I have spoken to you about strengthening the inner man. I have emphasized the value of that to you. I want you to understand that it is not a process I am beginning sometime in the future but it has already begun and I want to strengthen and deepen it, bring it to a greater maturity. There are certain disciplines connected with this that I want to establish with greater consistency in your lives. I want you to know more than you have before how to operate in these disciplines for they are vital for the fulfillment of My purposes. I want to make you more alert to the areas I want to strengthen. This Word and My Word given through Paul speak to that very thing. I want your minds to perceive things that are in line with My will, therefore I want to draw you more and more away from conformity to this world. Even in the church among My people, being modern and up to date, being contemporary and relevant have been subtle ways of drawing My people away and conforming them to the world’s system. I am not talking about past ways of doing things, making them holy and godly. I am not talking about reacting to modern forms by clinging to ancient forms. I am talking about letting My will, rather than the ways of the world, form your thoughts. I Am talking about your conduct arising from My initiative, My will, My revelation, rather than what men in the world do. If your mind is being renewed, if your motivation is being stirred out of a desire to please Me, if you regard yourself as a living sacrifice, if your dependence is on My grace rather than on your own effort, then and only then will you see, will you be able to walk out the rest of what this Word says. Only then will you be able to exercise your gifts in proper concert with the rest of the body, and only then will you be able to deal with difficult people and difficult circumstances. Then you will not regard your gift as more important than any other or less important than any other, but you will see how you need others to complement what you are and what you have been given. You will also see in a good way how they need you. Then you will be able to fit in and serve well My purposes in the body. Also in the exercise of the grace, not only to use gifts but to show kindness and love rather than retribution as a demonstration that you trust me and desire to represent Me rather than yourself. Only in this way can you avoid being overcome by evil but rather overcome it with good. I say again, what is the issue? The issue is, are you really committed to My will above everything else? Will you really choose to be a living sacrifice and let Me demonstrate My grace in a powerful way through you, not for your own recognition but for My glory? There is no end to what I can do through those who choose this.

Tags: Dependence, Discipline, Living Sacrifice