Ephesians 3:16  ‘That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;,’

DAILY READING •   Colossians 1:24-2:19; Ezekiel 27-28; Isaiah 54

A popular story says that when Leonardo da Vinci was painting his masterpiece, ‘The Last Supper,’ he selected as the person to sit for the character of the Christ a young man named Pietri Bandinelli. He was a chorister with the Milan Cathedral and seemed to Da Vinci a picture of how Jesus must have looked. He had the features of love, tenderness, caring, innocence, compassion, and kindness. And so Da Vinci engaged Pietri Bandinelli, to sit as his model for the Lord.

But Da Vinci had to suspend the painting because he could not find the right person that he could use as the model for Judas. He was looking for a man whose face was streaked with despair, wickedness, greed and sin. Ten years after starting the picture, he finally found a man in prison whose face wore all the qualities of Judas for which he had been searching. Consent was given for the prisoner to pose, and he sat as the model for Judas.

Leonardo worked feverishly for days. But as the work went on, he noticed certain restlessness in the prisoner. His face seemed filled with tension, and his bloodshot eyes were filled with horror as he gaped at the likeness of himself being painted on the canvas. One day, Leonardo sensed the man’s uneasiness so greatly that he stopped painting and asked,“What seems to trouble you so much?”

The man buried his face in his hands and was convulsed with sobs. After a long time, he raised his head and inquired, “Don’t you remember me?’ Years ago I was your model for the Lord, Jesus.”

Unbelievably, Pietri Bandinelli had drastically changed. In the past ten years, having turned his back on Christ and turned his life over to sin and the world, he had been sucked down to the lowest levels of degradation. He no longer loved the things he had loved before. And those things that he at one time hated and despised, now he loved. Where once there was love, now there was misery and hate; where once there was hope, now there was despair; where once there was light, now there was darkness.

It was indeed amazing that this man that started out as a picture of goodness, ended up  as a picture of wickedness. It may seem inconceivable how such a drastic change could have taken place, but that is what can happen if sin is allowed to run rampage.

As believers, the important thing is not really about how we start but about how we finish. The moment we give our lives to Christ we begin the most important race of our life. Though we may start well, as the race progresses, we often face hurdles of temptations and a constant struggle with sin. And the most continual aggressive enemy of the believer is the “sinful nature” or the “flesh.”

No matter how much a man desires to be good, until he overcomes this sinful flesh nature, he may find himself doing the things that he hates.

This is what Paul described in Romans 7:21-23 “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ‘

Here Apostle Paul recognizes the battle of the sinful nature within him, and this is the same battle every believer must overcome. It is either you are going to control the flesh or the flesh will control you. And the way to control the flesh is by being strengthened by the Spirit of God in our inner man.

Ephesians 3:16 says ‘That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;,’

Strength and power to overcome sin is imparted into our inner man through the Spirit, when we study God’s Word. Roman 12:2 talks about our need to renew our minds.. Before we accepted Christ our minds were conformed to the world around us and sin had dominion over us, but when we became born again our worldly mindset is replaced with the mind of Christ. And as we feed this new mindset through the Word of God, we receive the  power to overcome the world and live a life of victory and dominion that constantly pleases God.

PRAYER: Lord, please grant me the grace to pay the required price to study Your Word and be empowered by Your Spirit so that I can overcome the sinful nature of the flesh and walk in victory.  Truly by Your Anointing every yoke of sin in my life is broken today in Jesus Name

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When you apply The Word of God, it will work for you, anywhere and anytime- WORDBITE 222.