Focus: John 3:30 - KJV
30. He must increase, but I must decrease.
Matthew 3:11
True believers have come to realize that once a man be born again, the life he lives is no longer of himself but in Christ and by Christ. Hence, everything he does ought to be Christ-like thereby representing Christ in a manner He approves, amongst men. The self in man, which is meant to be shed at the point of new birth, is a phenomenon that prevents him from pleasing God through and through. Hence, if any man must please God, he must discard the self, otherwise called the flesh, that the Spirit of God may take him over. In other words, like John said to his followers that he was not the Christ and that he must decrease as Christ increases, God expects that the flesh in us must decrease for Christ to increase in us. It is the refusal to allow the flesh be expunged in a decreasing fashion that makes him do things that are inimical to Christ. And for as long as we refuse Christ to increase while self decreases, we are only grieving the Holy Spirit and making Him unwanted in our beings.
Peter was a prominent follower of Christ. He was so ebullient in his actions and seeming love for the things of the master to the extent that, not knowing that our weapons of warfare are not carnal, he drew a sword and did tear off a soldier’s ear, when Christ was to be arrested. The carnal mind will approve his action, but that is not the way of Christ as those who kill by the sword shall also die by the sword. When eventually, Christ was fully formed in him, Peter never had to slay anyone even when he had the power to do so as he demonstrated in his formative days with Ananias and his wife. Saul of Tarsus was never bothered that the lives he destroyed were of God until he started to allow himself to decrease and Christ increased in him to the extent that when he was slapped, in all his wrath, he could only give a bad description of his assailant and not hurt him in anyway in return. When Christ is formed in us, it shows glaringly in our actions and mannerism.
Beloved, every sign of the flesh showing forth in the form of emotive eruptions and so on happens because we refuse Christ to increase in us. It is not as you behave with someone who does not need something from you that proves the growth of Christ in you; it is how you treat those around you that needs something from you. For instance, how you treat that driver, cleaner, gate keeper and so on shows your person to observers. That smiley attitude and stuff which you exhibit to your peers or superiors is not proof of your true person. If you are hard on those who are lowly, you are only waiting for that highly placed person to fall from position to treat him like trash. It is innate. It is in your flesh that has refused to decrease for Christ to increase.
SOLUTION: We can be of great emotional intelligence if we will allow our lives to depend on Christ in us. We must put the flesh under and allow the Spirit a pride of place in us. That we can do by leaning on the word of God and internalizing it, from time to time, to draw on it in all we do. Decrease for Christ to increase in you.
Please pray: Holy God, I want more of you in me. Please take my life and let it be consecrated unto you that I may only show the life of Christ in all I do, in the name of Jesus. Please Lord, let not my life mislead anyone away from you, ever, in Jesus’ name.
If you are blessed by this post, kindly share with your contacts, as well as others, that they may be blessed also. Thank you and may God bless you abundantly as you do so, in Jesus’ name.
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