Practical Help on Abiding in Christ

Some readers who have received Christ may life to discuss practical helps in learning to abide in Christ and keep His word.

This thread will be on some practical helps ONCE one has received Christ.

So Jesus definitely told His disciples - "Abide in Me and I in you." But to practical helps of HOW the believe may abide in Christ are very much found in the book of Romans.

The Apostle Paul was one of many who absolutely pioneered in the experience of learning to abide in Christ as a living realm - as a living sphere. He taught the believers much about HOW they can abide in Christ.

First, to abide in Christ you have to see that Christ IS the vine and the believers are the branches. If you don't see that Christ is the true vine and the believers are the branches in the true vine, the believes will worry about how to abide in Christ.

The first key is to see that if you have believed into Christ He is in you already.. And you are in Him already. Stand upon the fact.

"Lord Jesus. You are the true vine. We are the branches."

The first step to abiding in Christ is to see that if you have been saved by Christ you are IN Christ. You do not need to struggle to GET into Christ. You stand upon the fact that He IS the Vine and you are one of His branches.

To abide in Christ, the first thing is to stand by faith on the fact that if you have been saved HE is the True Vine and you are a branch in Him.

" Lord Jesus. There is no need for me to struggle to get into You Lord. Lord Jesus, I am IN YOU already. Thankyou Lord Jesus that You are the True Vine. And I being saved am a branch in You."


If you are not saved you should pray the by His precious blood He would bring you INTO Himself.

To abide in Christ, FIRST the saved woman or man must see that she or he is IN Christ - forever.

This is crucial because the enemy of God, the Devil, will do his utmost to keep this hidden from the believer - that is her ONENESS with Christ.

Again I say the enemy's first job is to keep man AWAY from Christ.
But once you have received Christ the Devil fights to keep you unaware or unbelieving that Christ has entered into you and you have entered into Christ.

God and man are joined in the believer. And Satan utterly hates this. He knows that God and man joined will be the matter that sends him to the eternal damnation. God will not do this unilaterally. God will execute this based on the mingling of God and man.

So if the Devil can distract Christians from their union with Christ he will do so.
If he can distract Christians with evil things from this union with Christ, he will use evil things.

If evil things don't work the Devil will distract man from this union with good things.
Many have been distracted from living in Christ with good things - good philosophy, good ethics, good religion, even sound biblical teachings.

Here you must remember that the Devil tempted man to eat of "the tree of the knowledge of GOOD AND EVIL" It was not evil alone. It was the knowledge of good and evil.

Today it is the same. Satan HATES the union and joining of God and man. He will accuse - to break up this union. He will tempt - to break up this union. And he will distract with even GOOD things to side-tract people from coming into a full realization that God can LIVE in man and man can LIVE in God.

Romans 8 is detailed help on how the Christian can abide in Christ.

Roman 6 is also detailed help. But it is impossible to have the experiences of Romans 6 without the experience of Romans 8.

In some sense Romans 6 really comes in experience after the truth of Romans 8. But under God's sovereignty the 6th chapter is to be read before the 8th chapter.

There is something else. The seventh chapter also is the dilemma recognized to which the eighth chapter is the solution. The real problem of wanting to live for God and its obstacles is given in Romans 7. The answer to the problem in practical terms is in Romans 8.

So how do you abide in Christ ?
You have to set the mind.

You set the mind on what?
You set the mind on Who?

You set the mind on the human spirit where the Spirit of Jesus is.
The Spirit of Jesus comes to indwell the innermost spiritual being.
The Christians has to learn, by patience, by practice, how to find his human spirit (where the Spirit of Christ lives) and SET the mind on the Spirit in our spirit.

" For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8:7)

You have to learn to live setting your mind on the mingled spirit. What is the mingled spirit? What do I mean by "the mingled spirit" ?

I mean the human spirit that has been born again where the capital S Spirit of Christ lives. And you have to SET the mind ON that mingled spirit - where Jesus is mingled with you.

Huh? If you are one who has asked Jesus into your heart then your human spirit has been JOINED to Christ. One part of your being is God.

I said, if you are joined to Christ then one part of your being is united to God and is God living in you. Right here.

"He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17)

No arguing today now. He who is JOINED to Jesus Christ is "one spirit" with Jesus Christ. The human innermost part has become JOINED to the Lord to be "one spirit" in union, in mingling, in uniting with the Lord Jesus.

It is this realm to which the believer must learn to SET THE MIND ON - The mind set on the mingled spirit is divine life and peace.

