Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Romans 8:12-14 KJV

This passage was written to the brothers by Paul, meaning to believing Christians.  In verse 14, he indicates a most profound phrase, to believing believers.  If we live according to the flesh, we will die.  It is not enough simply to have a prayed a prayer once.  It is those who are led by the Spirit that are the Sons of God, and only those that do the will of the Father shall inherit the Kingdom.

Bear this in mind, the Father’s house is very large, and the one who has been given much is required of much, and those given little required of little.  If all our capacity is to give a cup of cold water to one of His disciples, we shall not lose our reward.  But, for those who do not live by the Spirit, and mortify the deeds of the body, where then is life?

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Romans 8:18-21 KJV

Romans 8 talks about the creation being made subject to ‘vanity’, to frustration.  As it was put into bondage of decay, so one day, there is the hope that even the created order itself can be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

What is this liberty?  It is a freedom from decay, a freedom from death, an entrance into life.  Not that our mortal bodies will not one day pass away, as dust returns to dust, and the created world passes into nothingness, but we do not decay.

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:16

God desires that we, in whatever capacity is available to us, to be faithful with the treasures entrusted to us, and that with what we have been given, we be faithful, trustworthy, and to demonstrate that by His Spirit we are His Sons (John 1:12).

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Romans 8:28-30

For God works good in our lives as our Father.  He has designed such a wonderful life for each of us.

Yet, the only life there is in the conformity to His son.  The only life there is is look like Jesus, walk like Jesus, and to be like Him to the measure that God has enabled us to.

Whether we are great or small in the world’s eyes has never been the measure of God’s worth, for not so many who are wise, nor mighty, or great in the world were called and chosen, but God chose the weak and the foolish things for His purpose.

The Kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.  It is the power and the driving after His Kingdom that we acertain it.  As we persistently knock, persistently seek, and persistently require diligently His face, He continues to pour Himself out upon us in greater and greater measures.

As we yield to the Words of our Teacher, He teaches us to be meek, and lowly, and the weight of the responsibility is a light and an easy thing.  As we reckon ourselves dead to this world, our eye becomes single, and we see only one thing.

The greatest thing in this world, in all of eternity and heaven, is the Love of God.  In His beauty, in His presence, there are pleasures forevermore.  There is no want for those who seek Him.

The greatest one in the Kingdom is the one who humbles himself and enters as a little child (Matthew 18:1-4).