Summary:

Your flesh (carnal mindset) is in constant conflict with your born-again spirit for control of your life, and your mind is the battleground. When you recognize that you’re in a war for
your thought life and purpose to align your thinking with God’s Word,
you begin your march toward victory.

  1. You have been called to liberty, but you should not use your freedom as an incentive to sin (Galatians 5:13).
    1. When you intentionally sin and rely on God’s forgiveness, you defeat yourself; what you practice doing determines what you become.
      1. Don’t fornicate or curse someone out just because you know you’re the righteousness of God and are eligible to receive forgiveness.
    2. Instead of giving place to the flesh, you should serve others (Galatians 5:13).
    3. You fulfill the entirety of the law when you love your neighbor as you love yourself (Galatians 5:14).

  2. Your born-again spirit is in competition with your flesh for control of your life (Galatians 5:16-24).
    1. Every work of the flesh, as well as every fruit of the Spirit, begins with a thought.
    2. Your mind is the control center, or central processing center, of your human body.
    3. Your life is the sum total of how you think.
    4. Walking in the flesh is a mindset aligned with the world; walking in the Spirit is a mindset aligned with God’s Word.
    5. You can’t manifest the fruit of the Spirit without having the mindset of the Spirit; you can’t experience the works of the flesh without a
      mindset of the flesh.
      1. You must think about fornication before actually committing the act.
      2. You must think about loving others before you actually love them.
    6. When you walk in the Spirit, you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh (verse 16).

  3. You can’t be spiritual without the Word of God.
    1. You can’t walk in the Spirit without the Word, because the Word is Spirit and life (John 6:63).
    2. Living according to the Word is what makes you spiritual. When you try to be spiritual without the Word, you are just being “spooky.”
    3. Any way of thinking that doesn’t align with the Word is walking in the flesh. This includes traditional religious doctrines.
    4. Daily study of the Bible is vital—your potential for walking in the Spirit is directly linked to your understanding of the Word (2 Timothy
      2:15).
    5. If you never read your Bible, then the only potential you have is to walk in the flesh.

  4. You will only prosper and be in health to the degree that your soul prospers in these areas (3 John 2).
    1. You are made up of three parts: spirit, soul and body.
      1. You are a spirit, you possess a soul and you live in a body.
    2. Your life is a production of your thoughts.
      1. If you don’t have thoughts of health, prosperity and increase on your mind, you will never have those things in your life.
      2. Your thoughts are the plans, or blueprints for your life.
      3. If you want to change your life, you must change the way you think.
      4. Generational curses, such as poverty and sickness in your family, will only be broken when you change the way you think about them.

  5. God’s ways are the highest ways. To walk in His ways, you must discover His thoughts from the Bible (Isaiah 55:7-8).
    1. God has a thousand ways to straighten out your marriage, help you raise your children and get you out of debt; however, as long as you continue
      to think according to the world, you place yourself outside of His
      ways.
    2. God knows that you can’t get His ways without first exchanging your thoughts with those that align with His Word.
    3. Many Christians allow their thinking to be influenced by unsaved friends, talk shows, TV and movies that don’t line up with the Word.
    4. Satan’s words produce thoughts that produce his ways; God’s Word produces thoughts that produce His ways.
    5. God sent His Word so that you can think like He does and live His way.

  6. Within your mind, God’s Word and the Devil’s words battle for influence and control.
    1. The Devil tests you with sinful suggestions to see if he can control you; he knows that your thoughts govern your life.
      1. He uses words in songs and images in the media to influence you, gain access to your thinking and use your body to express himself through
        you.
      2. He wants to see if you will accept and nourish his thoughts or cast them down.
      3. Although Christians can’t be demon-possessed, they can be demon oppressed if they allow their thinking to be influenced by the Devil.
    2. Words from the Devil were what produced devilish thoughts that delivered sin into the world.
      1. Sin could never have entered in if Adam and Eve had not received his words that produced his thoughts.
    3. God established that only those with a physical body would have authority on earth (John 10:9); He then gave that authority to Adam.
      1. When Adam sinned, He forfeited his power; Satan took control of everything up to the throne of God.
    4. God made a way to bring Jesus into the earth legally so that He could restore man’s authority.
      1. The Old Testament is a covenant of words intended to produce thoughts that would one day become the flesh Who has all authority—Jesus Christ.
      2. God sent an angel to Mary to deliver His Word. When she aligned her thinking to it by saying, “Be it unto me according to thy Word” (Luke 1:38), a way opened up—God stepped through her womb into a “legal earth suit.”
    5. God’s Word will produce the path for you to reach millionaire status, receive your healing or become delivered from drugs; but you must first
      align your thinking with it.

  7. There are practical steps for walking in the Spirit versus walking in the flesh.
    1. You must be aware of the conflict that you are in.
      1. Your born-again spirit and your flesh are battling for control of your body.
      2. You can use God’s Word to cast down Satan’s words, because God’s Word is mighty (2 Corinthians 10:5)!
      3. When you sin, don’t punish your body—it’s not the problem. Your fleshy way of thinking is what needs to be disciplined with the Word.
    2. You must put first things first.
      1. If you want to conquer the lust of the flesh, walk in the Spirit by setting your mind on the Word first (Galatians 5:16).
      2. The religious world says you must be perfect before you come to God or attend church, but that is not what the Word of God says.
      3. If you could stop sinning by yourself, you would have no need for God. God knew you needed help to overcome sin—that’s why He says, “Come to Me first.”
      4. Religion says to stop sinning first, and then the Holy Spirit will come in to empower you to overcome; but the Word of God says to align your
        thinking with the Word first for change to come.
      5. The light of God’s Word, not religious foolishness, always overcomes darkness (Psalm 119:130).

Scripture References:

  • Galatians 5:13-14
  • Galatians 5:16-24
  • John 6:63
  • 2 Timothy 2:15
  • 3 John 2
  • Isaiah 55:7-8, 11
  • John 10:9
  • Luke 1:38
  • 2 Corinthians 10:5
  • Psalm 119:130

Pastor Robert Bagonza

Redeemed Church

www.mrolec.org