This Spirit of Christ Who is one spirit with the Christian is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ Himself. I said this Spirit who has been joined to the believer's spirit is Christ Himself. He is Christ. It is Christ.

"But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you ... (Rom 8:9,10a)

The Spirit of God in the Christian is Christ in the Christian.
This alone is worth a trillion dollars. No it is of infinite value.

The Spirit of Christ in the believer is Christ in the believer.
The Spirit of God in the believers is Christ in the believer.
To set the mind on the regenerated spirit where the Spirit of Christ in "joined" to the believer is to let Christ lead in all matters of living.

This takes learning.
This takes patience.
This takes practice.
This takes much fellowship with other Christians also.

This takes endurance and returning TO practice again AFTER many times from being distracted away. To set the mind on the mingled spirit is to live Christ and allow Christ to live in us.

This is the practicality of "Abide in Me and I in you".

Latter we will see how two other matters are crucial in the practice of setting the mind on the spirit - the Word of God and the mouth of the believer.

So let's get very practical.

You are a Christian if you have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
You wake up in the morning. The first thing you should learn to do is stand up the truth.

"Lord Jesus. You live in me."

You overcome by the word of your testimony. You STAND upon the facts first thing in the morning. You STAND upon the facts throughout the whole day. But especially you proclaim the facts of the word of God first thing in the morning as you start your day.

" Lord Jesus. He who is JOINED to the Lord is one spirit. Lord Jesus I am one spirit with You Lord."

You stand upon the facts. Satan is not afraid of your arguing with him. Satan is afraid of your preaching to him. Satan is afraid of Christians standing upon the truths of God's word for their living.

Satan is not afraid of your doctrinal arguing, Satan is afraid of your standing upon the truth of God's word for your living.

If accusation comes, you claim the power of the blood of Christ which cleanses you from all sins. Preach to the devil and go tell him to look at the blood of Christ. Tell the accuser to go stare at the blood of Jesus shed on Calvary for man's sins for one half hour and then come back and try to accuse.

The blood of Christ keeps us in the enjoyment of the fellowship of the Spirit of Christ.
And we live Christ by setting the mind on the Spirit of Christ - Who is Christ - Who is Christ living in us.

The war is over man being joined to Christ and thereby being joined to God.
The warfare over this planet is centered on man being joined to God through Jesus Christ the prototype God-man.

Coinherance means that each lives in the other.

Here is a good passage on the coinherance of the Father and the Son.

" Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me ..." (John 14:11)

The mind is the leading part of the soul. So where we set the mind determines quite much about how we live.

The man not born again really has a part of his being deadened and comatose. But the woman who is born again has the deadened human spirit enlivened and made alive - in regeneration.

The problem is that as fallen people we are USED to living by the self.
In being born again we have to learn another way to live. This learning is in graduated steps and is a process. It is a life long process.

What is the process? It is to DENY the self and set the mind on the born again spirit.
To set the mind on the spirit is to set the mind on the living Christ who has come to live within the born again person. And this setting of the mind is divine ZOE life and the peace that accompanies divine ZOE life.

To set the mind on the flesh is more than to set it on the body. The New Testament to by setting the mind on the flesh, setting the mind on the self on the whole realm of the fallen adamic nature. To do so is death - a spiritual death of weakness, darkness, depression, vanity, bothering, uneasiness, discomfort, agitation, lack of rest, restlessness.

To set the mind on the self, on the whole realm of "the flesh" is death. The Christian must learn to set the mind on the born again spirit where Christ is. That results in life and peace.

Here is the contrast again.

"Because the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be." (Rom. 8:7)

The mind set the badness of the flesh is at enmity with God.
But don't listen to those who try to get you to set the mind on the goodness of the flesh in a religious or legal way.

The mind set on even the goodness of the flesh is also at enmity with God.

The mind of the Christian must be set not on the self (the flesh), the fallen Adam being you were born with. But the Christian must develop the habit to set the mind on the born again spirit.

"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." (v.6)

God is the God of peace. (Hebrews 13:20) .
And the mind set on the born again, regenerated human spirit is "life and peace".
It is to set the mind of God living in you.

For the above reason it is not helpful to make up your mind in a strong way to keep commandments. Rather than set the mind on the flesh - even the law keeping flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is to live by the law that is of the LIFE of the Spirit.

The Spirit of Christ has a law. It is the law of life. It is the law of life in Christ Jesus.

