I AM FREE FROM CONDEMNATION – PART 2

3 -- Free to Live by the Spirit:
I want to tell you a true story about a place called Yates field. During the depression there was a man named Yates that owned a sheep farm. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough on his farm operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his farm. With little money for clothes or food, his family [like many others] had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over the rolling hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his debt. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he had been living on relief. Can you imagine a multimillionaire living in poverty? What was his problem? He did not know the oil was there even though he owned it. Many believers live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gift of Ruach HaKodesh and His energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright. They want to live in obedience to YHVH, but cannot seem to find the power to see it through and the answer is right in front of us. If I want to live in gratitude to YHVH I will do so by being empowered by Ruach HaKodesh. I am freed from sin’s power; I am freed from sin’s condemnation and I want to live by YHVH’s standards out of gratitude for what He has done for me but I find it hard to accomplish. The problem is I do not fully understand the ramifications of what YHVH has done for me; if He has freed me from sin’s power that means I have the ability to not sin; if He has freed me from sin’s penalty that means I do not need to fear the future. The bottom line is this: I am completely free to live a life in obedience to YHVH. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, YHVH sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after HaRuach. -- Romans 8:3-4. Before becoming a Moshiach Follower we had no choice, we were enslaved by the sinful nature and had no real power to overcome. As believers we now have a choice; we can either follow the sinful nature or we can follow Ruach HaKodesh. It is up to us to choose what we will, but we know that only one choice is acceptable to this great and wonderful YHVH who has given Himself completely on our behalf. YHVH did not do all that He has done for us so that we would keep living the way we have always lived. He has something better for us; a life lived in line with His will with the power to do all that He wants us to do and an ability to resist all that He wants us to avoid is ours for the taking if we will listen to the still small voice of Ruach HaKodesh as our guide. I do not have a three-step plan for how to make this happen because it is actually much simpler than that. You and I simply have to make a choice to listen to HaRuach and reject sin. There has never been a known sin that I have committed that I did not consciously choose to ignore what Ruach HaKodesh was saying to me. I have no doubt that is true for each and every one of us. I sin because I choose not to follow HaRuach; I do not sin when I choose to follow HaRuach. It’s as simple as that! Let us begin today to consciously choose to live in the freedom HaRuach gives us to choose what is right. Tomorrow, choose to go the entire day without committing any sin, with you and HaRuach in control, you can do it. The next day, make the same choice and keep making that choice every day. If there is a day you slip, YHVH will forgive you and you will not be condemned, but get right back up on your feet and start all over again out of gratitude to our Heavenly Father. The great news for believers is that we will never be condemned. I am looking forward to that day when each of us is ushered past the Judgment Seat into the presence of Almighty YHVH.