Have you ever been driving in the car with someone after you had a spicy meal, maybe heavy on the garlic or onions...and out of nowhere you can feel it rising up within you...a fully loaded ‘silent burp’. You do your best to muffle it but there is no containing or holding back the horrific ‘scent’ it delivers as it wafts across your tongue and lips and begins to fill the car. I have actually rolled my window down at times and tried to exhale that odor as if it was a puff of smoke from a cigarette...and with little success.

Breath mints or chewing gum do little to mask what is clearly there. Do you know why that is? Because it was in you...and it came out of you; and if you want to alleviate that problem, you best lay off the spicy foods, at least if you are going to be in an enclosed room or car with someone shortly after...and you are prone to burping.

The same could be said about ‘sin’ and those ‘evident deeds of the flesh nature’. Jesus spoke to this in Mark 7:18-23, even talking about foods that ‘go in’ and then the things that ‘come out of our heart’. And it wasn’t what was going in us...that ‘defiled’ us, it was those things that ‘come from the abundance of our hearts...that exit our mouths’ (Matt. 15:34).

Hence...the reason God ‘allows’ these ‘tests’ which I wrote about yesterday. That’s also why John writes that if we claim to ‘have no sin’, we deceive ourselves. God knows our hearts better than anyone, including ourselves; and He has some clever ways of showing us what lies within them. But He doesn’t do this to shame or condemn us; on the contrary, He simply wants us to see, recognize, and then agree with Him as we confess these areas in our hearts/lives...so that we can REPENT of them...and receive not only His forgiveness, but His empowering freedom as he sets us free...from spirits of lust and pride and anger and greed and bitterness...etc.

And when we do confess and repent...from our hearts, those ‘strongholds’ are removed as we are cleansed by His blood. But remember...this cleansing comes after we confess and then begin to ‘walk in the light as He is in the light’ (1 John 1:7). This is what it means to follow or abide in Him as we ‘continue on’ with Him. He also warns us that we better walk while we have the light lest the ‘darkness overtakes us’. (John 12:35-36). Do you remember what happened to that man who had an ‘unclean spirit’ cast out of him, in Matt. 12:43-45? He apparently allowed the darkness to overtake him again...and was much worse off in the end. Now, if you have been trusting in a ‘false security’ that assures you that can’t happen to you...because you did ‘such and such’...then many of these verses will fall on deaf ears.

So what happens after we acknowledge and then confess/repent from one of these ‘deeds of the flesh’ which we are commanded to ‘put to death’ (Col. 3:5,8)? Well, we know about the ‘schemes of the devil’ and how he has a way of coming back, at an ‘opportune time’ (Luke 4:13) to entice us again (James 1:13-16). This is part of the testing or ‘proving ground’ where we demonstrate to God that we love Him with all our heart, more than we love coveting or faultfinding or envy, etc. And... I have learned from experience that the Holy Spirit usually gives me a ‘heads up’ and is ready to provide and empower me with some grace in my time of need when these test come (Heb. 2:18; 4:15-16; Titus 2:11-14). I know better than to try and overcome these things on my own. Been there and done that!

The Israelites who went in to take control of the promised land were told clearly that these Canaanite nations who were on the land needed to come off one by one, and that they were stronger and more powerful than the people, but not to fear because God was with them and would ‘deliver them into their hands’. You see this emphasized over and over in the first 13 chapters of Deuteronomy. And so it is with us today as we follow Jesus who is in fact... leading us to ‘put to death the deeds of the flesh’ (Rom. 8:13). And not just a select few, but all of them. This is the process of ‘sanctification’ where our hearts are being purified; and for the record...we are told that without this process...’no one will see the Lord’ (Heb. 12:14). Don’t forget that story about King Saul who was told to put some things to death...and he didn’t finish the job, even though he ‘thought’...he did! (1 Sam. 15:13-14). Also note- 2 Cor. 7:1 and 1 John 3:3.

Need I remind anyone that it is ‘not flesh and blood’ that we contend with today, but...what, according to Eph. 6:12?

This may be an over-simplified illustration, but hopefully it will work for you and help you at the same time. Suppose God has dealt with you about a particular area in your life ______; you fill in the blank. I’ll use the sin of grumbling/complaining which God takes quite seriously (1 Cor. 10:10). You have come to a place of confession and repentance over it, and purpose in your heart you are done with this sin. You do know what is going to happen next, yes? You are going to be...’tested’. And trust me...if there was ever a time you had a ‘right’ to complain...this test will provide it. (Deut. 8:2; Judges 3:1-4). So, what is happening in the ‘spirit realm’ when this occurs, especially since you thought...you had ‘died’ to this sin?

Think in terms of the enemy driving up in a tow-truck ready to put some ‘jumper cables’ on that ‘dead old man’ where he can attempt to ‘resurrect it’. I guess he likes the idea of trying to mimic or imitate God when it comes to ‘resurrecting’ people. It’s one thing to try and bring a dead car battery to life, but bringing that ‘old man’ back to life is a ‘thing’, which we are warned to ‘give no place to’. And what are we told to do when this occurs? I believe our Bible teaches us to ‘resist him’ (James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8-9), and to ‘bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ as we maneuver through this ‘spiritual war’ (10 Cor. 10:3-5). This is where mercy and ‘grace’ come into play that empowers us to stand in faith and let God...fight these battles for us. But we still have to ‘stand and resist’. (Eph. 6:10-11)

Will there be some ‘suffering’ involved as we resist...and ‘deny’ ourselves as we prove to God we love Him more than we love to grumble and complain? You bet there will be, but it won’t be to the point where you are ‘shedding blood’ like Jesus did (Heb. 12:4). And "after you have suffered a little while...the God of all grace will come to establish and strengthen, and perfect you" (1 Pet. 5:10). Oh...and ’those who have suffered in the flesh’, in this manner...guess what they have ‘ceased’ from doing? Go read 1 Pet. 4:1-2 and Gal. 5:24... I’ll meet you back here tomorrow.