Living By The Spirit

I know I’ve written about Christian matters before, especially as it relates to relationships and now I’m going to post again.

I heard a sermon Sunday that got me thinking again about the relationship between our bodies (“the flesh” as it is referred to in scripture), our spirit (that is made alive again when we enter into a covenant with God) and our soul (the mind, will and emotions that ultimately govern our actions).

When we enter into a covenant with God through Jesus (when we are “saved”), our spirit is made alive by His Spirit. We are reborn in the spiritual sense and are given new power to overcome sin. We are first forgiven of our sin and are also given power over it’s control in our lives. For once we have the ability to say ‘no’! This is a good thing and something that we need to both cherish and rely on.

When we are born, we have a soul and we view this as the seat of our mind (intelligence), our will and our emotions. Our soul is who we are in one sense and the soul will never cease to exist. Our soul is what responds to music, art, words, others, etc. and is the reason we all feel so passionately about our choices of music. Music becomes an expression of our soul, because our soul is what responds to the emotions introduced by music.

Our flesh is something we are stuck with on earth for as long as we live, whether we like it or not. Our soul is tied to our bodies as long as we are living and our body (obviously) is the channel of information for our souls. Our soul is also the traffic cop between our body and spirit. Our will (soul) decides what the flesh will respond to or dwell on and we will either starve our spirit or feed it. We receive input from our senses and our spirit is affected by the information we feed it through our bodies. If we let our eyes, ears or touch feed on evil, it will darken our soul and spirit. If we let them feed on good it will enlighten and nourish our soul and spirit. But the soul is really the traffic cop.

Now, let’s look a moment at the difference between the flesh and the spirit. The bible says that the spirit gives life and the flesh death. We know why the spirit gives life, because it is energized and controlled by God’s spirit (if we are born-again). But why does the flesh bring death? The answer, of course, is because it is selfish and sucks life out of everything around it. The flesh, by its very nature is a life draining force. We eat to satisfy our bodies and something must die in order for us to consume it. And in every other way our flesh never gives life but always drains it, or kills it.

I had a pastor friend who cheated on his wife. It was a selfish act of lust that lasted a very short time, but hurt many, many people for a very long time. I'm sure when he was doing it he thought he could keep it secret and it would hurt no one, but he couldn't keep it secret. In fact, even if he had it would have still affected his relationship with his wife and others. When people seek to satisfy their flesh by living selfishly they will always hurt those around them in some way. Why does God put such a great emphasis on sexual purity? Because when we break that law we are killing our partner. When a person has sex with someone outside of marriage they rob the person they're having sex with of sexual purity and of the other benefits that come with marriage. They are also robbing their partner of the benefits they agreed to when they entered into that covenant, bringing sadness, hurt and emotional rape. Sex was meant to be entered into as part of a greater covenant. That covenant gives benefits to each of those who agree to it such as security, joy, peace and emotional intimacy. To have sex outside of that covenant is to rob someone of those benefits and is selfish. But those truths are also true in other areas of selfishness. Selfishness always, always, always robs someone of something and always must wound or drain life and energy from those around you. That is why it is essential that we live by the Spirit. We must train our souls (our will) to say yes to our spirit and no to our flesh. If we don’t we will only drain life from others and will inevitably leave wounded and hurting people in our wake.

If we are living by the Spirit we will give life to those around us because we will always be more conscience of their needs than our own. ‘Others’ become the driving force in our lives, why we rise in the morning, what we do during the day and why we stay up late in the night. To sacrifice our own wants, energy, freedom, hunger, pain and time becomes the normal way to live life and we, after some time, don’t even consider it a sacrifice. The Spirit is, by its very nature, an unselfish person. We say ‘no’ to a selfish lifestyle because our focus is always on the needs of others and not on ourselves.

So, how do we come to live by the Spirit and not the flesh? It seems as though the flesh is too strong to say ‘no’ to and the Spirit is such a gentleman that He is easy to say ‘no’ to. We do it first of all by agreeing with God that we cannot do it on our own and we can with His help. Once we agree with God we open ourselves up to His power. He responds to faith and agreeing with Him is faith. Next, we, by an act of our will, decide that living by the Spirit is really more advantageous to us than not. We realize and verbalize that being selfish kills others and we prefer others to live; really live. We realize that living by the Spirit will not only bring life to others but to ourselves and we decide, by an act of our will, that we will spend the rest of our lives saying ‘yes’ to the Spirit. We then hang out with and align ourselves with others who agree to this lifestyle so that we can find encouragement and help when we feel weakest.

I know that sounds like a ‘how-to’, because it is. But God does spell things out like that in His word. He gives us clear instruction on how to live in agreement with Him. It’s our job to agree and follow the steps.

Galations 5
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature[a]; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."[b] 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.