Paul knew he knew he was called to the Gentiles, so when the issue of circumcision was brought to the heads of the Church, he came with both passion and understanding to stand in the gap. The Lord taught him that He fulfilled the Law on the cross and circumcision was not necessary for the Gentile converts to be grafted in.

There was a purpose to the assignments of Peter and Paul. Peter was assigned to the Jews and Paul was assigned to the Gentiles. Peter was a passionate fisherman who was not learned in the scriptures, yet he walked with Jesus and was taught by him prior to the resurrection. Paul was well learned in the scriptures, a zealot for the Law, and upon his Divine conversion, he was taught by Jesus after the resurrection.

The whole message of Romans is “Salvation; the righteous shall live by faith.” The first three chapters are about “the need for our salvation.” The next two and a half are about “the way of salvation.” Chapters six through eight are about “the life of salvation.” Nine through eleven are about “the scope of our salvation” and finally, twelve through sixteen is “the service of our salvation.”

Our salvation: that moment when the faith that was imparted into each and every cell of our bodies at birth is ignited. The further that we walk into God the more it grows. We can get saved and do nothing for 30 years and that faith will not only become stagnant, but I can promise you that eventually the fire will go out. Or, we can do as Paul did and fall to our knees, fall to our knees, submit ourselves to the cross, to the work of the Spirit, the Word and the work of God in our lives and be transformed. We can submit and dig deep into the Word and prayer and watch as that faith grows until it is such a consuming fire that our need to fulfill our flesh will dissipate. It will fade and our need to fulfill the hunger of our spirit for God will increase. That is what God is calling us to.

The Lord told me, “2018 is a Year of Refining: Bringing forth a New Breed of Believer.” This, my friends, will be a year of refining that will give birth to a new breed of believers. Paul had a commission upon his life to birth a new breed of believers, believers who would allow the Word to do its work in their lives that they might arise as children of God who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is the message we are learning here in 2018.

Romans 12:1-2 says, “I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

This is the ultimate goal, that we can present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

How do we do that? How do we make sure that we do not conform to this world? Even when we are hungering after the will of God and the promises of God, we have two choices: we can take the way of the Spirit, or we could take the way of the flesh. How often we do take the way of the flesh to get God’s will done?

Consider Sarah and Abraham. They took the way of the flesh to get God’s promises fulfilled. Sarah said “take my maidservant, Hagar, go into her and she will bear you a son.” In other words, she preempted God’s perfect promise and went the way of the flesh. Fear, pride, impatience… Listen, if God makes you a promise and you know something is the will of God but you step into the flesh to fulfill the will of God, you eventually will have a war on your hands and that is exactly what Abraham’s descendants had—war.

We must, die to the flesh daily. Paul says, “I die daily!” What does that mean? To the flesh he dies daily, he submits his flesh to God daily and He lives in the Spirit. He strives to offer his body a living sacrifice, to be holy and acceptable unto God.

He says, “Do not be conformed to the world.” In Romans Chapter 11, Paul was dealing with the blindness that Israel was walking in. He wrote to them about God’s plan to unite the Jew and Gentile after grafting the Gentiles in. Why would He do this? To provoke the Israelites to jealousy that God would graft the Gentiles into the Vine—this is the lesson of Romans 11. Why would God need to do this? The Israelites were a stubborn and prideful people, cleaving to the Law (what could be done in the flesh) instead of the fulfillment of the Law by Christ (what must be done in the Spirit). I need to awaken them. They know they are My people wherever they go, nations tremble in their wake.

When the Israelites went into the Promised Land, Word got out about how God stood behind His people and enabled them to defeat heathen town after heathen town. They trembled at the thought of the nation of Israel heading their way. Everyone knew how God covered His people; they were His chosen people and pride rose up. When the Law was first delivered, the people were engaging in the very sin the Law was meant to address. Fear set in when Moses was up on Mount Sinai for so long, so then they reverted to the ways of the flesh, made a golden calf, and began to sacrifice to this golden image. History is replete with accounts of Israel stepping into the flesh to preempt God’s perfect will. They are still His chosen people, we must never forget this, and we are grafted into their vine, not the other way around.

To be continued next week…

Blessings & Love,

Ricci Wilson