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The Key to Victorious Christian Living
Galatians 5:24
"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."
Everybody should want to win in life. The purpose for entering a war is to win. No country goes to war with the intention of losing. A country that goes to war goes with the intention of winning. According to the Scriptures, every Christian is in a war. Your desire should be to win in the war against Satan and the flesh.
In the Christian life, you will either fulfill the works of the flesh, or you will walk in the Spirit and exemplify the fruit of the Spirit. We learn from the verse above how to be victorious in walking in the Spirit. The key to being victorious in the Christian life is by having a daily crucifixion. Without crucifying two things on a daily basis, you will fail to be victorious as a Christian.
First, you must crucify your affections. When God says to crucify your affections, He is talking about letting your passions die. In other words, you will never be successful in serving God without letting your goals die. Your affections are the passions that drive you. In other words, they are the things in life that drive you to do what you do.
Christian, though your goals in life may be godly goals, it is not your goals for which you are to live, but you are to live for the goals that God has for you. For instance, a pastor may have goals to build a growing church. Though these are not bad goals, these may not be God's goals for you. Your goal may be to be a great Christian, build the largest bus route, Sunday school class, or be the best soul winner. Though these goals are not bad goals, God is teaching that you have to crucify your affections. Notice that God did not say only the bad affections, but He simply said, "affections." That means that even your good affections must be crucified. Even if your goals in life are good, you are not to pursue your goals, but you are to pursue walking in the Spirit. To crucify your affections or goals means you are to kill your goals and passions for the sake of fulfilling the fruit of the Spirit which is, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. These things are God's affections for which He wants you to live. You will only do these things by crucifying your affections.
The second thing you must do to live a victorious Christian life is to crucify your lusts. Your lusts are your carnal appetites. That means to live victoriously you must control your thought life. You will never live in the flesh and keep a good thought life. Your thought life at the best is corrupt. On a daily basis you need to ask God to help you to control your mind. The best way to control your mind is to live in the Word of God. Meditate throughout the day on what you have read in the morning so that your mind is controlled by Christ. The purpose of crucifying our lusts is so that we can have the mind of Christ.
If you want to be victorious in your Christian life, then you must have a daily crucifixion. You must daily crucify your affections for the fruit of the Spirit, and you must daily crucify your lusts for the mind of Christ. Every morning when you wake up, ask God to help you in crucifying your affections and lusts so that He can live through you. If you are successful in doing these things, then you will be victorious in your Christian life.