Introduction

Although there is a lot of teaching on Romans 6-8, I don’t think there is much on what it looks like, day by day. Sometimes spiritual concepts in the Bible remain in talk only, in religious words. I hope to shed light on these terms by taking it apart bit by bit to see what it looks like experientially.  We know it is a good thing, but what exactly is it? 

We can go through our days and weeks and it seems like our life isn’t spiritual at all. Maybe we can describe this journey, make a picture of it. Let’s see what it looks like in our average daily lives.

What does crucifying the flesh mean in my life? How do I reckon myself dead today as I go through my day at work? In my home life? When do I have the opportunity to crucify the flesh or count it dead? Life seems so ordinary. What does this journey to the cross look like?

First of all, it begins with our new birth. That is the foundation. Without the new birth, we have no life of God in us. 

This journey is not for the once-born, but for the twice-born because it isn’t a mental journey. It requires the life of God in us. It is for the heart not our brain. It can’t be dissected into precise steps. And it definitely is not a self-help journey to a better you.

The majority of believers are content with the spiritual life they have. They are nice people with a typical Christian experience of going to church, participating in church activities, and raising children to be like them. Some may even be of the twice-born race, those born again. Their life may not be all they want it to be, but they are content.

But a few believers are not satisfied. In fact, they are very dissatisfied. Maybe life has gotten very difficult for them. Maybe their childhood was full of pain and fear. For whatever reason, they are not satisfied with the status quo. 

They feel like failures and don’t know why. Maybe there is a deep-seated hunger for God that is the basis for the dissatisfaction with their spiritual life. They feel there has got to be more. Something more meaningful. Something more satisfying. They are hungry, but don’t understand the reason.

The First Step

So they make a decision. They want more and will not be satisfied with anything less. They see the believer’s life described in the New Testament and want that. One day they go to God and pour out their heart to Him. Unsure of what all that means, they press in and ask God to lead them deeper. God hears their longing and sees their bent form in prayer. God always hears such a heart.

That day the journey begins. It may not seem like it is different than any other day, but it definitely is. God heard. He will take you at your word. So the journey starts, even if it doesn’t seem like there is any change. He heard and will give you your heart’s desire.

He knows you do not really know what you are asking for, but He sees the longing in your heart and so begins to lead you in little steps, making small changes. He will open your eyes to the selfishness in your life. He will expose your short temper. He might ask you to give up something or someone. That is the beginning. A beginning of letting go. Small stuff at first. Just getting your attention, making you aware of your carnal nature. Revealing to you what you thought you needed. Revealing hidden desires and buried pain that needs His healing and cleansing touch.

The goal of the crucified life ultimately is death. Yes, your carnal self died by proxy, and by faith when Jesus died on the cross. It is not something we can do physically. It is spiritual. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. They can only be learned by the heart. The heart experiences this journey, not the brain. Although the brain is a tool of understanding words and sentences, etc., it doesn’t discern spiritual things. 1 Corinthian 2:14 says, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So by faith our carnal nature, our natural person who we are, (our natural abilities, characteristics, will, personality, etc.) that dominates us, died with Jesus on the cross. Now it is up to us by the help and power of the Holy Spirit to put it into reality day by day.

Our natural person, our carnal nature is enmity with God so it must be stripped of power. That source of power must be removed and replaced with a new source of power, of a life connected to Life. Instead of our abilities being based on our strength, we will be grafted into Jesus and receive all we need through Him, the true Vine, the source of true life. Kind of like rewiring your house.  Or a new operating system.

It may seem like this journey is not spiritual at all, just life being difficult. Trust me it is. He will most likely use people to bring out the worst in us. It might be those closest to you who are unaware of being used by God to help you on this journey to death, to freedom. Exposing your weaknesses. Making life difficult for you, exposing your flesh. It is your Master that is arranging what seems to be irritations. He is squeezing you like a grape to see if it is still your rotten flesh that smells. Or is there His sweetness in you that is exposed that is a sweet aroma to Him?

Don’t be afraid of your gentle Savior. Bare your soul to His gaze. Let Him search out and remove what is entangling your spirit.

Is This Spiritual growth?

