Your Mid-Week Truth Turn Up is a 'meaty' devotional that can re-centre your heart on Jesus as you go along in your week. The devotional is slightly lengthier than a daily devotional and that is because I post them only once a week and they are meant to be your repeat meditation for the next 7 days till you receive the next Truth Turn Up.My tip is therefore that as your week goes on, you visit and re-visit your Mid-Week Truth Turn up and meditate on the Bible Meditation passage, my write up as well as the Further Study at the bottom of the devotional. Take the whole week to meditate on it and get it into your spirit. Do not try to compress the whole devotional into one reading.
Enjoy (* wink *)
Coach Toyin
Occupy The Whole Mansion (Part 3)
YOUR MID-WEEK TRUTH TURN-UP (DEVOTIONAL) BY COACH TOYIN
Meditate on this: Isaiah 53:1-12 (Please use The New Living Translation here)
Features verses: “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God,a punishment for His own sins! 5 But He was pierced for our rebellion,crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole.He was whipped so we could be healed.6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Himthe sins of us all” – Isaiah 53:4-6 (NLT)
A couple of weeks ago I began this series titled ‘Occupy The Whole Mansion’, and this series is near to my heart because it is the product of my journey with God. You see, for years, I felt like I had been conned into a faith in Christ that had no power to change my life where it mattered most. It felt like I had gotten ‘saved’ only so that one day when I die, I would go to heaven (hopefully) but till then, I was abandoned here on earth to struggle with life like everybody else, unable to get free from habitual sin, living from a broken identity, struggling to connect with God, clueless about my God-given purpose in life. In other words, I felt there must be more to being saved than what I was experiencing. Praise God! Because He is true to His Word that “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6). My desperation for a better quality spiritual life, opened the floodgates to God’s ever-flowing river of life, and in time, I began to understand how to experience the fulness of my salvation.
In this series, I liken “the God-life” to a ‘Magnificent Mansion” with four rooms, all of which we are meant to occupy. The first room is Intimacy with God (Delightful closeness with God), which I took you through in Part 2 of this series. This week, we will go through the second room, which is Power over Sin and Healing from Brokenness.
Let me first define sin and inner brokenness. Sin is any act done in accordance with self-rule, instead of in accordance with self-surrender to God. So anytime you live according to your own dictates, rather than God’s that is sin. This means that what makes something sin is not whether it feels ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ but rather whether it was done out of self-rule or out of obedience to God’s standard. Likewise, the ‘sinful nature’ is the nature that all humans are born with, which inclines us to reject God’s standards and live by our own standards. Now as regards brokenness, I define this as the identity that is formed in you as a result of the pains and sorrows that often accompany life in a sinful and wicked world.
Our featured verses for this week tell us that with every lash, every stripe, every gruesome stabbing, every spittle of saliva that landed on Jesus, He was taking on our shame, our sorrows, our weaknesses, our brokenness and our sins, and when He died, He willingly paid the price so that we could be free from the power of sin and inner brokenness. If Jesus went through such ghastly torture so that we can be free, why do we who genuinely believe in Jesus, still experience so much defeat in the war against sin in our lives? Why do many of us still live from broken hearts and identities?
In fact, I know from past personal experience, and also through the work I do, that many Christians are not only battling sin and inner brokenness, they are also weighed down under guilt and condemnation, because every time they fall into sin, the very same devil who tempted them to sin will come back to taunt them about their fall and convince them God could never save them now!
Dear child of God, am I describing you? Have you been barricaded out of this all important room in ‘that Magnificent Mansion’ that is ‘the God-life’? Have you tried so hard to say “No” to certain sins, without any luck? Have you given up on ever finding true healing from the sorrows and pains that life has dished out for you? Are you a “Christian, but …”, meaning a Christian who has settled into your broken identity and permitted yourself to remain sinful because you just don’t see how it is possible for things to be any different?
If this is you, I want you to walk away from this week’s devotional knowing that THERE IS NO WAY that God would allow His one beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to go through the horrific torture and death that He went through, just so that you could ‘manage’ with a sinful and broken life here on earth. No way. Child of God, there is more, and my prayer for you is that today, you will allow your passion for access into every single room in ‘the Magnificent Mansion’ called ‘the God-life’ to rise. If your passion rises, I promise … God promises that He will fill you up, and you will begin to experience every single room in that Magnificent Mansion that is God’s gift to you.
