Your New Husband | GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL by Andrew Wommack

Your New Husband

Having made all the before mentioned points, Paul began speaking to Christians who used to be under the old Jewish law. They were very aware of God’s standard of performance and judgment on sin.

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Romans 7:1-3

Paul was drawing a comparison from the natural realm. It’s a parable, like Jesus taught.

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In this passage Paul was comparing our old nature and our new born-again nature. Once a couple is married, the spouse can’t go out and have an intimate relationship with another person. They are bound—by law—to that mate. How do they get out of it? Although some people think they can just get a divorce, the only scriptural way to be released from the law of marriage is by the spouse’s death. If the mate dies, then the marriage relationship is over and they’re free to marry again. That’s the point Paul was making.

Feel the Spirit?

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Romans 7:4

I’d like to take a moment and explain this comparison. You are made up of a spirit, soul, and body. The body is what you see in the mirror. Your soul is your intellect, emotions, will, and personality. Most people think the soul is the real you. They’re unaware of the inner man—the spirit. They don’t know the spirit exists. Or if they intellectually acknowledge it, they never—as far as experience goes—are able to discern what’s spirit and what’s flesh (body and soul).

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Jesus answered…. That which is born

of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 3:5,6

In other words, you can’t “feel the spirit.” We use that terminology, but technically, you can’t physically sense the spirit. What you feel is when your soul gets into faith and the effects that it has.

Whenever your soul comes into agreement and joins in your spirit’s rejoicing, you’ll praise God.

For instance, if I were to speak to you

about the promises of God, the fact that He is here, and that He has angels surrounding you right now, you’d begin to feel the presence of the Lord. Sometimes you can actually feel goose bumps and other sensations, but you aren’t feeling the spirit. You’re feeling the effect of your faith. The spirit cannot be felt.

Technically, you can’t “dance in the spirit” either. If the spirit had control of you and possessed you, you’d dance better than you do. We wouldn’t do this little charismatic two-step. Am I saying, “You’re in the flesh”? No, not in the sense that it’s carnal or wrong. But it’s like Mary, who said:

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Luke 1:46,47

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In the Spirit

Your spirit is always rejoicing. It’s always praising God. It’s never depressed or defeated. And whenever your soul gets turned on to this, you can dance and it’s not inappropriate. Whenever your soul comes into agreement and joins in your spirit’s rejoicing, you’ll praise God. There’s nothing wrong with you praising God, but it’s you—body, soul, and spirit— dancing, shouting, and praising the Lord.

When you do what God’s Word says, you’re in the spirit.

Some people think that speaking in tongues is the Holy Spirit just taking control of you and speaking through you. It’s not. God’s Word says that “they… began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4).

It’s like God speaking through me when I preach. He inspires what I say, but I’m the one saying it. He speaks to people through the words I

say, but if I were to stand up before an audience and pray, “Oh, God, take my mouth and don’t let me say one word of my own,” and then wait until He “made” me talk, nothing would happen. God doesn’t do that. It’s Andrew Wommack talking, but the Holy Spirit is inspiring it.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t “make” you dance. He’s not going to grab hold of you and drive you up and down the aisle. If you’re waiting for God to do that, it won’t happen. You must

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realize that your spirit is jumping up and down on the inside and so you must—by faith—decide to jump up and down on the outside some too. That’s being “in the spirit,” but it’s not the Spirit taking control of you.

Some people are waiting until the Holy Spirit just makes them throw their hands up in the air because they’ve never done it before. “Well, I just don’t feel led.” You old carnal thing! The Bible says to “lift up your hands in the sanctuary” (Ps. 134:2). When you do what God’s Word says, you’re in the spirit. Since your spirit is always praising God, it’s always appropriate for you to lift your hands to worship Him. You don’t have to wait on the Holy Spirit to grab you and make you do it.

You don’t wait on the Holy Spirit to make you speak in tongues, either. You talk in tongues and the Holy Spirit gives you the utterance. It’s your spirit that prays, not the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 14:14.) He inspires your spirit, but you’re the one who does the praying.

The Tyrant Died

Your self—what you call “the real you”—is your soul. In Paul’s comparison (Rom. 7:1-4), that self is the woman in the marriage. The reason why your self did the things it did before you were born again was because it was married to the corrupt old man—your sin nature.

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man was alive.
give you a new
as your old
nature as long
God couldn’t
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This sin nature was the nature of the devil. (Eph. 2:1-3.) We “were by nature the children of wrath” (v. 3). You were born into this world with a dead spirit—an old man— a nature that was against God. Your self— your soul—was married to this old nature, which dominated and controlled you. Your

mind, will, and emotions were married to this old nature and you couldn’t get sepa-rated. Just like a married couple, there was no way out, except by

death. But this old guy wouldn’t die—and he was a tyrant!