It is the very ordinariness of life that God uses to bring you along on this journey. He is the potter, we are the clay. It isn’t some spiritual prophetic word spoken over you, or a word from a spiritual leader that gets your attention. Most likely not. It will be that person that irritates you to no end. Or a fussy child. Maybe it is a demanding spouse. Maybe it is the refrigerator that quits working, or a tire that goes flat. Or a supper that you burnt. It can be anything. Maybe a frozen water line. 

Your Potter uses whatever “tools” are nearby to expose your flesh. Isaiah 64:8 We are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. If you see that is His purpose, you have made good progress on your journey to the cross. I believe the biggest river we can cross on this trip is recognition of what is going on. Understanding that it isn’t just life, but it is a life directed by God. He is in control of every little circumstance in your life using each one to express His love to you and to move you along the path you have chosen.

Remember, He heard you when you prayed for a deeper relationship with Him. And unless you state firmly that you will go no farther, He will keep working with you arranging your life to get you to fall back on Him, always. That is His goal. To get you to allow Him to live for you, not you do a better job of living for Him. That is carnal. Philippians 1:6,…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…

If we are to follow Him, we must understand that it is a journey to death, just as He took. His face was set to go to Jerusalem and to the cross. So our journey is the same. We won’t lose our physical life, but the life source in us will die. We will no longer rely on ourselves for even the smallest requirement. We will no longer believe that we have any rights.

It is definitely not the secular way of looking at life. Secular counselors want to make us stronger. They give us coping methods to deal with life. God wants to make us weaker and weaker until we are totally dependent. Dependent on Him. He will not give us coping methods. He will rid us of the problem by making us dead to it. It will no longer have power over us. We will be free. 

So our goal is to be free from bondages by being dead to them, not by becoming emotionally stronger. Eventually we will be too weak to fight them and will allow God to step in and fight our battles for us. We will turn to Him when life requires of us what we can’t give. Everyday. Every minute. This is the journey to a deeper walk with God. 

Perhaps it seems like nothing is happening, then you feel stressed and maybe in emotional pain. It is another step. On this journey, your focus must be on Him and not on your progress. It is tempting to feel sorry for yourself as life gets difficult. Other people seem to be doing ok, why are you feeling like a mess? Don’t worry. Trust your Savior to lead you forward.

Then that bump in the road is passed and maybe life smooths out for a while. You keep walking out your life on the path before you. This can happen repeatedly as God peels back the layers of your personality, your protective coverings. Maybe it is your abilities that begin to suffer. Maybe relationships seem to be disintegrating and you don’t understand the reason. It could be that your children are going through difficult stages and you don’t feel capable as a parent. Go to God. He is allowing or orchestrating your circumstances. Visit with Him about it. 2 Pet. 1:3 says, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Your Savior’s Goal For You is Dependence

His goal is to provide all you need. He doesn’t expect you to be strong and handle it. No. Have you read the Gospel of John lately? In it Jesus describes His complete dependence on the Father. He said that He could do nothing on His own. That is the Son of God. But according to  Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Jesus laid aside His deity  when He came. He had no special powers to live a sinless life. He depended totally on His Father. He is our example. What did He do when He needed to feed thousands of people? He took the meager food, looked up to heaven and prayed. His Father did it through Him. Dependence. In John 5:30 Jesus tells us, I can of Myself do nothing.

Christianity is all about dependency. The secular world wants to help the emotionally needy people to be less dependent. But, that is not God’s way. As you get weaker and weaker you may wonder if you will make it. Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:10, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Through the weeks and months, life has its ups and downs, but He is taking you ultimately forward and upward if you cooperate with Him. When Jesus began His trek to the Calvary, it was difficult. There were no refreshment breaks. No stops for rest.

