The Apostle Paul wrote to us concerning the manner in which we are to treat our body:

Perhaps you have found that your body has a mind of its own. If you permit it to do so, it will bring itself down to destruction.

The body is remarkably shortsighted. It cares little for consequences. It lives for the moment. Therefore it is ready to eat and drink itself to death, to smoke cigarettes, to take drugs, to drive while drunk, to indulge in immorality, without regard for the consequences of such actions.

Fortunately your body is a coward. If you stand up to its desires and order it to serve God, it will do so. But if you permit your body to govern you, you will suffer for it.

Your body does not belong to you but to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You were placed in your animal body by the Lord in order to test you. In order to inherit a spiritual body like that of the Lord Jesus, a body capable of awesome exploits, you first must prove yourself worthy in your present body. If you cannot govern your present body you have no hope whatever of receiving, in the day of resurrection, a body like that of Christ.

Grace and mercy will not interfere, in the Day of Resurrection, with the inviolable Kingdom law of sowing and reaping. You and I are going to reap precisely what we have sown.

Remember, we are discussing why people do not discover their place in the Body of Christ.

If we are to know God's will we have to be careful to not conform to the world. This is difficult, given the tremendous amount of information to which we are being subjected. We have to make sure we are reading our Bible and praying each day, even if it means there is no time left for the television, radio, or Internet. There is no way we are going to survive throughout the age of moral horrors if we have not made a practice of daily prayer and Bible reading.

If we are presenting our body a living sacrifice, if we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind, then we are able to test and approve God's good, pleasing, and perfect will for our life. There is but one will of God for us, and it is good, pleasing and perfect.

How many believers of our day are setting aside their own interests, taking up their personal cross, and following Jesus? There are some, no doubt; but this is not a popular doctrine.

Yet it is utterly impossible to discover and appropriately use our gift and ministry until we deny ourselves for the sake of Christ and His Gospel.

There are some who are doing great works in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ but are pursuing their own selfish ambitions. Such will hear in the Day of Christ: "Depart from me, you evildoers. I never knew you." It is not enough just to make our contribution; we also must live a righteous life, being sternly obedient to God, if we expect to receive the reward.

To be continued.