Skip links

Eva Conner | Transformation From the Inside Out

You are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20

Header Right

relationships

Marriage – The Roads We Travel

By Leave a Comment

Don't let Satan in your marriage

God desires to work through each of us.

When we allow God to work in us and through us, He uses us to lift and encourage others. Fellowship and sharing are very important to God and should be to us as well. It’s when we share a word we’re given with others that we encourage and build one another up.

In the wee hours of the night I was thinking about marriage and images of roads kept popping in my head.  Marriage, done God’s way, is wonderful.  God wants us to put our spouse before ourselves, even before our children.  

This is a tough one for moms.  Especially today’s moms!

In my lifetime, I’ve seen a shift in who controls the family unit. When I was young, parents did not live their lives for their children. But now I see the complete opposite. Children rule the house. Children dictate what the parents are going to do and when they are going to do it.

Children are involved in so many activities, they need a personal assistant (MOM!) to manage their schedule.  You know what happens to Dad… he takes a backseat to the children in Mom’s life.  This happened in my own life.  I can attest to the hurt and damage that spouses can inflict on each other because of neglect – whether it is intentional or unintentional. Thankfully this was many years ago in our marriage and we’ve done a lot of healing and growing since those years. But we are called to share our experience and our past heartache to help others avoid the same. We are all called to share our testimony and it is Biblical:

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Romans 1:5

I’m sharing this word that God gave me to encourage you.

If your life is a little crazy and hectic because of your children’s activities, maybe you need to cut back so that you have more family time. More time with your spouse. More time around the dinner table without having to eat in the car on your way to the next activity. More time to just sit on the porch and listen to the rain with your spouse.

Your marriage is worth a thorough evaluation of your priorities. Marriages are being attacked by Satan more now than ever. Satan knows if he can attack a marriage, he can keep a powerful duo from charging after the lost and sharing Christ. When we’re caught in his snare, we are useless in avancing God’s kingdom.

What is the answer?  Bring Jesus into your marriage and keep Him there.

Easier said than done, right?  To have a marriage the way that God intended, we need to be intentional. We can’t take our eyes off of Jesus for one second. He needs to be involved in our marriage – and in every aspect. When both husband and wife are focused on Jesus, He ties our hearts together.  Did you catch these words?  Keep your gaze on Jesus – not on each other.

When our gaze is on one another instead of Jesus, we put our spouse above where God should be in our lives. This is not fair to anyone – us, our spouse and especially not our children. No one, not even our spouse, can take the place of God in our lives. God and God alone is to be above all others.

What road is your marriage on?

I mentioned earlier that I saw roads reflecting where we are in our marriage. The first vision was two people – husband and wife – standing back to back walking away from each other as in a duel.  The only time they turned around to see each other was when they were taking a shot at one another. They were going opposite ways on the road.

The second vision was two roads that ran parallel to each other but they never intersected.  The husband was on one road and the wife on the other. This reflects a husband and wife (or maybe it’s better to say a man and a woman) living two separate lives.

The last vision was two people on the same road, going in the same direction and travelling at the same speed. This is the Godly marriage. It’s not always easy to keep in sync but if you have a prayerful life, it is possible. Will you have the occasional bumps causing you to get out of sync?  Absolutely!  But when you pray regularly for your spouse and with your spouse, God will see that you get back in sync.

If your marriage is on the first or second road, don’t despair.

Get quiet before God and ask Him to change your hearts. Ask Him to put you on the same road as your spouse, going the same direction at the same speed.

Without God, a good marriage is impossible.

But with God’s presence and His love and grace, a good marriage is possible.

He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”

Luke 18:27

If you don’t already pray for your spouse, start doing so today.  Pray for your spouse often. Pray with your spouse every day. It’s amazing how God will work in a person’s life through another person’s prayer and even more amazing how God will work in a marriage through united prayer.

Here’s a prayer for each of our marriages:

Dear Father,

Thank You for Your Word. You are so faithful to show us how to live every area of our lives if we will just take a minute to look in Your Word. Help each of us get more intentional about praying for our marriage and our spouses. Father, we ask that You create in each of us pure hearts and renew steadfast spirits. We ask that You turn our vision toward Jesus.  Each day, Father, we commit our love and our marriage to You. Lord, protect our eyes from looking at anything that would detract our attention from our spouse. Help us to be pleasing and honoring to You.

Fill our hearts with Your love so that we can love one another as You do. Keep the enemy from our homes, from our marriage and from our children. We plead the blood of Jesus over our homes, our our relationships, over each of our lives and over the covenant of marriage that we made as one with You.

We ask that You guide our prayers. And we thank You and give You all the honor, praise and glory.  

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen♥

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

Romans 8:10-17 – Children of God

By Leave a Comment

5 thiings Holy Spirit does for us - makes us children of God.

We are children of God.  This is Good News.

10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Romans 8:10-17

Christ lives in us.

The Holy Spirit gives us life because of our right standing with God.  Remember from our lesson in Romans 3, we are made right with God when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Our righteousness is imputed to us because we are grafted in to the Body of Christ when we believe in Him.

