When Jesus performed his earthly ministry of reconciliation, that is to bring the gospel through the giving and laying down his life for us, he never once allowed his flesh to lead or distract him from the task given to him by the Father.
Over and over again, whilst others slept or fulfilled their fleshly appetites, our Lord denied himself to pursue the pleasure of His Father and the plans He had for Him. John 4 is a classical example of this, just when Christ was tired, hungry and thirsty from the journey, He took time to bring the gospel to the Samaritan women by the well and in doing so saw a great harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.
From scripture, it is easy to understand that we, man, have three parts. Just as the trinity is made of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit so too have we a body, soul and spirit. Paul in 1 Thessalonians prays that your whole body, soul and spirit might prosper. In Genesis 1:26 we find that we too are made in the likeness of God and therefore have these three aspects of the trinity operational within our own lives. It is common thought amongst even the most hedonistic cultures that man at the very least has soul/spirit and a body which is evident to all.
Paul teaches us that the flesh must be made subjected to the spirit. The spirit being the area of our lives which is hearing the voice of our creator God and able to discern His still voice. The flesh representing the ways of the world and carnal nature which denies God and is interest in only self. Paul in Romans 12 tells us that when we come to God that we must renew our minds, that is our thought patterns, ideologies and concepts. Knowing from scripture that God's ways are higher than our ways and God's thoughts higher than our thoughts.
Often however, when we are battling a certain area of the flesh we do it not with our souls and spirits but with our flesh. A classical example of this is with weight loss. In Australia alone, the diet and fitness industry is a billion dollar business. Just in the area that I work, most people are members of a gym or are signed up to some diet formulae which is meant to help them lose weight. Not to mention that obesity is at epidemic levels in this nation.
Yet fighting our flesh by the flesh is not really dealing with the issues of the mind that caused the obesity in the first place and many of these people when they cease their diets or gym activities quickly regain weight. This is because they have not allowed their spirit to lead over their flesh and they continue to have stinking or wrong thinking.
To truly regain victory over the flesh we must build up our spirits through prayer and confession of God's word. In some way we need to redo the circuitry of our minds by bypassing what the flesh desires and as Paul says setting our minds on things above rather than on things below. Coming back to John 4 and the Samaritan women, she initially was so wired to focus on the physical she missed what our Lord was saying about living waters and not thirsting again. She thought it was all about not having a bucket or the physical means in which to draw water.
By denying the flesh is not enough if all we do is build up another area of the flesh, such as body building, we must also build our spirits, the area of our lives which is receiving from God and allow our lives to be led by our Spirits which in turn are led by the Holy Spirit.
What is the Holy Spirit wanting to achieve in your life and what thinking needs to be changed to achieve it?
God Bless
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