Before we pray it out, I’d like to suggest you consider enrolling forTHE B.O.O.M WALK PROGRAM, which is my 9-session online coaching program that equips you to grab hold of your victory over sin and inner brokenness. This is an intense program that that takes you deep into a process of transformation that will unravel you and put you back together … if you allow it. You can access ithere.
Let Us Pray:
Please listen to and pray with this song: Break Every Chain by Elevation Worship
Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your passion for me, which You demonstrated by choosing to take on the price for my sin and life’s sorrows. You did all that so that I would not have to live a life struggling with sin and inner brokenness. I am entitled to be free even while I am here on earth, and I am no longer willing to settle for anything less than the whole ‘Magnificent Mansion’ that is ‘the God-life’. Father, I desire it, but many times, my desire wanes. Help me Lord. Stir up my hunger and passion for righteousness. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Coach Toyin, Christian Transformation Coach, Founder of The Narrow Gateway
As always, I end this by saying, I am Coach Toyin, fully convicted by my own words and very much still under construction in the hands of the Father.
Further Study:
Isaiah 61:1-3 and Luke 4:14-21 What I like to call Jesus’s Statement of Self
Matthew 5:6, Psalm 107:9 For those who hunger for righteousness, God will fill
John 3:14-21, John 8:36 If the Son makes you free, you are free
Your Mid-Week Truth Turn Up is a 'meaty' devotional that can re-centre your heart on Jesus as you go along in your week. The devotional is slightly lengthier than a daily devotional and that is because I post them only once a week and they are meant to be your repeat meditation for the next 7 days till you receive the next Truth Turn Up.My tip is therefore that as your week goes on, you visit and re-visit your Mid-Week Truth Turn up and meditate on the Bible Meditation passage, my write up as well as the Further Study at the bottom of the devotional. Take the whole week to meditate on it and get it into your spirit. Do not try to compress the whole devotional into one reading.
Enjoy (* wink *)
Coach Toyin
Occupy The Whole Mansion (Part 2)
YOUR MID-WEEK TRUTH TURN-UP (DEVOTIONAL) BY COACH TOYIN
Meditate on this: Ephesians 2:11-22 (Please use The Passion Translation here)
Feature verse: “Yet look at you now! Everything is new! Although you were once distant and far away from God, now you have been brought delightfully close to him through the sacred blood of Jesus—you have actually been united to Christ!” – Ephesians 2:13 (TPT)
“Delightfully close to God”? Oh my! Does that describe you, child of God? Well, for the longest time, that was a promise that I did not believe was possible for me. Let me take a step back:
Last week I began this series titled ‘Occupy The Whole Mansion’, and I invited you to journey with me to explore what I love to call ‘the God-life’. You see, years ago, I reached a point in my Christian life where I could no longer ‘suffer’ under a mediocre experience of Christianity. I was saved but still struggling with sin, inner brokenness, disconnectedness from God, I still had no clue of God’s purpose for my life, talk less of knowing how in the world I would be able to walk in that purpose. I demanded to know, “What is the point of being gifted this ‘Magnificent Mansion’ if I am barred from occupying every single floor and room?” Or in other words, “Why believe in Jesus Christ if I do not get to experience the full abundant life that Jesus promises?”
In these series, I’ll help you identify four ‘rooms’ in this ‘Magnificent Mansion’ called ‘the God-life’, which I believe you were saved to occupy. I’ll challenge you to assess for yourself if you are experiencing each room, and if not, why not, and how you can now begin the journey to occupying the whole ‘Magnificent Mansion’ that is ‘the God-life’ in Christ.
I believe that the four rooms of ‘the God-life’ are:
1) Intimacy with God (“Delightful closeness”); 2) Power over Sin and Healing from Brokenness; 3) Living led by the Holy Spirit; and 4) Living a supernaturally-enabled life. This week we will focus on the delightful closeness that one can have through an intimate relationship with God.
The ‘delightful closeness’ between God and Man is one of the most striking features of the creation event (Genesis 1 – 3). What is more intimate than forming a living being out of dust and then breathing life into his nostrils? Yet God did not stop there; He actually planted a garden, a paradise, and placed Man there to live in it. God provided for every need that man would have, including what he would eat, the way he would occupy his time, and God even gave Man the opportunity to name the animals that He had created. God and Man were so delightfully close that without Adam asking, God knew that he needed a companion comparable with him to do life with, and so God formed Eve in the most intimate way, and brought her into that same intimate union with Himself.
