Walking By The Spirit When The Flesh Fights Back ("Prepare" Day 5)

When the Lord saved your soul and gave you His Spirit, why didn't He just remove your old self - the desires and works of the flesh? The Bible says that if we live be the Spirit, we ought also to keep in step with the Spirit. Easier said than done when your old flesh keeps fighting back! In this episode, Rachael and Matt explore Galatians 5 to contrast the works of the flesh with the fruits of the spirit - and turn to the words of Jesus to uncover how every Christ follower can live a consistently fruitful life.

Click Here for Week 1 Homework Sheet

BEFORE this episode: Complete DAY FIVE Homework (Galatians 5:16-26)

AFTER this episode: Complete DAY SIX Homework (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Transcript

Promise Of A Fruitful Life

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Do you ever feel like your life just isn't as productive or effective as it should be? As followers of Jesus, we want our short time on earth to have eternal impact, but often we feel like we're falling short. The good news is that Scripture gives us a promise, a life that's never ineffective or unproductive in knowing Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 1, we're told to build on our faith, adding goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. As these qualities grow, they keep us fruitful and effective for God's kingdom. I'm Matt Morrow, and my wife Rachel and I have spent nearly 20 years teaching God's Word and walking with people in every stage of faith. Our passion is to see lives permanently and radically transformed by Scripture applied. Adding to your faith is here to help you understand biblical truth, practice it daily, and grow to look more like Jesus. We're glad you're here. Let's walk this journey together.

Week One Context And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Hi, friends, I'm Rachel Morrow, and I'm here with my husband Matt, and we are on day five of week one of How to Study the Word. And so if you are joining us, we want to just welcome you and thank you for being here with us. You are almost through week

Naming The Inner War

SPEAKER_00 1:32

one. And today we are going to be talking about spiritual warfare and the kind of internal battle that is within us all. So I know when the Lord saved us, he saves us body, mind, and spirit, right? So he he saves the physical and the spiritual. So he did not do away with our flesh when he saves us and calls us. One day he will redeem it and make it new. But right now, we are all in this battle, this war with ourselves often. And so, Mount, do you want to talk about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

I was just going to say, I can't tell you how many times I wish that when we had been saved, that that would that we could have just had all of those old battles of the flesh just disappear. They'll just be gone forever. Never think about it. There will be a day when that comes, but that's not this day. This day is an ongoing, constant battle. Our flesh doesn't go away. It's still there. We just have a we just have the Holy Spirit within us to essentially give ourselves a choice every day. We, you know, before being redeemed, we have no choice. We just live by the flesh because that's all we have. Now we choose every

Galatians 5 Read And Framed

SPEAKER_01 2:40

day whether to walk by the spirit or to uh act in the flesh. And that's really what the passage in Galatians 5 is talking about. So if you go to that, Galatians 5, 16 to 26. I'll just how about if I just start by reading that and then we can kind of unpack it a little bit, but but this is what it looks like to have the the flesh and the spirit at war within each other. So picking up in verse 16 of Galatians 5, but I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you're led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another or envying one another.

Works Of Flesh Vs Fruit Of Spirit

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So this is really a description of that spiritual war you're talking about, Rachel. And there's quite a contrast that's drawn in this in this passage of scripture.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

There is a contrast, and you know, I probably younger, like kind of earlier in my walk, it I used to really wish that the Lord would just redeem us, right? So that he would just make us where we can't sin anymore. And the I think the older that I get and the more that I walk with the Lord, the more I see the beauty and the glory that comes to the Lord through us fighting and winning the eternal, eternal and internal battle against the flesh.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think this whole week, what we're doing this week is we're readying our hearts. We want we want to apply methods and techniques to studying God's word that will help us learn to just personally engage with it at a at a very intimate level. We can't do that unless we ready our hearts, and we can't ready our hearts unless we recognize that this battle is ongoing, and there's something about that battle that has purpose. God has purpose even in that in that tension that exists. And that can be hard for us to wrap our heads around.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

