In Touch 01-23-05

In Touch Daily Devotional
by Dr. Charles Stanley

January 23, 2005
What It Means To Follow Christ
John 15:1-11

The spiritual pruning process of our lives includes cutting away all that reflects our earthly passions that are in opposition to God's holiness. A. B. Simpson writes: "Before the Holy of Holies can be fully opened to our hearts and we can enter into . . . communion of God, the veil upon our hearts must be rent asunder, and this comes as it came on Calvary - by the death of our flesh.
    
"It is when we yield our own natural self to God to die and He slays us by the power of His Spirit that the obstruction to our communion with God is removed and we enter into its deeper fullness. The greatest hindrance to our peace and victory is the flesh. Whenever the consciousness of self rises vividly before you, and you become absorbed in your own troubles, cares, rights or wrongs, you at once lose communion with God, and a cloud of darkness falls over your spirit.
    
"There is really nothing else that hurts or hinders us but this heavy weight of evil, this seed of Satan. . . . We can never rend it asunder, but the Holy Spirit can. It dies only on the cross of Jesus . . . under the fire of His descending Spirit. Bring it to Him, give Him the right to slay it, and then the veil will be rent asunder. The Holy of Holies will open wide, the light of the Shekinah will shine through all the house of God, and the glory of heaven will be revealed in your life."

On Jan. 2, 2005, Dr. Stanley begins a ten-week series entitled "Landmines in the Pathway of the Believer" that identifies and helps you disarm the spiritual landmines in your life. For more information, including television listings and airtimes, visit www.landminesofthebeliever.com.

For more about this topic and many more, be sure to visit the "Exploring the Bible" section of intouch.org. http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/exploring/index_76118.html