In Galatians 5:16-26 “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other.”

Paul is telling us that we do not have to be controlled by our sinful nature. We have power given through the Holy Spirit to keep us from caving to our sinful nature. These are two powerful forces going on inside of every born-again believer, however, they are not equal in their power. The Holy Spirit is more powerful than our sinful nature, so when we pray and seek help, it is there in full force! Where we make our mistakes is leaning on our own wisdom, and in so doing we will make mistakes, and we will choose the wrong thing. We cannot even follow the Spirit by our own human effort, because we will fail. We must let the Holy Spirit be our guide, He will empower us to make the right choices. We need only ask.

Being led by the Spirit involves our desire to hear, with the desire and readiness to obey what God’s word says. We also need discernment to know what is our feelings and what is the Spirits leading. How do we know what we should do? We have God’s word to go to, fill up on, and to guide us in every situation in life. We cannot know what the world says if we never spend time eating at the table spread before us. Open it, and let it sink deep into your soul and mind.

Each of us is born a sinner, with a sinful nature that wants to rule over us. Evil desires are there, and depending on what you look at, read, watch, do, etc., are what will have the most power over you. We must crucify our flesh daily. We will always have those tuggings from our sinful nature, but if we are filled up with Jesus, listening to the Holy Spirit, and willing to not only read, but obey God’s word, we can have victory more times than not. The gifts of the Spirit can lead to a transformed life, one where we win over our flesh daily, one where we are living in, and others can see the fruits of the Spirit in our daily lives. They are: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All of these are by-products of Christ’s control over us. We must seek His help if we want to have victory over them. We need to walk with Christ daily, we need to seek Him in every aspect of our lives. We need a relationship, not just knowledge. Knowledge will not save you. The devil knows the word of God better than we do, he will even twist it, and try to deceive you. It is a daily dying to self, crucifying our fleshly desires.

The sinful nature wants to give in to these evil desires which we need to run from, they are: “sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
Now tell me, are these not the things we see running rampant in our world today? People are doing the most vile things not just privately,
but publicly waiting to see what happens, testing the waters to see how far they can go. Perversion is on display everywhere these days. No one keeps their sin hidden (by the way it is NEVER hidden from God’s all-seeing eye. They parade it down streets in full view of children and everyone else and dare you to disagree. God help us!

As we surrender every aspect of our lives to Christ, our emotional, physical, intellectual, and even our everyday endeavors we begin to walk in step with the Spirit. We need to seek God’s approval over men in every area of our lives. Don’t you want to hear him say at the close of your day, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant?” I know I do.

Just because the world says we can, and even some so-called churches endorse such behaviors, doesn’t mean it is right. So, if you find yourself not hating sin, agreeing that some sins are acceptable, you need to check your relationship with Jesus Christ. Homosexuality is a sin, murdering the unborn is a sin, transgender anything is a sin, racism is a sin, hatred of any group is a sin, and the list goes on and on. Just remember, God is not mocked. He was the decider on gender, on our race, on everything. These things may appear to be gaining ground, and we are told we must conform and agree with them or we are labeled as haters, I say no, I will not agree. I will do my best to love what God loves and hate what God hates. He hates sin!

So what force will you let lead you today, and each day? I pray it is the powerful force of the Holy Spirit, fully surrendered, listening to, reading, praying, and obeying God’s word. Greater is He that is in me, than he who is in the world!