But God only leads us along as we follow. He won’t leave you behind. He will wait. Sometimes we have to pray, “Lord, please wait for me. Give me time to adjust to this next step.” He will. He is gentle and kind, yet firm. You asked for a deeper life, and He took you at your word. He will not quit unless you make the firm decision to quit. Simply complaining, crying in despair will not mean you are quitting. God is very gentle and kind. He will wait for you. He will not lose patience with you. He is so very kind.  Psalm 23:1,3 The Lord is my shepherd…He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

He understands how painful it is. Jesus went through a lot of temptations and trials so He understands what it feels like. Each time it seems like the next step is too difficult. You might begin to despair. And begin to sink into depression wishing life would just be easier than it is. That is your flesh talking. It has been in control of your spirit and doesn’t want to let go. You begin to see the flesh in your life, the sin that discourages you. You begin to not trust yourself because you are seeing your weaknesses. Good. That is an important milestone on this journey.

Eventually, all the bondages preventing you from being one with God will be broken. But it won’t be painless. 

“To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free.” A.W Tozer Pursuit of God, p. 49

We will be wounded, torn and ripped to shreds. Not our spirit. Our flesh. That which God calls His enemy. Our flesh can do nothing of spiritual value. Nothing. No matter how hard we try. We might be good Christians. We might be in control of all that is sin. But it is carnal. Maybe carnality at its best, but it is not spiritual. 

Journey Is Not Intellectual

Spirit only can relate to Spirit. Our spirit can only relate to God’s Spirit. Our flesh cannot, nor wants to. That is why the flesh must be removed. It isn’t a pleasant process, but it is freeing. When Jesus went to Calvary and hung on the cross while His physical life seeped out, He was in deep agony. But, it didn’t last forever. Only about six hours. Then it was finished. He was free of the human side of Him that He had to work with while living on earth. It didn’t last long. Although it must have seemed like an eternity.

So on our journey, it may seem like it will never end, but it will as long as you yield yourself to your Savior. He doesn’t want to drag it out. Only as long as it takes to free you from the domination of your soul. 

Jessie Penn-Lewis says, “so that the spirit is severed or ‘disentangled,’ as an old writer says “from the embrace of the soul!” The Centrality of the Cross, p.51, Jawbone Digital.com

Life might smooth out for a while tempting you to think the journey is over. The length of each part of this journey is completely up to God. He knows you better than you know yourself. There will be periods of calm and peace when all is going well.

Then something may happen that completely shocks you. Stuns you. You didn’t see it coming or maybe you would have been prepared. That is your flesh talking. Maybe someone close to you says something that makes you feel hopeless and terrible. Don’t worry. Submit to God and His circumstance at that moment. Yield to His slapping your clay around trying to smooth it out so He can make a useful vessel for His purpose. 

Whatever situation He uses in this crisis could be very painful. Your psyche is deeply wounded. You may sink even deeper into despair. That is ok. Go with it. Let it happen. God doesn’t want you to be able to rescue yourself. He is working in you. He holds your hand even when you feel like giving up. 

Trust Him to bring healing where it is needed. Know this – He loves you and will not let go of your hand. As you live out your life each day, let Him walk with you through this trial. He is there whether or not we sense His presence. This is called faith. Believing something that we cannot see or feel. We can only know after we walk in faith. This is a walk of faith. The key ingredient in a believer’s life is faith. All is of faith. 1 John 5:4 And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Times of Rest

As the clouds begin to clear and you feel better, rest in His presence. You will probably be emotionally weak. You have been wounded. Crawl over to Hm. While you are at work, sit at His feet drawing life from Him. John 15 speaks of our need to stay connected to the vine. We are only a branch and cannot do anything of spiritual value if we are cut off from the vine. We forget that. 

We tend to lose touch with God when we go about our lives. That was not meant to be. We were meant to live in His presence at all times. When we set God aside to attend to the responsibilities of life, we lose our connection.

There will be times again when all seems to be fine. You are doing life fairly well. You’ve learned some lessons and have had some of your flesh cut away. It hurt deeply, but now you are glad to have gone through that. But there is still more pruning to do. All flesh, not just the bad, needs to be crucified. Yes, even the good side of you is still flesh. He wants us to be completely free so He can use us as He wishes, not as we in our limited wisdom think is best. He knows what is best. 

