Day 17

How the Self Dies — Through the Spirit

Today's Scripture: Romans 8:13 (NLT)

If the cross is the legal ground of the believer's death to self, the Holy Spirit is the daily power. The cross declares what is true. The Spirit makes what is true operative. The cross is the verdict in heaven; the Spirit is the working out of that verdict on earth. And the believer who tries to live the crucified life without daily, conscious dependence on the Spirit is like a person who has been given a great inheritance but does not know where the bank is.

Paul says it as bluntly as it can be said: "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." The word through is crucial. Not by your own willpower. Not through your discipline alone. Not by the strength of your resolution. Through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the actual agent of the daily mortification. We participate, we yield, we cooperate — but the power is not ours. The power belongs to the third Person of the Trinity, who indwells every true believer for this very purpose.

This is a truth that the modern Western church has not always known how to teach. We have inherited a Christianity heavy on principles, heavy on practical steps, heavy on biblical wisdom — and these are all good. But we have sometimes been thin on the doctrine and the practice of the Spirit. We have presented the Christian life as a kind of moral education program, where the believer learns the principles of Christ and then implements them through disciplined application. And many sincere believers have walked this road, only to discover that the principles, however true, do not have the power in themselves to produce what only the Spirit can produce. The road of principles without the Spirit ends in either pharisaical pride or moral exhaustion, sometimes both.

The Spirit is the difference. The Spirit is the One who applies the cross to the daily life of the believer. The Spirit is the One who convicts when we drift, who empowers when we obey, who illuminates the Scriptures so that they become more than ink on paper, who prays through us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26), who bears in us the very fruit that the flesh could never produce on its own (Galatians 5:22–23). The Spirit is the secret of every saint who has ever walked this road faithfully. And the believer who learns to live in conscious daily dependence on the Spirit will find that the Christian life, which seemed impossible by effort, becomes possible by surrender.

How do we mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit? We learn to recognize His voice. The Spirit is not silent in the believer's life. He speaks — through the Word, through the conscience, through the inner conviction that rises when we are drifting and the inner peace that rests when we are obeying. The believer who has learned to recognize the Spirit's voice and to respond to it quickly is the believer who walks in increasing freedom. The believer who has dulled their hearing to the Spirit by repeated disobedience is the believer who finds the flesh growing louder by the year.

We learn to yield to His promptings. There is a moment, often very small, when the Spirit moves in the soul of a believer — a check before a sharp word, a nudge to make a phone call, a quiet pressure to refuse a temptation, a sense of conviction over a hidden sin. The flesh resists these promptings. The flesh wants to push past them, dismiss them, argue with them, postpone them. But the Spirit-led believer learns to say yes, immediately, even before the reason is fully understood. The yielding becomes a habit, and the habit becomes a way of life, and the way of life becomes a holiness that is not manufactured but produced.

We learn to walk in the Spirit. Paul says in Galatians 5:16, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Notice the order. He does not say, fight the flesh and then you will be free to walk in the Spirit. He says, walk in the Spirit, and the lust of the flesh will not be fulfilled. The way to defeat the flesh is not direct combat; it is the positive cultivation of life in the Spirit. The way to starve the old man is to feed the new man. The way to put off is to put on.

This is the secret. The flesh dies most quickly not when we are most focused on it, but when we are most focused on Christ. The self dies most truly not when we are gritting our teeth against it, but when we are gazing on Him. The Spirit, who is the agent of every true mortification, works most powerfully in the soul that has turned its attention away from itself and toward the Christ He has been given to glorify.

So today, do not stare at yourself. Stare at Christ. Walk in the Spirit. And the dying will happen, mysteriously, gently, decisively, beneath the surface of a life that has learned to look elsewhere.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, I confess that I have often tried to do Your work in my own strength. Forgive me. Today I lean into Your power. Be the agent of every dying I cannot accomplish myself. Speak, and I will respond. Prompt, and I will yield. Lead, and I will follow. Make me sensitive to Your voice and quick to obey. Without You, I can do nothing. With You, I can walk in the freedom Christ purchased. Amen.

Today's Challenge

Throughout this day, every time you face a moment where the flesh rises, pause and pray: "Spirit, lead me. Spirit, empower me. Spirit, mortify this in me." Practice the habit of immediate dependence rather than immediate effort.

"The flesh dies fastest when the eye is fixed not on the flesh, 

but on the Christ the Spirit was sent to glorify."