TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 7TH MARCH 2024)
“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Galatians 5:16-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 67TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
This is the day the LORD has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. He has been faithful, that is why we are alive.
Yes, He has also been gracious, that is why we have not been grounded by the darkness of this age. He has been merciful, that is why we have not been messed up by the devil and his miseries. He has been compassionate towards us, that is why captivity has been far from us.
He is a great God, and the shelter of His greatness has been of great help to us in a world infiltrated by evil.
Day unto day, He has been revealing the knowledge of His will to us, and we are grateful. Today will not be different; we will remain ever grateful.
We will be looking at the knowledge of His will in the area of our Christian walk. I hope we are ready.
There are two major walks that the Bible talks about; yes, two major walks that you see in the lives of men, especially those who have given their lives to Christ; a walk in the Spirit and a walk in the flesh.
Every one living in darkness, walks in the flesh, and everyone living in light should walk in the Spirit.
Salvation places a responsibility on us to walk in the Spirit. It takes away every reason to walk in the flesh. But sadly, many of us who are saved are still walking in the flesh. That is why we still suffer what sinners suffer, and share in the very eternal heritage they share.
Walking in the flesh after being saved, is one major walk the Bible warned us against. It is a walk that does not lead to glorious ends.
Everyone who has ever began with Jesus, and ended with Satan, walked in the flesh after meeting Jesus. Everyone who is in a backslidden state in church, walked in the flesh after meeting Jesus.
He or she decided to end in the flesh, what God started in his or her life in the Spirit.
LET US CONSIDER ONE OR TWO PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE WHO DID EXACTLY THAT.
Judas Iscariot was one of them. In the light of the glory that is ahead of those who walked with the LORD, he was one of the most privileged men to ever live on the face of the earth. One of the eternal reasons is, he was divinely destined, to become one of the 24 elders in Heaven.
But the conflict of wills made him a betrayer of his LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. He ended in the flesh, what the LORD started for him in the Spirit. His “will” ran into conflict with God’s “will” because the carnal things his heart was walking in after meeting the LORD.
You will not continue with the LORD, if you allow your heart to go carnal after meeting Him. You may continue with a Church, especially a Church that has lost touch with the LORD; but will never continue with the LORD.
Though a prophecy had gone years ahead about someone betraying Christ, and judgment decreed, it was not God’s will for Judas to be the one. That was why Jesus carefully chose those who were to be His original 12 apostles.
The Bible says, He spent an entire night praying before choosing them.
It is not in the character of God, to choose anyone in His will to fulfill a negative prophecy, and be condemned. The Bible says, His plans for us are not of evil but of good; to give us a future and a hope.
Judas made himself the person, by walking in the flesh after meeting the LORD. He moved from fulfilling a precious and glorious destiny, to fulfilling an inglorious destiny.
Friend, everyone who walks in the flesh, will fulfill a prophecy that is negative. Yes, everyone in Christ, who slip back into a life in the flesh, will end up being used of the devil to destroy anything in God’s kingdom; that is without even realizing it.
The flesh can make a Child of God lose a very precious blessing in the kingdom of God. The flesh can make a faithful Child of God betray Jesus unexpectedly. The flesh can take a Child of God from the things of the Spirit to other things in few moments.
Yes, it can take one who has been following the LORD from the pathways that God has predetermined for him or her, to pathways the enemy has planned for him or her.
ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS LIVES TO LIVE, ESPECIALLY AFTER MEETING THE LORD, IS A LIFE IN THE FLESH!
In one of our previous devotions, we shared on the glorious things spoken concerning us. We will not be able to fulfill those things if we walk in the flesh.
Walking in the flesh has turned powerfully anointed pastors into sexual addicts, and reduced great prophets into lost souls. It is the reason for secret sins and all forms of sinful habits in our lives.
Walking in the flesh would have ruined Joseph when Potiphar’s wife presented herself to him freely and even secretly. It would have ruined his divine destiny as the future prime minister of Egypt and saviour of the then world.
We fall into the traps of the enemy only when we walk in the flesh. We ruin our glorious destinies only when we walk in the flesh. We turn the power of God off in our lives, and open them up to all forms of evil, only when we walk in the flesh.
We make the enemy stronger than God in our lives only when we walk in the flesh; not even when we do not pray, because a person who lives a life of prayer but still walks in the flesh is destroying the results of his or her prayers.
The reason we pray so much and get very little results, is because we do not continue life in the Spirit after spending time in prayer.
Right Prayer is a thing of the Spirit. So, after you have done something in the Spirit, do not do something in the flesh. What you do in the flesh will always destroy what you did in the Spirit, just as what you do in the Spirit destroys what you did in the flesh.
