If we will not allow God’s Spirit to lead us to mortify the lusts of our flesh, we will find our hearts succumbing to the bondage of spiritual darkness and depression. The Holy Spirit always leads us to put our rebellious flesh to death. The lusts of the flesh come loaded with strongholds. The various fruits of the flesh; i.e. pride, greed, wrath, malice and immorality – are all infested with a virus that is lethal to the health of the inner man. God therefore exhorts us to dispose of this tainted fruit. Each day we are presented with our fleshly fruit for potential consumption. Our Great Physician silently observes our eating habits in these moments. Will we turn our heads from the rancid fruit? Will we break off just a little piece for a secret nibble? After becoming sick over and over again, the wise in Christ have finally learnt to follow their Doctor’s orders and mortify the contaminates.
The bloody stripes and death of Jesus Christ have enabled God to send the Holy Spirit to offer an antidote to the virus. The Old Testament law provided the superficial antiviral; the New Covenant Spirit, however, offers the vaccine. Many Christian believers do not understand this, and so they live virus-infected lives, in unmortified bondage to sin and pain. To be given the vaccine, they must repent. Genuine Spirit-led repentance precedes and underlies mortification. By the on-going dynamic of mortification, the viral darts of the world, flesh and devil are trapped at the entry-level and put to death before they can infiltrate our minds and re-contaminate our hearts.
May the Lord open our eyes to the vaccine we are all afforded through Christ Jesus. Dear believer, if you have not yet claimed your birthright vaccination, begin asking God for this free gift today. Stop trying to heal yourself. Stop using the antiviral of the law to cover-up the breakouts, and instead seek the vaccine which shields and protects your inner man from the virus ever touching him. This is true Christianity. This is what separates us from the rest of the sin-infected world and makes Christians absolutely unique. No other religious system offers the vaccination; it is through Christ alone that we are first made clean and then offered a lifetime shield of protection.
