Spirit vs. Flesh

Different kinds of living!

There is an area in modern Christianity that desperately needs light shone upon it, light so we can clearly define it… that area is how to live this Christian life.

There are different kinds of Christian existence, different lifestyles and ways of life God never intended for us to live in, many Christians struggle and strive in defeat not knowing there is a place of victory for them, there is “a new and living way” (Heb 10:19-23) the wrong way is a flesh walk the right way is a Spirit walk, let me spell out the differences.

These different lifestyles or places of existing are paralleled in the bible in many places, to name a few… the wilderness that the children of Israel lived in for 40yrs, the outer court of the tabernacle where the sacrifice was to be washed, and Paul spells it out pretty well in Romans chapter 8.

The Flesh walk, this is living as the natural person, unfortunately most of us live our lives here, and sadly we are taught no different. This is the place were we live in the flesh and reap the results of living in the flesh.

The flesh walk could be described as a place where your heart is saturated with the flesh, fallen nature, natural living, carnal mind and not the Holy Spirit, you are not living in victory, you are a stronghold of the spirit of this world and not a stronghold of the Spirit of God, you are a slave to sin instead of living in the freedom and victory of the Spirit.

A place where you feel weak in God, guilty, even struggling with your heart condemning you, And whenever you come before the Lord your eyes are on yourself, your sins, your efforts. You’re under the circumstances and you can’t see clearly. You come to God and you feel like you have to get right with him. You’re too busy with work, or play or just plain busyness, and at times you feel like God is a million miles away.  You lay hands on the sick and you try to believe God, but your confidence is low in God, you’re not bold as a lion, you’re not filled with might in the inner man, you’re struggling and you know it! This is called being in the flesh.

Brooke Fraser says it perfectly in a song… “I’ve been swimming in the wrong waters and they’ve been pulling me down”

In contrast walking in the Spirit is like this….

The Spirit walk, could be described as living saturated with the Holy Spirit, the anointing, the presence of God, full of might, fight, faith, authority and victory. A place where you are free, clear, clean and loving it. You are in a place you are able to minister, you have removed the log from your eye and you can see clearly, you feel strong in God. You are not ashamed before Him, your sins are washed away and your heart has no conscious sin in it, your heart does not condemn you.

You are in the zone, you can feel the presence of God all over you, He is very close, you have moved closer to Him, believed Him more and applied faith in what He has said. You have applied the victory of Christ and broken the bondage off, you have washed yourself, submitted yourself to God and the enemy has fled from you, you’re living in the victory.

You know you have right standing, when you come before God it’s not about you, you’re not self focused or even self aware, you are not trying to gain right standing. Your heart is full of rejoicing and joy, it has a supernatural peace. You wonder why you shied away from getting to this place. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t deserve it, you just repented and believed, you received the victory that was won for you.

How do I get there? The key is be filled with the spirit! This is not just someone laying hands on you, you need to do some work within your heart. Jesus paid for everyone to be saved, but not everyone will be, why? Because the requirements of the covenant are repent and believe. It’s that simple, it’s not a religious working at being righteous, or trying to repent enough to get righteous, or even striving to please God that’s just religion – (any pleasing should only be done out of love not trying to earn brownie points with God).

Repentance is not so much an “I’m sorry God” as a casting off, a fighting against the sin by rejecting it, by turning your heart against it. You are not truly sorry until this happens in your heart anyway, all the “I’m sorrys” don’t mean anything if your heart is not set against the sin you’re repenting of. So repentance is more about casting off than saying words.

So come before God, call upon Him to set you free, He is your saviour not you, look at the victory; the cross and the resurrection and believe, then with the authority that comes with believing use it to reject the sins that try to make you a slave. The enemy has to flee, don’t just say a prayer and walk away, get whole hearted, rend your heart, travail until Christ be formed in you, spend some time pursuing what God has promised, its yours fight for it, kick those things that inhabit your cities out, don’t settle for anything but God’s promise and Christ’s victory, let the Holy Spirit wash you and work on you and with you.