Genesis 3:8 implies that God used to spend time in the Garden with Adam and Eve and we can only imagine that those were times of joyful fellowship, intimacy, exchange of mysteries, wisdom, companionship and more.
Sadly, this delightful closeness between God and Man was one of the first tragic casualties of Adam and Eve’s first sin. Genesis 3:7-10 tells us that when Adam and Eve sinned, their reality and identity was so altered that they were ripped out of their God-conscious existence; a people who previously drew their very life-breath from a seamless closeness with God, now became people who hid from God because their carnal eyes had been opened and when they realised that they were naked, they were afraid! Wow! The trust was gone. The friendship was gone. The ease of interaction and desire to be in the Lord’s presence was gone … and so, they hid from God.
Our text today teaches that though you were once so distant from God because you were born into sin, when you make a decision to follow Jesus Christ, He brings you back into ‘delightful closeness’ with Himself. Delightful closeness! This has always been God’s plan and deep desire for humanity – for us to be delightfully close to Him. It is your right fit and inheritance as a follower of Christ.
Friend, are you ‘following Christ’ yet you have no ‘delightful closeness’ with Him? Are you emotionally and/or spiritually and/or otherwise disconnected from God even though you genuinely believe in Jesus? Do you feel flutters of closeness to God now and then but it never seems to last? If this is you then friend, you are being barred out of the most critical ‘room’ in this Magnificent Mansion called ‘the God-life’; DELIGHTFUL CLOSENESS. Your experience of every other ‘room’ or manifestation of the God-life flows from you growing in delightful closeness to the Lord. Power over sin, healing from inner brokenness, being led by the Spirit to discover and walk in God’s purpose for your life, as well as walking in and wielding God’s supernatural power; these are all birthed from that relationship of growing closeness with God. This is why the devil fights to keep you disconnected from God. He has you hiding from God like Adam and Eve did; he convinces you that even though you believe in Jesus, your attempts to experience Him through prayer, reading the Bible etc. are futile and ineffective. This is why the enemy keeps you so emotionally, physically and even spiritually busy, that you don’t have the capacity or desire to grow in your relationship with God.
Take this coming week to assess your life. Are you growing in connectedness and intimacy with God? Or is there a deafening silence between you and God? If so, are you ready to accept God’s outstretched helping hand today? He so desires for the delightful closeness you were created to have with Him to be restored; this is the primary reason that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth in human form; so that He could pay the death-sentence for man’s sin, and thereby tear apart all walls barricading man from having delightful closeness with God.
Before we pray it out, let me offer you a FREE tool of mine calledTHE 3-STEP KICKSTART TOOL. This is a quick and effective Tool that I offer to folks who want to kickstart a dead or dulling relationship with God, and who want to see immediate results. You can access ithere.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, I thank you because in You, I have received complete freedom and access to the whole Magnificent Mansion that we call ‘the God-life’. I accept Your invitation for me to return to the delightful closeness that You created me to have with You. Wow! How exciting. What mysterious wonder awaits me as I walk closer with You each dayI Please give me grace not to stay the course; I do not want to walk away from You again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Coach Toyin, Founder of The Narrow Gateway
As always, I end this by saying, I am Coach Toyin, fully convicted by my own words and very much still under construction in the hands of the Father.
Further Meditation:
Genesis 1 – 3 The creation event and the fall of man
Exodus 33:11-23. Here we see Joshua’s deep and intimate relationship with God. We also see that Moses loved God’s presence so much that He refused to move unless God promised to be with him.
Genesis 5:21-24 Enoch walked with God so intimately that he did not die; God took him from the earth
Genesis 6:1-9 Noah walked with God in a time when sin and wickedness abounded so much in the earth that God made a decision that His Spirit would no longer abide with man, and that the life-span of man would be drastically shortened.
Numbers 12:6-8 God boasted that He and Moses were so close in relationship that He (God) spoke to Moses face to face like a man speaks with his friend.
