SELF DENIAL IS NO LONGER STILL A DOCTRINE OF CHRIST

Self-denial is part of a doctrine of the gospel of Christ (repentance from dead works) that should be as popular (if not more popular) in the Church today as doctrines that promote the acquisition of the good things of life for the benefit of the believer. But it is not! 

If only believers knew that all the good things of this life they can ever think of or desire and more are in Christ and that they will get these things in Him without getting their fingers burnt, they would deny self already, to seek and follow Him without distraction. 

Following Christ is the access to God’s omnipotence and for the believer it is a life-long journey. Jesus said in Mark 8:34 that whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.  

What is self-denial? It is one phrase that secular definition can hardly correctly explain because it presents it as something negative. The act of not allowing yourself to have or do something you want sure sounds and feel negative, doesn’t it? 

But Jesus never came to take away from you but to add to you, so there must be something to self-denial than what the secular definition offers as its meaning. Self-denial is not negative but positive, it has great gain (1 Timothy 6:6). 

It is crucial for us to have adequate understanding of what self-denial is to the believer. I have come to discover that the greatest conflicts believers have in their lives today in following Christ derive from not knowing or knowing but not understanding this requirement well enough, for living to please God.

UNDERSTANDING HOW GOD DEALS WITH YOU

The word of God is the only means by which the believer can have understanding of things regarding his relationship with God. So powerful is the word that it is only by it that we are able to distinguish between our spirit and our mind (Hebrews 4:12) and understand who we really are. 

The word of God explains to us that Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We need not over stress the point that the new creature refers to man’s spirit that got recreated by the Spirit of God at salvation. This is what is referred to as being born again (John 3:3). 1 Peter 1:3 says the believer has been begotten again unto a lively hope. 

The twenty third verse of this same book refers to the believer as being born again, not of corruptible seed. James 1:18 says of His own will begat he us with the word of truth… All these refer to the re-creation of the spirit of the believer, which Ephesians 4:24 speaks of as the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  

The believer’s re-created spirit has the life of God and desires to please God and always do His will. Sin or whatever is contrary to God's will cannot arise from the believer’s spirit. 

As a believer, whatever is sinful or contrary to God can only come from other of your members, not your spirit that has been created after God in righteousness and true holiness. 

In Romans 7:15-25, apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit explained this in details. He said the new creature, the born again spirit of the believer delights in the law of God. This new creature he called the inward man (referring to man’s spirit - Romans 7:22).

We do know also that there is more to the believer than his spirit while he is here on earth, he has his flesh on still. The flesh of man is that part of man that nothing happened to at salvation, the part that remains corrupt and corruptible, full of evil desires.

The flesh therefore fights against the believer’s re-created spirit for control over the mind because whichever dominates the mind determines what the believer eventually does, either the spirit unto righteousness or the flesh unto sin.

Sin comes from the believer’s flesh, not his spirit. The believer’s spirit always wants to do God’s will and with this knowledge he must deny the flesh what it desires at all times. This is the self-denial Jesus commanded and requires.

You must deny your flesh what it desires because it can never want anything that is not sinful. Romans 7:18 says For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing. Never hope for a day when your flesh will lose interest in sin so you can start doing God’s will.

Do not seek for or hope for a day when prayer can be made for you to cast evil out of your flesh so that it stops desiring sin. Such a day will never come. The way to live and the only way is self-denial, deny and deprive the flesh what it wants so you can follow Christ all the way. If you do not deny self, you will continue to deny Christ.

THE ‘FEEL GOOD’ THAT IS BAD FOR YOU

Following Christ will never make your flesh feel good, sinning however would. Following Christ fills your spirit with joy unspeakable, full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). The believer is expected to dominate his flesh with this. 

What the bible says mostly in reference to self is nothing more than the desires of the flesh. In these last days, self has been exalted above everything else (including God) and the ‘feel good’ buzz up in the atmosphere, people take drugs and do all sorts to ‘feel good’, some end up killing themselves all in the attempt to 'feel good' or get high.

The believer must take a position on whether he would follow Christ unto life or follow sin (self/the flesh) unto death. The ‘feel good’ of the flesh brings forth sin unto death. 

The ‘feel good’ of the flesh is what Satan uses to lure men to destruction, but the joy of the Spirit brings forth righteousness unto eternal life.

As a believer, never let what your flesh feels when you deny it be a deterrent to your obedience to and living to please God. Rather see it as honor and service unto God (Romans 12:1) and rejoice knowing He is pleased with you and He rewards. There is no limiting your spiritual development when you follow this, for God will take you on a no holds barred experience in your walk with Him.

While it is erroneously held by some that 'if it does not feel good then people will not want it', I will say this holds only to the extent that people do not have the revelation knowledge of God’s word. 

With the revelation knowledge of God's word, people would want God, they would chose Jesus over the world, blessing over curses, plenty over lack and poverty, joy over guilty conscience, peace with God over conflicts, victory over defeat, eternal life over eternal damnation and the list goes on.

The Church cannot make the flesh feel good because the word of God will not. If the Church follows the 'feel good' path, it will end up being full of people who are not saved and will not get saved because they do not know the difference.

No man genuinely comes to Christ with their flesh feeling good. Repentance and the flesh feeling good go in opposite directions. 

If the flesh feels good, then it is not Church, neither is it of Christ. 

The Church is meant to teach and encourage denial of the desires of the flesh so that the believer can walk with God. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life are the things the bible refers to as what the world is all about and it says if anyone loves the world and the things in it, such a person cannot love God (1 John 2:15-16). How possible or easy do you think it is to follow someone you do not love?

The desire of the spirit of everyone that is born again is to follow Christ and the ‘feel good’ of the flesh can never satisfy this desire but rather take away from it. 

God put the desire to follow Christ in our spirits by the Holy Spirit, making provision for us to walk before Him unto all pleasing in this life. He has given us His life, His very own Spirit is in our spirits. 

The desires of the flesh He asks us to deny do us no good. They only give temporary pleasure to the flesh while our spirits groan and are drawn away from God. 

Self-denial does not take away from the believer, it positions him to get the most from God in this life and in the hereafter, it only adds to the believer.

The only way you are not doing the desires of the flesh is by denying the flesh, not explaining them away, wishing them away or pretending as though they are not being gratified or that they are right before God. 

Are you wondering what the missing ingredient is in your life as a believer? Are you wondering why the things of the Spirit are not clear to you or why your experience is far from what you see in and know of the bible? Then check on your self-denial status, put your flesh under by denying it what it desires, so you can focus on doing what Christ says. 

Walk in love rather than hate, backbite, back-stab, take vengeance, keep malice, lie or set another up for a fall for your benefit. 

Think no ill to your neighbor but rather do good to them. 

Study the word of God and pray habitually. 

Never give up on what God’s word says, do it and be an example of a true disciple of Christ. 

Preach the gospel, live in purity, shun impurity. The list is endless but the summary is not; love God by doing what He wants as stated in His word and witnessed to your heart by His Spirit and love your neighbor as Christ loves you. If you do these, I assure you that you will never be barren or unfruitful in your walk with Christ (2 Peter 1:8).

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).


Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of Church@Allen, Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.