The Lord told us that he uses physical things to explain the spiritual. We live in the earth with physical bodies but our minds should be heavenly. God’s will must be done in earth as it is done in heaven. When we have the Christ-mind, we have a heavenly mind. To be saved into Christ is to be hidden in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20: It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. (Gal 2:20) The things of this world can’t touch us if we remain in Christ.
Before Jesus was crucified he was called Jesus of Nazareth. After the cross,He became Jesus Christ. He is the Christ! He now has a Spiritual body and sits on the right hand of God waiting for His enemies to become His footstool. Note, that he will not make the enemy his footstool, we are the ones who should do it. We do this by following Jesus daily and laying down our lives. We have given our lives to Christ and His Spirit lives in us, however, we live in a physical body and the FLESH lusts after the things of the Flesh.
Gal 5:17: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
In Galatians 19 Paul lists the fruits of the Flesh. I am saying that the flesh is the enemy that must become the footstool of Christ.
The enemy is my sinful nature that must be dealt with daily, at the cross. Worry is fearfulness and it is the enemy. So is pride, anger, gossip, judgment greed—the list goes on and on. All people have this inherent problem called ‘The Flesh’. The problem is not demons that float around in the air and jump into me at will. There is no point in blaming the Devil when we step over the line. We are the ones who must guard our hearts against sin. We do this by doing introspection daily and dealing with sin at the cross while using communion.
Jesus said we should pick up our cross and follow him. We follow Jesus and deal with the flesh in the same way he did. He crucified the flesh. This is why we eat the flesh of Christ. Remember how offended the disciples were when he said they must eat His flesh? This is because they did not understand what the flesh was, and most people I meet have the same problem.
The life we live in Christ is the life of dying to the flesh. As we allow the Holy Spirit to show us which sins we must die too, our minds slowly begin to transform, as we become a living sacrifice. (Rom 12:1-2) Use your imagination and see what you look like when you are angry, then take it to Jesus at the cross and he will crucify it in the same way he was crucified. In this way we become a new creation, no longer living after the flesh we will begin to live in the Spirit.
Gal 5:22-26: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”
This is the way the enemy becomes the footstool of Christ.
We rule with Christ when we rule over the enemy of our own lower self.
Eph 2:5-6: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
When we use the cross to die to the sinful nature we follow Jesus into his death and also into his resurrection, to live and rule in the Spirit with Him!
Over what do we rule in Christ? We rule over the flesh! Now Romans 14:11 says: For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Now your flesh becomes the footstool of Christ!