What You Do, Verses, What You Believe.

What You Do, Verses, What You Believe.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11NLT

In his book Spiritual Burnout, Malcolm Smith tells the story of a drug addict he minister to. Hector had been a heavy drug abuser before he came to know the Lord. He had a marvelous conversion. He was reunited with his wife and she, too, came to know the Lord. Even though he was a new creation in Christ, it wasn't long before Hector sensed he still had strong temptations to return to his old drug habit. One morning at 4 AM his wife greatly distressed, called Malcolm Smith. Apparently Hector had been very upset the previous day. He had left the house and hadn’t returned. Gloria was convinced he was looking for a drug dealer. In the gray dawn, Malcolm went to the area where Hector had spent his days as an addict. After a few inquiries he found Hector in a sleazy pool hall. He took him aside, but Hector said, “Pastor, please leave me alone! I have let God down. I have let you down and all the brothers and sisters at the church. It's no use, I'm not worth bothering with anymore.” Malcolm looked Hector squarely in the eye and said, “God loved you when you were a junkie and he saved you. Do you think now that you are his child, he doesn't love you freely and unconditionally?” Malcolm stated, “God still loves you, even though last night you hurt yourself and your family. God loves you exactly the same way at this moment as he did when you were singing in the spirit last week. God's love is not dependent on what you do or don't do. He forgives you. Take His forgiveness and thank Him!”

Then Rev. Smith turned his attention to the question of how Hector handled the temptation to return to drugs. Malcolm stated, Hector assured me that he continually said no. This was Hector's problem. Just saying no to any temptation is like trying to live under a law that says, “Thou shall not get high on drugs.”

Remember this, telling people what they are doing wrong does not give them the power to stop doing it. The law is powerless to give life; only by the life of Jesus Christ can we overcome sin.

Galatians 3:21NLT Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.

And then Malcolm Smith stated a powerful truth, “Hector, you must understand that faith never says no to temptation, it says yes to Jesus.”

Malcolm went on to explain that Hector sins had been nailed to the cross with Jesus, and now the spirit of Jesus lived within him. Life was not a matter of Hector’s trying to be good; it was a matter of admitting that on his own he could never be good! Once he understood this, he would never think that Christianity was a matter of adjusting his behavior, but rather letting Christ Jesus live through him in His strength and power.

Pastor Malcolm states, “Faith is not collecting all the willpower into a mighty no! It is recognition at the point of my weakness that, even though I do not feel it, Jesus Christ is my strength.”

Malcolm went on to say some months later, pressures again developed in Hector's life. He fell back into the same old legalistic pattern of trying to say no. In the following weeks, his resistance became weaker and weaker. He had all but decided to get high and be a drug dealer. What little resistance was left screamed no as loudly as it could. As he got closer to making a deal, Hector cried out inside, “Please, God, help me!”

He remembered the conversation with Malcolm months before. “This desire for drugs is not the real me, he told himself. This Hector died with Jesus Christ and now I am risen with him. Now he is my life.”

Colossians 1:27NKJV To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Hector stated I was trying to deal with this as though Jesus were not inside me. “Lord Jesus, I don't want to get high, but I am weak. You take over and live your victory through me.”

“Trying to change a persons behavior without changing what he believes can only lead to legalism or rebellion.” -Neil Anderson

Please hear this, we are not called to dispel the darkness; we are called to turn on the light. Jesus is the light.

Fact, Jesus doesn’t need to come down and give you special power, He already has! Christ in you.