What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. Galatians 5:16
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
Once again the Complete Jewish Bible says things a little different, giving the message a bit different twist. The way the Jewish bible says it makes it clear if you are truly in the Spirit of God, then you will NOT do what you used to do. Or live the way you used to live.
A few points about this, and who I am today and who I was 20 years ago before I started my conversion into the Spirit. Because the Lord reminded me of it.
I used to be all about success and money. I did happy hour, watched sports on TV and in person. The last year of my life in the flesh I even went with a friend of mine to all the away games for the Hawkeyes. We went to Wisconsin, Iowa State, Penn State and to the bowl game in Miami, the orange bowl. I had season tickets for both basketball and football. We traveled all over. I made really good money and spent it like a drunken sailor. I was a prodigal son, very much in the world and the lust of the flesh. I did things I enjoyed and liked to do. But never had a feeling of fullness.
Now I do basically the opposite. Never a happy hour, and not only do I not go to football and basketball games, but I do not watch them on TV. I am not a prodigal son anymore. Basically my life has changed from one of fun and excitement to one of boring, all because of the Spirit. The Spirit told me to stop all of it one by one. And I obeyed. My life now might be boring, but it is full and with a lot of peace.
I have fulfilled Galatians 5:16 and understand it. Religious people do not fulfill it because they read these verses (if they read the bible at all, because most do not). But they read them taken out of context, and make believe they really have received something of God when they have not. Some change a little, like I know people who were drug addicts or some even drug dealers. Who stopped doing those things and led much better lives, but they still do not know the Spirit and have not stopped fulfilling the lust of the flesh. They still hold certain things back, and still do religion which keeps them there. Religion does not equal God and living according to the Spirit although religious people think it is the same thing.
In my life it has changed 180 degrees. I know the life I used to live, one of excitement was like the waves of the ocean, being tossed to and fro, where now my life in Yeshua is boring at times, very boring actually at times. But full of peace and purpose and my life is full. I do not lack or want anything.
The funny thing about people is how they judge. Most remember me for who I was in the flesh and think God judges based on that. And while they have led a much better overall life than me, never being extremely crazy like I once was. Never a prodigal son. They also never repented and do not see the faults they have, the ones the Spirit would show them if they sought the truth so they could repent. So they never change much. I went from one end to the other. And I know how God judges. He judges based on who you become, not who you were most of your life. Because what he shows me is how we see people when in the flesh and judge people as either good or bad when neither has ever repented and been born again. We judge incorrectly. I have aunts that were nuns, starting when they were in their teens, one would assume they are in heaven for sure, leading pretty good lives. But are they? Did they ever repent of their evil parts?
Did they have evil parts about them? I did not know them that well, but what I do know of them I know they never come to know the Lord, the catholic religion kept them from understanding who God is and what he expects. They remained in their religious version of a holy life, one God sees as not Holy.
How can I say that? Is that not judging?
No it is not judging, it is seeing things the way God sees them, and I see them that way because God showed me it in myself and other people. The best man who ever lived without the Spirit is still evil. It is only when a man stops living a selfish life on their own that he can receive the Spirit. And when he lives by the Spirit he will no longer do what your old nature wants. Human nature in its purest most Godly way to live cannot and does not live like God expects. It is not possible.
However, when you start to hear God and obey him, then you will live in a Godly way and you will see how the old nature (human nature) is evil compared to how God expects us to live.
The Lord showed me clearly this is what he meant by ;ving in the Spirit and why he came to die for us, so he could send his Spirit. There was no other way.
This is the main point. We have the option to stop living for ourselves and make our own decisions, and simply rely on the Spirit to make those decisions for us. It is not exciting and fun, but it is worth it because it is what your spirit seeks deep down inside and if you do not find this you are always seeking for something else to supplement it, but can never find it. There is no other option for living in the Spirit which is pleasing to God and gives you what you get from the Spirit. Yet we seek other ways. We seek the easy way out, which exists in the world, but not in God’s world. We think our religious beliefs will be acceptable to God, but they are not.
There is only one way to the Father and that is through the son. And not some stranger that sneaks through the window. No, the Son or the good shepherd comes through the front gate and leads his sheep out into the pasture. So the question becomes why are you following a stranger who is not telling you about the good shepherd who will lead you? My experience with many religions and preachers is they all are trying to be your leader, along with pushing the bible as the word of God. Instead of pushing the Lord Yeshua as your God and leader. They want you to listen to them and do as they say, and not what the Lord is telling you if you even hear him to obey him. This is what the stranger entering through the window is.
But then the men teachers will never convict you of wrong doing and ask you to stop doing it and thinking the way you think. But the Lord will. So it is the easy path to listen to men instead of God, because then no change is necessary and life can be exciting. Full of ups and downs and no peace, but exciting.
I know the difference in these two lives because I came to know them both and made a choice to obey the Lord and not my religious beliefs about a god. One who does not exist. The god you religious people worship based on your twisted doctrine in the bible is not the same as the Lord I know who rules over me and I hear and obey. The true living God does not want a bunch of people reading bibles and listening to preachers to obtain salvation. The true living God wants you to know him and obey him to obtain salvation. I have lived both of these lives and know the difference. The vast majority never change from their religious views and never come to understand.
In seeing they do not see, and in hearing they do not hear, lest they turn from their ways and be healed, set free.
Along these thoughts, my mind is always looking at my kids he entrusted me to raise. I want to give them the best in life, and a life filled with no problems and pains. An easy life. But I also know an easy life does not bear good fruit. You have to experience life and overcome it.
As an example our kids are in school this year. And there are a lot of problems with certain kids and “bullying.” My wife wants to fight it with the teachers involved and I want my kids to fight it themselves. Teach them how to deal with evil bad people, because they are everywhere and it seems much worse when you get older. To experience being bullied so it does not bother them.
I have written before (although not in this book). About a classmate who was a bully. At first we all thought he was the coolest ever, but he started to try to control us all, thinking because he could box he was tough and in control. We started to resist him, which then made him even more aggressive.
One day at lunch we sat at a table of about 10 guys, he came and sat down. I got up and went to another table and everyone followed me so he sat alone. Later that day he came and found me in a dark hallway and hit me in the mouth. It hurt but not much as compared to the power of standing up to him. It was easily worth the punch in the mouth. And because of this and one other time he fit me in the mouth without me swinging back. Things changed.
He never hit me again and it is not that we became best friends, but he did humble himself from it. He is actually a facebook friend now although we barely ever talk.
But the real point is I learned how to deal with bullies and not run and hid behind a teacher to protect me from them. And over my years in business I have dealt with many bullies. And with success, they never overpower me, which kind of pisses them off and gives me even more power. Not that I am looking to obtain power over people, I just refuse to let them have power over me.
This is the point the Lord Yeshua was making by walking the extra mile and turning the other cheek. It is not about submitting to the other person, it is about standing up to them in another way which destroys them. They cannot fight if you do not swing back. They cannot fight with you if you stand in the truth.
The point is that life teaches you these things if you are listening to learn them. The two things I want my kids to learn is first to deal with life’s lessons and not run and hide from them, because they keep coming. And second and most importantly to hear and obey the Lord. It is obedience to him which gives wisdom to deal with bullies and overcome yourself.
If you “ run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants.” Then you will find peace and the fruits of the Spirit and not excitement. The easy life is not the best life, and it does not lead to salvation. Yet that is what we seek and want for us and our kids, so we find a religion which tells us it is good and the way so we believe in it because that is what we want. It is not the truth, but it is what we want, and most argue to the end it is the “truth, way and life…” But it is not, Yeshua is and he is the only way to the Father!