These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we
should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted
every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of
God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible.
When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we
should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the
spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have
responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so
again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous
conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No
matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and
His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24).
God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and
He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not
rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the
growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives
where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t
submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the
wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There
are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into
submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion.
Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of
God.
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