The Battle of Our Souls
The Spirit battles against the flesh
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth 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.—Gal. 5:16-18
When we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and starts working to grow us and sanctify us. He teaches us and helps us. He comforts us.
This creates change in our life. It brings brokenness and correction. It brings blessings. We see God moving and it strengthens our faith.
The Enemy does not want to let us go. Satan and his demonic forces have built relationships with us. They have built tunnels through our hedge of protection, where they can attack us and keep us in bondage. They have attached themselves to our backs and our minds.
These connections are severed at salvation, but the enemy quickly works to reestablish them. They attack and draw us through our flesh, eyes, desires and pride. Consider an addict who is constantly tempted to re-use and get addicted again. That is how the temptation looks in all the various ways. It is a lure to draw us into a trap. ( 1 John 2:16)
BUT… if we are saved we now have the Holy Spirit. He does the battle for us. Notice in the verse above, the word Spirit is capitalized. That means the Holy Spirit. Not our spirit. Our job in this battle is to abide in the Lord. Our job is to Walk in the Spirit.
Do not let the battle drive us away from Christ. (John 15:3-8)
The Holy Spirit is moving and things are happening in our lives. We are being tempted to run from God. Like the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt. We want to go back to our old ways. We want to quit, because we fail and it’s hard and things are scary.
But, it is part of the spiritual battle behind the scenes to grow us and correct us and get us to a better place in life where we can serve. Like the Israelites through the desert to the promised land.
We must remember that we are fallen. We are corrupt. This is very important because it explains why we cannot save ourselves or help in the battle. God gives us His grace and we cannot help. He has saved us and is waging the battle. There is no way we can do it without making matters worse. Look at the end of verse 17 above. “You cannot do the things that you would.” No matter how hard you try to do good, you will fail. You will sin. But, it’s ok. The battle is the Lord’s, not yours. You are already victorious in Christ. We are not under the law, if we are Walking in the Spirit.
We are to Walk with the Lord in the Spirit. We abide in Him.
The verse above says that if we Walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and we are not under the law.
What does this mean?
Well, when we are saved the enemy will attack us and tempt us to get us to fail. He will try to re-open those pathways into our lives. The Holy Spirit will point out the temptation often times, and we might struggle to resist. We might succeed. But, the temptation will return. It’s never a one and done.
We might fail next time.
But, the battle is not ours. it is the Holy Spirit’s battle.
So, we Walk in the Spirit. Which means, we pray for help. We pray God’s Word against the attacks of the enemy. We wear the armor of God, and when we fail we confess our sin to Him, and He forgives us and cleanses us. (1 John 1:8-10, Eph 6:10-18)
It is not our battle. We are saved. We are to just abide and remain in relationship with the Lord.
That is walking in the Spirit. We stay focused on the Lord. Abiding in Him, and not letting the enemy drag us away.
The enemy is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The demons tempt us and tempt us and whisper lies into our minds, and when we sin they speak condemnation and fear into our minds. (1 Peter 5:8)
This is designed to chase us from God.
When a lion roars in the jungle it scares the young ,old and sick. It causes them to run away from the safety of the herd. Likewise, Satan seeks to drive us from God. Not to lose salvation, but to get us trapped in more sin, and keep us from turning to the Lord and confessing to Him.
Like Adam and Eve hid, when they sinned.
Like the parable of the sower. The things of this world will drive us from God. Whether good things or bad things. We are tempted to forget God or hide from Him, or turn from Him, back to our old life. (Matt. 13)
God is our only hope. He is our Rock. When we turn from Him, we are like the prodigal son who will face trouble we cannot fix until we return to God. God is our only source of Life. Abiding in Him, is walking with Him in the Spirit. (Luke 15: 11-32)
Remember, ” All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”– Romans 8:28
When we are saved, God is working in our life. The Holy Spirit is working in our life. He is with us and He is fighting the Battle. That means that all victories, all failure, all attacks, all sins, all correction, all of it, is working for our good.
It is being used to mold us into the finest soldier for the Lord.
Like silver being boiled to remove the dross, to make it pure. We face the fires of this life, and attacks of the enemy, and grace of God and it all is used by the Holy Spirit to grow us. (Mal. 3:2-4)
If we abide in Him. If we Walk in the Spirit. If we are saved.
James said, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.“– Jas 1:12
It doesn’t say “overcomes temptation”.
It means endures or remains with God in the temptation. Enduring means to Walk in the Spirit. The Bible does not contradict itself. So, we compare this verse with Walking in the Spirit.
James goes on “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
The enemy tempts our flesh. He tempts our minds. He seeks out the things that he knows are already there because he has known us from birth. He and his demons have worked to create and build those lusts in us. Those are the tunnels and attachments spoken of earlier.
All of us have sins that we are more apt to commit than others. Some people are drawn to theft. Some people are drawn to sex. Some are drawn to violence. Some have many things mixed.
The enemy works to draw us away from God through these means. Not for a loss of salvation, but to keep us down and unable to fight the fight of faith.
Notice the steps James gives for sin and death. We decide to do it. Then, we do it. Then, it leads to death.
But, When we walk in the Spirit sin is not FULFILLED and we are not under the Law. (See the verse at the top)
This path to death is never fulfilled. If we sin, we confess it and we are forgiven and washed clean.
That is part of Walking in the Spirit. That is how we abide in Him and not run away because we believe the lies that God is mad at us or can never forgive us. We instead turn to Him. We confess it to Him. We make no promises, because we cannot keep them. We give it to Him in truth.
The Holy Spirit fights the fight. We turn and confess, and keep turning and confessing. We pray and wear the armor, and speak the Word. And we discover over time that we are no longer doing the things we once did. We discover we have been blessed and God fought the battle for us while we just endured and remained in Him.
We are called to be soldiers bringing light into the dark world. We cannot do that if we are constantly worried about our sins or trying to resist temptation. It is not our battle. It is His.
We just abide in Him. Walk with Him. Love others and serve Him.
That’s a big battle in itself.
Photo by pexels
