Genesis 49:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

While some might not connect that last post with this verse, the Lord has connected the life in Christ with living in the world with the issue of the hamstrung ox.

Oxen are service animals. We serve the Lord. In this example we are the ox.

Hamstrung is a process of crippling the ox. Willfulness hamstrings us. That is willfulness in the living world, not the life in Christ. The desires of the flesh oppose the spirit according to Galatians 5:17 and the spirit opposes the flesh. The desires of the flesh are sins.

Our sins hamstring us in living as servants for Christ. This cripples our walk with Christ. This keeps us from keeping up with Christ. If we do not keep an appointment Christ will choose another servant to enact His will.

Because Christ is the good and perfect physician He will heal us of this cut if we will come to Him with the self-inflicted wound. Sin is our self-inflicted wound that hamstrings our walk with Christ.

This is how we get healed from our self-inflicted wounds. We make an appointment with our Good Physician by repentance and keep that appointment by confession. We are then healed by forgiveness. As always, the doctor’s orders for future care is “Stop doing that to yourself.”

What happens when we do not follow the Doctor’s orders?

He writes us a prescription for our lack of self control. It is called chastening. Like a doctor the first dose is administered in the office. That chastening has a lasting effect after we leave His office and return to the world.

If we don’t take our medicine we will only get sicker.

Isaiah 43:18-19 English Standard Version

18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

We have been speaking to the issue of living in the world versus a life in Christ. The Lord brought this verse to me and it speaks to me in the way it was mentioned yesterday.

Do we perceive this new life in Christ now that we are born again?

The old life we were living has all of our experiences and we are used to listening with our worldly senses. We have to discover how to perceive by faith in order to discover this life in Christ is different than living in the world. We have to discover life is not the same thing as living.

A spiritual life is not living in the flesh, it is living by faith. A spiritual life is only possible because of our quickened spirit. It is in effect being connected to God because He has bridged that gap between our two worlds.

In the past others have portrayed a cartoon image of the Cross of Christ on the edge of a canyon with God on the other side. Then the Cross drops down and spans the gap and the man walks over to the other side. It is one way to look at accepting the work of the Cross to be received by God the Father.

Perceiving this new life in Christ is not so simple as just walking over from one side to the other. Our life is in Christ but our living happens in the real world. This new life is more complicated than just saying to ourselves “don’t do that”. We remember our old lives but it takes time for the character of Christ to be develop in our new life in Christ.

We can believe that it will but do we understand what our part is in allowing that character to develop? Our life in Christ has to have influence over our thoughts and actions in living in the world. We can change and we will change, but not by any act of will of the flesh.

Genesis 49:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.