This message is extremely important, which will transform your lives, may the Lord bless it to your hearts so listen carefully.
Now when I start preaching, a little 5 or 10-minute message, can do more for you than a half hour sermon, when it is Anointed by the Holy Spirit with such an impact that it will remain with you.
This way it gets rooted in your spirit, and the Holy Spirit, can bring it to your remembrance.
I came out of the “Word of faith movement” back in 1988 I think, because it was about the time some teacher gave 88 reasons why Jesus was coming back in 1988.
Any way I studied under Norvel Hayes, I went to Cleveland Tennessee, went to his church and his bible school and lived there for a year and the Holy Spirit still brings to my remembrance things he said because they got in my spirit. I can actually hear his voice, He has got quite a personality, so don’t let it hinder you from listening to Him. I never met a man who walked in more Authority than he did.
Most preachers think that a sermon should be almost 45 minutes or an hour long.
But I began to realize the futility of it and will try to keep my audio’ short at both ends and set them on fire in the middle. I am thinking 20 minutes at the most.
Believers do not need orderly sermons where you slowly but surely build it up with many illustrations to make it a piece of oratory.
They need you to give them something in the Scripture, to outline a principle that they can chew on, and meditate on and have it explode in their spirits releasing power, so that they can walk with God in it.
And sometimes in the multitude of words, there’s a great deal of confusion in the words so that you do not get the basic principle.
If I can impart one spiritual principle to you, I believe my ministry will be a success.
Galatians 5: 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
The word not in the Greek is actually two separate words 1- ou-which is a full negative, which means never! 2- mē– which is a conditional negative, which means no! So this is what is called in the Greek a double negative. So, the literal translation in English is never, no. But I have been translating it no, never! Because it sounds better. But the Holy Spirit said, “translate it impossible.”
OK, I repent. The word the root of the word repent is two words “with” and “thoughts coming into your mind”.
I co-labor with the Holy Spirit and he said translate it “it is impossible”.
So, now you have the perfect example of what it means to repent. I am an instant repenter, When I hear the voice of God, I change my mind and agree with Him, Repentance is a gift from God, and it is a lifestyle. I am half human so I am going to make a mistake, but the Holy Spirit, he never makes a mistake, he is a genius, he can do anything, he says you need some help, I can do that. I’m telling you with his help, nothing is impossible.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Not being under the law does mean you’re a lawless person, but it means that there’s no binding force of legalism, harassing you because you’re living above it.
By the Holy Spirit, you’re fulfilling righteousness, apart from the harassment of legalism. How beautiful that is.
Then it ends in this way. Verse 25, If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.
This leads us to understand one basic thing that’s important.
The flow of the Holy Spirit in your life and your spirit coming forth to walk with God, the set of your will to walk in the Spirit, puts you in such a place where you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
It is important for you to know this. Because there are times that everyone feels the pressure of the flesh. This is the most natural thing in the world.
But when you find these things coming against you, remember the antidote is not conflict, but the antidote is to rise to a higher plane.
The key is to rise to something greater. When you are filled with the Spirit you experience the joy of the Lord, and to yield to the flesh, will just quench that, and if you can still get some pleasure out of the old flesh, it is not near as fulfilling as the pleasure you experience when you are walking in the spirit.
Sometimes you suddenly find that the New life, as you begin to walk in the Spirit, becomes “so great a force in your life” that the thing’s of the flesh suddenly has no more influence, no more force upon your life whatsoever.
It is very important that you see that, and if you haven’t yet experienced that, it is because you have not learned how to be continually filled with the Spirit.
As you go along in this walk in the Spirit, a great many things will be taught to you.
You’ll be taught how to worship the Lord, to keep your spirit open, to resist things that would restrain your spirit, to keep you so that you really can walk in the Spirit, walk a dedicated life.
And as you do so, you have the greatest answer right there for what your life will produce.
Now, if you walk in the Spirit, it means that you’re drawing from the realm of the Holy Spirit, and the result is going to be the fruit of the Spirit will come forth in your life. And these, of course, are all divine attributes of the divine nature, love, joy, peace, long-suffering down and eventually all the attributes of God.
