TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 7th March 2020)
“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 66th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
This week marks a major milestone in my life. I thank GOD for the mercies He granted me to be what I am by His grace. It’s been a journey but to GOD be the glory. There is a 21-year story between then and now, but we will leave that for another day!
Today we will be looking at the two kinds of walks. There are two major walks for a Child OF God. Two major walks that result in our lives after genuine salvation encounter – a walk in the Spirit and a walk in the flesh.
Salvation places a responsibility on us to walk in the Spirit not in the flesh. This is one major message you find in Romans chapter 8.
Walking in the flesh after being ‘saved’ is one major walk the Bible warned us against as Children of God. It is a walk that does not lead to glorious ends. For instance, everyone who ever began the faith journey with Jesus but ended with Satan 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.
That brings me to one of the most privilege pre resurrection apostles of Jesus Christ. His name is Judas.
You see, Judas Iscariot was one of the most privileged men to ever live on the face of the earth. He was divinely destined to become one of the 24 elders in heaven. But the conflict of wills and a walk in the flesh made him a betrayer of his LORD and savior Jesus Christ. How dare you walk in the flesh while dealing with GOD who is spirit? Sadly, many of us are repeating the same in our generation.
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 CHOOSE HIM TO BE ONE OF THE 12 APOSTLES.
His story teaches me that there are people GOD will pick and try to make Heaven bond, but they will tell Him, we are not interested.
God would not have chosen Judas to fulfill a negative prophecy and be condemned because his plans for every man are not of evil but of good; to give us an expected end. But a walk in the flesh took Judas from fulfilling a precious and glorious destiny to fulfilling an inglorious destiny he fulfilled.
The flesh is the most destructive force in the spirit realm. It can make a Child of God loose precious and glorious blessing in the kingdom. The flesh will make a Child of GOD betray Jesus. The flesh will take a Child of God from the things of the Spirit to other things. There is nothing that takes one from the pathways that God has predetermined for him to pathways the enemy has planned for him like 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 has turned God’s eagles into demonic vultures and Sons of Zion into slaves of sin and all forms of shame. It is the reason for secret sins and all forms of sinful habits in our lives.
You cannot be Holy and glorious decked with the beauties of Haven except you learn how to walk in the Spirit.
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 savior of the world.
We fall into the traps of the enemy only when we walk in the flesh. We allow His plans for our lives to come to pass only when we walk in the flesh!
We ruin our glorious destinies only when we walk in the flesh. We make the enemy stronger than God in our lives only when we walk in the flesh. We turn the power of God off in our lives and open ourselves up to all forms of evil only when we walk in the flesh.
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 hinder us from ruining ourselves the more. The easiest way to defeat the plan of God for your life is to walk in the flesh. And the easiest way to fulfill them is to walk in the Spirit. The choice is ours. Jesus said it is finished. When what is finished in Heaven has not been found to be finished in our lives, we are hindering it by walking in the flesh.
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 said,
“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 we do not walk in the Spirit, we will construct a breeding ground of sudden destruction in our life like Judas did. But if we walk in the Spirit of God, we will prevent Satan from luring us to construct a breeding ground of ruin in our life like Joseph did. It is as simple as that.
Every Christian not walking in the Spirit is walking in the flesh! There is no middle ground in it.
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. 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 illicit sex, to steal, to do the despicable. We just know how to do all that by nature.
However, when we truly get born again, all that will change.
Genuine salvation encounter plants a seed of righteousness within us making us God’s righteous seed. The Bible says in 1 John 3:9
“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 plants a righteous seed within a man. The purpose of that seed is to give us the ability to live righteously by spiritual nature in 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 guide us through. It is responding to it 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 them beyond God’s established boundaries; you grant the enemy access into your life. I call them “the carnal cravings of the flesh.” They are sex, food, and comfort.
The flesh always craves for sex, food and comfort even outside divinely established boundaries. This happens in the life of everyone, born again or not.
For instance, the flesh cannot recognize marital boundaries when it comes to sexual matters. It does not know that sex should be within marital boundaries. So, when it sees any opposite sex, it will crave to have sex with it. It will say “I need him please” or “I need her please.” Life Rachel said in scriptures, it will tell you “give that lady on my bed or I die” or “give me that man or I die.”
That is how the flesh cries. It is not born again and cannot be. That is why we are to spend our days putting it under subjection so that it will not take us to hell.
Walking in the flesh is granting it its desires. But walking in the Spirit is responding to the righteous urge within you and saying no to what the flesh asks for like Joseph did.
This morning, God sent me to tell you to stop feeding your flesh with all it requests. Stop being a slave of your flesh. Stop giving it what it desires. Do not construct a breeding ground for ruin in your life.
Christians who accept Jesus, then return 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 RETURNS A CHILD OF GOD TO A CONDEMNED STATE IN THE SPIRIT.
But those who accept Jesus and maintain a walk in the Holy Spirit will have no condemnation in the next life if they die walking in the Spirit. That is the true position of the authentic grace gospel as presented to us by the apostle of grace himself – Paul.
Sadly, most grace preachers mutilate this scriptural position and sale 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