CHRIST-CONTROLLED VS SELF-CONTROLLED
Lord, help me hold every thought captive to you. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
Dear child, part of the fruits of my Holy Spirit is self-control. There is more to control that is obvious at first. Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual self control are all important skills. Self-control is entirely dependent on my Holy Spirit.
Yes, Lord. In your Word you say: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
In order to control your mind you must surrender control to me. Sometimes the thoughts you have come from me, but many times your mind is running without my Holy Spirit controlling it. To learn to stay with me is a discipline. It is easy to let your mind think about whatever it wants to think about. It takes being very intentional to have your mind led by my Holy Spirit all day long.
Lord, I found this article: “Alongside love and godliness, self-control serves as a major summary term for Christian conduct in full flower (2 Timothy 1:7; Titus 2:6, 12; 1 Peter 4:7; 2 Peter 1:6). It is the climactic “fruit of the Spirit” in the apostle’s famous list (Galatians 5:22–23) and one of the first things that must be characteristic of leaders in the church (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8). Acts summarizes the apostle’s reasoning about the Christian gospel and worldview as “righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). And Proverbs 25:28 likens “a man without self-control” to “a city broken into and left without walls.” – David Mathis, executive editor of desiringGod.org. He says that being self-controlled is not what you are asking of us. You are asking us to allow you to control us. Yes?
Yes, my child. Read that article. He has my heart on this topic. It is not about you exerting discipline and self-control in your own strength. I want you to surrender to me to let me Holy Spirit control you.
So, in summary:
• Self-Control is widely misunderstood
• It is not about us controlling ourselves
• By fully surrendering to the Holy Spirit, God will control us
• We do this by aligning our will with God’s will
• God’s will is this: that we hold every thought captive to Christ
Wow. This is so hard to grasp. I need to exert my will, but it must be fully aligned with Christ. If I do this, then my “self-control” is really “Holy Spirit-control” and all the credit goes to Christ who controls us. We don’t get to take credit for our appearance of self-discipline, because it is the Holy Spirit giving us that power to follow the will of Christ. It is not me doing it. It is the Spirit of Christ inside of me doing it. This helps me to avoid spiritual pride.
My child, as ministry leaders, spiritual pride is the number one reason that my leaders fail. They start believing they are the ones responsible for the good that is being produced – the fruit they are seeing produced by their actions.
Father God, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit. Blessed Trinity. I acknowledge that nothing good comes from my flesh. If there is any fruit at all, it is because you are the roots, you are the tree, your are the limbs. I am just a little branch, that has this beautiful fruit on it. I did not produce it. It was you. I do get to be a part of the process, but without you, I am simply a little lifeless, dried up twig on the ground, amounting to nothing, going nowhere, having no beauty, and having no future. You are our future and our hope.
My child, go in peace to love and serve me, remembering that all the fruit of my Holy Spirit is mine. You are part of me, but my power is the only thing that allows you to do anything good. I am your Lord and Master. You are my child whom I dearly love.
Thank you Lord God, Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ my savior, and Holy Spirit my power. Amen.
Your aspiring servant,
Daniel M.
4 May 2023
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