But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
Galatians 5:16-18 NASB
The Holy Spirit
Yahuah sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, the truth about Jesus and the truth about ourselves. In our natural state which is opposed to the commandments of God we walked in the lust for our own desires, thoughts and emotions but in our new state we walk in the blessing of God.
Paul the apostle put it this way in Ephesians 2:1-3
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Ephesians 2:1-3
Notice how he calls them the “sons of disobedience” meaning this nature is from the fall of man in the garden when sin was introduced to the world. What is sin? Sin is lawlessness meaning functioning in this world without the commandments of God. This is the spirit of disobedience that is in the world now and will remain until the end.
Jesus came and brought light into this dark world so that man would have an alternative to this fallen nature and a way back to our original state before the fall. As the author of creation, He came to restore man back to the Father of lights in whom there is no darkness of turning. For God is light and those that love him must walk in the light.
John the apostle tells us that Jesus is the true light,
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
John 8:12
but men loved darkness so much that they did not recognize him when He came,
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
John 1:10
The path back to the Father that Jesus provides can be looked at this way..
Our Children
We love our children, and we know from the time they are born that they would need our love, care and protection to survive. We teach them how to live in this world and give them commandments to follow for a successful life.
We teach them to wash themselves, make their beds, do their homework and chores. When they get older, we tell them to follow the laws of society because we know that there are serious consequences for breaking these laws.
Our children are completely unaware of these consequences and must believe us by faith that what we are telling them is true. Some obey us and avoid these consequences but others have to learn by experiencing these consequences. When they choose to disobey us, it grieves our hearts and causes us great pain to see them in this fallen state but we don’t love them any less.
Then we as parents go to any means necessary to redeem that child and create a pathway for them to come back to the original state of obedience. When they do and show that they have learned from there mistake we rejoice greatly over that child because he or she has been redeemed.
Yahuah’s Children
We are all disobedient children of God, but he loves us no less. That’s why He sent Jesus to us in our fallen state to redeem us and show us the way back to right standing with the Father, but we must accept His way and follow.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Ephesians 2:4-6
In this redeemed state we put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ by allowing this new nature to take hold of our lives as we begin to walk in righteousness before God. When we walk this way there is no law to us because we are obedient to Him. For those who choose this walk, the Father has given us a promise.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
1 John 3:1-3
Let’s work diligently to put to death the works of the flesh and strive to make the fruit of the spirit evident in our lives.
Praise Jesus!
Shalom
Fruit of the Holy Spirit
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Long-Suffering
- Gentleness
- Goodness
- Faith
- Meekness
- Temperance
Works if the Flesh
- Adultery
- Fornication
- Uncleanness
- Lasciviousness
- Idolatry
- Witchcraft
- Hatred
- Variance
- Emulations
- Wrath
- Strife
- Seditions
- Heresies
Scripture Reference Galatians 5:19-26 NLT
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.“