The War Against Our Flesh
Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 15:24-25.
What is the flesh?
Lately, it has been made apparent to me through revelation by the Holy Spirit that my flesh needs to submit to God. By that, I mean I need to die to self. What does it mean exactly to “die to self?” Self is basically our soul which is comprised of 3 parts: (1) our mind, (2) our will, and (3) our emotion. A worldly comparison to this is the “ego.” It is the flesh’s nature to protect itself. Its characteristics are selfishness by design. Its goal is to serve itself sometimes at the expense of others. Unfortunately, we live in a world that encourages that, marketing self-indulgence, self-seeking, and pleasure. The deception is that in seeking after our own desires we will be happy. However, the world can only bring superficial happiness; if we want joy that is long-lasting, we must do what is contrary to our flesh.
Fruits of the Flesh vs. Fruits of the Spirit
We learn in Galatians that the fruits of the flesh (i.e. what our flesh produces) are: “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” Galatians 5:19-21. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.
God calls us to humble ourselves and submit to him. In doing so, we must lay down our own will in obedience to His. Not everyone is willing to do that. Not everyone is willing to sacrifice temporal comfort and obey the Lord. This obedience can look like speaking to a stranger or loved one about the gospel or separating from a romantic partner because God directed you to. I’ve been asked to do both . . . and neither were easy feats. Why? Our flesh does not seek to do the will of God; our spirit, on the other hand, does. That is why scripture tells us, “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41.
How to Hear from God
Before we can even hear and receive guidance from the Holy Spirit, however, we must accept Jesus as our Lord. It is then we can experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit who directs us.
“Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:39.
The Holy Spirit, part of the Godhead Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) acts as our Helper until Jesus returns to the earth. He gives us direction and guidance to do the will of our Father. In order to hear Him, we must humble ourselves and have an open heart.
How to Obey God/Walking in the Spirit
Once we hear from the Holy Spirit, we need obey the Lord. This can be a torturous experience or a simple one–the distinguishing factor, our humility and trust in God. If we truly know God is for us, rooting for us, carrying us through an opportunity He’s called us to be bold in, shouldn’t it be easy? But when we waver in this and still cling to the false notion that we’re not safe, that the “monster” is bigger than the God we serve, we cower and make excuses when God calls us to be bold. We can see how Moses did this when God asked him
1 | Build faith and trust in God by spending time with Him
So, in order to obey God, we must, first believe in Him, then second trust Him. How do you trust Him? Well, how would you trust a person you just met? You have to form a relationship. Get to know each other. We do this by spending time in God’s presence and in His Word. The more time we spend with Him, the more time we bask in His glory and become acutely aware of His love for us. Being aware of how much He loves us, we begin to understand He would not ask us to do anything that would harm us. In fact, He works for the good of those who love Him who are called according to His purpose. And in Jeremiah 29:11, we learn that the plans He has for us are good. Further, His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, meaning, even though we may think we have our best interest in mind with our little minute plans for our lives, we learn His ways are far greater than we could ever imagine. He is able to see beyond what our natural eyes can envision for our lives. So, we trust His judgment and we submit to Him.
2 | Utilize Fasting
Comprised within our flesh is our mortal body and our emotions. Oftentimes, it tries to usurp dominance over the undisciplined person. We may neglect going to church because we “don’t feel like it.” We lash out at another driver because we “feel disrespected” by her behavior. We hide our faith because we “feel uncomfortable and embarrassed,” to share it amongst people we know will judge us. The non-believer may feel little remorse doing these things. Pride has hardened their hearts from seeing their sin. For the believer, however, we face a heavy conviction after participating in these actions, driving us to repentance and an incessant desire to turn away from such behavior. How can we break out of this cycle once and for all? Fasting is a great way to discipline the flesh. When we deny our bodies’ food, a basic necessity, we train ourselves to walk in the spirit rather than at our flesh’s beck and call. Fasting is the spiritual practice we do for the glory of God. It is not a diet, a punishment, or a means to salvation. (Salvation is a free gift from the Lord) It is a way to better tune our spiritual ears to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us and to train our flesh that it is no longer in control of our actions.
I hope this article was helpful. I am, too, looking to put this into practice. Remember, God’s mercies are new every day. We must seek to do His will and spend time with Him daily. We need Him like we need air to breathe and food to eat.
God bless.
