I have been spending time with some friends talking about what real Christianity looks like. It’s funny, because most of what people think of is, being good, kind, patient and the like, but that’s not it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, those things are all very important, and are ear marks of a changed life. But its not doing those things that make us Christians. That’s what most of us are trying to do. We are trying to be those things. We can no more be those things by shear determination than an apple tree can will for fruit to appear. An apple tree produces apples because its in its nature to do so. It doesn’t have to struggle or strain to make the fruit happen, you don’t walk by apple orchards and hear trees grunting and fussing or see fruit popping out of no where like magic. No, first there is the spring rains and then the summer rains and then after a while then comes the harvest. Fruit takes time, some times a long time, some trees have to be pruned here and there to get any fruit out of them. But that’s the job of the tree dresser not the tree. The tree just is.
So how in the heck are we expected to produce this fruit? I mean its not in our nature, our nature is to do the exact opposite of all the things God has called us to be in Christ. So some how we have to put off this old nature this “old man” and put on Jesus. Now we can try to control our habits and desires by doing some of the same tactics we use by trying to be good and kind etc. But again that’s going to lead to failure every time. Jesus said we have to be born of both the water and the spirit. What the heck does that mean? Well to be born of the water is to be born in the flesh, what we see and touch, our physical body. So our nature is to be water beings, our body parts our bodies are filled with water. We can try to block off areas that cause us to sin but sooner or later the old nature of ours is going to fill that spot we have been trying to keep dry and clear of water. So what can we do? whats the answer? We have to be filled with something that can displace that old nature, we need something that is heaver than water, we need some oil. Jesus said we needed the “infilling” of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful thing that the symbol of the Holy Ghost is oil the perfect substance to displace our old nature. As we are filled with the Holy Ghost, HE displaces the water of our old nature and puts on the “New Man” and now there is found no place for that old man to have his way. He has been evicted out of the house.
Now once we are empty of the water and are filled with the oil of gladness we have to be continually filled. We are all cracked pots that leak. If we don’t remain in constant fellowship with the Father and the Son through the gathering of the brothers and sisters, prayer and meditation and actively reading the word. the old nature will begin to fill the pot once again as the oil leaks out thorough the cracks. This is why we see so many struggling with their walks. This corruption will put on in-corruption. We will one day be in-corruptible, but that’s our new bodies, these bodies, well they are corrupted. That water nature is built in and until its is transformed at his appearing we have to yield to his filling us to stave off the effects of our true sin nature.
So what does true Christian living look like? Its being filled with the oil of the Holy Ghost “living water” Its understanding your true spiritual poverty and understanding your brokenness. Its yielding to God and allowing Him to displace your nature with His, then simply being who He has made you to be in Christ, nothing more, nothing less.