Proclaim your freedom… In the movie ‘The Never Ending Story’, the main character had to come before a mirror that reflected his true self, many warriors had run away in fear at the sight of their true selves, some were whimpering cowards, others horrible dark deformed monsters… we are the like that in the natural, we are poor, blind, wretched and naked.

As we come we are transformed by the word of God and the Spirit of God, so when we come before the Lord, some of us will come ugly, crippled, dark, filthy, carnal, indifferent, cold, shallow, proud, bruised or deformed.

As we proclaim and claim the promises of God, we replace that which is not in victory with the victory. That which is dead with life, that which is dark with light, that which is unclean with cleanness, that which is demonically bound with Holy Spirit freedom. Until we are eventually standing strong and tall, righteous and a stronghold of heaven. In this place we find freedom, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. A might comes into us, and we feel strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

You can not walk the Christian walk in the flesh… you can not have these things in the flesh, the spiritual blessings are given to the spirit not the flesh, many wander around in the spiritual wildernesses wondering why they have no joy, they have doctrines of freedom and doctrines to help them walk the Christian walk in the flesh but it is powerless, being filled with the Spirit is simply that, it is not being filled with words and doctrines it is being filled with the Holy Spirit… TRUE CHRIST LIKE LIVING AND VICTORY IT’S NOT FOUND IN THE FLESH!

This is what Paul says…  Romans 8

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.


2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.


3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;


4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.


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 Spirit, the things of the Spirit.


6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;


7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.


8 Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.


9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.


10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.


11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.


12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.


13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.


14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.


15 For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ” Abba! Father!”


16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

Now neither walking in the flesh or spirit earns anything in God, for Jesus earned everything we are ever going to get, saying any different would just be ugly religion, It doesn’t earn anything with God but allows you to come into what was earned, all is ours, but you can only receive things when you get to the place it is received, for example you can only go swimming when you get to the swimming pool, you might have free tickets and free access but you’re not at the place you can go swimming until you’re at the pool, a more practical example is the fleshly Christian will pray for someone and they won’t be healed or delivered the person walking in the spirit will pray they will more likely be healed.. (generally speaking)

They earn nothing from God but they produce much different fruit, one produces a devils playground of bondage and death, the other God’s kingdom can come through and His will be done through. One is on the way to being able to prove the good and perfect will of God, the other is in a spiritual gunk, experiencing a powerless Christianity and a distant God.

What’s the difference? one is glugged and God can’t flow through, the other is cleaned and God can use. They are both Christians, and all is their’s (they both have free tickets to the swimming pool) but unfortunately the flesh Christian is not at the place to walk (swim) in it.

The tabernacle in the old testament is a perfect picture of Christian living, the outer court was where the priest cleansed himself and the sacrifice, once he had done that he could enter into the holy place, where he did the works of a priest, he still sinned as he had to still repent of his sins, once he entered the holiest of holy places he was at a place sin had to be totally gone or he would die.

Most congregations are in the outer court, and the leaders are either with them or in the inner court, where they are ministering like a priest (doing the works of Christ in the anointing) but both walking in the flesh and the spirit and having to repent of their sins, the aim is to get to living in the spirit (holiest of holy place) all the time, for those who walk according to the spirit do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh… Jesus said it this way, “be ye perfect!”

Many accept so much less than what is freely theirs… Many people say this and that about their horribly adverse circumstances, sickness, sins and bondages, they say “I suppose it’s what God wants for me at the moment”, or “such is life” or “I will repent later” lets get it right… right here and right now, this is the will of God for you… “that you live in the victory of what Jesus purchased for you!” called “abundant life” anything else is not God’s perfect will for you.

God is no respector of persons, get to the swimming pool and you too can go swimming! Walk in the Spirit and you will find the abundant life, victory, freedom, peace and joy Jesus promised.

Lets be honest there’s not really any “real” satisfaction in the flesh.. is there?

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