Galatians 5:16
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
This is one of the mottos of the christian life. Let's break that down. "Walk by the Spirit" is where it begins. The Holy Spirit now resides within us and is to be in control. As we read the bible we are to do what it says. He makes it easy, as we have a new heart that wants to do those things. Things we used to do, we now feel guilty about.
A wonderful aspect is the Spirit empowers us to do His will. We will feel ourselves falling short. Then come the prayers for help. In time we are doing things we needed help for. This is the pattern for walking in the Spirit.
The second half of todays verse is "you will not carry out the desires of the flesh". The flesh is the old part of us that has the selfish drives that compete with biblical ones. We now have two sources for our daily plans, God's and our old selfish ones. Verse 24 of our present chapter says, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The ungodly plans are to be crucified and the selfish ones are to be offered up with the words, "if it be Your will".
Some times those wishes are granted, some times not. Another wonderful aspect of this is our desires are no longer the boss, as they once were. It's nice not to be enslaved to them. We can take or leave them. Our prayer life has us offering them up constantly with the refrain, "if it be Your will."
Ezekiel 36:26 tells us about our new desires, "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." We've been born again and want different things. The Lord now motivates and governs us. We want to do His will and He gives us the power to do it. This is walking by the Spirit.
These new desires are a blessing in themselves. They weren't always with us. They may have never entered our minds. We now want to bless others and glorify Him.
We also no longer care to get the credit. We've learned that it's fleeting and empty. God should get the credit. Because He deserves it and it draws others to Him. Creation is a marvel. Everything is built so wonderfully. He did that and continues to sustain it.
We no longer want to fulfill the desires of the flesh. We now pray against those things. We all have varying levels of control with the desires of flesh. They may be an irritant to some and others go to weekly meetings to overcome those things. The Lord is with us in these struggles.
The desires of the flesh used to govern us. Paul echoes what we feel in Romans 7:25, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." The old nature is still around to haunt us, but on balance the Lord is giving us victory over it. Thanks be to God.
Lord, thank You for giving us freedom over our old desires. The new ones You've given are a blessing, thank You. You've made us something that we could never have done ourselves.