Listen. Every life has a law.
The dog law is to bark.
The cat law is to catch mice.
The apple tree law is to bear apples.

You do not have to teach an apple tree to bear apples. The apples are the fruit spontaneously borne from the law of the apple tree life.

Christ is the highest life because He is God.
God is the highest life with the highest law of that life.
That life which is in the life of God frees man from the law of sin and death.

"For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death." (Rom. 8:2)

We saw in chapter 7 that the law of sin and death is very very strong.
No one can overcome it.
No one can overcome it except He who has the highest life - God.
And God is in Jesus Christ. So the highest life with the highest and most powerful law of that life is Christ Jesus.

Now we can see why we have to set the mind on the spirit. It is to unleash the spontaneous function of the highest law - the law of life in Christ Jesus. This Law of Life will free us.

There is no self condemnation or feeling of defeat or wretchedness because of failure to the one who is in Christ Jesus setting her mind on the Spirit of life's spontaneous power.

"There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death( vs.1,2)

For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." (v.6)

This must be practiced.
"Lord Jesus, I turn my mind to the spirit where the Spirit of Christ Jesus is. Lord Jesus, thankyou that You live in me. Lord Jesus you are indeed one spirit with me.

Lord Jesus, I love You. I turn my heart to You. Lord Jesus I set my mind on the spirit where the Spirit of Jesus is. Thankyou for this wonderful eternal life and peace."

Originally posted by sonship
.. it is not helpful to make up your mind in a strong way to keep commandments. ..

Oh yeah .. dont bother about Christ and keeping his commandments.
Yep .. just TALK .. talk about Christ ..... 😀
You are on the road to eternal destruction ... keep on going. have a good trip.

What's the target audience for these?

Originally posted by sonship
Practical Help on Abiding in Christ

As usual, there's nothing "practical" [i.e. concerned with the actual doing or use of something rather than with theory and ideas] that you offer. You simply go on at length about stuff you think - stuff you think about yourself - stuff you think about supernatural beings and event - stuff you think supernatural beings think about you. We all think about "theories and ideas" and that's all your version of "practical" seems to stretch to. But the word "practical" actually means something. Do you have any "help" to offer that is concerned with the actual doing or use of something rather than with theory and ideas?

Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
What's the target audience for these?

The OP said - (typo "life" should be "like" )

Some readers who have received Christ may like [edited] to discuss practical helps in learning to abide in Christ and keep His word.

This thread will be on some practical helps ONCE one has received Christ.

Originally posted by Rajk999
Oh yeah .. dont bother about Christ and keeping his commandments.
Yep .. just TALK .. talk about Christ ..... 😀
You are on the road to eternal destruction ... keep on going. have a good trip.

Read Romans 8 sometime. Its in your New Testament.

The number of commandments of Christ can not possibly be enumerated. They can neither hardly all be specified.

But mostly for new believers, the living Christ will say "No."

Again, I say for new Christians, the initial experience with the commands of Christ will be "No."

What you are use to doing which you are now about to do - "No."

What you are so use to saying which you want to now say - "No"

Just like a young child first learns after " Daddy" and "Mommy" the word "No," so the newly saved person will receive many "No" speakings early in their spiritual walk.

"No - to what you are about to think, even,"
"No - to what you are about to say - even."
"No - this time don't do that."
"No - this time don't speak that."

"No. This time do not imagine in that way."

Many many times the indwelling Holy Spirit will gently interrupt what you are so accustomed to doing.

This speaking of Christ commanding "No" may so blend in with your own thinking that it is easy to think it is just your own thought. Well it is your own thought in a way. But it is the command of Christ speaking from your innermost spiritual being.

Now, the interesting thing is this. And this is one of the reasons why Christians are assured that God is real:

When you obey that little speaking of the Holy Spirit, you grow stronger.
When you go along with the "No - Don't do that this time" obedience brings greater strength.

Every act of obedience adds power.
To obey means an increase in life power.
To go along with the Holy Spirit leads to greater grace within.

To deny the self - you FIND the power to live.
This is the great paradox of going along with the commands of Christ.
To obey causes His life to expand within.
To go along with the Lord Jesus, denying the self, and letting Him direct you, causes an little increase in His influence within you.

When freedom comes you realize that this has not been of yourself.
The believer is reinforced that Christ is really real.

Then the Christian learns to go along with the commandment of the indwelling Christ because she learns that to go along with Christ will cause her to grow in grace.