We live a in a world where we are constantly bombarded with temptation in almost every area of our lives. You may say, "Is our world worse than it was years ago?" To which I would have to say, yes! Scripture doesn't say we will get better and better, Jesus just told us how to live a more Godly life. Now we have to do it. We have all the power we need to live that life and satan would like nothing better than to thwart that happening in believer's lives. Thus the extra "push" to elevate the things of the flesh and stop our growth in Christ. Oh we can do all the self help groups possible, but we still have to live our life in the midst of a very "worldly" world. The Flesh is something God's Word addresses in very strong terms, because we need it in very strong terms. We know that flesh is our skin in regular terms, but in spiritual terms it is more The Human Condition. It's our physical bodies and our physical minds, and all that is made of our whole package. At the very first Adam said about Eve, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." God spoke about our days here on the earth in Genesis 6:3, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." So the flesh problem has been since the beginning of man and that flesh is a constant reminder of our sinful past. It is a part of our life that is put away when we accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our lives, but it doesn' want to stay away. It is constantly knocking on the door of our lives trying to take back it's territory. Our flesh is the detroyer of our faith and the constant enemy we deal with on a daily basis. God wants less of the flesh and more of His Spirit in our lives. Paul wrote in Romans 3:20 - "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Paul goes on in verse 23 to say that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. So, the Human Condition is something all who breathe have to deal with and the law is the ultimate accusing argument that lets us know that the condition is real and in all of us. God reached down to all humans to give us a way to deal with this condition once and for all. He sent Jesus to take on all of the sin, and in sacrifice, pay the ultimate penalty for that sin to give the Human Condition a way out of the punishment. This alternative is offered at great expense to our Awesome God, in that his perfect Son was the one that gave His life. In the midst of the struggle of our Human Condition, Christ dies for all sins and then is resurrected to defeat the penalty of that sin for eternity. Which brings us to now....and living our life on a daily basis. What role does the flesh have in my life? It shouldn't have any position at all, but it is a constant problem for all who know Christ. Even Paul spoke to this in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me(that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find." One of the greatest Disciples of all time has struggles with the flesh? Where does that put me? It puts me right where God wants me....totally depending on Him and the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean we don't have the temptation anymore, it just means that God has given us a better way to live, that distances us from falling to the temptation. But here is the kicker. Since He has equipped us through His power to live a free life in the Spirit, we are responsible to live that life with the strength and power He has given us. Romans 8:3 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. In other words, that old building is CONDEMNED!! Do you know what you do when you start to walk in a building and see that it is condemned? You walk the other way. That is exactly what we should do to the flesh, that is condemned. Romans 8:5, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spriit, the things of the Spirit." What this is saying is "walk away." Boy, the church at Rome got a full dose of truth about this very thing from Paul, because he hammered it thoughout the whole letter to the Romans. Romans 8:8, "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." If you are in the flesh you have not only walked in the condemned house, but you are living in it. GET OUT! We need to stop living like we are condemned, when we are free and free indeed. We need to immerse ourselves in the teaching of the Word of God and get to know what kind of life is a Spirit-filled life and then live it. We need to escape the self pity of wanting what we want and dial in what God wants and see how that works for a change. Romans 8:13, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." If you aren't living in the Spirit, then you are living in a condemned house and you are better than that through Christ. So, go to the door, open it, and step out, and don't look back, much less go back. Keep walking toward God and His ways and live the free life He has given through the Spirit and stay away from the condemned life that is part of the Human Condition. Romans 13:14, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill it's lusts." Spirit Filled Living is the new trend, don't be left behind!!
The Pilgrimage continues......
David Warren
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