bless) the Lord!

Call your heart to be steadfast and to serve (bless) the Lord!

Call your thoughts to think on things lovely and to serve (bless) the Lord!

We are not our flesh.  We are not our soul.

Call the members of your body to serve the Lord in purity and INCREASING righteousness!

Call into being that which is not, as though it were, in order to serve (bless) the Lord, because we are created in His Image.

Just do it.

Phillipians 3: 10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

Phillipians 3: 11That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

Phillipians 3:12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.

Phillipians 3: 13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Phillipians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.