Fighting the Flesh
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1 John 2:6
Sin comes from the world through our fleshly senses of seeing, hearing, or feeling, and directs our minds to satisfy the flesh. The flesh is created from the world therefore it craves things of the world. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24). Our souls always have the choice to follow the Spirit or to follow the sinful desires of the flesh.
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:6-8). If our thoughts are worldly, we can easily submit to the power of our flesh. However if we are governed by the Spirit and take our fleshly desires to the Spirit, we can make Godly wise choices.
Our Godly fleshly desires, such as hunger, thirst, pain, hot, cold, tired, etc. are all necessary. The problem occurs when Satan attacks us through our flesh with lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride. It is important that we learn to recognize Satan’s attacks and train ourselves so that these attacks trigger our minds to run to the Spirit for the power to the escape the temptation. Every time we fight off a fleshly attack we experience a thrill of victory.
Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4). If we are controlled by our fleshly desires we can easily become slaves to the world, but if we fight off our fleshly sinful desires, we are controlled by the Spirit and not controlled by the world.
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:12). By following the Spirit, Christians fight off Satan’s attacks and become powerful spiritual warriors. We think strong and we fight with the power of God, knowing with certainty we will be victorious.
Today be aware of Satan’s attacks through sinful fleshly desires. Don’t let these attacks control your mind but capture those thoughts to the obedience of Christ. Pray that the Spirit will trigger your thoughts to immediately run to God whenever you are being attacked by Satan.
Let’s Pray : Lord, help me to crucify the flesh and its sinful desires. Let everything from the world be filtered by the Spirit. Let the Spirit’s power get my attention before I commit a sinful behavior that is driven by the flesh. In Jesus name, Amen.