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Mar. 26, 2005 “16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16-18) I am breaking a personal rule today because there are too many people needing direction who are very lazy when it comes to looking up their own scripture. Yes, some Christians are lazy. We’ll work on that though. Paul the Apostle was a spiritual man who looked at people one of two ways. People both knew Christ and were filled with the Spirit of God; or they did not know Christ and needed the Spirit of God. His ministry was that of a traveling evangelist. He did not sit on his hands, nor did he set up shop expecting people to seek out his wisdom. He took God’s word to the people. Paul struggled with his own demons and wrote about that. Yet, Paul also knew how to defeat the temptations of sin. You beat sin by letting the Spirit of God control your thoughts and actions. This is a capability that resides only inside a faith filled Christian who has that personal relationship with God. We have the Spirit. We just need to allow the Spirit to do what it is he is naturally capable of. Not all true Christians are equally challenging. Some of us “quench” the Spirit. We do not permit ourselves the embarrassment of being rejected because of our beliefs. We either remain silent when we should be preaching, or we end up “preaching to the choir”. Neither of those actions is very productive. Jesus told his followers to never worry about what they would say when confronted by unbelief. If we walk in the Spirit, we are assured of the words we will say. God’s word will never return to the Christian without having had some effect on the listener. That is a promise we each should be unafraid to trust because it comes from God. A Christian being attuned to the Spirit; allowing the Spirit to govern the prayer life and the actions of regular living is not “under the law”. I can explain that later; but basically, a Christian walking in the Spirit will have difficulty breaking any law. The Spirit of God overrides such temptations. All challenges against the spiritual things are rejected by the Spirit. The Christian, indwelt by the Spirit of God rejects temptations as a natural effect of allowing the Spirit to control life. This is how many of those in the true faith can recognize their brothers and sisters. It is difficult to fellowship with Christians that are in compromise with sin because they are suppressing the Spirit of God. Spirit recognizes Spirit. Paul continues his line of reasoning by explaining the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit. I will touch on each of these in separate columns. This is written for my friends in the true faith of Christ. My prayers are for you. ------------ Email Skip: skiptoomaloo@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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