Galatians - Living By The Spirit, Not By The Flesh (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to minister God’s word and spend a few moments in prayer. This week, we have been looking at the epistle of Galatians and gleaning lessons from it. Today, we will look at living by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Galatians chapter 5, verse 16, ‘So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.’ The New Testament often speaks about the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Sometimes, the contrast is between the body, with all its physical limitations and the immaterial part of a person. But often it is between the body’s connection to the temporal world and the immaterial human spirit that has been brought to life by God’s Holy Spirit. When Jesus wanted His disciples to pray with Him in the garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, they kept falling asleep. Jesus warned them that the Spirit is wiling but the flesh is weak. Jesus told Nicodemus, flesh gives birth to flesh, the Spirit gives birth to the spirit. A person can be alive physically but spiritually dead. Paul contrasts those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit and those who have not. Those who are in the flesh are hostile towards God, cannot submit to God and cannot please God. This can only describe unbelievers. To Paul, a person who is spiritual is one who has been born by the Spirit, even if that person will occasionally fail to live up to that reality. He warns the Galatians, are you so foolish, after beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Walking means we take one step at a time, moment by moment. This is why it is so critical to be careful not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit. The person who has been brought to spiritual life, the work of the Holy Spirit within, will want him to please God. But the pull of the world, its temporal, physical needs and the pleasures are still present. Therefore, we as believers must feed on the spiritual word and continually yield to the Holy Spirit on a day to day, minute by minute basis. Feeding the spirit and yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit are done by reading, studying, meditating and obeying God’s word. The more the word of God gets in, the more the desires of the world are removed. A focus on God’s word will cause a person to see things from His perspective and react in a way that pleases God. A focus on popular culture, worldly philosophy and conventional wisdom, will cause a person to look through the perspective of the flesh and will subtly warp his/ her judgement. Living in the world, we are constantly bombarded with the values and desires of the flesh. Unless we take steps to counteract these messages, we will find ourselves out of step with the Spirit. It is only the good that can push out the bad, it is only the living that can expel the dead.

Let us pray, Father, we thank you for teaching us in your word that we as believers must desire to walk in the Spirit every moment of our life. We pray and thank you that through the Holy Spirit, we are empowered and enabled to walk and be obedient to your word. We give you all the praise and glory, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Living Supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org.