Your Mid-Week Truth Turn Up is a 'meaty' devotional that can re-centre your heart on Jesus as you go along in your week. The devotional is slightly lengthier than a daily devotional and that is because I post them only once a week and they are meant to be your repeat meditation for the next 7 days till you receive the next Truth Turn Up.My tip is therefore that as your week goes on, you visit and re-visit your Mid-Week Truth Turn up and meditate on the Bible Meditation passage, my write up as well as the Further Study at the bottom of the devotional. Take the whole week to meditate on it and get it into your spirit. Do not try to compress the whole devotional into one reading.
Enjoy (* wink *)
Coach Toyin
Occupy The Whole Mansion (Part 1)
YOUR MID-WEEK TRUTH TURN UP (DEVOTIONAL) WITH COACH TOYIN
Meditate on this: Hebrews 7:20-28 (in the NIV)
Feature verse: “Therefore, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” Hebrews 7:25
“Save completely”? Hmmm … Child of God, do you feel “saved completely”? Has this ‘complete salvation’, or as other translations say, “saved to the uttermost”, has it manifested as a reality in your life?
Let me start this series by introducing myself to you. My name is Oluwatoyin Oladiran, a.k.a Coach Toyin. I was born into a Christian family and raised with a strong Christian heritage that plays an untold role in keeping me on a path with God. That notwithstanding, and though I made genuine life choices in those early years to follow Christ, so much about this life in Christ just did not add up for me. “One plus one did not add up to two” for me and I found myself experiencing much defeat and hopelessness. “Jesus saves to the uttermost”? I would often ask myself. “Really? It sure doesn’t feel like it.”
You see, I was taught that being a Christian meant that you would be free from sin, yet I struggled with sin like you would not believe. I was taught that Jesus loves and heals the broken-hearted, yet not only did my heart remain broken, my identity and lifestyle remained cracked and bruised by painful experiences of the past and present. I was taught that being a child of God meant that I could ask God for what I needed and if I had faith, He would meet my needs. Yet, more often than not, when I prayed, it felt like the words slobbered out my mouth, floated about in mid-air for a bit and fell like wet blobs to the floor.
I was taught that God loves me and that therefore, my relationship with Him would feel real, intimate, vibrant and interactive. Yet many times when I ‘talked’ to God or tried to worship, it felt like I was simply kidding myself; conjuring up a figment of my imagination. I was taught that God is more powerful than the forces of darkness, yet I often cried the name of Jesus when the devil afflicted me in my dreams, and my fear only intensified. I was taught that God has a great and unique purpose for my life, yet I had no idea how I was meant to discover, talk less of walk in this. I was taught that as a follower of Christ, I have power to work miracles like Jesus did; I have power to pray for my healing and that of others, I have power to change a nation, yet … oh my! Let me not even go there.
None of these so called ‘perks’ of being a Christian were real to me by any means. It was like I had been given an unimaginable gift; a magnificent mansion, and it had even been registered in my name, but not only was I barricaded out of the mansion, I was not even allowed to set eyes on it for more than a few minutes a day!
Hmmm …
Our Bible meditation today tells us that Jesus Christ was the perfect High Priest to make atonement for our sins because not only is He sinless and undefiled by the brokenness of this world, He lives forever. Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus saves “completely” or “to the uttermost”. Hallelujah! Well guess what?! I’m so thrilled to tell you that as I have continued to grow more in the Lord, I can now safely testify from experience that Jesus does save completely!! Praise God! I’m getting goosebumps as I type this! All that abundance that I grew up believing that He makes available for those who follow Him? That supernatural life? That intimacy with God? That power over sin and brokenness? That purpose-driven living? It’s all real! So if you read any of the scenarios I gave earlier, and they were familiar to you, trust me, there is hope; THERE IS SO MUCH MORE!
I invite you to follow this series titled “Occupy The Whole Mansion” over the next few weeks. Join me to explore ‘the Christian Life’, or like I want to call it in this series, ‘this Magnificent Mansion’. Let us assess whether you have occupied the whole mansion, or whether you are still barricaded out of the mansion, or only able to access some of the rooms or floors. Our aim at the end of this series is to click RESET on your Christian life, so that you are planted neatly in your journey to occupying the whole mansion! You see, I’m taking my whole mansion! I don’t know about you but, I am not willing to accept a shoddy Christian experience. I’m sorry. I’m just not. Do you feel the same? I really hope so.
