...so how do you feel 'bout death?

Let's talk about death for a moment (how's that for a catchy way to grab your attention and start this post?). The fact that most folks are not terribly eager to die isn't exactly new information, right? The "fight or flight" instinct for self-preservation that comes as standard equipment inside all of us causes people to do whatever is necessary -- or possible -- to protect our lives. While there are very sad exceptions, most folks generally steer clear of situations that will put their lives at serious risk. And in those rare circumstances when people do come face-to-face with the liklihood of what they would consider a pre-mature death -- say an encounter with an armed robber, or a mugger with a knife, or some other weapon -- it's very common for the person to plead, bargain, or beg for their lives to be spared.

This is another one of those cases where we find a parallel between our physical lives and our spiritual lives.

What am I talking about...? I'm talking about what happens in the inner man when our sin nature sees the very real prospect of it's death.

Let me try to set this up... But to do that, I have to step back to my March 6 posting (below), where I offered this thought:

Once God has shown you those things you've always thought of as just some innocent little habit (c'mon...no big deal, right?) or what you might label an occasionally inconvenient behavior that you've simply learned to live with (I've always been that way...), you've got to kill it! Not cage it, chain it up, tie it down, or lock it away. You've got to drag it kicking and screaming to the altar and kill it dead!

From there I tossed out a couple of verses that drive this point home far better than I could hope to on my own. They're definitely worth repeating:

Romans 8:13
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...

Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature...

And here's another one for good measure...

Galatians 5:24
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature
with its passions and desires.

Now here's the point...

Our inner sin nature -- the very thing the Bible clearly tells us to "crucify," and "put to death" -- is like a person who learns they're about to be executed. It tries anything and everything to escape the death sentence. When its faced with any threat to its life or well-being, the sin nature inside us will scream, and fight; it'll try to wiggle out of it, or dodge the bullet; it'll beg, bargain, plead, promise to behave, anything....! If only we'll let it live!

Adjutant Kate Lee -- the "Angel Adjutant" -- went head-to-head with this very thing in her own quest for a holy life. In the January 1917 issue of The Officer, she testified how this exact life and death struggle went on in her soul in an article simply titled, My Personal Experience of Full Salvation.

Here's how she described what we've been talking about (the emphasized sections are mine):

“…God in His love and pity came to my heart; gave me a revelation. He not only showed me myself and my sin, but showed me my need. I needed something, and as I sat in a holiness meeting I realized that need was sanctification. For months the word sanctification was to me a heavy burden; a torture. I could not really grasp its meaning. I read and re-read the theory of sanctification, going from one authority on the subject to another, only to turn away still more puzzled. I then set myself to seek publicly and was several times found at the holiness table, pleading for the blessing that I failed to understand. Again and again I came to the altar, and, as far as I understood, laid my all there. But as soon as the test came, without realizing that I did it, I took from off the altar the sin I had laid there, or the gifts that I had surrendered to God.

“This is where I failed many times, and during my officership. I have found scores of other souls who have failed on this very point. They come sincerely to the altar, definitely laying their gift there, a living sacrifice; but when the knife is felt, the realization of the dying comes upon them as they feel the hurt and understand fully what it means, they shrink and draw back. Abram's experience, related in Genesis 15, has been a great help to me. He had to wait for the fire. He prayed all day, even until eventide, and then the birds of prey came down; but he stood by the sacrifice and drove them off. Then the fire came and consumed the sacrifice.

“That was just the point to which I had to get. I had laid my all on the altar, but then I had to wait for the fire. Meanwhile, the birds of doubt, fear, and discouragement came flying around. I had to get up again and again to drive them off, and hold on to God.

“Fresh light came; a new path opened up. The laying of self on the altar meant following God fully and showing my colours everywhere. Could I do it? It was hard to die to self, and say, 'Yes, Lord.' But as I said it, I felt I was accepted, and afterwards, when I carried out that vow, joy flooded my soul and I realized that the Spirit of the Lord was upon me. The desire to sin was removed, and my heart yearned to be kept pure and clean."

Can you relate to her struggle? Have you ever laid your sin nature on the altar -- a place of death, I might add -- only to snatch it back as you felt the edge of the Holy Spirit's knife?

Listen to me... Either your hunger for holiness will bring you to the point of sacrificing the sin that shackles your soul and holds you back from spiritual power and genuine Christlikeness, or the sin nature will so convince you that it is untouchable and unconquerable that your desire to life in holiness will shrivel and die. Bottom line...? One way or another, something's going to die.

What'll it be for you, I wonder?

Keep your altar ready and your fire hot...!

Willis