September 9
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” (Galatians 5:16-17)
Yesterday we spoke of how critical it is that we are filled with the Spirit. We need the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us mightily. We need His guidance, His leading, His fruit (particularly self-control), His joy, His will working out His pleasure. We have become accustomed to doing our will for our pleasure, and often that results in sin, especially if any immorality is involved.
Paul makes it clear in the verse quoted from Galatians above that if we are walking by the Spirit, we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh. They are mutually exclusive. We cannot say or think that we are filled with the Spirit while we are viewing immoral behaviors. It is either one or the other. We cannot be both walking in the flesh and the Spirit at the same time. It is impossible. One or the other will control us. Our job as Christians is to continually, repeatedly, habitually direct our minds on the things above and surrender control of our minds and bodies to the Spirit.
Focusing on making certain the Spirit is in control of our thoughts will automatically quench and subjugate the flesh and its cravings. Whatever fleshly lusts are aroused within the Christian can be fairly quickly quenched by crying out to God and focusing on scripture. The strong passions and desires can pass rather quickly, really, it is a matter of whether or not we want them to. The Spirit is an amazingly powerful ally to quench and help us overcome evil desires within us if we want Him to.
We must be filled with the Spirit on a continual basis in order to overcome immoral habits. When tempted by immoral lusts, we need to immediately seek His help and power to resist, and we need to ask for His fellowship and filling to overcome even the desire for lusts of the flesh. The Spirit needs to displace the flesh, to override it, to replace its passing pleasures with eternal joys. We desperately need to be transformed by the Spirit of God filling us and controlling us, not just occasionally but continually, especially if we have fallen prey to immoral lusts.
ASSIGNMENT: Pray daily that you would be continually filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit in all that you do. Pray that your flesh would not be in control of you, and not even you own will guiding you, but only the Spirit. Pray that you would not quench or grieve the Spirit in anything. Pray that the Spirit would give you a desire for heavenly things and take away any desire for fleshly and earthly things. Pray the that Holy Spirit would give you such a desire for Christ and holy living that you would always choose Him and seek His help to overcome and not be deceived by your fleshly lusts.