And I love that because the end of the end of that verse, verse 26, says, Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying one another. And if our obedience to the Lord is about our performance, if we're striving to do the right things or to do the fruits of the Spirit, then we we end up in one of those two places. We end up either being conceited because we think that we are doing it better than somebody else. And so we look at them and say, Well, look at me because I am loving or I am doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing, and I am keeping all of these things, and you are failing, and you are not. And so then we become conceited,

Abiding Over Performing

SPEAKER_00 6:16

or we start to envy others, where like they have it more put together than I do, or they have they seem to have a deeper relationship, or they have more of this than I have, or they're better than I am. And so both of those things end up kind of being different sides of the of the same problem, that they're walking by flesh and not in step with the spirit. And so this call to to walk in step with the spirit is not about performing better, it's about abiding and drawing near to the Lord and and hearing the spirit's prompting and leading and relying on his power to be at work in you and through you, not just keeping all the rules and doing all the things.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Well, and that and that's actually even just sort of built into the to the way this contrast is drawn. You have you have two lists here of act of attributes or or describers, I guess, of people and how they might might conduct themselves. But but one of the lists is described as works, works of the flesh. So these are things that we do. And the other list is fruit of the spirit. These are things that flow through us. And those, I think that that language, clearly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul is making a very important distinction here. And that is that when we when we live by our flesh, we do. We do things. Now, of course, the list that's given here is a is a sinful list. It's a sinful, wicked list. That's that's the inclination of our flesh. So when we do things, we sin. We have a sin nature and we when we conduct works, that's what it looks like. But when instead we are we are engaged and personally as close as possible, as you described, abiding in

John 15 And The Vine

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Jesus, then that changes what comes through us and out of us. And that's that's his fruit. That's not our works, that's something else. It makes me it really, it always to me brings to mind that that great passage in in John 15, where Jesus is talking to his disciples about the about about the the vine and the branches. And it I mean the whole passage is just is just remarkable. But if you just zero in for a summary to verse five, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in them, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So when we read about the fruit of the spirit, in contrast with the works of the flesh, this is what Jesus is talking about. He he's saying, I'm the I'm the vine, you are the branches. The key to bearing fruit is not work, it the key is is abiding in me, is that is that close, personal, intimate, walking, moment by moment, step-by-step relationship with me. And if you do that, you can't do anything apart from me. But you can, but if you walk in me, if you abide in me, then there will be fruit that he produces through through us, that the Lord produces through us. And that's that's a promise. Just like all the other promises of scripture, you can take it to the bank and there are conditions to it. We have to abide with that's really what this whole series is about when it comes to just that personal engagement and intimacy with the word. You can't abide in Jesus through an intermediary, through someone else. It's impossible. But that's but that's really what we're going for here today, and that's the distinction, the difference between fruit of the spirit versus works of the flesh.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

And I think that's the thing you want to. I mean, as you talk about preparing your heart to study the word, that's the key to keep in mind that the goal of this is for me to dwell on, meditate on, and think about the glory of God, that we're thinking about who he is, what he's done for us, what is his character and nature, and how is that revealed in what I'm

Practicing Step-By-Step Obedience

SPEAKER_00 10:20

reading or seeing? And as our view of God grows, then, you know, as as Galatians 5.26 says, you know, or 5.25 says, now that you have the spirit, walk in step with the spirit. And so it's really that moment by moment, day by day time of thinking about like what does walking in step with the spirit look like in this moment? How do I match my words to what the spirit's words say? How do I match my actions to what the spirit's actions would be in this moment? And those can be as simple as standing in the line at the grocery store and visiting with somebody and thinking about, you know, what's coming out of my mouth? Are those things that are in step with the spirit? Or am I doing things that look more like the things of the flesh? Am I complaining? Am I ungrateful? Am I talking about how terrible it is that Walmart's gone to self-checkout? You know, like what is it that I'm engaging in? And is that really in step with the spirit? And, you know, I had this conversation with a friend of mine this week when they were like talking about how do you just keep that from just being words, you know, just things that you say. And it's really this principle of laying down and picking up, you know, it like idolatry, right? Those things that sometimes are even good things that we put ahead of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Yeah, I mean, every idol, it almost they almost all just start as something that's that's good, that's a gift that we that we put in the place that only the Lord should have in our life.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Right? They're they're good things that get in the wrong place. And so