Let us pray
Lord Jesus, You came to give me LIFE and that ABUNDANTLY! Why then am I saddled with a fraction of the fullness of what You came to give me? I know You have so much more for me and I want to have it all. I want the intimate relationship with You. I want the power over sin and the healing from inner brokenness. I want the grasp of Your purpose for my life and the certainty that I can and am walking in it. I want to pray and know that You hear and are answering me. I want to change the world into what You intended it to look like. I want to operate in Your power and anointing to do great things for You in this life. I want it all. Lord, keep me on this journey and help me to lay hold on ‘that God-life’. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I am Coach Toyin, fully convicted by my own words and very much still under construction in the hands of the Father.
Your Mid-Week Truth Turn Up is a 'meaty' devotional that can re-centre your heart on Jesus as you go along in your week. The devotional is slightly lengthier than a daily devotional and that is because I post them only once a week and they are meant to be your repeat meditation for the next 7 days till you receive the next Truth Turn Up.My tip is therefore that as your week goes on, you visit and re-visit your Mid-Week Truth Turn up and meditate on the Bible Meditation passage, my write up as well as the Further Study at the bottom of the devotional. Take the whole week to meditate on it and get it into your spirit. Do not try to compress the whole devotional into one reading.
Enjoy (* wink *)
Coach Toyin
The Light said to the light, “You’re it!”
YOUR MID-WEEK TRUTH TURN UP (DEVOTIONAL) BY COACH TOYIN
Meditate on this: John 8:12 and Matthew 5:13-16
Feature verse: “Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, ‘I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12
This past week, my husband and I were catching up, and out of the blue, he was like, “You know what, everybody wants to do great things and change the world, but many of us can’t even make a difference in our own backyard.”
I gasped, and then took a few minutes to let that sink in. Ain’t that the truth though? We are all experts when it comes to identifying the brokenness we hate to see in the world (which is a good thing, by the way). But many times, we are quick to point out ‘the other guy’ who is meant to fix that problem; we hardly ever look closer and consider what we are meant to be doing, and how we can turn things around.
For example, my heart breaks when I drive the streets and encounter women begging, with babies in their arms, or on their backs. My chest burns when I see images of children afflicted by war, some of them separated from their families, some have watched their parents killed or harmed … I can’t describe how it makes me feel even just typing this. But then, so what? Should I leave it to the president of Nigeria to address? Or to rich people? Law-makers? Policy makers? Corporate social responsibility teams? Men? ‘Developed’ countries? Do I throw my hands up and say, “well, it’s a world problem and there’s nothing ‘little me’ can do to change the world? Or do I rather prayerfully engage my spirit with God’s Spirit to determine how He has uniquely equipped me to BE THE LIGHT in a very dark world, starting with my own immediate areas of influence?
In our text for today, Jesus declared to His disciples that HE IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! HALLELUJAH! And then He threw them a curve ball; He told them that anyone who follows Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Meaning that when you and I make a genuine decision to follow Jesus Christ, we enter into His light, and this not only stamps out darkness in our lives, it also equips us to be the light of the world, just like Jesus is, and to stamp out darkness in the world, just like Jesus does/did. Wow! Isn’t it mind-blowing to know that “You’re it!”?
Now, let me change gear a bit. Notice I said “be the light of the world, just like Jesus is“? In other words, Jesus did not invite us into His light so that we can shine a lesser light, or a different light to His. When you choose to follow Jesus, He sets you up to stamp out darkness in your area of influence, with the same supernatural power and passion that He did/does it. This is why in Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus instructed His disciples to “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”. In other words, let your light be so powerful like Christ’s, that when the world sees that your works are dispelling darkness in your own areas of influence, the same way Christ’s did, they will have no choice but to attribute it to God Almighty.I’ll end with this: It’s Election time here in Nigeria this week, and as a family and church community, we have been praying and pressing into what God is saying about Nigeria at this time. One thing that we have to understand as the Church in Nigeria (or in any country) is that the state of government is a reflection of the state of the nation, and the state of the nation is a reflection of the state of the Church. If Jesus, the Light, has called His followers “the light”, and if indeed we are now equipped to dispel darkness wherever we are, why is there so much darkness in our nation? Why is there darkness in schools, communities, families, government, companies, and worst of all, churches?
