Alive unto God. What does this phrase mean? To be alive unto God means to be responsive to His Spirit. If you are alive unto God, you will spend time in the Word of God and in prayer. You will maintain continual fellowship and communion with Him. When He speaks, you will hear and obey.

Proverbs 4:20-22 tells us that the Word of God is life and health to our flesh. So the Spirit of God will make alive our bodies. It says that the issues or forces of life come out of our hearts: “Keep [and guard] your heart [spirit] with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23, The Amplified Bible). The King James Version says it this way: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

God says, “Consider yourself dead to sin.” If you obey the Word and consider yourself dead to sin, when sin calls your name, you won’t answer. You’ll say, “No, I reckon myself dead to that.” (In Arkansas where I was raised, you would say, “No! I reckon I’m dead to that.”)

The word temptation means “solicitation to evil.” There will be temptations, but those temptations will not get your attention when you are dead to sin. But you cannot walk that walk without being alive to God. It is not a matter of law, but of the life of God working in you.

It is your life with God, your fellowship and responsiveness to Him, that causes sin and the things of this world to fall away from you. As you walk after the hidden man of the heart, you walk free from the sin and bondage of the world, the flesh and the devil.