I have heard some Christians say, "I'm OK. Jesus has done everything on the Cross!" And yes, that is true-judicially. But that is not the end of the story. It is just the beginning. When you became a Christian, God provided everything for you in Jesus Christ. When you received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, His Holy Spirit immediately came into your spirit, and that is how you were born again. So your spirit is OK. No need to be worried about that. But, as I said, that is the beginning of the story.

But we have to work out practically what Jesus has done for us. As human beings, we also have a soul and a body, the "house" that the invisible part of us that makes us who we are lives in. While our spirit is redeemed when we believe in Jesus, our soul and body have to go through the process of being redeemed. As one scholar put it, there is the "already, but not yet".

When we become a disciple of Jesus, we begin a journey, which ends either when we die, or when He comes again. We call it the journey of sanctification. Now God already sees the finished product, and in the New Testament He calls all believers "saints". But from our perspective, we all have to travel the journey of sanctification, particularly in the area of the soul. God loves us too much to leave us the way we are, and so He wants to bring healing and restoration in the area of our mind, will and emotions.

So what about this "baggage" we have mentioned? This is particularly the areas in our mind, will and emotions that have been wounded, attitudes, beliefs and mindsets that are part of our former lifestyle, unhealthy relations, associations, and so on. The baggage may originate in iniquities, sinful lifestyles or other negative spiritual influences inherited from former generations. All these things and more give legal right to the Devil to establish strongholds in our lives, and prevent us from being all that God wants us to be. And, just as carrying baggage on a journey weighs us down, and slows our progress, so it is in the new life we have begun as disciples of Jesus. Simply ignoring these things will not make them go away. They continue to do their negative work in our lives as long as we allow them to remain there.

So part of the journey of sanctification is to free ourselves of those things that weigh us down. And that is what the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:2. ...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. And Paul tells the Christians he write to that they had to put off, or put away, the things that belonged to the old way of life. That is their responsibility; and God won't step in and override that. That is why we need to understand what "baggage" is in our lives. If we can't really identify what that baggage may be, then we can ask the Holy Spirit to show us specific areas. He will.

Then once we have identified what the areas are, then we can do something about them. And that is part of the journey we are on as disciples of Jesus. Once the strongholds of the enemy of our souls are identified, we can begin to demolish them, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10. Strongholds cannot be renovated; they need to be demolished. Stay tuned, and we will tell you more about it next time. Meanwhile, ask God to reveal what is baggage in your life, and then resolve to do something about it. To coin a phrase, the ball is in your court!

David W Searle Co-author of Growing Deep and Strong Series