You can either be controlled by your flesh or controlled by the Holy Spirit, and the decision is up to you. The Holy Spirit will not control you without your permission. To be controlled by the Holy Spirit requires that you are willing to let Him control you.
When you’re dominated by your own flesh, you’ll satisfy the desires of your flesh. When you’re dominated by the Holy Spirit, you’ll satisfy the desires of God. “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit” (Romans 8:5 NLT).
Your spiritual journey does not depend on your strength to do anything but on your willingness to let the Holy Spirit help you. It is the pride of man that tells him he must do the work. It is only in humility that a man yields so that the Holy Spirit can do the work.
Your spiritual journey is not a natural path. Stop trying to swim upstream and just let go so that the Holy Spirit can take you where you’re supposed to go. “For all who are allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14 AMP).
When we’re controlled by the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t mean we have given up our free will. Rather, it means, with our free will, that we have given ourselves over to the power and purpose of the Holy Spirit and to all that God wants to accomplish in our lives.
You may have free will, but be sure there is a great cost in how you spend it. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17 NKJV).
The Holy Spirit will only reign in your life when you give your life over to Him. It’s not a one-time decision but an ongoing set of choices that you must make in your life. You’ll fail sometimes, and by the grace of God, He will give you more chances.
When you’re walking in the natural, the direction you’re going determines the destination you’ll end up at. The same is true when you’re walking in the Spirit. “If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit]” (Galatians 5:25 AMPC).
When we allow the Holy Spirit to rule in our lives, we are submitting to His authority over our lives. When we give up our natural life to God, He then gives us a spiritual life that is born by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You won’t trip over natural things when you’re walking in the Spirit. “But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).” (Galatians 5:16 AMPC).
Your natural flesh will always seek to please your own flesh. When you’re controlled by your flesh, it will be your flesh that you’ll be serving. For every choice that you make, be honest about whether you’re being controlled by your flesh or by the Holy Spirit.
Only the Lord can help you to live a life pleasing to Himself. “If we follow our desires, we cannot please God. You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God’s Spirit, who lives in you…” (Romans 8:8-9 CEV).
The natural life has a natural ending, and everything you pour into it will disappear. The spiritual life will last eternally, and everything you pour into it will multiply forever. Spiritual treasures are the only things you can take to heaven.
The more you hold onto things that don’t belong in heaven, the less you will be able to take with you when you go there. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NASB).
The spiritual height you get to will depend on the degree to which you’re willing to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. The more your flesh controls you, the less you will grow in your spiritual life. The choice is always yours. What choice will you make?
You can’t be filled with the Spirit of God and continue as you were before. “For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace” (Romans 8:6 TPT).
Those with the greatest spiritual strength are those who have stopped striving in their natural strength and have fallen helplessly and willingly into being controlled by the Holy Spirit. The weakest souls before men will be the strongest saints before God.
The reason you’re not growing spiritually is not your lack of strength but your lack of yielding to God that He would be your strength. As a plant yields to the Sun and grows, so you must yield to God. “…let God change you inside with a new way of thinking…” (Romans 12:2 ERV).
In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Great Divorce, he wrote: “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.” Which kind of Christian will you be?
The difference between the natural life and the spiritual life is that in the natural life, you get your way, and in the spiritual life, you let the Holy Spirit have His way. “People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things” (Romans 8:5 CEV).
Too many of us think it’s too hard to grow spiritually. We are all wrong! It’s not too hard; it’s easy, all we have to do is be willing to let the Holy Spirit help us. The real problem, if we are honest, is that we like satisfying our flesh more than satisfying God.
The strongest Christian is the one who is weakest before God. “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV).
Until you let the Holy Spirit control you, your life is a train wreck waiting to happen. You may think you’re getting away with your fleshly pursuits, but you’re getting nowhere but further from God. Something needs to change.
If you don’t do anything different, then nothing is ever going to change. “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the [Holy] Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:22-24 NLT).
Child of God, the Holy Spirit can help you. Ask Him to help you. Ask Him to show you what needs to change, then ask Him to help you do it. You’ll know when you’re willingly letting Him help you because He can never fail, and He will change you.
The best part of your life is that part that is fully surrendered to God. “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him to help you do it, and he will” (Psalm 37:5 TLB).
The only person not changed by the Holy Spirit is the person not yielding to the Holy Spirit. If you want to be changed, you can be. No matter how long you have been trying to do it on your own, He is waiting for you to let Him help you.
Our job is to let God do His job in us. “Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it” (Philippians 2:13 ERV).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
“The real problem, if we are honest, is that we like satisfying our flesh more than satisfying God.” I agree.
We need to earnestly pray incessantly, whether we feel like doing so or not, for the One Triune God of all grace and all glory to ever increase in us holy, heart hunger for Himself, and the thirst to drink ever more deeply of the River of His pleasure, for His pleasure, our pleasure, and the pleasure of others, whose lives we have been Spirit sent to intersect with the ministration of His grace and glory.
Fervently, praying thus, we will be cultivating vital, conscious union and intimate, abiding love communion with the wondrous Holy Trinity of loving, living Infinity, the more beholding His beneficent beauty, esteeming His ennobling honor, revering His transforming power, in prevailing preference over and above the paltry, presumptuous satisfying of our delusional and corrupt, yet crafty carnal nature.
Let us exult in and extol the One Three Person God by gladly and gratefully giving Him the preeminence over the moments, movements, and matters of our lives when the carnal character would impudently insist its rotting rule.
Blessings to you my Brother!