Rom 8:13 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if BY THE SPIRIT YOU put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

Let’s consider how spiritual growth works. It has to be done by the Spirit. And it has to be done by us USING THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO put to death the misdeeds (bad things we do to ourselves and to those around us) of our body. It may be difficult for you to accept this at first; but, you and your body aren’t going to be on the same page, since you have become a Christian. You are a spirit being who is living in a body.

Jesus changed YOU, the spirit person who is living on the inside of your body. As long as you didn’t mind so much that you were doing things that weren’t good for you or those around you, you and your body were able to do them as friends. But, the moment Jesus changed your attitude toward things that are fun but have side effects, your body rebelled against the new you. It wants fun no matter what the cost is.

The new you only wants fun that is beneficial to you and those around you. God will give you more fun than you will ever know what to do with; but, it won’t be the kind of fun that hurts you and those around you. Your body won’t understand this and will need to be forced into experiencing God’s type of pleasure by a unified effort of you working TOGETHER with Jesus’ Holy Spirit.

The trouble you are having with life will be overcome as you learn how to yield to the principles of God. The process of spiritual growth (sanctification) empowers you to start being able to actually DO and SAY things you weren’t able to do and say before. Once you learn how to BY THE SPIRIT put to death the misdeeds of your body, you will live a whole new way of life.

In salvation and justification, you are only CREDITED with doing and saying good things. God gave you credit for them on His record so you could become His child, a member of His family, and a citizen of His Kingdom. That gave you access to all God’s knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and power. You and Jesus are going to use them to help you start LIVING all those good things that you have been credited with on God’s record.

In sanctification (spiritual growth) Jesus wants you to start working together with Him. Why? This is the relationship you are going to have with God for eternity. So, you are going to experience healing from your issues with life; but Jesus is going to involve you in the process. That is the same relationship God will be having with you in eternity. He is going to be working together with you as you do great things WITH Him for all of eternity.

In eternity:

• We aren’t going to be standing around watching God do all the work.


• We aren’t going to be running around doing all kinds of work FOR God.


• We are going to be spending eternity working together WITH God doing spectacular things that are beyond human imagination.

The reason God wants you to learn how to start living the right way now is, He wants to work together WITH you as you and He use His principles to defeat your struggles with life in your life. You are CREDITED with having defeated these struggles; but, you and He want you to ACTUALLY defeat them. You developed your problem with life by trying to have fun, have happiness, and experience pleasure. BUT, it had side effects that you didn’t know were attached to that fun, happiness, and pleasure.

God wants to show you a way of life far superior to a life that is just free from life problems. He wants to show you how to get involved in a way of life that will bring you a lot of fun, happiness, and joy. Your relationship with Him, yourself, and the people around you will change in a very wonderful way. You will be transformed into a whole new way of life that is based on God’s eternal relationship system.

EVERYTHING we do with God on earth is based on preparing us for eternity. If we discover that this way of life is one we would enjoy having forever, then we will accept it and learn how to live it better. You will ALWAYS be tempted to be distracted by the things of this world. Mat 6:24-25 (NIV) No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

If you were being trained for a very exciting opportunity and you kept getting distracted by the room you were in, the equipment they used, and the people in the class, you would miss the training. If you got in your car and just spent all your time examining the equipment in it, you would never get the benefits your car could provide. If you spend all your time checking out the things of this world, you will enter into eternity untrained for it. This world is like your mother’s womb, you were there temporarily so you could get ready to be born into this life. You are on this planet temporarily; get ready, get trained, and get prepared to live where it will all count for eternity.

God didn’t mind all the money, possessions, positions, prestige, popularity, power, pleasure, and accomplishments you achieved. He just didn’t like the way you got them and the reason you have them. If you develop the correct strategy for getting and using these things. It will change you from being a lake and make you into a river. These things will flow through you rather than accumulate in your private storage container. You will love people and use these things to help people. You will do this rather than loving these things and using people to get them.

If you refuse to allow your struggles with life to overwhelm you, you will learn how to grow spiritually by working together with Jesus. Don’t allow yourself to get frustrated with God because He hasn’t already solved your problem. If God just stepped in and zapped all your conflicting feelings, misdeeds, or bad behavior that come from your problems with your body, the world, and Satan, you wouldn’t learn and grow into a person who is successful in life and relationships. AND, that would keep you from being a mature, skilled, talented, and trained adult child of God for eternity.

Don’t get this wrong; God already has healed you of a lot of the bad feelings, thoughts, words, and behaviors you were doing against yourself and those around you, when you became a Christian. But, He doesn’t totally set any of us free from certain aspects of our body’s past experiences. Gal 6:7 (NIV) Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Even though a lot of the drives we were experiencing from our body have been taken away, we still remember the pleasure sin (damaging deeds) baited us with. Your struggles with life are caused by the lifestyle you developed. Jesus gave you a new life; now He is GIVING you a new lifestyle.

Jesus wants to teach you how to choose to resist these harmful thoughts, feelings, and deeds you still remember; but, He wants to help you do it by working with you in a gentle way. If you got saved as a brand new Christian and had to face every problem of your body all at once, you would cave in; no one would be able to survive the experience. We would all be too immature, too discouraged, and too weak to handle all that responsibility. But, He does leave us enough challenges, such as your problem with life, to be able to use it as an example so you can learn the first steps of spiritual growth. That makes you successful on this planet and great in the Kingdom of God.

God doesn’t have to make our life harder in order to train us. We typically expose ourselves to enough new challenges in life without Him having to make it harder. We usually create three types of problems for ourselves as a new Christian:

• We face problems we inadvertently run into.


• We face problems that we stupidly put ourselves into.


• We face problems that Satan comes against us with that we yield to.

2 Cor 12:9 (NIV) But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. Jesus is going to use your issues with life to teach you how to handle all of these other problems you are going to be running into. As you learn to win over your struggles with life you will learn how to win in all of life. That will mature you and get you ready for being a skilled, trained, and mature child of God in eternity.