Romans 8:8-9(NKJV) 8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Let’s review just a bit. If we are going to be successful in our Christian life, we need to learn to walk in the spirit. Walking in the spirit will cause us to have clear access to the power of God and to the wisdom of God. This will result in our inevitably finding the destiny God has for us in this life
Romans chapter 7 ends with “Oh wretched man that I am” and Romans 8 ends with I am more than a conqueror in Christ. I believe Romans 8 is the textbook for how to go from wretched to more than a conqueror by teaching us how to walk in the spirit.
To walk in the spirit we need to deal with all three areas of our being, spirit, soul and body. We have studied two of the three. To walk in the spirit we must build up our spirit man. Jude 20 tells us that we build ourselves, and I believe that means our spirits, by praying in the spirit. I believe this is clearly talking about praying in tongues primarily. 1 Corinthians 14:14 says, “If I pray in tongues my spirit prays.” Praying in the Spirit also involves praying under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but taking Jude 20 and 1 Corinthians 14:14 together, I think it is fair to conclude that “praying in the Spirit” includes praying in tongues.
In our “textbook” chapter we find this truth as well. Look at vs. 26.
Romans 8:26(NKJV) 26Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Once again, this verse does not mention “praying in tongues”, but if we look at the wording it says the Spirit makes intercession for us with “groanings” which cannot be uttered. The Amplified Bible says with “groanings to deep for utterance.” Another translation says “groanings which cannot be understood with intelligible speech. I do not believe it is too much of a leap to think that this refers to praying in tongues.
So what do we do with our spirit? We build it up. First by the exercise of praying in tongues. Second by feeding our spirit a proper diet. Our spirit is nourished by the Word of God. If we do not give our body a good diet and some exercise it will get weak. The same is true of our spirit. If we give it both it will be strengthened and we will be more able to walk with that part of us in control.
I have spent the most time talking about what to do with our soul. This part is made up of our intellect, will and emotions. Over my years in ministry, I have known many people that were working to build up their spirit, but still were not successful in their Christianity. The reason was their soul. What must we do where our soul is concerned. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that we must set our minds on the things of the Spirit and be spiritually minded. In the twelfth chapter he says it this way;
Romans 12:2(NKJV) 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So we must build up our spirit and renew our minds in order to successfully walk in the spirit. That leaves one more area to deal with. What do we do with our body, or more accurately our flesh?
First let us define what we are talking about. Our bodies are not evil, but they are part of the cursed creation. At the fall of man the whole natural creation was affected by man’s sin. His spirit was separated from God and made subject to the devil. This is called spiritual death. Spiritual death affected the physical realm by causing the law of sin and death to gain control. Sin produced spiritual death which led to physical death.
Physical death affected everything in the natural world. Man’s body became “mortal” or death doomed. This death began to affect society, animals and the reaction of the earth to man. When we were born again this curse was broken over the spirit of man and his spirit was joined again to God. Romans tells us that there will be a day when that freedom will extend to our bodies as well, but not yet.
Why are we still in these death cursed bodies? Because they give us authority in the earth. You and I have the right to reach out to those still under the curse because we are still part of the cursed creation physically. The good news is that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the Law of Sin and Death. That does not mean our physical bodies cannot be affected by it. It does mean we can control its affects on our physical life by the influence of the life of God in our spirit.
That said, the curse is still there in our bodies. They tend to want things that are not good for us. If they are left to themselves they will sin and that sin will lead to death. We tend to think of the flesh as our physical bodies. This is partially true, but not totally. There is more to the flesh than just our bodies. It is really the combination of our bodies and our soul that makes up the flesh. When your soul and your body get into agreement on something that is not good, your flesh is in control.
This may be a dominant desire of your body or it may be a problem in the emotions, will or intellect, but when they agree, you will have problems. In today’s verse we see that if we are in the flesh we cannot please God. So I ask again, “What do we do about the flesh?”
Let me close today by telling you what we cannot do. We have studied at length the fact that the very first verse of Romans 8 tells us we do not have to be under condemnation. That is both true and vitally important to successfully walking in the spirit. But “no condemnation” does not mean we do not deal with the sinful actions that are still present in our lives.
You might say, “I am dealing with them by learning to walk in the spirit. I am building up my spirit and I am renewing my mind. Eventually I will stop the sinful behavior if I do that.” This is true. These are the most important things you can do to overcome the flesh. However they do not happen overnight. They take time. What do we do about the things that are wrong in the mean time.
Let me illustrate with something that you probably do not have a problem with. Stealing. If you knew a thief and they got saved, they would need to build up their spirit and renew their mind. This would take time. Do you think it would be OK for them to keep stealing while they are growing? Of course not. They would have to resist the urge to steal while they were growing. If they did not do that God could not bless them and they would never walk in the spirit.
If they did “backslide” and steal along the way, God would forgive them, but they could not simply say, “I’ll stop stealing someday.”, and just go about their business. They must do all they can to stop their sinful behavior. So do You and I. Tomorrow we will take another step.
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