BY GREG CRUM

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Romans 14:17

For some time now, we’ve been writing of our need for change in the modern Body of Christ, in particular the need to change our minds to better reflect the mind of Christ. The fact of the matter is that this country and this community would be in less of a mess if believers thought and acted more like Jesus. We can’t continue to think like the world thinks and expect to live in the blessings of the Lord. We are called to be conformed to the image of Christ, but in order to do this, according to Ephesians 4:17-24, we must put off the old man and his ways and put on the new. This “new man” thinks and acts like our Lord.

So, challenge to our current level of spiritual maturity as it may be, we need to start developing the character of the Lord in our lives. How? By growing what’s already in our hearts and starving out the old man and his fleshly ways. What is it that’s already in our hearts? The fruit, or natural byproduct, of the Spirit of God who dwells in every believer! Sometimes we may not feel like it, but in reality, all the love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance we would ever need is already in our spirit, placed there as a deposit by the Holy Spirit when we said “Yes” to Jesus.