No mystery--it's simply THINKING

Paul advises in Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

“The word ‘lust’ at its root means to long for something. When you begin to possess that desire and this sort of strong passion, how do you not fulfill that longing? Walk in the spirit. But how do you do that?

“Verse 17: ‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.’

“This verse has nothing to do with YOU fighting your flesh; you’re going to lose!  Let the Spirit fight for you!" says Alex Kurz.

"When it says ‘the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,’ this has nothing to do with the flesh being in hand-to-hand mortal combat with the Spirit.

“Some people live in kind of this dual, split personality kind of a thing where they tell you, ‘Wow, what a battle; every day I’m fighting the flesh.’

“The battle isn’t you suppressing, controlling, restraining your flesh. The Spirit has the answer. When it says ‘the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,’ it’s talking about the two operating systems that are completely diametrically opposed to each other.

“So here’s the key. The Spirit will never ever utilize the avenue the flesh is going to utilize. The way the flesh works is completely contradictory to how the Spirit works, and if you’re just walking over here, don’t worry, you’re not going to fulfill the flesh over there.

“Let’s just demonstrate this. Romans 6:11-12 says, 11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

“Do you see the contrast being made? You know what the Spirit says? ‘Reckon.’ Count what those verses say about you to be true and by doing so you will not obey the lust--the affection, the desire, that innate longing that your flesh has.

“The answer is to reckon; it’s in the realm of the THINKING, in contrast to the realm of the lust.

“Romans 13:14 says, ‘But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.’

“You know what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ? Renew the way you’re thinking. If you renew the way you’re thinking, as the verse says, you’re not going to fulfill—it doesn’t say you will never have inordinate lust. It says you’re not going to what?

“You know, that actually is a help because when you begin to long for something that is quite contrary to what you already possess in Jesus Christ, you need to say, ‘Wait a minute, am I thinking properly?’

“When you have a lust, don’t fall to the ground, condemn yourself and be overcome by shame, guilt, fear and this sense of unworthiness. Let it lead you to recognize, ‘I got to change the way I’m thinking.’ Nothing mysterious there; not some strange working. You see that? It’s not some metaphysical operation; it’s simply thinking.

"When Paul says in Romans 13, ‘Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,’ he’s saying, ‘Put on the specific doctrines that are being taught,’ and it’s in this category called 'the grace of Almighty God' that we renew our thinking. By doing so, you’re putting Him on and you’re putting this guy off.

“The flesh argues, ‘NOOO, you’ve got to operate in the realm of how you feel about things!’ The flesh is going to convince you that your feelings are a legitimate authority but the Bible says, ‘No, what you feel is NOT authoritative; the words that God the Holy Spirit is teaching—that’s the authority!’

"As Jeremiah 17:9 says, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?'

“Another passage in this regard, and these are just some of the more obvious passages, is Colossians 3:5: ‘Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.’

“Verse 10: ‘And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.’

“To mortify means you just put it to death. How do you do that? Verse 9 says, ‘Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.’

“The Spirit by the way, He’s chilled. He’s relaxed. He’s not fighting anybody! Don’t envision having this struggle every day. No, it’s just two competing systems and which one are you choosing to operate under. That’s all it is.

"The Spirit’s already provided the resources. We already have the provisions. All we have to do is put it on.

“How do you put it on? That’s why Bible study has to be a very personal thing between you and God. No one else can do this for you. I hope when you study the Bible it’s so that you truly are minding what the Spirit is minding.

*****

"So when that lust starts rearing its ugly head, what do you have to do? I got to think about what the Spirit’s thinking about and He just thinks about Jesus Christ.

“In Galatians 5:17, what Paul’s saying is, ‘If you’re operating and abiding in the realm of the flesh, the realm of the emotions, you know what’s going to happen? You can’t do it.

“Paul says in Romans 7:19, ‘For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.’ He’s talking about living under the law! Verse 20 says, ‘Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.’

“Sin is going to deceive you. The weakness of our flesh; it deceives us into thinking you have the energy and the capacity to control your life and to live for God and to restrain evil and to produce good and to live.

“Paul says, ‘I’m over here. I can’t do what I want to do!’ Why? There’s something inherently wrong and flawed in the realm of your inner person.’ That’s why the law will always fail. It can’t change you. Oh, it can be a yoke and it can control you, but it can’t change something inside.

“Galatians 5:18 says, ‘But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ That’s the language of Romans 8. In this particular context, when Paul says, ‘If you be led of the Spirit,’ what does it mean to be led of the Spirit? It’s to mind the things of the Spirit. What is the Spirit mindful of?  Who you are, your life; the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

*****

“Galatians 4 says, [1] Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
[2] But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
[3] Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

“The Galatians were gravitating back to that child system of the law but the Spirit will never violate your position as an adult. You know what’s expected of an adult? You better start thinking. No more of the yoke and the chains of some system that operates in the realm of external constraint.

“The Holy Spirit will never do that. He treats you like a grown-up and the only motivation that honors and pleases our heavenly Father is the internal compulsion; the internal change of character. That’s what it means to be an adult!

“Being an adult means no one’s going to grab you by the hand. God’s not going to make you do anything. That’s high ground.

"You have Christians who seek comfort in the law like a little child, and God the Holy Spirit says, ‘I’m not going to violate who you are; you’re an adult. You can choose to mind the things of the Spirit.' We can choose to walk that way.”