Fatal Crisis

Eventually there will come a fatal crisis, or a series of crises that will finish the work. How long that takes is in God’s hands. You, of course, can drag it out by not yielding quickly. But, the goal is a fatal blow. Where you no longer believe you have any rights. Where you no longer trust yourself. Something happens or is said that absolutely destroys you and your self-confidence.  Maybe you have been made to feel worse than dirt. Maybe you failed so disastrously that you just quit. You don’t take your life, but emotionally your life is gone, over. Look to God even if it is only in pain and depression.  

Your very life seems to have been taken. Your feet have been knocked out from under you. The very breath of your soul is gone and you lie quietly. No more fight in you. No more justifying your actions. No more trying to please God. Nothing. All is quiet. Your soul has been mortally wounded. It is over. The last trial was extremely painful and you gave up. Perfect. Now just let the truth of that experience sink deep into your being. 

Striving is over.  There is inner peace. All is quiet. Even if your day to day life gets chaotic, you have peace. You are no longer trying to control anything or anyone. You are dead. You’ve been to Calvary. Dead people aren’t stressed, depressed, or fearful. You carry on life, but inside all is quiet. You are at peace. No more conflict between soul and spirit. God has won your heart at last and has freed your spirit.

So, you’ve been to Calvary. You have been deeply wounded. Your very life has been ripped to shreds. But your spirit is now free. Free! No more conflict inside. All is peace. You have experienced and been somewhere most Christians know nothing about and they may not understand you. That is ok. Your Lord is now your master. His thoughts about you are what is important now. Go forward living daily in His presence knowing He is in the car with you, sitting at your table with you, and is near you while you shop.

The Resurrected Life

Now you can live the resurrected life. All is new. The old is gone, dead to you. The abundant life awaits you. Be aware of His presence. Whisper to Him of your love and dependence on Him.

Know from this point on, life is different. Not that you are going to be different, for you have no life left to try anything. It will just happen. When you realize you have no life left in you and you don’t know what is going to happen to your life you simply carry out your responsibilities with no plans, goals, or feelings. You are empty of self. It is when we acknowledge our weakness to our Lord that He can reveal His power is us. 

Then shortly you will begin to feel something in you that wasn’t there before. A new life is beginning to grow in you. Galatians 2:20 “…it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” You find yourself being different. Your thoughts aren’t the same. In looking back over your life, you may wonder why you were such a person, why you acted the way you did. It seems foreign to you now. 

Life is now different. Where it used to be me-centered (even a refined me) it is now God-centered. The center is different. Focus has changed. 2 Corinthians 5:15 …and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. And Romans 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God becomes your source. He is your new operating system. He is what motivates you. He is your reason for all your choices and decisions. He becomes more and more your focus. There will be much to learn as He teaches you His kingdom ways. I think we can only truly learn when self is out of the way. Where it no longer taints what He shares with us. Self clouds His word, His teaching. 

There will be times, oh yes, when self will rear its ugly head and try to gain control again. Each time will be a time of learning from the Holy Spirit. See it for what it is, turn from it, yield to God. Don’t listen to its whining and complaining. Remember, it has been stripped of power.

Keep your hand in your Master’s hand and keep walking with Him. Not lagging behind or running ahead. Walk with Him. O what a blessed life! He wants our joy to be full! 

John 15:11 says, These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 17:21 …that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

That day by day living in the Presence of God just gets better and better. Life isn’t perfect, but it looks and feels different. As you keep walking with Him, learning from Him, being taught by God through His word, the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in your life. You won’t be producing it. The Holy Spirit does that.

Is This Journey for You?

Is this journey for you? Do you want to live on a higher plain?  Are you tired of being dominated and controlled by your soul, your flesh, your feelings, and your past? Just a quick reminder…this is a journey. It rarely happens instantly or even quickly. It takes time and diligence and perseverance. 

God is waiting for those who want to know Him better, who want a closer walk with Him, and who are willing to go with Him to the cross. The resurrected life awaits you. The abundant life that Jesus promised is for those who are free from the entanglement of the soul. They have burst through the veil of flesh by dying to it. Resurrected life always follows the crucifixion. And oh, what a life!

Go humbly and sincerely to God and share your heart with Him. Tell Him you want to go on this journey. He will hear you. He will grant your wish. A life on a higher plain waits for you.

Sheriena McEvers    2023