Lay Down And Pick Up

SPEAKER_00 12:05

when you think about even right, like even that, it's in that moment, what does that look like to to lay down and pick up? And scripture always calls us to take off and put on, lay down and pick up. And so if you if you don't want this to just be words that I'm telling myself, the answer to that is found in Galatians 5, 16 to through you know, 26, is what does it look like then to really walk in the fruit of the spirit, to to dwell in that, to abide in the vine, and then produce that fruit as you recognize those things that that don't look like the spirit, and asking the Lord, then how do I how do I lay that down in the moment? And pick something up and pick up the things that that look like the Lord. And that come from him and come from him. And that takes us actively looking how to walk in step.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

So one of the things that I I want to kind of come back to in the context of learning to study the Bible personally, learning to engage personally with God's word and why that's so important is directly related to this thing, to this thing we're talking about, which is this keeping in step with the Spirit. There is sometimes can easily be a tendency when you're when you're trying to learn how to study the Bible better, you're trying to learn how to spend more quality time in the Word with the Lord. You those these are important things or maybe goals that you have for yourself as a disciple of Jesus that you want to do, you want to do better with it. But I think the the thing that we have to remind ourselves of is even as we discuss, as we will over the course of the next few weeks, even as we discuss particular methods for studying the Bible, techniques that can help you draw deeper into his word, all of those things are good and they're helpful, but they're not skills to be learned. They're just, they're

Study Methods As Spirit Training

SPEAKER_01 14:05

just a means through which we learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit moving powerfully through his word. As we learn to recognize him and to recognize his movement, then we are better able to keep in step with the spirit. We're better able to respond to that by just by just walking by faith and not by sight. And we can't do that until we learn to recognize his voice in our heart, recognize his movement through his word as we put ourselves there. So even these uh methods that we're going to explore over the course of the next few weeks, want to make sure that everybody understands these are not just, these are not some skills that you should learn just so you become really good at reading the Bible and really good at understanding the Bible. That's a work of the flesh. That actually becomes a work of the flesh. Instead, think of them as practices of things you can practice to help you learn to recognize the Lord's movement through his spirit, through his word, his voice, if you will, so that when you hear it, you instantly recognize it and you instantly are able to respond to it, that you're able to abide closely in it and walk by that spirit so that those fruits can come through you as a branch connected to the vine. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

It does make sense. And, you know, I think in Thessalonians 5, when when scripture talks about testing everything, that's part of it. Then when when thoughts and ideas and feelings come, then you are testing those. And what are you testing them against? You're testing them against the character and the nature and the word of God. And if they are in line, if they are in step, then you you embrace those. And if they are not in step, then you reject them and you pick up the things that are in step. And so it's a it is a a practice, it's a discipline, right? Abiding is a discipline that we learn and learning to recognize and walk in step with us of the spirit. I mean, even the word picture there

Testing Everything By Scripture

SPEAKER_00 16:10

requires that your eyes are on something in front of you.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

