Terminator : Rise of The Spirit“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6-8) In the action sequel Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the cyborg sent back from the future to save mankind from termination by the Legally Blonde female terminatrix T-X. What we need now is not T3 and definitely not T4: Arnold for Governor, but a real terminator for the flesh. The man who lives in the flesh is the natural man, the man with the Adamic nature who is only out for himself. This man is not subject to the law of God yet the Bible tells us not only that the fleshly man sins but also that the fleshly man attempts to do good to please God. But no matter how hard he may try, he still cannot please God. Regardless of how man serves God through his flesh, the result is the same, he cannot please God. He may write big fat checks to charities or his alma mater, give not so anonymously to boost his ego, or donate millions to build a performing art center or museum in his name but his offering, like that of Cain, can never be accepted by God. The only one offering acceptable to God is our cross and our death as we terminate the lust of the flesh and die to our carnal self. This is like the dripping fat of rams, a sweet-smelling offering before God because the flesh has been terminated. Philippians 3:3 says, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Therefore, our greatest service to God is not how much we can do for Him but how much we can die, how much we can terminate the flesh and its selfish desires to chase pleasure, power, profit and prestige so we can serve God by building up our spirits and serving others out of love. This is not acceptable to the self-righteous because man often measures everything by his own work, thinking that if he does good works, if he can help others repent, he can bring all these offerings to God. But we should know that we cannot serve God according to our work because of sin. Man’s greatest offering to God is to lay himself on the altar, which is death to SELF and death to sin, because there was never an offering accepted by God which did not pass through the altar. Even Jesus had to die an excruciating death on the altar of the cross. All offerings to God must go through death or termination, and as the flesh dies we can begin to see the rise of the spirit as we ask God for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and spend time every day meditating on and obey the Word of God.Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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