Verse of the Day: “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” - Galatians 5:16-17
“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives”..........Simple, but effective. We should let the Holy Spirit guide our lives and impact our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate that Jesus spoke about in John 14:16 - “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” The Holy Spirit is our Helper, who helps us to connect with God forever. What a blessing is this?
“Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves”........The cravings of our sinful nature will never be satisfied if we pursue them. There is no maximum depth to God’s love, but on the same token, there is no maximum depth to sin. James says in James 1:14-15 - “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.” Since Jesus was the only solution to sin, letting the Holy Spirit guide our lives is the only way for us to turn away from our sinful nature.
“The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants”.......Paul describes the side effects of following the sinful nature later in this text. Let’s take a look at what fruit is produced.
“....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.” - Galatians 5:19-21
Does this not sound like our world? How often do we see these sinful fruits posted all over social media? How many kids do you think are being introduced to sexual immorality, impurity and lustful pleasures through platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat? There is a war going on. It’s raging. And the enemy does not want to let us go.
What is the result of living this type of life? Paul lets us know plainly.
“Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” - Galatians 5:21
“And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires”.......God is good. Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, we can trust that the Spirit is good. And allowing the Spirit to guide our lives will produce amazing fruits in us. What are they?
“...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” - Galatians 5:22-23
Paul says that there is no law against these things. These are the results of following Christ and allowing Him to change us from the inside out. This is what should be produced within us when we are allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us.
How nice would our world be if everyone possessed the fruits of the Spirit? How much peace and tranquility would we experience? Like I said before, however, there is a war raging on in the hearts and souls of every living person.
“These two forces are constantly fighting each other”.........The sinful nature will forever be hostile to the Spirit. Tomorrow I will celebrate 600 straight days in the Bible app. The last 599 days have been a total spiritual transformation in my life. Coming to Christ has allowed me to completely be reborn, kicking a pornography addiction and going as of this writing, two years and seven months without viewing it.
It’s allowed me to get baptized, start leading basketball Bible studies and baptize seven different young men. I’ve been part of a few different men’s groups, have grown close with pastors and have had news stories done on the faith journey that I’ve made in basketball. My wife and I recommitted ourselves to putting Christ at the center of our marriage, which has changed our lives. We celebrated the birth of our son a year ago and were blessed with our dream home in a community that most wouldn’t move to, however, God called us. That’s how much He has been working in myself and my family.
However, due to this constant fighting between Spirit and flesh, I have to fight every single day in this battle in order to remain in the Spirit. It doesn’t matter if I’ve had 599 clean days in a row. It doesn’t matter what good work that I’ve done in the days prior, all I have is today. The enemy wants to catch me slipping just once and pull me back into his wrath.
I often wonder why is it so hard to open up my Bible but so easy to turn on the TV, or scroll Twitter? I wonder why it can feel so hard to pray, as if we don’t have time, but we will always make time for texting and tweeting? It’s the battle of sinful nature vs. Holy Spirit.
It’s not easy to be faithful. It’s not easy to live a life where the darkness is dying in us more and more by day. If it were easy to go 600 straight days in the Bible, everybody would be quoting scripture and exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit. If it were easy to kick sexual immorality to the curb, cheating wouldn’t exist and marriages would be healthy and thriving. But it’s not that easy, the enemy of our souls wants to prevent us from living the life that God has designed for us.
“So you are not free to carry out your good intentions”.......The enemy wants us to sacrifice the freedom that is available to us in Christ. He can get this done by tempting us to sin, which creates distance between us and God. James says temptation that comes from our own desires, drag us away - seemingly from God. We have to stay connected to Him. There is freedom in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our path to that freedom and closeness with Christ.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” - 2 Corinthians 3:17
The enemy wants us to forgo that freedom. We must turn from our sinful nature and turn to the Holy Spirit. This is the only way for us to continue to walk down the path to life that Jesus spoke about.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” - Matthew 7:13-14
Be encouraged as you walk down the narrow road that leads to life. It’s easy to live in sin. It’s easy to go down the broad road that many choose. But we have to remember that all sin leads to destruction.
Let us turn from our sin and be born again. Let the Holy Spirit change our hearts and produce the fruits that can only come from Jesus.
Worship Jam of the Day