I’d like to point out a reference to the Trinity in verse 11 above. God the Father through the power of God the Holy Spirit raised God the Son from the dead. Do you see it?  The Trinity is one of those Heavenly secrets that man will never fully understand.  All three in the Trinity are fully God.  All are in each other. While they are all their own Person, they do not act independently of each other.

Because of this righteousness that comes from Christ, we no longer are slaves to the sinful nature that we received from Adam. We are new creations and, as such, sin has no hold over us any longer.  Paul makes it clear if we live by our sinful nature, we will die. If we live by the Spirit, we will live. And when we are led by the Spirit, we are children of God!

Does this happen overnight?

No, we do not immediately stop doing those sinful things. The Christian life takes discipline. We must train our minds to focus and go to the things of God that we find in Scripture. This is why it is so very important to study the Word and get it in our hearts and our heads. When we have the Word within us, it is easier to battle those sinful desires. The more we battle and win against those sinful desires, the more we are like Christ. This should be our goal.

The Holy Spirit makes us Christ-like when we allow Him to lead.

The Holy Spirit assures us that we are children of God. We are Abba’s children.  In Aramaic the word “Abba” is for Father and is an intimate term that we can relate to as “Papa” or “Daddy.”  God the Father is our Papa. He wants us to look to Him as our Father. The Holy Spirit makes this possible.  The Holy Spirit joins with our spirit to witness that we are the Father’s children.

We are heirs with Christ Jesus of God’s glory.

If you’d like to learn more about the Holy Spirit, read my ebook all about Him. It is available for free when you sign up to receive emails from my blog by visiting www.evaconner.com and entering your email address in the orange bar at the top of the screen. You’ll receive an email asking you to verify that you are not a robot. After you do that, you will receive an email with a link to the free ebook which is a PDF.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

Romans 8:1-9 – External Power Source to Bring Life

By Leave a Comment

We need an external power source.

We need an external power source to restore life where death once ruled.

1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

Romans 8:1-9

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

This is good news for all of us. We need to shed the guilt once and for all.  Do you see the words in the first verse of chapter 8 above?  There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set us free.  We’ve been talking about the law in the past few lessons.  We know the law itself was not bad. In fact, the law was holy and pure because it came directly from God and anything that comes from God has to be holy and pure.

The problem is not with what we do – the problem is with who we are!

We are sons of Adam; therefore, we all have a sinful nature. No amount of works that we do on our own can change our inner nature.  The law shows us what is right and what is wrong. But our sinful nature cannot obey the law. We are not capable without help. I heard this analogy and connected with it so I’m sharing it with you:

Think of your inner self as a dead car battery.  On your own, you can do nothing to that car battery to restore life. Cleaning the outside with soap and water doesn’t change the inner, dead part of the batttery.  The only thing that can change the inner part of the battery is an external power source.  

Our inner self is the same as this dead car battery. Nothing we do externally will change our inner self.

We need an external power source to bring new life to our inner man.

That external power source is the Holy Spirit!  Paul confirms this in verse 2.  “And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in us.  He is our Comforter and our Guide but it is not instantaneous. Let me clarify.  The very minute we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us – this is instantaneous.  What does not happen so quickly is learning to walk in the Spirit.

How do we do this?

Paul tells us in these verses above that we can either let the sinful nature control our minds or we can let the Holy Spirit control our minds.  One leads to death and the other to life and peace.  The battle is in our minds.  In Romans 12:2, Paul tells us:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Romans 12:2

So knowing that the battle is in our minds, we must let the Holy Spirit control our thinking. We need to turn from the ways of the world toward the ways of God. This raises another question.

How do we let God transform our thinking?

We let God in our minds and our thoughts by developing a close relationship with Him. We develop a close relationship with Him when we spend quiet time with Him and get in His Word. These are the two primary ways that we will know who God is and hear from Him.  His Word is His Voice.  When we get in the Word – studying, meditating, praying – we will draw closer to God. His Word is alive and breathing. It is Life. The Word is Jesus Christ.

The Word of God will bring about an amazing transformation of our minds, souls and spirits.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

Romans 7:7-13 – The Struggle with Sin is Real

By Leave a Comment

The struggle with sin is real.

Friends, the struggle with sin is real. But we have the upper hand!

7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.

Romans 7:7-13

The law isn’t the problem and never has been. The law is a set of rules given to Moses from God. The law is divine and holy.  Sin is defined as an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.  The law itself is not what causes sin.  The law merely teaches us what is right and what is wrong.

Without God, we are incapable of obeying the law.

Satan knows this too.  He used what was good to bring about sin in the Garden of Eden through deception.  He will use what is good and holy to tempt us to do what is bad and unholy.  If we are walking through life without a close relationship with God, we are vulnerable.  We are wide-open to assault and we are defenseless to fight back. Offense, jealousy, and pride are just a few ways that the enemy can grab hold of us. He will plant a seed of deception and then feed it. Without knowledge of the Word of God, this seed grows and causes us to sin.

