DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- WALKING THE TALK

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – WALKING THE TALK

"I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh...If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Galatians 5:16, 25)

There is a war going on in every believer. It is the battle between the flesh and the spirit. The conflict is whether we will live according to the spirit or according to the flesh.

I am using the term, "spirit," to refer to our own spirit that has been born again by the Holy Spirit. The human spirit is the God-related part of the soul or immaterial part of our being. The flesh is the part of us that relates to the things of the world. The spirit of the unbeliever is dead. The Scripture says in Ephesians 2:1 that we, as unregenerated beings, were dead in our trespasses and sins. The flesh was still alive, but the spirit – the God-related part of us – was dead. But when we were born again of the Holy Spirit, our spirits were made alive (vs. 5) and became the dwelling place of God.

In Romans 8, we find that the fleshly mind is at enmity with God and cannot please God (vss. 7-8). This is the struggle that the Apostle Paul was talking about in Romans 7 – "the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil that I will not to do, that I practice.... For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which in in my members" (vss. 22-23). The battle is not between my flesh and the Holy Spirit, but between my flesh and my spirit.

We have a list of the works of the flesh in Galatians, chapter 5. We may not have a battle in every area but the flesh is always present to entice us to unrighteousness. I may not have a moral problem such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, murder, drunkenness, but I may have a struggle with anger, jealousy, envy, or selfish ambition. Whenever the flesh is in control of my life, I will manifest the works of the flesh.

But on the other side are the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the fruit of a spirit-controlled life. Being Spirit-filled is not just words. It is action. I cannot just talk the talk. I need to walk the talk.

Love, Dad