Day 99 - Flesh Is Hostile

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 21

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

Thank God for the Apostle Paul.  God has spoken volumes through Paul to give us saints the picture of life here on earth, while awaiting our promotion to Heaven.  And Paul never fails to “hit the nail on the head” as the old saying goes.  In today’s verses, it is easy to focus on the battle that goes on in our minds.  And it is easy to see that the Mind of Christ, that all us Christians have, is where the victory resides.

DAY 99

Flesh Is Hostile

The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. –Romans 8:7, 8

The attempt to find something good in the flesh causes a distortion in personality and a multitude of emotional dysfunctions. Today there appears to be an expanding problem with pornography due to Internet access. Believers have worse problems than unbelievers when it comes to this pursuit. One unbeliever said it this way, “Why would I look at pornography? If I wanted to have an affair, I would just have one! I do not see the attraction of a pictorial depiction over a person.” He was being honest. He did not have obsessions in his mind because he acted out in the flesh. The believer is always more obsessive than the unbeliever, because the believer has tried to find something good in his flesh. He sets a standard to keep so that he will have every appearance of being "good." He will only look and not handle, taste, or touch in order to believe he has found something good in his flesh. He can even congratulate himself, saying, “At least I have never been with another woman physically.” However, standards (i.e., the law) never keep the flesh good. The man looks, has a sinking feeling, knows that he should not feels condemned, falls into self-hatred, and in the end is constantly thinking about staying away from pornography. Thinking about not looking is now the standard for finding some good in the flesh. The interesting thing about it is that in thinking about staying away from it, it is now actually the focus of life, much more so than for the unbeliever that did not set a standard to begin with! The standard to keep the flesh good actually made it bad, since the flesh is flesh and hostile toward God!

We either walk in the Spirit (attached to the Vine, acknowledging the flow of the life of the Vine through us) or we walk in the flesh. Simply put, there is nothing good to find in the flesh, and that is why it is so important to acknowledge that we are abiding in Him. Flesh will not improve. Only when Christ--Who lived in flesh and overcame it--is flowing through us will we experience power over the flesh. At that point victory is a natural thing, not contrived, not achieved by the effort toward improving, but through the fact of subduing.

The question may arise, “Mike, you say that we are holy, righteous, and acceptable because the life in us--His life--is all these things. You say the old nature and old man are crucified, and yet you say that in the flesh there is no good thing and it will never improve. Are you not saying that the old man is still alive?” No, I am not saying the old man is alive. My identity is in Christ, not in the flesh that I will one day lay aside. I have a new life and a new man that is holy. However, this inner life is in a body with mind, will, and emotions. When Christ is my focus, Christ’s life flows from my spirit through mind, will, emotions, and body, and they are used as intended by His life/my new life. When I close the door to Christ’s life, the body, mind, will, and emotions run wildly into the good or bad expressions of my condition called flesh. Why does God leave such a way of living possible for the believer? Quite simply, it is in order to keep us focused on Him. We get miserable in our flesh, and that misery will always drive us back to moment-by-moment abiding in Him. In our flesh dwells no good thing, but in Him dwells everything.

When will we believers ever get off this flesh trip?  When will we ever learn to stay on a “focus on the Lord” trip?  Aha…Paul tells us something in 2 Corinthians 10:1-5…and particularly in v. 5 (“bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”).  That word, “obedience,” is what gets us.  The Greek: “hupakoe.”  In plain English we take it to mean “do,” “perform,” or “compliance.”  It can mean that, but in this context it means “attentive hearkening” or “submission” (ref: Spiro Zodiates).  When we bring “every thought into attentive hearkening or submission of Christ,” then we are living with every thought focused on the Lord.  What does that do for us?  LIFE!  It’s His LIFE flowing “from my spirit through mind, will, emotions, and body, and they are used as intended by His life/my new life.”  Amen!

So, if we just HAVE to have “something to DO,” then let’s WORK on bringing every thought into the attentive hearkening or submission of Christ, and then HE can DO the “performing” or “compliance” THROUGH US!  And, HOW do we DO this?  By operating in “the Mind of Christ” that we were given when we were Born Again, versus operating in the fleshly mind we were first born with.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point               Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                                       936-559-5696