So how did you break free? When Jesus came and died for you, He took your old man—your sin nature—into Himself.

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:3

You are dead in Him.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Galatians 2:20

Your old man died with Christ. Somehow, Jesus was able to take your sin—not your individual sins only, but your sin nature, your old man. Jesus literally took your sin nature upon Himself when He died. Now your sin nature is dead. It’s gone—nonexistent.

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Wed to the New Nature

This freed you up to be married to someone else: “That ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead” (Rom. 7:4). Although it’s true that we are the bride of Christ and married to Him, in context this is referring to our self—our soul—being married to our new nature—our born-again spirit. Through Jesus, that old nature you were married to died, and now you have a brand-new, resurrected nature on the inside of you that you’re married to. This new nature can now be your master the way your old nature used to be. This is what Paul was talking about.

However, most Christians don’t understand this. They still feel wed to their old nature. They’ve perverted this so much that they believe we have a new born-again nature and an old sin nature, both living on the inside of us at the same time. We see ourselves as schizophrenic, and it’s not true. It would be bigamy for us to be married to both an old nature and a new nature at the same time. That can’t happen!

God couldn’t give you a new nature (husband) as long as your old man was alive. So what did He do? He made a way, through His Son Jesus, for the old man to die; Paul described it in Romans 6:3 and Galatians 2:20. The old nature is dead and gone. Now you’re married to a new man. You don’t have a dual nature. You may still feel the effects of the old nature in you because he taught you how to think and act. (And remember,

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to the way you see
You cannot consistently perform contrary
yourself to be.
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you’ll keep thinking and acting like him— even though he’s gone—until you renew your mind.) But the truth is, you have a new husband!

Think of someone who’s been married to a tyrant. They were hateful and did terrible things to their spouse. Then they died and the wife remarried. She’s going to have the same thought patterns and actions

toward her new husband as she did with her old. Until she renews her mind, she’ll expect this present mate to treat her the same way as her previous mate.

I’ve dealt with many people who are destroying their second or third marriage because of prior relationships. They can’t renew their mind to their new spouse. In the sexual rela-tionship, they bring their old habits into a born-again marriage and cause lots of problems. Although that old mate is gone, they still retain the knowledge of what went on—and it affects their present relationship.

Emancipated!

That’s the way it is with us. Our old man is gone. A part of you is not the devil anymore. That part is dead and gone. But you still have a mind that remembers all that junk. Since most

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We’ve been set free from sin, but many of us aren’t free because we don’t know what has happened.
YOUR NEW HUSBAND

of us don’t understand that the old man is gone and we’re wed now to a new husband, we see that we still have these thoughts and assume we’re still the same old person. We think that there’s still a part of us that is bent on doing wrong and we iden-tify with it.

You cannot consistently perform contrary to the way you see yourself to be. (Prov. 23:7.) How do you see yourself? That’s the way you’re going to be. Do you see yourself as a loser trying to win? You’re going to lose. Do you see yourself as a winner that Satan’s trying to make lose? You’ll win. There’s a huge difference! Do you see yourself as the sick trying to believe God for healing? You’ll be sick. Do you see yourself as the healed that Satan is trying to steal health from? You’ll be well. Do you see yourself poor trying to become pros-perous? You’ll be poor. Do you see yourself as the pros-perous—already done through Christ Jesus—that the devil is trying to hinder? You’ll be prosperous. You

have to get it on the inside before you get it on the outside. Everything you receive from God comes on the inside first.

You need to recognize that you are dead to this old man. He’s gone. You aren’t enslaved anymore—so stop acting like it. Imagine a woman whose husband would never let her come to church, never allow her to spend any money, and never let her

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out of the house. He just dominated and controlled her. Then one day he dies and she marries another fellow. Even though this new husband is the best she could have ever hoped for, if she doesn’t renew her mind, she’ll continue acting trapped. She’ll reason, “I just know my husband won’t let me go to church. I can’t spend any money. I just have to stay here cooped up in this house all the time!” She’ll live in bondage—even though she’s free—until she changes her thought patterns to be in accordance with her new man.

We saw earlier that President Lincoln set the slaves in America free when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and how it’s a documented fact that many still lived in slavery. Their masters didn’t show them the proclamation and they didn’t have access to news the way we do today. It was often years before they found out. These people spent extra time in slavery, being free. Since they didn’t know it, they just continued serving that old master.

We’ve been set free from sin, but many of us aren’t free because we don’t know what has happened. We’re still serving that old master. This is the comparison Paul was making.

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for something that’s forbidden.
You can lust only