Dissect means to analyze something in minute detail ~ study the internal parts. In Romans 8:33-34 Paul asked some questions. It says, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen…”

A charge is an accusation. Who is the accuser of the brethren? Satan. We are being influenced by the devil when we accuse another with a judgmental spirit. What right do we have? We have swallowed the bait on satan’s hook when we have a critical spirit, make derogatory remarks, or become a fault-finder of others.

There is a warning in Matthew 7:1-2. The word judge also means condemn. It says, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Here is a new song called Rejoicing Bones. When I thought about my circumstances I became gloomy inside. My heart was getting heavy and my peace destroyed. Then in Your Word You revealed the secret of health. My bones are affected when my heart is in despair.

You said renew your mind. Rejoice in Me. I change not. There’s no shadow in Me. No matter what happens I remain the same.

So I turned my gaze from what was dragging me down. I looked to You my Victorious One. My heart began to rise like yeast in dough and my mouth opened in song.

In You I can rejoice. For You are my strength. I look away from sin to the spotless Lamb. All my sins are cleansed in Your precious blood. My heart sings through a rush of love. Yes my heart is filled with joy in You that nothing can destroy. I rejoice in You my eternal strength. My joy is full when I look to You.

What happens when we ignore God’s commands? We fall into consequences. Matthew 18:34 was about the one who refused to forgive. It says, “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.”

That servant was forgiven an impossible-to-pay debt. Yet refused to forgive a fellow servant’s small debt. We are commanded to forgive as we have been forgiven. Ephesians 4:32. Colossians 3:13.

God’s commands are for our protection. Carrying an offense or a grudge negatively affects our health. Bitterness creates chemical changes. It drops acid on connective pathways in our brain. 

David wrote Psalm 31. Verse 10 says, “For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.” Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”

When God says, “Don’t” and we do there will be consequences to our disobedience. I know this one well. In 1975 I found a house to buy. The downpayment was $1500.00. In order to have that money I would have to sell my house first. Three of us wanted to live together and mine was too small.

I fell right into the trap of the enemy. It was a perfect set up that I didn’t resist. I walked into my bank. The manager greeted me and excitedly explained a new feature of the bank ~ credit lines. She said that I could get $1500.00 on a credit line and pay it back over time. I took the bait.

I paid for that disobedience for ten years. The consequences were like dominos falling. One thing after another went wrong. The Lord forgives our sins, but He doesn’t remove the consequences. The path of obedience is strewn with grace.

C. S. Lewis said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” The Lord strategically uses our suffering. It is never wasted. 

He is our example of endurance while suffering. Hebrews 12: 2 says, “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame…” Eternal life with Him is our joy.

In Romans 5:3, Paul gave great instruction for enduring. The Amplified says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18. We endure by looking beyond our temporary ‘light affliction’ to the things that are not seen. Hope ~ the anchor of our soul.

Romans 8:17 says, “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” As I was meditating, I had a view of suffering I had not had before. 

When we forgive someone who has hurt us, we choose to bear the consequences of their sin against us without retaliation or bitterness. That is, according to Matthew 18:35, forgiving them from our heart. Jesus suffered under that same sin as He bore it on the cross ~ He forgave all past, present, and future sins regardless of the offense.

Verse 18 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Sufferings: hardships, rejections, broken relationships, trials, afflictions, adversities, loss, and persecutions. We are called to endure. Hebrews 10:36

Therefore, any area of our spiritual life that defeats us, is a flesh-nerve that needs to be cut. By flesh-nerve I mean fleshly reactions. We wonder where they come from because they don’t seem to come from a thought. That’s the deception.

When we are deceived we don’t realize we are. Hebrews 3:13 says that the deceitfulness of sin hardens our heart. That means we grow callous over the hidden area. It makes us cynical and jaded in our thinking. It opens us to spiritual barrenness.

The great news is that God’s word can cut through that callous. Nothing is impossible for Him. I encourage you to lay your fleshly reaction before the Holy Spirit. Ask Him why you reacted the way you did. He will reveal the hidden. He will lead us into the truth that will set us free and keep us free ~ bringing the needed course correction.

Romans 8:12 in the J. B. Phillips says, “…to live life on the level of the instincts. Indeed that way of living leads to certain spiritual death. But if on the other hand you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, you are on the way to real living.”

Ephesians 4:22, 24 says, “That you put off, concerning your former conduct…and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Medical surgery can cut a nerve that renders a part of the body useless and non functioning. God’s scalpel, the word, is so precise that He is able to split between our soul and spirit, and discern our thoughts and intentions. When we walk in the Spirit, we are walking in the truth of God’s word. It is always at work to discern our thoughts before we think them.

I was meditating on Romans 8:13. It says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Galatians 5:19-21 lists 17 works of the flesh.

Rather than list them all, I am choosing some that we might more readily fall into in our thoughts. Thoughts always precede actions. When we stop a fleshly thought, we escape the snare of the devil. Hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, and dissensions.

Here is my paraphrase. When we live and walk by the Spirit, any temptation to react in our flesh will be instantly quenched. 1 John 5:4 says, “…the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Temptations to activate our flesh are designed to weaken our faith. Walking in the Spirit ~ resurrected life empowerment.

Habakkuk 1:13 says, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon wickedness…” David beheld Bathsheba. 2 Samuel 11:2. Psalm 101:3 says, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes…” In Job 31:1 he said that he had made a covenant with his eyes.

What are you reading, watching, and beholding that is contaminating your spirit man? The enemy prowls around. He looks for chinks in our armor. Peter wrote out of experiential knowledge. 1 Peter 5:9 says, “Resist him, steadfast in the faith…”

Every temptation is designed to destroy our faith. James 1:14 says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” Remember Sampson? 

The enemy said, “…Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him…” Judges 16:5. Sampson was unbridled in his lusts. He was drawn away with his own desires and enticed.