If you walk after the flesh, you’re going to notice that the flesh is going to produce certain things, certain works, it’s called.
In other words, the products, the projects that come forth out of yielding to the desires of the flesh. And then it gives you a list of them.
This is the thing that the flesh is going to produce. It’s just inevitable. The corruption of the flesh brings forth evil fruit. And our spirit by the Holy Spirit produces a divine fruit, a nature of God coming forth in the individual life.
But don’t ever fool yourself on this point. Now here’s something you must understand.
This is not the development of an old nature getting better. It’s not the refinement of an old nature. That old name has been crucified with Christ.
The flesh, can produce a reasonable facsimile of love, a reasonable facsimile of joy, a reasonable facsimile of peace, and long suffering and of patience, and so forth. But these are on a lower level, that is why we must come up higher.
The flesh is not just all the bad things; it is your human ability apart from God. Your human flesh can become very religious.
In fact, that’s the danger that you can set before people something from God and they’ll run out to produce a fleshly counterpart, a counterfeit of it. This is a dangerous thing.
But that shows you the resourcefulness and the subtlety of the flesh.
But when you really walk in the Spirit, there’s something of reality that comes forth in your life, that walk with God, that nature of God, and it’s going to overcome.
It’s going to rise above everything else, every circumstance, every foe that opposes it, every relationship that hamstrings it, every circumstance that stands in its way, every evil thing of Satan, every devil power that comes against it.
This nature that God is bringing forth will rise above it if you walk in the Spirit.
I think that sometimes, if you can see this, prayer can be most effective.
But even people who do not pray at all, as far as getting down and groaning and interceding, still rise above their troubles and their problems and their defeats by just tuning into God and walking in the Spirit.
Sooner or later, it’ll straighten everything out anyway.
But of course, if you have a great burden of prayer and you get with it, you can save years of your life that way, as the natural process of walking in the Spirit may take a longer time to work the thing out.
What my point is that when you walk in the Spirit, you have turned loose such a great force in your life, that you’re assured right here, you walk in the Spirit, you’re not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Did you get that?
There are two things in you desiring against one another your spirit and your flesh. And as long as this war is going on, you will keep having conflicting motivations that are crossing out one another.
The scripture puts it this way, so that you cannot do the things that your spirit desires.
The flesh can be so powerful a force that it keeps you from doing what you want to in God.
And the your spirit is just powerful enough that you can’t really enjoy the flesh either now that your spirit has been born again.
So here you are, the flesh and your spirit crossing things out, and you’re put in a position where you’ve got to look for something higher. You need the help of the Holy Spirit in this matter.
What is the one thing that can bring everything into submission? When you begin to walk in God, in the Spirit. Your Spirit will draw such reinforcements that you will not fulfill, “it’s still there”, but you will not yield to that anymore.
And the longer that you do not yield to the flesh, it practically becomes non-existent. It might rise up now and again, but you immediately disconnect from it, so that you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
There are times you might get angry in an ungodly way, or fearful. But then you just have to pause and set your mind upon the Lord and just start loving him, and worshiping and in no time, you will be filled with the Spirit once again but now not only does your spirit desire to do, God’s will but the Holy Spirit is backing you up, and nothing can overcome the Holy Spirit.
So as you learn to walk in the Spirit you will attain such a high level in the Spirit that the flesh is immediately shut down if it tries to rise its ugly face.
I don’t know whether you get the impact of what this means or not.
You’re not going to be defeated.
You’re not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
If you are able to learn how to walk with the Spirit of the Lord.
Now some will say, why do you keep telling us, wait (focused listening) on the Lord, live in the Word, try to develop a real spiritual life? I’m not trying to make spiritual mystics out of you, that will come later. I call myself a Christian mystic. But my calling is to the body of Christ at large, and I want to keep things as simple as I can so that you can in your life experience become a completely different person than you were, your conscience has been cleansed, your soul no longer rules your life, and then you can really start experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to give us and make a difference in this world.
I just want you to know the power that the Holy Spirit brings to your spirit. When you begin to walk in the Spirit, you just start overcoming one thing after another and you can overcome anything that rises up against you, and you will begin to come into an immunity where the devil has no place in you and cannot even touch you.