Children of God, we are it! You are it. You are the solution that Nigeria is waiting for. You may not be able to become the President of Nigeria right now, but maybe you are the President of your neighbourhood security club. You may not be able to become Chief Justice of Nigeria, but maybe you run a bakery in an impoverished community. You may not be able to become Governor of Lagos, but perhaps you employ domestic staff in your home, or you are a teacher or a doctor or a street sweeper, or a father, or an orphanage carer, or a security guard … In your own area(s) of influence, BE THE LIGHT; shining with the same intensity that Jesus did/does. If we the children of God do this, the Bible says that darkness will be dispelled in our communities and ultimately in our nation. Sounds simplistic, but friends, this is the solution that God has always intended.
The Light said to the light, “You’re it.”
P.S. If you need some practical help or guidance on what it means to be the light, or how to discover your own unique God-given purpose in the world, feel free to email me on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. I have really good and practical tools that you can use on this journey. I am also willing to take you on as a one-on-one coachee, if this suits you better. You can find all my coaching programs and offerings here.
Let us pray
Lord Jesus, thank You for the privilege of being the light of the world. What a wonderful honour it is, to be able to join You in dispelling darkness in this world. I choose today and always to take up that mantle daily. Show me how to be the light in my areas of influence. Show me the unique tools, skills, talents, platforms and resources that You have equipped me with, so that my light can so shine before men. Help me to stay faithful to Your agenda of dispelling darkness in the world and establishing Your Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Further Study (Optional)
Ephesians 2:1-10 We were saved by grace, through faith in Christ, into good works that God prepared for us to do from before time began.
Romans 8:19-23 All of creation is waiting in earnest expectation of the revelation of the children of God.
John 14:9-26 He who believes in Me, greater works than I do, he will do.
I am Coach Toyin, fully convicted by my own words and very much still under construction in the hands of the Father.
If you would like help in discovering your God-given purpose and calling i.e. how to be the light in a very dark world, my Discern Your Purpose Program can help you. Find out more here:
Your Mid-Week Truth Turn Up is a 'meaty' devotional that can re-centre your heart on Jesus as you go along in your week. The devotional is slightly lengthier than a daily devotional and that is because I post them only once a week and they are meant to be your repeat meditation for the next 7 days till you receive the next Truth Turn Up.My tip is therefore that as your week goes on, you visit and re-visit your Mid-Week Truth Turn up and meditate on the Bible Meditation passage, my write up as well as the Further Study at the bottom of the devotional. Take the whole week to meditate on it and get it into your spirit. Do not try to compress the whole devotional into one reading.
Enjoy (* wink *)
Coach Toyin
After You Became Saved, What Did You Do Next?
YOUR MID-WEEK TRUTH TURN UP
Meditate on this: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Feature verse: “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” – 1 Corinthians 9:27
A few years ago, a young lady (let’s call her Reni*) came to see me for some Christian coaching. She had wandered far from God, gotten caught up in unwholesome romantic relationships and a lifestyle that was costing her spiritually and emotionally. She felt she had lost herself in a maze of wrong choices and in the process, she had become broken inside. Reni came to me for help; ultimately, she wanted her relationships and sense of wholeness restored and she believed that in order to achieve that, she needed to return to a loving and growing relationship with God.
Well, Reni was right. In order to get restored in her emotional life, Reni’s spiritual life needed to be restored. However, what she did not bargain for was that in order for her spiritual life to truly be restored, Reni would need to follow her decision to return to Jesus, with an intentional process of disciplining her ‘body’ and bringing it under subjection to the Spirit of God.
Let me explain. By using the word ‘body’ in 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul was referring to the needs and inclinations of your physical body, your emotions and feelings, as well as your intellect and logic. In other places, Paul used other terms such as “the flesh” or “self” or “the old man”, and basically, Paul pretty often taught that there is only one ‘right response’ to the free gift of salvation and righteousness, and that is for the believer to choose to no longer be defined and led by his ‘body’, but rather by the Spirit of God. In other words, and let me bring this back to Reni, now that Reni had chosen to return to a thriving relationship with God, she needed to choose to establish herself in that by anchoring her identity, lifestyle and daily choices in the Spirit of God, and no longer in her body.
