Come Up Higher - God is Self Control

So today we will conclude our series titled Come Up higher. We will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character. This time His self control. A self control that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is self control. As you listen be blessed, empowered and transformed in Jesus name.

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Also connect with us in discipleship, watch our videos, follow us on facebook or send us an email

Transcript

00:00 Intro music and voice over.

Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name! 

00:21 Speaker

Following on from last week, we discovered that God continues to invite us to come up higher, to know and experience His gentleness toward us. 

A gentleness that is intertwined with His humility and patience. God personally shares with us each and every day His gentleness. As we surrender to Him, take a moment to receive from Him, we are immersed in His gentleness. For God is and always will be, gentleness. 

So today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character. This time His self control. A self control that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is self control.

Self control in a human sense is to master ones desires and passions. Especially mastering the lusts of the flesh or selfish desires. 

As God has no selfishness in Him, nor any lusts, He gifts us His self control through His Spirit. His Spirit guides and leads, transforms and renews, liberates and fulfils.   

As we surrender our self will to that of God’s will, taking a moment to receive from Him, He transforms and renews us. He transforms our hearts and renews our mind. Each day is a new day for His desires to become our desires. For our thoughts and minds to be renewed by Him. Where we have the mind of Christ, living in the reality of His victory. This is the will of God for us and a work of God in us, as we take a moment to surrender and receive. 

As we live in a heart mind condition of surrender, we become more aware of God’s presence and are able to be sensitive to His leading. The Apostle Paul had much to say about this and refers to this as walking in the Spirit. Let us go to Galatians 5:16-26 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

In this letter to the churches in Galatia, the Apostle Paul shows the extraordinary contrast between the works of the Spirit of God and the works of the flesh or the selfish desires of humanity. Every work of the flesh has no place in God’s kingdom. For they are destructive of both self and others. As they bring destruction, the works of the flesh are totally at war with God and are never satisfied.

In complete contrast, the works of God are constructive, only good and for the benefit of others. The works of God reflect His characteristics or divine nature. As everything God says and does flows directly from His divine characteristics. 

The good news is, God shares His divine characteristics with us, including His self control. For His desire is that we are saved from the lusts and passions of the flesh or our selfish desires. That we would live in the freedom of their destructive and debilitating, controlling forces, as we live in this world damaged by evil. 

So God - Father, Son and Spirit - share with us their self control. A self control that masters the lusts and passions of the flesh or selfish desires. 

As having received Jesus, received God, we are partakers of His divine characteristics, including His self control. 

Another Apostle, this time the Apostle Peter received a beautiful revelation of this truth. In His second recorded letter, he writes to those who have received Jesus, received God.

Let us go to, 2 Peter 1:1-11 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In this text, Peter explains that upon receiving Jesus, receiving God, we are enjoined with the divine. We have been given a precious gift of faith in Him. Becoming partakers of the divine nature of God. All this is because of the righteousness or rightness of God. His true justice in paying the cost for each one.

The daily journey with God begins in the knowledge of God. This knowledge is not only knowing and experiencing the divine, but also living in the full recognition and discernment of things pertaining to God. 

For through the great and precious promises of God, we come to know we can trust in Him. For it is His truth, through the knowledge of God that sets us free. 

Each day is a new day to walk in His Spirit, being transformed and renewed, liberated and fulfilled. 

In this text, the divine nature of God is also intricately linked with His power. Which is evident in God’s gift to us of all things pertaining to life and godliness. 

Having received Jesus, received God, we have escaped the corruption and judgement of this world. This world that is corrupted by the lusts of humanity. However this life and godliness that is not just our future inheritance that occurs when Jesus returns and brings judgement upon the earth. The transforming and liberating work of God is His gift for us now as we live in this world damaged by evil.

With the gift of God Himself, we can live in His freedom and victory. Free from the destructive bondage of the lusts of the flesh, or the selfish desires of humanity. 

As we surrender our lusts and selfish desires to God, we are partaking of the divine nature of God in all things pertaining to life and godliness. As we are enjoined to God, in surrender to Him, we are directly receiving from Him. In this instance partaking of His divine characteristics. 

In this letter by the Apostle Peter, he lists some the aspects of the divine characteristics of God, one of which is self control. A self control that is divine. God’s self control is a gift of God Himself. As is all aspects of God’s divine characteristics. Self control is a gift that brings freedom from the bondage of the desires and passions of the flesh. 

Being in a continual surrender of the lusts of the flesh or selfish desires, is to be transformed by Him. Being renewed by Him. That is the work of His Spirit.

In continual surrender of the lusts of the flesh or our selfish desires, we can live in the freedom of His divine self control. Being set free from the endless quest for self glorification and self gratification. Living in the fullness of the truth of God discerning the lies and deceptions of self, evil and this world. Free from the lure and lusts for positions of power and the successes of this world. 

Knowing the flesh can never be satisfied and everything of this world is temporary. The kingdoms of humanity come and go. There is only one kingdom that is everlasting and that is the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Being partakers of God’s divine characteristics, each day is a new day to know, experience and live in the reality of His self control. His self control that brings mastery of the flesh and selfish desires. For God is and always will be self control.

So as we enter into this new season, God is inviting us to come up higher. To know and experience Him and His divine characteristics more and more. His self control is a fruit of His  Spirit. The Spirit of God who guides and leads, transforms and renews, liberates and fulfils. For God is and always will be self control.

So as we come to the conclusion of this series titled, Come Up Higher, let us take a moment to reflect on who God is. 

For God is love. A love that is unconditional and relational, peaceful and abiding, selfless and life giving, unsurpassed and unstoppable. 

For God is joy. His joy is a calm delight that dwells within. Having received the truth of God in Jesus, we let His joy over us be our strength. He intimately and personally delights in each one of us. His joy for others is our testimony. All this is to the glory of God our Father. 

For God is peace. A peace that is dwelling as one in quietness and rest. For it is His covenant of peace that binds us together. As we are immersed in Him and His armour, we carry His peace wherever we go.

For God is patience. A patience that is unending and intertwined with His selfless love. His heart’s desire is that none should perish. So God waits.

For God is kindness. A kindness that is pure and loving, selfless and divine. God’s expression of His loyalty and devotion to His covenant of love is inseparable from His kindness. In His lovingkindness He journeys with humanity through the highs and lows of this life. He dwells within all who receive Him. 

For God is goodness. His goodness is revealed in His glory. The glory of His presence. To all who have received Him it is His presence within and around that sets us apart. Surely His goodness shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

For God is faithfulness. A faithfulness that is the absolute integrity of God. He is true to His characteristics, fulfilling His purpose and plan of salvation and judgement. Bringing equity and freedom, restoration and transformation, healing and wholeness, peace and harmony.

For God is gentleness. A gentleness that is intertwined with His humility and patience. A gentleness that He personally shares with us each and every day. As we surrender to Him, take a moment to receive from Him, we are immersed in His gentleness.

For God is self control. A self control that is part of His divine nature and fruit of His Spirit. Bringing mastery and freedom from the passions and selfish desires of humanity. 

So as we walk through to eternity with the living God, He continues to invite us to come up higher. For God is and always will be - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Praise His mighty name!

19:40 Outro music and voice over. 

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!