The New Man - Inner Conflict

                                                    The  New Man - Inner Conflict

Galatians 5:16-17, 19-21

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

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.

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

As we continue the series of New Man, this week we are going to look at Inner conflict. Walk in the Spirit as you are born in the Spirit now. Ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Flesh remembers the old way!

We have dominion over the outer man, over the sin, over your words.

Carnal mind goes with our old nature. But our new nature is in conflict with carnal mind.

1)    Walk and live in the Holy Spirit (habitual)

Every action need to be controlled and guided by the Spirit. Flesh is nothing but human nature without God. God is not in the picture. Every decision made is based on human experience, thoughts and sense knowledge.

2)      Flesh and Spirit are always in conflict

Romans 8:5-8 we have 2 things discussed here.

i) Mind of Christ – Always result in Life and Peace

ii) Carnal mind – Does not submit itself to God – Death

This shows we have control over our thinking.

The Carnal mind creates enmity putting up a wall against God. It develops darkness in those areas. God will not be able to show his power in those areas since we have built up wall thorugh our carnal thinking.

Romans 8:9 Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit

You are living the life of the Spirit. See any situation through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. This will change our attitude, perspective and outcome.

As we see earlier, Old man is dead but he is trying to hang around with carnal mind.

A perfect example we can see in Old Testament is Joseph. He is conscious of God’s presence in his life even in hard times. He yields to Spiritual mind so that he can see God is working behind the screen to change the evil stuff to Good in his life. He was able to forgive his brothers.

Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to   bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.