The Good That I Would Do

Listen to the full teaching: S13E1 – The Good That I Would Do

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (Romans 7:19, KJV)

When Prayer Doesn't Seem to Change Anything

So many believers are bound up in situations they're convinced the enemy is causing. We pray and fast. We ask the pastors and elders to pray over us. And nothing changes. Week after week, year after year, we stay bound, until we feel our prayers are falling on deaf ears and even begin to doubt what God can do.

I'm speaking from experience. I've been that guy. I did the praying, I did the fasting, I asked church leadership to pray for me. It wasn't that there was no power at the altar. The problem went deeper. I was using spiritual principles to fight natural issues, because I lacked discernment.

Often the real issue is a series of bad decisions on our part that gradually became toxic habits. Then we're fighting the wrong enemy, and no wonder nothing changes. God's power wasn't unable to fix it; the problem was never spiritual to begin with. Meanwhile, Satan is nowhere in the equation. I'd even say he probably has no idea who some of us are. He's after the movers and shakers, and many of us, if we're honest, have been sideline soldiers rather than warriors on the battlefield.

Be(ing) Before Be(coming)

Last April I did a teaching called Creating Habits of Righteousness, about the process that gets us from point A to point B in the higher call of God. We established that we have to go through the state of be(ing) before we can be(come).

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. (Romans 12:1–2, KJV)

Notice the words "be not conformed" and "be ye transformed." That's the state of be(ing), and it's in that process that we learn to rightly discern what comes from us and what comes from the enemy.

God's Part and Our Part

Fasting and prayer are phenomenal. What seldom gets emphasized is that along with them comes human intervention: our responsibility to make the changes on the inside that show up on the outside.

When Yeshua (Jesus) healed people, He often gave a command with the healing: rise up, go and wash, go and sin no more. To the man He healed at the pool, He said:

“Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (John 5:14, KJV)

That is human intervention: recognizing the very thing that caused all the heartache and willfully choosing to avoid it. Can God take something away from us? Absolutely. But the move of God often comes in two parts, His part and ours.

…if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14, KJV)

God is always faithful to do His part. Because we aren't as faithful as He is, sometimes He asks us to move first.

Romans 7: Law and Sin Go Hand in Hand

As I was putting this together, Romans 7 hit me in a new way. In my Bible, the heading over verse 7 reads "Law and Sin," and that really is the heart of the problem.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (Romans 7:7, KJV)

You can't have one without the other, because the law is what points sin out. That's why I find it strange when pastors teach that the law ended at the cross. If the law ended, sin ended with it, and everything is fair game. Paul says it in black and white: "For without the law sin was dead" (Romans 7:8, KJV). In this week's parashah (weekly Torah reading), Bereshit, Genesis 6 shows where life without a commandment led: mankind was completely off the chain.

And notice how Paul describes the law itself:

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Romans 7:12, KJV)

The same Paul many claim did away with the law is praising it here, not cursing it.

Paul's Struggle Wasn't Satan

As anointed as Paul was, he struggled, and he tells us so:

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. (Romans 7:14–15, KJV)

Paul wants to do right but finds himself doing wrong. It's an internal issue, and Satan is nowhere to be found in it.

That's where discernment comes in. Believers face two kinds of issues. One is a true attack of the enemy, coming at you on every side. For that, prayer is a thousand percent the answer, though even then there's a part we must play. The other kind is self-inflicted: playing too close to things we shouldn't mess with, or entertaining thoughts we should have rejected. These are much harder, because they require more from us.

Even in the garden, the serpent never told Eve to eat the fruit. He had a conversation with her and gave her something to think about. That's how subtle he is. He plants the thought and moves on, because he understands the nature of man.

It All Starts in the Mind

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. (Romans 7:21–23, KJV)

Here's the heart of it all: the mind. It starts in the mind, moves into the heart, and once it's in the heart, it becomes an action. That's why Yeshua said that looking at a woman with lust is already adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28). Failing to keep our thoughts in check is the breeding ground for defeat in a believer's life, and it gives us the illusion that prayer doesn't work.

It's not that prayer didn't work, but that we didn't work with the prayer.

We can't do this on our own. That's why we have the Spirit of God on the inside. We have to tap into Him and walk in Him, and that only comes after we step out in faith.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3–5, KJV)

Building Habits of Righteousness

They say it takes about six weeks to establish a habit. We let things take root long enough to bear fruit, then expect them to end overnight. If it takes six consecutive weeks to make a habit, I'd suggest seven consecutive weeks of resisting to break it, and if you break the chain, start over.

I'm not saying don't fast or pray or ask for prayer. By all means, do all of the above. But when prayer doesn't seem to resolve something and you realize it isn't spiritual, identify the root and commit to resist it. Don't settle for "I guess this is just who I am." Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul gives us the solution:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:5, KJV)

Eve knew the command, but she didn't hold the Word in high enough regard to cut that conversation off before it went too far. We have to make a conscious effort every day to hold the Word of God in high regard, because if we held it in high enough regard, our decisions would reflect that. That is the essence of the mind of Messiah.

So here is my closing thought: creating habits of righteousness in our thought life will ensure that we are walking in the path of total victory in every area of our lives.

This week, read all of Romans 7 for yourself, then listen to the full episode, S13E1 – The Good That I Would Do. And if you're new to the Hebrew roots of the faith and wondering where to begin, I'd love for you to Start Here. I pray this is a blessing to you. Shalom, and have a blessed week.