Spiritual Gifts part 200: The race is a fight to advance to the high ground.

Spiritual Gifts Part 200: The race is a fight to advance to the high ground of the spiritual life.

John 15:2
“Every branch [believer] in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [discipline]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it [suffering for blessing] so that it may bear more fruit.”

The Father’s plan for our life is our race to run.

His great desire is that we leap over each and every one by believing His promises about what awaits on the other side of that hurdle.

In connection with the metaphor of the contestant, ogkos
has the sense of the weight which he must put off to be able to attain his goal unhampered.

The moment that something gets a place in your soul that is not in God’s mind for you, it automatically becomes a weight, no matter what it is.

Our race is the race of the new man who walks by means of the Spirit.

Our old sin nature is the competitor to the Holy Spirit.

When we run the race, the old sin nature does what it can to impede our progress and divert us from the course.

Rom 8: 2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Put yourself in the position to let the Spirit war against the flesh.

Two of the most powerful areas of temptation are pride and unbelief.

The word for “race” in HEB 12:1, agona, is in other places translated as a “fight”. It can mean a contest, a fight, or a battle.

by a metaphor taken from the runners in a race, to exert oneself, strive hard; to spend one's strength in performing or attaining something: (Thayer)