Discerning between flesh and Spirit

 

Several friends ask for prayer regarding discernment. They want to be certain that what they hear and say and do fits with the will of God. Most of the requests involve the doing part. As I study this topic, it is not hard to see that God is more interested in who I am rather than what I do. He wants me filled with His Spirit and walking in the Spirit. In other words, because He has made me a new creature, I’m to think, talk, and act like it.

The new person bears the fruit of the Spirit, without rules and without interference from that old nature that is more concerned with how I can make that abundant life happen and what I can get out of it. This view of the flesh is not automatic. It is learned, usually by the fact that walking in the flesh does not produce the same things as walking in the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:22–24)

Today’s devotion offers a list of contrasts between living by rules (or trying to) and living in the power of the Spirit. From the above verses and from this list, the contrast is discernible. The flesh isn’t love for others but personal gain. Joy is replaced by being happy only if life is going my way. Patience is ‘I want it now’ and kindness is more like ‘what is in it for me. That old life does things for self, even when hidden in charitable activities, and it has no self-control. From the devotional…

The law says, this do and you will live. The gospel says, live, and then you will do.
The law says, pay me what you owe me. The gospel says, I freely forgive you everything.

The law says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. The gospel says, herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The law says, cursed is every one who doesn’t continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them. The gospel says, blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. The law says, the wages of sin is death. The gospel says, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is good news also:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

PRAY: Jesus, I am aware how the old me fights for control, particularly if it is fed with false teaching, worldly ideas and ways, and a huge list of I-wants. Putting all that on the cross is not nearly as painful as Your trip to Calvary, but it seems painful at times. Being like You means looking to You as the founder and perfecter of my faith and remembering that for the joy that was set before You, You endured the cross, despised the shame, and are now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. To be like You, I must consider how You endured from sinners great hostility. This keeps me from growing weary and fainthearted. In my struggle against sin I have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood (Hebrews 12:2–4) and instead of complaining about what must be yielded, remembering what You yielded makes dying to self a delight instead of a sacrifice. I love You, Jesus.