Romans 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

I see things in black and white. There are no gray areas for me. In this I have to be extremely careful in how I treat my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is extremely important that I have close fellowship with them, know them and watch carefully as they grow in Christ.

I was born with a prophetic gift. A gift from God. I was not raised up in the church, not instructed in what that means and it led to many painful relationships, hurts, deadly wounds, and isolation for me. When I finally surrendered to Christ I discovered what the prophetic truly means and I know that many have an improper understanding of what it means to be a prophet in this church age. It is not for me to judge others because they do not understand.

It has taken me decades to come to terms with who I am in Christ and what is expect of me. It is no different for anyone else. We all start out as innocent babes that need to be loved first and instructed second. Who does the instruction and how they receive that instruction is not part of the prophetic gift and cannot be. What is required of any of us, no matter what our gifts is to love first and take extreme care in how we speak to one another.

Ephesians 4:14-16 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

For all my decades in practice, I am still struggle with speaking the truth in love.

Romans 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Here once again we must look at this verse from the standpoint of who Paul is speaking to in order to get a proper understanding. He is speaking to Jews in Rome.

A Jewish perspective would be appearance, to not just look like but to appear to be Christ. They have no righteousness of their own, so putting on Christ is putting on His righteousness. What that means to them because of their long history is vastly different than my own experience. Even our definitions of righteousness differ and that also has to be taken into consideration.

The important part is what follows, which both cultures can and should agree. Our actions, what we do and what we say, dictates who is in charge. Do not give in to ungodly desires. God is making it abundantly clear what is expected of us. We have all gone thru the long list of restriction, the do not list.

Now we are encountering lists that are associated with right action. Righteousness was predicated in not sinning, now it is predicated on doing the right thing because that is who we are and not a commandment.

I can put on a robe and look good. I can take it off and reveal that it was only the robe that mattered. If Christ is in you, you have a new identity, a new character, a new creation, and you cannot take that off. You do however have to discover who you are in Christ. That is where Paul just took us in asking for a transformed mind.

The devil would have you think you are not changed. He will use every influence at his disposal to convince you that Christ is not in you. What we refer to as flesh is perhaps his only opportunity to influence us.