READ:
ROMANS 7:14-23
Have you
ever encountered a situation where you are torn into two – a battle between
your spirit and your flesh? It is not a strange phenomenon! In 1 Samuel 19:4-6,
we see King Saul experiencing such a situation. A part of him wanted to kill
David, whereas another part of him vowed that David should not be killed. A
Christian is constantly faced with this unending war between his spirit man and
his flesh. I faced that situation during my first two years as a Christian,
until God gave me victory. For instance, if you decide to fast from 6 am
tomorrow morning, you will be surprised by the kind of hunger pangs that will
wake you up. Yet if you had never made such a decision, you might have worked
that day without even remembering to eat until 3 pm.
The night you decide to hold a vigil, you will begin to battle with sleep. Your spirit will say, ‘I am tired, I have to sleep.’ Once you have come to the end, after struggling through the vigil, you will suddenly observe that your eyes that were closing during prayer are now wide awake. Such is the struggle between the flesh and the spirit; hence your flesh is your most formidable enemy. Anyone who will walk with God must learn to crucify the flesh through prayer, fasting, the study of God’s Word and conscientious obedience to the Word. If you feed your flesh and hardly miss a meal, it will have a very domineering voice over your spirit. But if your spirit is fattened by fasting and the Word, it will subdue the flesh.
If you listen to the flesh and obey it, you will become God’s enemy. The works of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5:19-21. The flesh will want to engage in those acts that can damn your soul to hell. But you must die to such acts. In times past I got very angry because I thought myself important. But God has given me grace over that problem. Now, I know that without Jesus, I am nothing, so when I am insulted, I keep quiet. No amount of insult can make a dead man react angrily. Are you dead to your flesh? If insults, abuses and mocking still get you worked up, they only show that your flesh is not dead yet.
The night you decide to hold a vigil, you will begin to battle with sleep. Your spirit will say, ‘I am tired, I have to sleep.’ Once you have come to the end, after struggling through the vigil, you will suddenly observe that your eyes that were closing during prayer are now wide awake. Such is the struggle between the flesh and the spirit; hence your flesh is your most formidable enemy. Anyone who will walk with God must learn to crucify the flesh through prayer, fasting, the study of God’s Word and conscientious obedience to the Word. If you feed your flesh and hardly miss a meal, it will have a very domineering voice over your spirit. But if your spirit is fattened by fasting and the Word, it will subdue the flesh.
If you listen to the flesh and obey it, you will become God’s enemy. The works of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5:19-21. The flesh will want to engage in those acts that can damn your soul to hell. But you must die to such acts. In times past I got very angry because I thought myself important. But God has given me grace over that problem. Now, I know that without Jesus, I am nothing, so when I am insulted, I keep quiet. No amount of insult can make a dead man react angrily. Are you dead to your flesh? If insults, abuses and mocking still get you worked up, they only show that your flesh is not dead yet.
MEMORIZE:
ROMANS 7:15 –For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do,
that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
