Quote:
Originally Posted by Truthseeker
What happends when one doesn't follow after the law of the Spirit?
|
When you receive the Spirit of Jesus into your heart, you will begin to deny the works of your flesh, and the desires of your flesh. When you spend time in the presence of Jesus, your spirit will be grafted into Him, the olive tree.
If you never deny your fleshly lusts, and desires, so that the Spirit can transform your life, then the life of that spirit will begin to die in you, and flesh will reign. You will not produce any fruit of the spirit.
The only way the Spirit can truly reign in your life is if you begin to deny the flesh and its desires in your life. This is done by fasting, prayer, and the Word. No other way.
Jesus himself, our perfect example, spent many hours alone on the mountains all night long, he fasted 40 days in the wilderness, he spent all night praying in Gethsemane. Great things will not happen through the life of the spirit in you, unless you undertake to deny your flesh of the things it likes, and begin to listen to the voice of the spirit speaking in your life.
If we desire to walk in the Spirit, and be as Christ was, we must first deny our flesh, take up the cross and follow Jesus. As we follow Jesus, the life of the Spirit in us will convict us about things in our lives separating us from Christ. As we lay aside those weights, and sins, and fleshly desires... as unto the Lord.... then His Spirit will have room to grow in us, transforming us into the image and likeness of Jesus, and the fruit of the Spirit will be growing in us.
That should be the desire of each and every soul... as they are transformed by the life of Christ living in them, to be so transformed by His Spirit, that we are alive in Christ, and dead to our flesh.
It is a daily battle, and not one that we will wake up one day... and say... well the battle's won, I don't have to fight my flesh anymore...
No, as long as we are in this fleshly body, each and every day we must wake up with the mindset to deny our flesh its desires, in order to allow the Spirit of Christ within us to grow, and to put on the mind of Christ each and every day.
This is a daily thing that we must do.
In my words, this is how I would definie the Law of the Spirit:
Deny your flesh, pick up your cross, follow me, and let my Spirit transform you, teach you, lead you, and guide you each and EVERY day.
Galatians 5:24-25 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."