That you've got your eyes set on on where where that thing is going. And and that is that comes from studying the word of God.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So when Jesus talks to us in John 15 about abiding in him, and and when he gets to the sort of the core of the matter, which says, look, make no mistake, apart from me, you can do nothing. That's some those are that's some tough truth right there. But what he's saying is, think, think about what it means. If if what we're talking about is true, that that abiding in him, learning how to how to recognize the voice of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in our hearts through his word, if we're recognizing and learning to do that on the one hand, and if we are apart from him on the other. So the contrast with that is if we don't do those things, we're apart from him. Even if we're even if we're focused on trying to uh understand the Bible better or to hear good Bible teaching or whatever else, we're still walking apart from him because we're not walking with him. We're not abiding in him. So what are we left with? We're left with works. If we if we don't recognize, if we don't learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit, if we don't learn to recognize him and and and uh and see it when he starts to move, then we'll just be left with nothing but the works of the flesh. We'll be left, we'll be left with trying to gut it out. And as we do that, the the Bible says that that's this is what Galatians is saying, that's against the spirit. That's not just a that's not just a harder road. That's that's taking the wrong side of the war between the flesh and the spirit. And and if and if we're against the spirit, remember whose spirit? God's spirit, his Holy Spirit. That's who who we're given to help us understand his word and to know him better and to and to dwell, uh, abide in him. And if we reject that, then we're left with nothing but this these works of the flesh to to rely on, and they're they're fruitless. Jesus says that they can do nothing

Clinging To The Vine In Chaos

SPEAKER_01 18:10

that we're that we're completely without without hope in that regard. But there is a better way. There's a better way available. So as you think about this week, how you're going to prepare your heart for for next week and the weeks ahead, where we start really practically working through passages of scripture with these methods to try to teach us to hear the voice of the Spirit in our heart as He illuminates the truth of God's word. Think about what it means to trust God enough to cling closely to him in all circumstances, to just be to just focus our attention on being a branch connected to a vine. There can be a storm blowing, there can be all kinds of chaos happening around us, but but what if rather than responding to all of that, we focused all of our attention on being a branch that clings tightly to the vine? What would it change in our walk? I mean, for most people that'd be that alone is transformative. And then how do you how do we devour, devour his word? How do we consume it? How do we live it? How do we internalize it? How do we conform to to his to his word, what we are learning from the Holy Spirit through his word? How do we get shaped, formed in his image, in his likeness, and then and then pray that he will let me see the fruit that he will produce through us and in us? That's a those are big prayers, right? That's that's what we talked about earlier this week. We want to pray big prayers. That's a big prayer.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

That is a big prayer, and it's one that the Lord will delight to answer.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

You can pray it calmly.

Big Prayers For Real Fruit

SPEAKER_01 20:01

So, Rachel, as as we kind of wrap this section up, anything, any closing words or anything you'd like to leave with our listeners as they as they work to prepare their heart in this spiritual battle of flesh versus spirit?

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Just spend time meditating on that internal battle that's that is always at work. And when we tune our ear to hear the voice of the spirit, that he will show us those things as we test them that do not look like him, and then practice practice laying down and picking up, laying down those things that that are not in step, and picking up the things that are. And so, really just today, really meditate on where where are my eyes fixed? Are they fixed on the spirit so that I'm walking in step with the spirit?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

So some of what we've been talking about today and the rest of the week can, as we sort of uh take it all together, can feel like so much, if we're not careful. It can

Closing Charge And Preview

SPEAKER_01 21:05

feel like so much and even a little bit overwhelming. So if you're if you're feeling that a little bit, if you're thinking, oh my gosh, this is just this is so different than anything I've ever seen, or it's just so far beyond anything I've ever tried to do, I'm just overwhelmed. Can I even do this? Can it even be done? Well, there's hope for you. Don't worry, hang with us, come back again tomorrow. We'll be in 2 Corinthians 9-8. And that hope is a solemn promise about what we are provided as well. So I want to make sure that you uh spend some time there in again, 2 Corinthians 9-8. I also think there's some really good supplement there in uh in Matthew 11 that we'll talk about a little bit tomorrow as well. But but if it seems like a lot, if it seems overwhelming, take heart because there are great promises that wait for you, and we'll explore those tomorrow.