Last week we looked at what it is to walk in the Spirit.  We took our scripture verses from Galatians 5:16-25 

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  
Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit is to live in the world with the faith that was manifested in the resurrected Jesus as your sight.  You see God has sowed His strength to build you the life you always longed for in the resurrection of Jesus.  And you live the life you have now in the world by the faith that the life you see in Jesus is your life.  

You’re no longer looking around in the world for a sign that you have what is needed for life.  You live in the world beholding the life God has built for you in the face of Jesus, and the life you see in Jesus is the evidence you possess an incorruptible life that is full of all that is just.   You live the life you have in the world with your desire for life having been satisfied by the life you see God built for you when He raised Jesus from the dead.  

So what is it to walk after the flesh? 

Simply put walking after the flesh means for you to be intimate with the flesh.  Its for your intimacy to be with the flesh?  It means to fornicate with your flesh.   The Bible calls it fornication because your maker is your husband, and if you are being intimate with something other than God to bear fruit it is considered to be adultery.  

What does it mean to be intimate with the flesh?  I mean how can you be intimate with your flesh?  

We talked last week about the Holy Spirit building us a life when the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.  In the same way the Holy Spirit has built us a life, and that life is contained in Christ Jesus.  Theres a life thats been built by man.  Man has tried to build themselves a life through the strength contained in their own hand, and that life is contained in the world. 

Adam was like a do-it-yourselfer.  Adam said I am my own workmanship.  I will build myself a life that is so glorious it can serve me with peace and love and joy.  He didnt want to call in the expert in bringing forth life.  He saw what the life of God looked like and he said I can build God’s life myself.  I can decorate myself with Gods life.  I can just watch a YouTube video and build for myself a life that can satisfy my desire for peace and love and joy.  Just as the prodigal son wasted his inheritance, and tried to build for himself the life he saw in his father.  Adam wasted his inheritanc.  He sold the eternal life that was his inheritance for the life he could gain from the strength contained in his flesh.  

Adam founded a world where the life in it is built by the strength contained in the hand of a man.  He saw there was some ability contained in his flesh.  He saw there was some type of strength contained in his flesh, and he sowed that strength to try and build life for himself.  Now through that Adam founded the world we live in now, with it’s elementary principles.  

The elementary principle of the world Adam founded, is that within your hand is the power to gather life to yourself.  Within your hand is the strength to build yourself the kind of life that can serve you with all that is just, and satisfy your need for peace and love and joy.  If you will just sow the strength contained in your hand then you can be exalted unto life by the multitude of the merchandise you can gather to yourself.  

But, listen the life Adam built is but dust.  Its of an earthy substance.  I mean Adam was made from dust, and since the way he tried to build himself a life was by sowing the strength contained in his own hand, the substance of the life he built can only be dust.  

Now because the substance of the life Adam built is just dust, its subject to corruption.   That means the life Adam built is defined by injustice and calamity and destruction and death.  The life Adam built is shaped by temporal things that are all perishing.  It fades as the flower of the grass, and ends up in the grave.   Its at the mercy of the sin and death in the world. 

Now walking after the flesh is that you identify with the life thats been built by the strength contained in man’s hand.  You live and move and have your being within that life.  You identify with the life in the world.  You see the life thats in the world, or rather the death thats in the world and you confuse your life with what you see there.  You see the death and tribulation and calamity and corruption and all that is going on in the world and you live as if your life is contained in those things.  You see the good and the evil that is in the world and you live as if your life is contained in the good you can see happen and the bad you can keep from happening.  

You hear you were crucified with Christ to the world and the world to you, and you continue to live beholding your life in the face of the world and what you see you have in the world.  Your intimacy is with the life Adam fathered, and because the life you are walking in is earthy and but dust, and subject to decay.  What happens is you end up sowing the strength contained in your flesh to try and gather peace and love and joy to yourself.  You end up fornicating with your flesh to try and be justified by the life you can gather to yourself.  