The life style of walking in the flesh after prayer will result in a frustrated Christian life, and you see that in the life of every frustrated Christian today.
Sadly, there is no one who people call a general of the faith in this age and time who is teaching us how to walk in the Spirit. They all teach other things, and the ignorant call them fathers of the faith.
THEY LEAVE THOSE WHO STUDY THE FAITH OF OUR BIBLE FATHERS WONDERING WHICH FAITH THEY ARE FATHERING!!
Friend, only eternity can accurately tell what walking in the flesh has caused every child of God!
Our devotional this morning was sent to us from Heaven to redeem us from ruining ourselves after meeting the LORD. The easiest way to defeat the plan of God for your life is to walk in the flesh. But the easiest way to fulfill them is to walk in the Spirit.
Walking in the flesh will always be a breeding ground of ruin in the life of a Child of God! It’s therefore important that we learn how not to walk in the flesh, else we will even be condemned in the next life.
Today’s devotional text says,
“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”
If we walk in the Spirit of God, we will not fulfill the desires of our flesh!
If you do not walk in the Spirit, you will construct a breeding ground of sudden destruction in your life like Judas did. If you walk in the Spirit of God, you will prevent Satan from luring you to construct the breeding ground.
Now, how do we walk in the Spirit? Let me show you a mystery!
The fall of man planted a sin seed in us. It is that seed that makes it impossible to learn how to sin against God. That seed makes it possible to live in sin naturally. It makes it possible to be able to sin against God without going to school to learn how.
In other words, we are born with the ability to live and walk in the flesh. We do not need to be taught to lie, to have sex, to steal, to do the despicable. We just know how to do all that by nature. It is just the environment we need.
However, when we truly get born again, all that will change.
Genuine salvation encounter plants a seed of righteousness within a man or woman, making him or her God’s righteous seed. The Bible says in 1 John chapter 3 verses 9;
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
EVERY GENUINE SALVATION ENCOUNTER WILL PLANT A RIGHTEOUS SEED WITHIN A MAN.
The purpose of that seed is to give us the ability to live righteously by a recreated spiritual nature, the very nature of Christ; the same way we once lived sinfully by natural nature.
That seed is a seed of the Holy Spirit, whose job is to guide us in the ways of salvation. Walking in the Spirit therefore, is allowing that seed to guide you through life by influencing your day to day decision.
It is responding to the seed of the Holy Spirit within us positively, whenever it urges us to say no to the desires of the flesh.
There are three basic desires of the flesh that if you satisfy beyond God’s established boundaries; you will grant the enemy access into your life. I call them “the carnal cravings of the flesh.”
Those desires are the desire for sex, the desire for food, and the desire for comfort.
The flesh always craves for sex, food, and comfort even outside divinely established boundaries. This happens in the life of every one, born again or not.
For instance, the flesh does not know if a man or woman who is married is either married or not. It will always tell him or her to go sleep with this or that person. It will ask you to go to bed with whoever it feels attracted to, especially when the environment is there.
The holy you, or the recreated spirit nature of Christ within you, is the one to tell it, “no, I am born again.” But if that nature is not there, you might not be able to do that all the time.
Walking in the flesh, is granting the flesh its desire for sex with anyone; even if the person is married to another man or woman, or is a minister of the gospel, or even a blood relative. But walking in the Spirit is responding to the righteous urge within you, and saying no to the flesh, like Joseph did.
This morning, God sent this word to tell us to stop feeding our flesh with all it requests; to stop being a slave of our flesh. Yes, He wants us to stop giving our flesh what it desires, especially outside divinely set boundaries.
He wants us to stop the construction of breeding grounds of ruin in our lives.
Christians who accept Jesus, then return back to walking in the flesh, will be condemned eternally in the next life if they die that way. In other words, being in Christ Jesus and walking in the flesh at the same time is dangerous.
IT IS A PROCESS THAT RETURNS A CHILD OF GOD BACK TO THE CONDEMNED STATE HE OR SHE WAS BEFORE MEETING THE LORD.
But those who accept Jesus and maintain a walk in the Holy Spirit, are the ones who will make it to Heaven if they die that way; they will have no condemnation in the next life. That is the true position of the authentic grace gospel in the Holy Scriptures.
Sadly, most grace preachers mutilate this scriptural position and sell heresy to the Church. But you can make this day a day of light by meditating on these devotional truths.
Let THIS SCRIPTURE be an ADDITIONAL MEDITATION OF FAITH for you TODAY!
“THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.” Romans 8:1 AMP