A Closer Look @ Iniquity – Part 3

(Thoughts That Can Spring from Our Imperfections or Potential Lustful Tendencies)

1. Over time, the delays, denials, discouragements, discomfort, and defeats we face all do one thing: they expose our infirmities and vulnerabilities to us (2Cor. 3:5, 12:10, 1:3-4). This should drive us to fetch comforts of truths that are either in the word of Christ or the word of God, which will always heal and empty us of the nature and tendency to be offended in the Lord, or in the way He saves our soul from this world and its prince (Col. 3:16, Heb. 4:12, Matt. 11:4-6).

2. Jesus so loved the truth that He allowed it to cost Him everything, and He then fully embodied it (Jn. 14:6). So also, the truth in Christ can become our possession if we can daily forgo this world—by forgoing the pride of life, the lust of the flesh and of the eyes (Eph. 4:21, 1Jn. 2:15). Likewise, the truth in the Father can become our ultimate possession if we can daily forgo iniquity—by letting go of the love of an unseen life called self (Jn. 12:25)

3. We care more about things that concern us naturally and so, we easily see and watch over our own things, but the proof before heaven that our hearts have been enlarged or that we have become fatherly in nature, can be traced to how spontaneously we can do so when it comes to the things of others (Php. 2:19-21, 2Cor. 6:4-11). While doing so, we would graduate from having the spirit of power and of love, into that of a sound mind, like we saw Jesus did in the days of His flesh (2Tim. 1:7, Php. 2:2-8).

4. As we become more selfless in nature, we will see through the true motives of our actions and inactions over time, especially those things we did amongst the brethren and under the watch of God’s servants; things that were inspired by an uncrucified life called sin and iniquity, because we lacked the Father’s divine nature (Psa. 139:23; 2 Cor. 4:2; Heb. 4:12).

5. We are always tempted to “jailbreak” those seasons where the Lord imprisons us to get rid of the carnal nature in us, so we can attain our inheritance in Christ and in the Father on time (Acts 26:18; 1Pet. 1:4). And we thereby prolong our trials or “jail-term”, which is meant to remit some sins in us; and we also prolong our trials by setting our eyes on any other thing but the life (Christ) we are meant to fetch at such a season (Jas. 1:3-5,12; 2Cor. 4:17-18).

6. We can’t claim we have emptied ourselves of the old things of the old man, even the pride of life and lusts of the eyes/flesh if our goal is not to see our brethren become better than we are—naturally or spiritually speaking (1Jn. 2:15-16; Php. 2:3-5). Only by so doing can we trade with the commandments of the everlasting gospel and lay down the life we didn’t disown while keeping the commandments of faith (Charity) (1Jn. 2:8-11, Jn. 10:15, 1Tim. 1:5).

7. Most of our anxieties come from our inability to see how God is not limited by any of our human limitations that can be traced to the fall of man (Rom. 8:28, Eph. 3:20). He can still save our soul to the uttermost and bring us into the fullness of the same promise of owning Him, despite the advent of sin (Heb. 7:25; 1Jn. 2:25).

8. Excelling in the act and art of submission to spiritual authority should someday help us get it right where the devil once got it wrong, so we can overcome an angelic problem called iniquity that the everlasting gospel is presently healing many from (Ezek. 28:15-16, Isa. 14:13-14, Rev. 22:2b).