Flesh vs Spirit

Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:17)

Livestock are constantly grazing. They’re always looking for something to munch on to fill themselves up. The same can be said or people. People are constantly looking for self fulfillment. What people, however, may or may not know is that self fulfillment is only truly satisfied through the Word of God.

When the Word of God is not our main source of ‘food’, we look for other things to replace our lack of nutrition. This causes us to become malnourished.

We constantly diminish the health of our Spirit because we refuse to go on a Godly diet.

When we don’t feed our spirit, what do we feed, instead?
The flesh.

A malnourished spirit equals unhealthy flesh. We become stubborn to submission to God.

When I go on a diet, the cravings come with a vengeance. It’s the same situation between flesh and spirit.

Ephesians 6:12

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

If you live according to the flesh and not that of the spirit, you will die…

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.”

We must kill off the desires o our flesh so the spirit can live and thrive within us. We must be willing to deny our cravings of the world in order to become spiritually fit. Though the two battle one-another, flesh against spirit, they both coincide with one-another.

The trick for balance is to make one stronger than the other.

The stronger one has the authority. The question then becomes, “Though Holy Spirit may be stronger than flesh, if the flesh is unyielding, who then holds the power? God or Satan?”

Who have you given authority to? Flesh or Spirit?

Both flesh and spirit cannot be equally strong. The two do not have the same end goal. One will kill you, the other will cause you to live.

Matthew 12:25-26

“But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”

Think of going to the gym, Our motivation is going to represent our flesh and our habit will represent our spirit. Getting yourself to workout is done through motivation. Something caused you to go. Something in you said, ‘I have a desire.” But, that motivation quickly dies off.

Why?

Because motivation is short-lived satisfaction.

Once you realize that this thing created to be good for you takes some real work, we often step back and go, “never-mind.” To continue to fulfill the desire you once had to go to the gym, you have to develop the discipline to continue. It is through discipline that creates habit. Habit to long-lived satisfaction.

Your flesh will constantly be faced with temptation. That temptation will win if your discipline is not developed.

“How do I become disciplined?”

Discipline is just constant practice.

We should be practicing every day to make our obedience to the spirit stronger. The constant battle against the flesh to deny short-lived fulfillment of sin will become easier the more we feed our spirit the Word of God.

When we aren’t getting our fulfillment through the Word, it’s no wonder why we end up in sin. The most obvious answer to this is because we are human and there was no perfect person was the Son of God, Jesus Christ; but the not so obvious answer (I call it the common-sense answer because common-sense isn’t so common), is because we are not feeding ourselves the Word of God like we should be.

It is not a want. We need to stop treating the the Word of God as a want and start treating it as a need. As believers in Christ, we need it if we want to progress deeper with Christ. The less time we spend with God, the more malnourished our spirit becomes. The more malnourished our spirit is, the more our flesh with hunger and crave for the sweets of the world, leading us to give into the flesh.

The constant eating of sweets will only cause us to kill ourselves slowly. Sometimes, even quickly. When we are not in the Word of God, then we are constantly grazing on the sweets of the world, causing us to become temporarily fulfilled at the expense of our own salvation and relationship with Jesus.

“But I believe in Jesus, I’m saved. Nothing can take that away.”

You’re right, but what makes you think that constantly feeding on the garbage of the world won’t make you reject the salvation you acquired? Jesus never said He wouldn’t let you walk away.

Remember, salvation is a gift; because it is a gift, you have the free will to also reject the gift, to trash it, and to give it back.

Before you ask, yes, Jesus will leave the ninety-nine to go after the one, but the one still needs to be willing to come back. Most importantly, the one He is going after needs to be alive. The world is looking to kill you. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. The world is still Satan’s territory. Sin is his territory. Sin is the enemy’s authority over you. Satan still has full reign until Jesus comes back to destroy him for good. Until then, we must heed to our walk with Christ in submission.

We, as children of God, have authority over the enemy and cause him to flee, but that does not mean he does not have permission to continue to come after you. The Lord is developing us to become spiritually buff. God wants us to be strong.

Do we really think God is going to unite His Son to a spiritually weak church?

Absolutely not.

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Narrow is the gate to righteousness, difficult is the path. To stay on that path, you have to be focused, balanced, disciplined, and spiritually sound. Very quickly can you stray from the path if you are not well-equipped to walk it.

We equip ourselves to walk His path by reading the Word of God, spending time with Him, being in His presence, and allowing ourselves to heed to the Holy Spirit.

We were never created to walk the path alone. The Father never leaves us, even in the face of difficult obstacles. The Father will plant your feet on the stepping stones to success in this life with Him.

Amen.