"A Beautiful Find”

“A Beautiful Find”

There is expectation and joyful discovery in a beautiful find. It can lift you from the depths of depression and fill your life with hope and joy. It can take your heart from rags to riches and elevate you from a meaningless existence to a life of purpose and meaning. A beautiful find can end your lifelong search and answer the question of “Why am I here?” Mankind’s very soul longs for a beautiful find and you and I are about to hear from a man who found it. Listen to these words of truth and revelation from Romans 8: 9-14:

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 12. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba! Father!”

The Apostle Paul has unearthed a beautiful find that he wants formed in our own hearts as well. Knowing this truth is extremely precious, he warns us not to squander it or water it down with the weeds of doubt and fear. He proclaims the truth must become reality in our mind and actions if the imperishable seed is to grow. He is straightforward in his approach and doesn’t waste words. With a heart of love but firm determination he affirms: You and I are not in the flesh but the spirit and a beautiful find will be lost unless we act upon it. Paul has seen followers of Christ operating on lies and deceptions when there is no need. Thus, with a passionate heart he proclaims for our ears today: “…if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” you are not in the flesh.”

Dear Christian, we must underscore this truth. Do you hear the truth speaking? Does the Spirit of God dwell in you? If you are a born again blood bought believer He does -- for if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So do you belong or not? If you do belong to Christ, you must operate upon the truth of His Word and act accordingly. Don’t live below your standard and ignore a beautiful find! “But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves (James 1:22).” Don’t let the truth go in one ear and out the other is what both Paul and James would say. Such things should not be! Listen to this promise from the Book of Truth: “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:23). Notice it says, this man will be “blessed in his deed.” What a wonderful promise! What a beautiful find!

The law of liberty should remind us of The Spirit in all its fullness -- for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. But where the spirit of the flesh exists there is bondage and oppression. Either the Son sets you free or He does not. Either the Son speaks truth or He does not for the issue is not truth but faith. The question is never “Is the Word of God True?” but “Do I trust The Truth and live by it?” The Bible speaks truth and it says the Spirit of God dwells in you whether you feel it or not. Therefore, your whole life should be changed for if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). This is the Lord’s message to us as He speaks through his servant.

Paul defines the outcome of this truth in verse 10: “If Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Therefore, when I physically pass from this earth at the Lord’s appointed time, my body will be dead because of sin. Flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of God. But do not fear. When you see the shell of my body left behind, remember I am alive. I am not dead. So REJOICE! My spirit is alive because of the righteousness Christ place in my account at salvation. The reason: because the veil was lifted and by grace I saw the issue wasn’t TRUTH but FAITH. Galatians 2:16 makes this clear: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith of Jesus Christ, the we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”