Don't Give Flesh Power



And we are not to give our flesh the time of day. We don't owe anything to it. We are not debtors to the flesh. Let us look at Romans 8:12-14,

(Living bible)
V.12. So dear brothers, you have no obligations whatever to your old sinful nature, to do what it begs you to do. 

V.13. For if you keep on following it you are lost and will perish, but, if through the power of the Holy Spirit you crush it's evil deeds, you shall live,

V14. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 

(Amplified bible)
V. 12. So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh, we are not obligated to our carnal nature, to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh. 

V.13. For if you live according to (the dictates of) the flesh you will surely die. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you are habitually putting to death, making extinct, deadening the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever. 

V.14. For all who are led by the Spirit of God, are sons of God. 

Beloved the Holy Spirit was talking to the Roman believers, not to unbelievers. We are to recognize that we are dead to the power of sin. Romans 6 says

V 6. We know that our old unregenerate self was nailed to the cross with him in order that our body of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. 

V 7. For when a man dies he is freed loosed, delivered from the power of sin. 

V 11. Even so recognize yourself also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but that you are alive to God, living in unbroken fellowship with him, in Christ Jesus. 

V.8. (Living bible)
And since your old sin loving nature "died with Christ, we know that you will share his new life. 

V. 9. Christ rose from the dead and will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 

V.10. He died once for all to end sin's power, but now he lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God. 

V.11. So look upon your old sin loving nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.





So don't make up excuses and say we can't live in the spirit at all times. We don't have to surrender to the cry of sin. When something happens to us and we want to act up, ask the lord to keep you from sinning in this situation, and to renew a right spirit within you, and beloved he will do just that. He is greater than that thing. It is a learning process. I remember when I was so impatient and I was wanted more patience, and I read in a book one time that if we take 1 Corinthians 1:30, where the word states that Jesus Christ was made wisdom for me from God, and put the word patience there, he would become our patience. 

So I tried that. Every time I went to get impatient, I would say, Christ Jesus was made patience for me from God, and peace would set in. And then impatience would rise up again, and again I cried Christ Jesus was made patience for me from God, and peace came in, I don't know how many times I had done that, but that thing was destroyed, and peace became the ruler. 





Why? Because the Spirit of the Lord Jesus who is that very patience came in to rule in my heart where that thing was trying to destroy me. When we are going forth in victory and stumble, we can get up and ask God to forgive us, and that is not intentional sin. When the devil tries to make us worry, we can by the power of the Holy Spirit bring that thing to Calvary, same with fear, and all the tools that the devil might use to get you to act up, and use your flesh. There is a way of escape all the time, and I am so glad that there is. 





As 1 Corinthians 10:13 says
But remember this, the wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible, you can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear up patiently against it. 



V. 14. So dear friends, carefully avoid idol-worship of every kind.