Walking by the Spirit or Flesh? continued

In the last blog, I asked a couple of questions for us to begin thinking about how we walk, whether in the flesh of by the Spirit. The question I posed, "Can we say the Spirit is leading us?" More specifically, I have to ask myself, "Is this from the Holy Spirit or is this my own desire". I was once told about an idea that someone had and asked what I thought of it, it was something that I was opposed to but had not really thought about it, nor had I prayed about it or researched it at all so my answer was, something to the affect, "my initial response is that I am opposed to it but if it something the Lord is asking you to do, who am I to stand in your way". The response I received was less than reassuring to me, "I don't know if it is something that Lord told me to do, it is just something that popped into my head." That response did not settle well with me because the individual had not discussed it with the Lord, had not measured whether it was a fleshly desire or a God given direction. So, today, let's look at what warrants something being God directed through the Holy Spirit or led versus a fleshly desire. This morning, in my time with the Lord, I asked the Him to tell me more about His Holy Spirit. When I looked at the verse of the day in my Bible app, it was Galatians 5:6: 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A16&version=ESV That was a God given verse for me today, an answer to my prayer. I didn’t stop with that verse though because I wanted to see what it looks like to be led by the Spirit and not by my flesh. One of the most challenging times in my life was when I thought I was following the will of the Father, He worked everything out for me but in the end, it didn’t end the way I thought it was supposed to end and I became frustrated. As I look back on that time, I was looking at how it would benefit me not at how I can exemplify the Lord in the skills that He had given me. I was walking in the flesh, He was leading me in the Spirit, but my fleshly fulfillment is not what He had in store for me, He had a much better plan. So, how do we know when it is a fleshly desire or a desire led by the Holy Spirit? If we continue reading in Galatians 5, we will find our answer. Galatians 5:19-21 9 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,[a] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A19-21&version=ESV Contrast those verses with the Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5: 22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A22-23&version=ESV When I read those I decided to write them down one column flesh and one column Spirit. You can easily categorize them in complete contrast to each other. Example: The first Fruit of the Spirit is love. We could go into a deep long study just on love. There are many types of love but God’s word make it clear what type of love it is talking about in the fruit of the Spirit I Corinthians 13:6-7 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[a] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2013%3A4-7&version=ESV) Just looking at those verses we see that love encompasses the fruit of the Spirit from patience, to kindness, to self-control. Love is not described in a way that allows us to be sexually immoral or impure yet many times the flesh tells us that we need to show our love in ways that are sexually immoral and impure. Showing the Love of God to others, means that we are patient with them, we are kind to them, we are not jealous of them, we don’t have fits of anger towards them, we don’t have rivalries, or cause dissension and we are not envious of them. Those are all works of the flesh. I would like to encourage you to go through the works of the flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit and measure something that you are struggling with. I wish I would have done that years ago as I wrestled with whether it was my will or the Father’s will. In recent days, when I have done this, I have realized fleshly desires and the Fruit of the Spirit. When I struggle with an issue, become angry with a situation, I have to look back and see where I am coming in with a fleshly desire rather than seeking Him with all my heart. I would love to hear your stories where you have seen God work in your life and how that was made evident through the Fruit of the Sprit versus the desires of the flesh. Seeking Him with all my heart, Sheila ,

Walking by the Spirit or by the flesh?

As we seek the Lord with all our hearts we need to remember to seek all of Him, not just the portion that feeds our ego, or allows us to be who we want to be. We should be seeking Him to know ALL of Him in His Majesty, His Greatness, His Presence, and yes, even His Judgement and His Wrath. All that He is makes us all that we are, when we know Him and ask His Holy Spirit to work through us to be what He wants us to be. Last Friday night our church had our weekly prayer meeting. During that meeting I was challenged to truly seek the Holy Spirit’s direction in my life. When I seek the Lord, the place I go is in His Word. I asked the Lord to reveal to me the power of the Holy Spirit through His Word and I was taken to Romans 8:12-13, which reads: "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 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. ‭‭Romans ‭8‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.12-13.ESV Later in the evening, the pastor had us look at Romans 8:26 which reads: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭26‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.26.ESV He asked us to reflect on that Scripture and what it says to us. I recalled a time when I was in such distress that I had no words to pray to the Lord and I just wept. I knew the Holy Spirit was doing the praying for me because I had no words to express. Through that, I have seen miraculous happenings that allow me to know that He sought the best for me and He answered my cries. I also have to think of those times when I thought I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do but it didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. Then, I beat myself up because I didn’t hear Him correctly. I forgot that my ways are not always the Lord’s ways but He directs me in the way that I should go. Who knows, I may have touched a life that I never would have touched had I ignored what I thought He was calling me to do. It turned out the way He wanted, just not the way that I thought He wanted it to turn out. Our pastor began a series on Sunday dealing with the works of the Holy Spirit and then today, I read of Him in Ezekiel. It was so amazing and refreshing to read these words of a vision given to Ezekiel which gives us a picture of the workings of the Holy Spirit. I found it quite refreshing today as I read my daily Bible passage. As I began to read Ezekiel, the visions he experienced, and the working of the Holy Spirit paralleled so closely with what the Holy Spirit has been revealing to me through His Word. There were several passages that stood out to me but for today I want to look at the following passages: “Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.” ‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬, ‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/ezk.1.15-21.ESV I believe this is how He works in those who are called according to His purpose for you see in Romans 8:28 we read: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.28.ESV If we are walking in the Spirit as He has called us to do, not desiring our own fleshly needs but focused on the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit will guide us. When we seek Him and His ways and the wheels turn, we will be led by Him. Notice in vs. 20 "wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went". Can we say the same for ourselves? When we begin to think that all that we do is because of our own actions, our own dreams, we will be led by the flesh but when we deny the flesh and live by the Spirit, the wheels of the Holy Spirit will guide us in the way that we should go. That sounds so easy to do but yet we have to daily seek Him and find Him with our whole heart, not with the desires of our flesh. We can be assured that we will go where He leads and be powered by His Spirit. What can you deny today so that you may know Him more fully and be led more clearly by the Holy Spirit who dwells within those who know and love Him? Seeking Him with all my heart, Sheila