Page 137 - Ephesians

that Christ has already overcome, and there is not the slightest
battle left for you or me. My full time job is to know Jesus. Not
witness. Just know Jesus. Not fellowship. Know Jesus. Not
fight sin, Satan and self. There is no effort, no sweat to knowing
Jesus. I don’t have to conquer my motives, quit my habits, try to
crucify myself, or live an ascetic life. All of that effort is just MY
life, excluding the Life of God. IN FACT IT IS THE ORIGINAL
SIN.

To make this practical, let me show you what flows from the two
foundations. #1 Maturity is not an issue. #2 The old sin nature is
not an issue. Do you realize that not one Christian in a thousand
would agree with this?! Let me give it to you broadly, and we will
develop it in more detail later. Look at the reality in Ephesians
4:25,

“Laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with
his neighbor, for we are members of one another”

Laying aside falsehood and speaking truth. What a word! It’s all
genuine, with no hypocrisy, and no artificial living. No pretending
to have peace and liberty, that’s not really mine. I don’t need to
play games or play act!! I never have to fake it again!!

Some Christians have never been real. They have a chair and a
whip like a lion tamer. They are constantly trying to tame the
beast of their motives. They are embarrassed that it can’t be
domesticated. So, they lie, and pretend they have victory. They
even write books on how to have victory and peace. But all they
have done is suppress its outward form. In secret, and in the
dark, when nobody is looking, it runs amuck. Just ask the wife
and kids? They nurture dirty habits and foul thoughts. They lie,
plot, and get puffed up, just like everybody else.
The second outworking, is in Ephesians 4:24. Holiness,

“Renewed in the spirit of your mind… in the likeness of God”