A Lot of Us are LIving a Subnormal Christian Life

The point of a spiritual renewal project such as I've been pursuing is to get the world and the flesh out of your life and receive exhorations and encouragement to a stricter Christian life. Soaking up good Christian teaching, books, sermons, long sessions listening to the Bible, prayer and even fasting when possible, staing away from the usual worldly input, it all helps.

Read the scriptures. How clear it is that we don't possess the spiritual power that should be ours. I guess some think this tepid level of spiritual life is all we're promised but that's not how I read it. "Rivers of living water" says Jesus, those who believe in Him will experience. Don't tell me the Church in general has this spiritual experience. Don't tell me even the best preachers and teachers have anything like it. They may have a fair amount of success at winning converts but it looks pretty feeble compared to the scripture if you ask me.

I want that living water. I want the spiritual power that implies of being able to represent God Himself to the unsaved so that God influences them instead of me. One thing I've been learning over this last month is how much of my life is mired in fleshly attempts to live the Christian life. I picked teachers to read who are stronge on that message, how fleshly and worldly today's church is.

Do we really "walk in the Spirit" if we don't even really know how to identify His presence in our lives? Isn't it too often simply assumed that we are walking in the Spirit because we know we have the Holy Spirit if we are believers, so we don't need any personal experience or evidence of it beyond that basic recognition. These writers I'm reading think otherwise. Tozer, Murray, Nee, Lloyd-Jones. >bri
>br? Dp we deny ourselves. die to ourselve Dp we lmpw pir p;d ,am. pir f;esj. os cricofoed wotj Cjrost amd dp we lmpw jpw tp act pm tjat Mpt veru we;; ot wpi;d see,/ We [reacj om tje f;esj amd assi,e tje S[orot os tjere. amd Je [rpbab;u os. bit mpt om tje [pwer we meed. we wrote b;pgs om tje f;esj amd jp[e Je giodes sp,e pf ot a;tjpigj we dpm t lmpw of Je os pr mpt fpr sire/

Just a hint at what I've been hearing and thinking about for now.