Do Not Walk According to the Flesh

Hi Brothers & Sisters,

I hope that you are enjoying a wonderful Sunday.

This devotional was excerpt from Dr. Price's book, "The Holy Spirit: The Helper We all Need."

Enjoy...

GBU,

Pierre


Do Not Walk According to the Flesh
Dr. Frederick K.C. Price

There are two transactions the Bible talks about: one is being born of the Spirit, and the other is being filled with the Spirit. Many people lump those transactions together, but you really cannot do that without cheating yourself. A passage of scripture that will help illustrate this is Romans 8:9. There, Paul writes:
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

You can understand from reading this verse why some people say, "I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, even though I don't speak with other tongues. I've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit, because the Word says if I don't have the Spirit of God in me, I am not His, and I know I've been born again." Romans 8:9 is the verse people have used to prove this point, but the people who made the point missed what Paul was really saying here.

To get the full impact of what Paul is saying, let's go back to Romans 8:1. Paul begins there by writing: There is therefore now no condemnation [or judgment] to those who are in Christ Jesus....

If Paul had put a period there, what he states in Romans 8:1 would undoubtedly refer to every Christian. But there is no period there, and there should not be one. Instead, Paul writes in verses one through five:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Paul is talking here about the difference between Christians who walk by the flesh, and Christians who walk by the spirit. There are many Christians who are called carnal Christians (carnal comes from the word carne, which means "meat" or "flesh"), and they live their whole lives in the flesh. It does not mean they are not saved, or that God does not love them. It simply means they cannot live at God's best - and God wants us to live at His best.

Paul goes on in Romans 8:5-6 by saying this:
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Every minute you live, you are getting closer to the graveyard than you were when you started this physical life. When you walk in the flesh as a Christian, it escalates the rate of death that is working in your life, because your mind is dead, and it is going to speak death to you. Operating in the Spirit will retard that rate of death, and extend your life. That is what Paul means by the statement, For to be carnally minded is death.

It is very easy to tell which Christians are carnally minded, and which Christians are spiritually minded. People who come to church late all the time are carnally minded. If they were spiritually minded Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit, they would be on time. To bicker, gripe, grumble and complain is carnal, because these acts do not come out of your spirit. Always finding fault with the church is carnal; and anyone who gossips about something, especially about something bad, is acting in a carnal manner.

Paul adds in Romans 8:7-9:
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you....