Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] The mind governed by the flesh leads to death.
[00:00:13] That's intense statement that comes right out of the scriptures. Are we governing ourselves by just, in just our own mind of the flesh, the passions? Just. Maybe we love God, or we said yes to Christ, but we're not really living like a godly, biblical way or going towards those things. The scripture, you know, that scripture goes on to say that the mind governed by the spirit leads to life, leads to righteousness. So we want to be putting a lot of energy towards this, right? This is. There's a war between the flesh and the spirit. There's. Your flesh wants to pull you away into selfishness and worldly desires and wants to. It wants to get you.
[00:00:49] It wants to govern over you. You know, that's the same thing with Christ. He can be our savior all day long, but he wants to be the Lord over our lives. He wants to govern over us where we yield to his ways. And there's a war here. Jesus said that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[00:01:09] John talks about being like athletes and being disciplined and running a good race and being disciplined like an athlete. So how are we doing in the war area of the disciplines, the disciplines of, like, fasting, intentionally carving out time to deny ourselves food, to remind ourselves that our strength comes from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, right? That God's our bread, God's our source.
[00:01:40] What about our time in the word, right? Reading the word, studying the word, memorizing the word, just marinating in the word, just getting with God.
[00:01:49] How about worship? How lost are we getting in the place of God's presence? All of these things, these disciplines, lead us to great places of power. You know, when we're governed by the spirit of God, that's how you were created to live. That's how you were created to function. Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. This is so important. We're going to give accountability to God for every minute we breathe air, every second we are alive on earth. And, like, we know that, but we don't remember it. And there's so many distractions in our world, and our sinful nature is just trying to. It's just trying to pull us. The flesh is trying to govern over us and just pull us into this worldly place that we live that has very little to do with God. Now, you know, the world was created by God and all that, but, you know, this 21st century culture, there's some crazy business, crazy distractions. I mean, you know, I'm a man, and just, you know, the amount of lust that's in the world, you know, comes from my own heart. It's something I have to face and kill and put to death.
[00:02:45] But I'm just talking about this. Just the sins, right? The ability to hate somebody. The ability to not forgive. The ability to be a glutton or to overindulge.
[00:02:55] The powers of shame and guilt and how the enemy works. There's an insane war in this area of our lives. So as men, we've got to actually grab, you know, the bull by the horns in this area of our lives and, and command ourselves, yield to Christ. Let him be. I wanna be governed by the spirit, right? And, like, be moved and motivated every day by his power.
[00:03:18] But in order to do that, you've gotta get, you gotta face off with it.
[00:03:23] Our problems aren't that intense or even that powerful when we actually stop and look at them and square off with them. And that's what we gotta do. We gotta square off a culture and our time and our calendars, and we gotta know what we said yes to. And we gotta dig in and be men of war in this area, men of discipline, so that we can walk in power. That's why I'm talking about this. There's great hope. I mean, the Bible has great promise and hope that those who are governed by the spirit of God, we walk in victory. I mean, there really is a powerful way to live when you kill off the flesh and there's no appetites for this world. I mean, I think about the eagle, right? When the eagle eats contaminated meat, they say it flies up to the highest peaks and it spreads its wings out and it lays on its back before the sun, and the sun draws the poisons out. And that's what war is. War is us going over and over again and again like eagles. And just pull the draws. Pull, and it's at war. Just being in the presence of God is very powerful. Think about Peter at the cross. He's denying Christ. Yeah, he didn't, he didn't think he'd do that, but he did. Just like we've done that a hundred thousand times, right? Um, he didn't think he'd do that, but he did. And he's kind of cowardly at the crosse. But watch this in acts three. He's mighty. He's a mighty guy. A mighty man of God. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was poured out upon him. But why? Why? Because there was a war there. There was a discipline there. Peter waited for 50 days.
[00:04:46] 50 days obeyed Christ. Christ said, go wait in Jerusalem. Go wait. And there they are, waiting. And all of a sudden, this powerful moment happens. So they're given this quantity of time. All of a sudden, this quality just bam. And what's the result? Power. Victory.
[00:05:06] And that's exactly what you want as a man after God. So go. Go be a man of war today. Do the disciplines. Go get in God's presence and walk in his power.
[00:05:17] Until next time, live upright. Live upright.