So, after Reni and I concluded the usual coaching preliminaries, I introduced her to a coaching tool of mine that is based on 1 Corinthians 9:27, all about identifying the areas of your life in which you are still being led by your body (physical inclinations and desires, emotions, intellect), and taking practical steps to establish a new order whereby your lifestyle, identity and daily choices are now led by the Spirit of God. I helped her understand that the reason that she fell into that unwholesome lifestyle in the first place was because after being saved, she never took the next step to surrender your ‘body’ to discipline and subject it intentionally to the Holy Spirit. Instead she had continued living a life driven by her desires, and not by God’s Spirit. It took her a while but we were able to chart a practical way to help her to daily discipline her ‘body’ and bring it under subjection so that after all is said and done, she would not lose herself again.
Many of us Christians are like Reni; I know I was for a long time. We receive the free gift of salvation and then we follow it up with … nothing. We carry on living our self-led lives and we do not transition into a lifestyle and identity that is led by the Holy Spirit. We continue to make daily choices based on our bodies’ needs, our feelings, our fears, our desires, even our sense of right and wrong. The result is that so many Christians carry on living the same sinful, powerless, broken lives they lived before they got saved, and of course, the world looks at this and it confirms to them that indeed, Jesus is not God, and even if He is, He has no power to save. This is not how it is meant to be for us.
We see a perfect example in Matthew 4:4 where the devil tempted a very hungry Jesus to prove that He is the Son of God and satisfy His hunger by supernaturally turning stones into bread. Jesus could have given into His hunger, or at the very least, He could have been tempted to prove to Satan that He was indeed the Son of God. But that would have been pride, wouldn’t it? Instead of acting in line with His physical needs (hunger) or any root of pride that wanted to establish itself, Jesus demonstrated that His ‘body’ was under subjection, and His choices were going to be led by the Word of God. So how did Jesus reply? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
BOOM!
Friends, after you got saved, after you threw up your hands joyfully receiving the free gift of salvation that you could never have paid for yourself, what did you do? Did you just carry on living life with your ‘body’ holding the reins? Or did you surrender to a daily journey of handing over the reins to the Holy Spirit? Paul said in Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit, they are sons of God.” As a child of God, God’s Spirit must be your leader in the small and not-so-small choices of your life, but you alone can make that happen, and God promises that if you are willing, He will give you the grace you need to bring your body under subjection and hand over the reins to Him, and He will be merciful to you whenever you don’t quite get it right.
I encourage you today to look into your life and prayerfully admit the areas where you have not disciplined your ‘body’ nor brought it under subjection to the Holy Spirit. How have you patterned your life and daily choices around your feelings, desires, intellect, etc, instead of around the leading of the Holy Spirit and His Word? Now, prayerfully give over the reins to the Holy Spirit. Where He wants to take you … boy … you have no reason to fear. On the contrary actually, you should be bouncing off the walls in anticipation. Your body can never give you any kind of high that compares to that which the Holy Spirit gives.
P.S. If you need some help or guidance about how to do this practically, feel free to email me on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. I have really good and practical tools that you can use on this journey. I am also willing to take you on as a one-on-one coachee, if this suits you better. You can find all my coaching programs and offerings here.
Let us pray
Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me so much that You did not leave me ignorantly living a Christian life that is void of freedom and power. Thank You for introducing to me the lifestyle of disciplining my body and bringing it under subjection to Your Spirit and Your Word. Lord Jesus, I want the real deal! I want ‘that God-life’ of intimacy with You through which I walk in freedom from sin and inner brokenness, and I’m also able to discern and walk in Your purpose for my life. Please help me to discipline my flesh. Help me to stop allowing my body, emotions, intellect and desires to drive my life. I surrender to the Holy Spirit, the Counsellor, Teacher and Comforter. Holy Spirit, I am God’s child, so please, be my only leader. Be my only guide. And on days when I get it wrong, help me to run to Your ever-willing arms for mercy and grace to pick up and keep at this journey of transformation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Further Study (Optional)
Paul uses other terms to describe what it means to ‘bring your body under subjection’. In Ephesians 4:22-23, Paul said, “Lay aside your old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
In Colossians 3:5, Paul said, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”
In Romans 12:1-2, Paul said, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
But I think the verse that sums it up best for me is what Jesus said in John 3:30: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
I am Coach Toyin, fully convicted by my own words and very much still under construction in the hands of the Father.
