Romans 8:5, KJV: "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Few years ago my life was under a great attack by the devil due to the things i was early exposed to as a child. I grew up in a family that seeing an X rated videos was a normal thing as it was one of the major fun filled and most exciting activity to my senior siblings.
I too, in no short while started getting addicted to pornography at a very tender age. At nine(9) i was already not only seeing porn and even encouraging others of my peers to do, i also developed an habit called masturbation.
At my high school i had graduated from watching porn as a vibe to heighten my libido for masturbation to creating images of naked people in my mind to also help me masturbate. I believe that this is the worst state of it because it ceases our creative abilities, interchanging it for emptiness of mind. By this time, my appetite for masturbation had grown so wild that i had started masturbation for as much time as i so desired in a day. It was no big deal with me spending all day inside my little room masturbating.
It got to a certain point that i was becoming a bad breed amongst my peers. My mind had totally lost touch with the power it had, as a result of that, timidity became a part of my life that i could no longer stand my elders and even my equals because my mind always put before the bad conducts.
I knew what i was doing wasn't Godly but i just couldn't stop it until a mate a fellowship called FECA. Now one of the things that was my problem was ignorance. How do i mean?
I was already living in an habit i knew absolutely nothing about and there was nobody to tell me about it. I can remember one of those times as a little boy when my uncles wife caught me in the art and all she could do was tell my mum that i was riding a bicycle inside and this was because she was totally ignorant of what i was doing.
In 2015 January to be precised, i got born again and then decided to join a fellowship my friend had been inviting me for a long time. Now all of the things i have explained up there happened as a result of the fact that my mind was set after the things of the flesh - things that appeals to the fives senses of man.
So the journey in God began. Now my most challenging times with the habit came. After knowing what i was doing and what were it's implications, i started seeking ways to break out of it and friends trust me it wasn't an easy thing.
Now for every time we desire to break from an addiction, we must find out every bit of thing about this habit. So i began with reading stories of people who had once had this struggle and overcome it to find out if i could follow their steps.
In my quest to be free from masturbation i began searching the scriptures for Godly ways to my breakthrough, then i found this amazing in Romans 8:5
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
So God began to teach me about the reason why we struggle with the things we struggle with. For every struggle is sponsored by the things we give our minds to. Now lets look at what this scripture is trying to talk about but first lets interpret this scripture in a more contemporary way. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the spirit.
Those who live according to the sinful nature (the flesh) have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the spirits desires.
What are the Desires of the Flesh
Sexual pleasures (ignoring the standards of sexual behaviours).
Lusting after flashy things of this life.
Giving expressions of the evil thought of your mind.
Fame and wealth.
Now let's also look at the desires of the Spirit
What are the Desires of the Flesh
Lets summarize it with Gal. 5:19
For every act of the flesh, there is a solutions for it in the fruit of the spirit.
Every acts of the flesh is steadily in enmity (war) with the acts of the spirit and so it cannot understand the dealings of God because it doesn't mind the things of God and can't submit to God's will.
The sinful mind hates the presence of God because he is at war with God and wouldn't want to have anything to do with God. The clause of the whole thing is that, they cannot please God. Those controlled by the flesh (those who move at the detects of their desires) cannot please God.
For anyone to successfully break out of the influence of the flesh, he/she must make a deliberate effort to align to the will of God and also make it his daily life.
How To Walk In the Spirit
Often times, believer are grounded in an habit because they do not understand a bit of how God wants them come out of these addictions and instead of coming out they deeply fall into it again.
When we talk about walking in the spirit, we are talking about aligning ourselves, walking and moving at the impulse of the spirit in you. Now this impulses just as your physical body those signals your spirit to what God want you to do per-time. So every time we don't pay attention to this impulses, our flesh naturally aligns and follow the pressure of the things the world is showing to us.
One of the ways you understand these impulses are when you are praying and God by the spirit lays up instructions in our heart we must follow and every time we fail to follow this impulses, the devil in turn also lay up physical strategies for us.
Most times it could be that God doesn't want you out of the house for a particular day and while you are praying, He lays a strong burden in your heart all in a bit to stop you from going on your fleshly plans.
Pay attention to these impulses and see how God breaks the shackles off your life..
Nuggets
For every acts of the flesh, there is always a recompense in the spirit.
I AM @KUFRAY