Agendas (One Choice)

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."
Romans 7:14-25

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2:20


Below is a fraction of text from the biographical, REES HOWELLS INTERCESSOR:
"From the first meeting, Howells was deeply moved. The realization dawned on him that the Holy Spirit was a person, and not an ‘influence.’ In his words:
He said to me, "As the Savior had a body, so I dwell in the cleansed temple of the believer. I am a Person. I am God, and I am come to ask you to give your body to Me that I may work through it. I need a body for my temple but it must belong to Me without reserve for two persons with different wills can never live in the same body. Will you give me yours? But if I come in, I come as God, and you must go out. I shall not mix Myself with your self."
This precipitated a five-day struggle in Mr. Howells. From the first, he realized it was an unconditional surrender, of which he said:
"I had received a sentence of death, as real as a prisoner in the dock. I had lived in my body for twenty-six years, and could I easily give it up....I wept for days. I lost seven pounds....Nothing is more real to me than the process I went through for that whole week. The Holy Spirit went on dealing with me, exposing the root of my nature which was self, and you can only get out of a thing what is in its root. Sin was canceled, and it wasn’t sin He was dealing with; it was self..." "

It seems that I am compelled to write repeatedly about this issue: self vs. spirit.
Who will occupy the Temple that is our body? It is a battle of sorts, but the outcome is totally up to the natural "landlord". The Hebrew term for a landlord is "בעל הבית״", Ba'al habayit"- literally -lord of the house- the Holy Spirit has the rights to the house, because we are bought and paid for by Jesus' taking our place on the cross, but the Holy Spirit will not wrestle or wrench it from us.
We must freely and willingly surrender ourselves to Him, and His purposes. We cannot surrender in word and just keep on pursuing our self interests...they must be discarded as part of the "surrender treaty" we accept. He replaces our interests with His purposes and His are far better than ours. On His path are many stops; mountaintops, and valleys, suffering, victories, difficulties that are not allayed, as we'll be refined and perfected by trials and through the fires.
Once we surrender there is no going back, no more than the Children of Israel could go back to Egypt.
I don't always understand the way of the Master and some of the hardships we endure, but this I am sure of: His Ways are perfect and His plans are designed to make our roots go deep, our leaves will stay green, and the fruit will come in due season.
His love for us is everlasting and beyond our understanding.
Beloved, who holds the keys to your Temple?