Changing Your Behavior- by Neil Anderson

Galatians 5:16 "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh"

A careful distinction must be made concerning your relationship to the flesh as a Christian. There is a difference in Scripture between being in the flesh and walking according to the flesh. As a Christian, you are no longer in the flesh. That phrase describes people who are still spiritually dead (Romans 8:8), those who live independently of God. Everything they do, whether morally good or bad, is in the flesh.
You are not in the flesh; you are in Christ. You are no longer independent of God; you have declared your dependence upon Him by placing faith in Christ. But even though you are not in the flesh, you may still choose to walk according to the flesh (Romans 8:12, 13). You may still act independently of God by responding to the mind-set, patterns and habits ingrained in you by the world you lived in. Paul rebuked the immature Corinthian Christians as "fleshly" because of their expressions of jealousy, strife, division and misplaced identity (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). He listed the evidences of fleshly living in Galatians 5:19-21. Unbelievers can't help but live according to the flesh because they are totally in the flesh. But your old skipper is gone. You are no longer in the flesh and you no longer need to live according to its desires.
Getting rid of the old self was God's responsibility, but rendering the flesh and its deeds inoperative is our responsibility (Romans 8:12). God has changed your nature, but it's your responsibility to change your behavior by "putting to death the deeds of the body" (Romans 8:13). You will gain victory over the flesh by learning to condition your behavior after your new skipper, your new self which is infused with the nature of Christ, and learning to transform your old pattern for thinking and responding to your sin-trained flesh by renewing your mind (Romans 12:2).
Prayer:
Lord, knowing that I am no longer controlled by sin is such a liberating concept. I can walk today in freedom from my old self, the world system, and the devil. Praise Your name!

The Discipline of Hearing- by Oswald Chambers

Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops —Matthew 10:27

Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into "the shadow of His hand" until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2 ). "Whatever I tell you in the dark. . ."— pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood— darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.
After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, "How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!" And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.
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Is The Church a Facilitator of Programs?

As I watch God change the lives of men and women, I am troubled that they then seem to be directed- by the church- to the program that seems to best suit their "need". It seems to me that "The Church" should be "the program"... meaning that they should be encouraged, discipled and given pastoral care. Who should do this? Us... you and me and the church leadeship. How should we do this? By befriending, teaching and caring for them.
I am discouraged when our best advice is to send "them" to the program which has a name which fits their past. Are they not new creations?.. are they not now a "sibling in Christ"? Do we treat them as a family member... or a patient?
The Bible teaches that once God "saves us", He then sees us as His child... along with the many others who have responded to His call to "be saved". The Bible teaches us that we are to find fellowship with like minded individuals... not those who have a common background, but those who have a common future (and a common present... children of God). The Bible teaches that those who have been saved are to invite others to join the family of God... and to then to disciple them. The church has fallen into a complacency which requires programs and therapists to fix "their family members"... or do nothing at all! What kind of comfort is in that? What kind of family is that? Let us stop "sending them away"... to the "place where they belong" and lets make them feel like part of a family... in the Church.