In the Scripture above, verse 8 reminds me of a child. The minute you tell a child they cannot do something, that is when they obsess on doing that very thing – regardless if they get in trouble. Unfortunately, this doesn’t change much when we grow older if we’re not walking with God.

It is part of our old-Adamic nature to want that which is forbidden.

The law points out those things which we are told not to do, making us want to do them. In this chapter of Romans, we see the struggle in switching from our old sinful life to our new life which includes Jesus.  We see the struggle from trying to gain our righteousness through our own efforts versus gaining our righteousness ONLY through Jesus Christ.

The law also points out our immense need for a Savior.  Without a Savior, we are incapable of being anything but sinners. With a Savior, we are set free from sin. Life with Christ offers everything that we need. And life without Him offers death. When we begin to understand these solid truths, we position ourselves to be used in mighty ways in His kingdom to set others free from darkness and bondage.

We simply cannot stay immature in our walk with Christ. The writer of the book of Hebrews understood this and urged us to mature and grow in Christ. He urged us to wean from milk and progress to solids as a baby would.

To protect ourselves from falling prey into the enemy’s hands, this maturation process is vital.

We need to lean into God’s strength and the power we’re given through the Holy Spirit. We need to spend time in His presence to work on our relationship with Him. He desires a personal, intimate relationship with each of us. As with all of our relationships, the main thing that makes the relationship thrive or starve is the time we spend nourishing and developing it.

The key thing that we can do to grow and mature is to dig in the Word of God.  Get in the Word today and make it a daily  habit. The Word of God is Jesus’ voice.  And He tells us in the gospel of John that His sheep know His voice.

2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

John 10:2-5

Jesus also tells us His sheep will run from a stranger and not follow that stranger.  This is reassurance. If we know His voice, which is His Word, we WILL recognize Him and follow Him only.  He walks ahead of us and leads us.  We cannot go astray as long as we stay in His Word.

Another key to protecting ourselves from the enemy is to fellowship with one another.

Jesus never intended for us to walk alone. Through His own example we see the importance of surrounding ourselves with like-minded, Jesus-loving people.  When we have solid people around us, they lift us up and encourage us when we grow weary. They help us stay on the right path. We owe it to one another to challenge ourselves to rise up and grow and become the very best ambassadors for Jesus Christ that we can be.

We’ll continue to see this struggle between sin and Christ as we proceed in the book of Romans. But very soon, we’ll see the wonderful ways that the Holy Spirit helps us to conquer sin.  Stay with me so that we can learn and grow in Christ together.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva

Romans 6:15-24 – The Abolition of Slavery Against Sin

By Leave a Comment

Christ brought us abolition against sin.

Christ brought abolition of slavery against sin!

15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:15-23

Abolition – the action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or institution.

We all learned about abolition in our history classes. It was a turning point for our country. Slaves were given freedom. Did you know that we are given freedom through Christ Jesus? He came to set us free from sin which had held us in slavery since the first man Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden.  Abolition is the act of getting rid of a system, practice or institution. For those who believe in Jesus Christ, the practice we are getting rid of is the practice of sin!  Friends, this is truth that we need to get settled deep in our hearts. We no longer walk in sin which leads to guilt, shame and regret.

We walk in boldness, confidence and truth.

All because of one man – Jesus.  The sooner we understand this, the sooner we can start spreading this good news to others so that they, too, can be set free.

In the first 6 chapters of Romans that we’ve been studying, Paul repeats this truth 17 times!  We know from school that repetition is very important to learning. Jesus knew this and repeated lessons over and over in His teaching and Paul followed in His footsteps. When things are repeated in Scripture numerous times, pay attention!  God does it for a reason.He does it for our good. These things that are repeated are things we must know to obtain freedom.

I’m going to repeat this wonderful truth as well.

Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
Romans 6:18

We are set free from the slavery to sin which led to death – and not because of anything that we did. It was all because of what Jesus did for us that one day when He took our place on the cross. This is a powerful key to being set free. Satan wants us to not understand this piece of Scripture. He wants us to stay locked in our guilt and shame over past sins that we committed. He wants us to stay in bondage of sin today.  But Jesus tells us to stop!  We no longer have to bow down to the weak human nature because we were given the divine nature – the Holy Spirit –  to dwell within to make us strong. It is not by our force or strength but the power of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to turn from sin.

Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: “It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Zechariah 4:6

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have the ability to do what is right.

Only by His power that we can live righteously. We will never be able to live righteously in our own strength. We are 100% dependent upon Jesus Christ. We are nothing without Him and everything with Him.  His precious Spirit gives birth to our spirit to wake us up from death.  His Spirit breaks us free from those chains of bondage of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.  Look closely at this list. This is what each of us are without Christ. This list is ugly and scary.  These are things in my past, not my present or my future!  Praise goes to God and God alone for saving us from the dead!  Praise goes to God for the abolition of slavery to sin.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give us grace and peace.

Stay in the Light and the Love Always,

Eva