The Divine Nature

I had a dream the other night. It was just one of those ordinary dreams and the only reason I remembered it is because I woke up right in the middle. This particular dream was a little annoying and there was really nothing special about it. The annoying part of the dream was how I reacted to a person who treated me badly. This unknown woman humiliated me in front of other people; all strangers. My reaction in the dream was to humiliate her back. I wanted to take her down a peg or two in order to defend myself in front of all those people.

I was very disturbed to realize how I would react if, in real life, I had been humiliated in the same way. Most likely I would say something, anything, to make her look stupid. In order to make myself look okay, I would have to make her look not okay. Yet if I had succeeded in doing that and knew that I had hurt her, I would have felt terrible. And I would have done everything I could to try to make it right and to build her back up.

I see at work in me two natures; the sin nature and the new redeemed nature; the new creation. Paul talks about this quite a bit in the book Romans. “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (Romans 7:22,23)

God used that dream to show me something. I tried over and over to rewrite the script. A person says something demeaning, fully intending to humiliate me in front of others. The desire to defend myself is so powerful that it overrides all my desires to show love to this mean, spiteful stranger. Do I walk away? Do I apologize for whatever I might have done to cause her to want to hurt me? Others are watching and they are thinking she might be telling the truth about me.

No matter how kind and loving I tried to be in my script, I kept wanting to twist that sarcastic dagger at some point in my encounter. I wanted desperately to cause those strangers to cheer for me and to see my confronter as what she really was.

All this started from a random dream! Seriously?

But God works in mysterious ways, does He not? And what He showed me early that morning wasn’t pretty.

My desire to be right and to please the crowd was stronger than my desire to show God’s love. Only by the power of Christ at work within me can I love an unlovable stranger. I can pray for my enemy, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit within me can I truly love my enemy.

Even with those we love the most, we have a strong tendency to want to be right, even when it makes them feel somewhat stupid. We almost ran out of gas recently while we were driving home from a vacation in Michigan. I bit my tongue because the old nature in me wanted to let my husband know this would never have happened to me. I always make sure I have plenty of gas especially when I'm entering a city. We managed to make it through Saint Louis on very low gas. When we got to the other side there was an exit for gas but my husband thought that the gas station might be too far from the interstate so he continued on. As we passed by, I saw a gas station right there at the bottom of the exit. I bit my lip and said nothing even though I really wanted to.

The only purpose in my speaking up was to elevate myself and to put him down. Thankfully I kept my mouth shut and did what I knew was right. I was able to do more than keep my mouth shut. I was able to also understand how he felt and I had no desire to humiliate him. Thankfully, in this instance, the Holy Spirit reigned over my heart.

We have a choice. We are partakers of the divine nature if we have surrendered to Christ. And if we have surrendered to Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in us. But we can, and often do, give in to our old nature.

Paul continues to instruct us in Romans chapter 8: “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:2‭-‬4)

Our choice is to live according to the flesh (our old sin nature) or to live according to the Spirit of Christ who dwells in our very being. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) If this is true, and it is, then even more so, He that is in you is greater than your sin nature.

When your sin nature wants to reign, call out for help. No amount of self-determination will get you out of falling to that nature. What you need is Christ alone and His power that is already at work within you. When you fail to allow the Spirit to lead you, remember, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) Ask for forgiveness and for His strength to set your mind on the things of the Spirit and to walk accordingly. Sometimes (often) this takes time. Time spent in God’s Word and time spent sitting at His feet. He transforms those who sit at his feet. TRANSFORMS them!!! (2 Corinthians 3:18)

If any of us are unaware of the sin nature at work and are not sorry when that sin nature has its way (yes, even with our spouse) then we have reason to be very concerned about our spiritual progress. When was the last time you were aware of God’s holiness and your unworthiness? We are not to wallow in our unworthiness, but we are to be full of gratitude for what God did to make us holy in His eyes.

We are His “holy and dearly loved” children (Colossians 3:12). Never forget that. You are far more cherished than you can possibly realize. And when God looks at you He sees a holy child, only because of what Christ did on the cross. But too often we continue walking as defeated, insecure wimps (or arrogant tyrants) instead of holy, dearly loved children of God, partakers of the Divine Nature, with Christ Himself dwelling in our hearts, empowering us to live for Him.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2 Peter 1:3‭-‬4)

One more thing; my husband often proofreads my blogs. He told me to be sure to mention that we did NOT run out of gas.