Crucified with Christ to the world and the world to you.   

Doesn’t mean it’s bad to enjoy things in the world.  On the contrary it’s actually the power to be able to enjoy life while in the world.  It’s the revelation that the world is not the Father of your life.  Its the revelation that the substance your life consists of is not contained in the world or the things and happenings in the world.  

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Explain lust of the flesh .... 

If a person is living in the world, beholding their lives in the world, lust will be conceived in them.  If the life they are identifying with is corruptible.  They’ll want life so badly, they’ll crave life so badly that they will work their flesh to try and satisfy themselves with the peace and the love and the joy they crave.  I mean if you are all the time seeing your life as perishing and being corrupted by the world around you; if you are all the time seeing your life as lacking in something that is needed, that will compel you to sow the strength contained in your own hand to try and nurture yourself unto life. 

If we walk in the flesh; that is if we walk in the life that was built by the strength contained in the hand of a man, that life will sting you with death.  It will leave you feeling empty and experiencing lack.  You will see that life is at the mercy of the sin and death in the world around it.  It will fill you with fear and take you captive to laboring and toiling.  The fruit that life will give birth to in you is the fruit that comes from the flesh working to produce life.  

The works of the flesh is the fruit that comes from a person working their flesh to produce the fruit of the Spirit.  We can put the flesh to work desiring to produce something good, and the result that will come forth is the works of the flesh.  Why did Cain murder Abel?  Cain was a tiller of the ground.  Remember our bodies were made from the ground.  Cain worked his flesh to try and bring forth the fruit of the Spirit.  He looked to the strength contained in his own hand to try and satisfy himself with peace and murder was the fruit that came forth from him.  

Should a person put the flesh to work to gather unto themselves peace and love and joy, the fruit that will come forth from that is Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, 

Now Paul comes and says in Galatians 5 if you walk in the Spirit you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  If you walk in the Spirit the result of that is you will not work your flesh to try and gather life to yourself.  

Remember when Paul talks about walking in the Spirit the context is the life God built for us through His Spirit.  

If you walk in the life the Spirit has built for you in Christ Jesus, then you shall not sow the strength contained in your flesh to try and gather life to yourself. 

Now listen theres a newness that comes from knowing that now you possess an incorruptible life in Christ Jesus.  It satisfies your craving for life.   

Psalm 91:16  With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation. 

Have you ever had a craving for something that just wouldn’t go away ..... maybe its different for you but for me the craving doesn’t go away til I get what I’m craving ......

Within the life God built you by His Spirit is all that is just and right.  Within that life is all that is pure and perfect and lovely.  There is grace within that life; there are nutrients within that life.  All the vitamins and protein you need to experience peace and love and joy are contained within the life God built you.  There are rivers of living water, and strength within that life.  Within that life is the ability to make anything that has gotten crooked straight.  The life God built you carries within it the certainty that everything that has gotten crooked will be made straight.  

If you walk in the Spirit; that is if you walk in the life God built for you through His Spirit.  Your whole spirit, soul, and body will be strengthened with the grace of God.  The grace of God is found in His life.  

Your heart will be comforted from the tribulation in the world.  Your flesh will be put to rest by the love you see God has for you.  As you walk in the life the Spirit has built for you in the man Christ Jesus, that life will condemn the death thats in the world, and keep your heart from fear.  As you walk in the life the Spirit built for you, what will happen is your craving for life will be satisfied.  And the works of the flesh will not have an opportunity to manifest in your life. 

The true sowing and reaping in the letter to the Galatians isnt about sowing money and reaping money.  Its about walking in the life man has built by sowing the strength contained in their own hand.  Or walking in the life God has built for man by sowing His Spirit.  If you walk in the life man has built by sowing the strength contained in their own hand you will reap from that life the works of the flesh.  If you walk in the life God has built man through His Spirit raising Jesus from the dead in glorified immortal flesh, then you will reap from that life the fruit of the Spirit.  

Pray