Part 3 of 4 in Intro to Agape
The Battleground within.
As much as you wish the spiritual journey could be a sunny walk in the meadow, spiritual growth is actually more like an epic battle raging in the middle of your soul – with your spirit on one side and your flesh on the other. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thess 5:23.
Being saved doesn’t mean I exhibit the character of Christ.
As a young Christian, there were always some very special encouragers and mentors that made being a part of the Christian family a joy. But there were also many who had been “active Christians” for decades, but their fruit was more unkindness than kindness, grumbling than joy, and their allegiance seemed more to themselves than Christ and His Word. Why, after so many years of all the church had to offer, hadn’t they matured spiritually?
Then, as a young adult (after I joined church leadership) I really began to wonder why there was so much unrepentant, unconfessed, “socially acceptable” sin? Most of the time there was a blow-up about something, I wondered why the people who so rudely and with great unkindness caused the blow-up just to get their way and weren’t being corrected? After all, gossip is on the same sin list as murder and adultery! “They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanders” Rom 1:29, and “there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder” 1 Cor 12:20.
An abiding branch bears much fruit.
Fortunately, your journey on Agape Trail will lead you far away from the stink of Self Deception Swamp! As you take Agape Trail to Abiding Meadow a sign at the entrance to the meadow reads: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” Jn 15:5.
As you step in, the peaceful strength you feel leads to a full, deep cleansing inhale and exhale. The weight you have been carrying feels immediately lighter and you haven’t even taken your pack off yet. In Abiding, Holy Spirit makes abundant, Spirit-filled agape fellowship available: “agape love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” can grow only in abiding, where Holy Spirit feeds and fuels your fruitfulness through the process of “sanctifying completely” and “working out your salvation” (1 Thess 5:23, Phil 2:12-13.)
Another message comes through your GPS: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify (carry out) the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do… And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” Gal 5:16-17, 24-25.
A disciple is someone under the discipline of their teacher.
Jesus gave Holy Spirit and His Word as our teacher. Let usmake room for Himto abide in heart, soul, mind and strength to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” Mk 12:30.
Allow Holy Spirit to discipline you, so “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thess 5:23.
SPIRITUAL ANATOMY: SPIRIT, SOUL & BODY
1. BODYis also referred to in the scriptures asthe “flesh.”
Highly sophisticated and magnificently designed, your “Earth suit,” is programmed with amazing natural abilities. Because it is temporary and designed only for earth, it dies and returns to the earth. “You,” however are created for eternity – and do not die. You either return to God or remain separated from Him.
But while you are on Earth, your body allows you to navigate a physical life – in gravity, three dimensions and time – but not beyond. Naturally, your body’s natural, temporary desires butt heads with the spiritual, eternal desires of your spirit and Holy Spirit: “… the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other…” Galatians 5:17.
My body has a very simple, and dangerous, logic: “if it feels good, it is good.”
But it CAN be reprogrammed – and is designed to be. “Temporary ‘good’ – now” can be reprogrammed to “Permanent good – later.” This is the process of spiritual growth and fruitfulness. Learning to properly use your spirit, soul and body is essential.
2. SPIRIT with a small “s” (not Holy Spirit,) is the divine core, the spark of life God breathed into your body.
Biblically, your spirit is:
– spiritually sensitive,
– hungry to reconnect you with your creator,
– focused on what is best, or good, with an eye on eternity, and
– easily hidden under the much more obvious covering of your personality (soul.)
While your body most naturally focuses on the immediate pleasures and pains of your physical senses.
So you can imagine the epic, but often unnoticed, battle between the screaming desires of the flesh and still small voice of spirit. Spoiler alert: sin usually wins. But in comes the hero! Holy Spirit with a capital S! Combine Holy Spirit with human spirit and sin loses. So the Lord tells us to “walk by the Spirit, and we will not gratify the desires of the flesh” Galatians 5:16.
3. SOULis where all the action of spiritual growth happens.
It is the great field upon which the battle between the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the spirit is fought. The interplay of heart and mind that makes up the personality we each call “me.” Although you are not your body, your body and soul work together so seamlessly that it’s easy to think your body IS what makes you “you.” When this happens, abiding with Holy Spirit weakens.
GPS CALIBRATION KEY: When you think of your soul, think heart and mind.
Your “HEART” (desires, emotions) and “MIND” (thoughts, will) intimately interact as expressions of your soul. Every emotion, desire or thought, is aligned more or less with either your spirit’s desires or your flesh’s. Here on the field of the soul is the battleground (Gal 5: 13-26.)
Your flesh doesn’t know about faith, hope, and agape Love, except that it sees them as “weak” or just another “frustrating distraction.” When led by the flesh, we celebrate sin and distort love until only fleshly desire is seen as “good.”
Under the flesh’s leading, my mind becomes a distortion factory.
Individual ideas and perceptions based on what flesh wants fights to define our “reality.” We “see in a mirror dimly” as 1 Cor 13:12 describes the distortions of a flesh-led mind. And ultimately, “the mind,” if “set on the flesh” as Rom 8:6 tells us, “is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
The Lord adds, “the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” Galatians 6:8. “Corruption” is broken, internally disintegrated, perishing. The fruit of the flesh is broken, internally disintegrated, perishing.
Reflect on that for a moment…
Heart & Mind set on flesh will never deliver the outcome promised.
It will sacrifice what is truly good, and “reaping corruption.” It only drives us further towards disappointment and futility, destroying what is truly honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise, Phil 4:8. As the Lord says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” 1 Pe 2:11.
The fruit of the desires/passions of the flesh are the natural results of flesh given free rein without Spirit: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” Gal 5:19-23. We will struggle with sin our whole lives, but as a sinner saved by grace and not by works, your victory will far overshadow your defeat.
Heart & mind led by spirit yearns for the Fruit and hungers to abide in the Lord.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Abiding Disciple or Christian Club Member?
Rooted in God’s Word, and nurtured by daily acts of obedience, faith grows. Such obedience is the water by which Spirit produces fruit. It’s the difference between dead religion and living relationship. The difference between the Spirit-filled disciple and the club member Christian is “abiding.” Strive for that LIVING relationship. “The mindset on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
PRAYER JOURNAL
Calibration Questions:
Choose at least two to answer – and share with someone if you can:
Be brutally honest with yourself:
Q: To what degree do you think God owes you – and how long is your list of grievances?
Q: To what degree do you know that any Fruit in your life is an undeserved gift from a graceful God?
Q: How often, with a spirit of humility do you gladly choose obedience? How far is that from “constantly?”
Q: How often on any given day would you say you choose to obey simply in faith to God and His Word?
