Not everything is a demon. As Christians, we're not only facing the devil, we're not
only facing the world, we're also facing a war within. The Bible calls war with the flesh.
There's an Old Testament example in Genesis 25:23 where God speaks to a woman and He says,
two nations are in your womb and two peoples will be separated from your body. One shall be
stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger and I think that's what happens within
every Christian, we have the old nature and we also have the new nature, that's been reborn. The
new us and the one that's been made through Jesus Christ and the Bible gives this prophetic picture
that the older will serve the younger meaning, that the old nature will be under subjection of
the new nature and that is the prophetic picture that God wants us to live out every single day.
Now, we must understand that flesh in the Bible is it frequently refers to the body in Leviticus
chapter 14 verse 9 as well as flesh is General description of all mankind. Genesis chapter 6
verse 17 and if you read the book of Acts chapter 2, where Peter quotes Joel and saying that God
will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh and then of course flesh is a sinful nature. Romans chapter
7 verse 5. Flesh is the traitor within who is in the league with the enemy without. Flesh produces
works and we see that in Galatians chapter 5, the 17 works of the flesh are mentioned and they're
actually evident things like sexual sin, paganism, temper problems and drinking. Flesh has passions
and lust. We see that in Galatians chapter 5 verse 24 and also the flesh enslaves us to sin. Romans
chapter 6 verse 19 and Romans chapter 7 verse 25. Now the flesh is not a demon because the flesh
doesn't speak, demons do and the flesh cannot be cast out, it has to be crucified but the flesh
loves to have a stronghold in your life because then it can leave an open door to the enemy. The
moment we begin to deliberately, intentionally sin and indulge in the desires of the flesh,
we actually become vulnerable to be exposed to the demonic influence in our life because the flesh is
at war with the Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter 5 verse 17, the Spirit wages war against the flesh.
The spirit doesn't fight against the devil. The devil is defeated but because we have the right to
submit to the Holy Spirit or submit to the flesh. There's this conflict that is happening in our
life right now. Now, how do we overcome the flesh? We can't get rid of it. We can't ask God to take
the flesh away because it's something that even when it's crucified, it still resurrects every
single day. How do we overcome this flesh? Here are few practical steps. Number one,
you have to reckon yourself dead in Christ. In Romans chapter 6 verse 11 it says, likewise
you also reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So our
victory over the flesh does not start with us, it starts with Jesus. We actually identify with Jesus
Christ and His victory and that victory, His death on the cross, we actually die to our sin nature.
We died with Him so positionally the flesh is done with but conditionally, now we have to live
out that victory every single day and so is with righteousness. Righteousness is a gift yet we have
to live this righteousness out. We know the same thing with victory. Jesus has already defeated the
devil on the cross but we have to now resist the devil. We know the curses are broken on the cross
but now we have to renounce these curses. We know that we are saved but we're called to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling. Same thing is with the flesh. We don't start from the point of
killing our flesh, we start from the point of our flesh is already dead and that's the truth
and that's the revelation that we live off. So we live out of a revelation instead of a desperation
to try to conquer something Jesus has already conquered. Now the step number two is we have
to make a decision. The Bible says, Do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should
obey in its lust. Romans chapter 6 verse 12 and so this decision is where we now make a conscious
willful decision not to let fleshly desires and fleshly lust to rule and reign over our decisions,
over our life. We shouldn't let our moods and our emotions to dictate where and what
we should do. So first comes this identification with Jesus's death and then comes this personal
conscious decision. Our decision of, I am not going to let my body, I am not going to let my
flesh be in charge of decisions in my life. Step number three is we have to actually present our
body as a tool for service to God. I call this discipleship. In Romans chapter 6 verse 13, it
says do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to
God as being alive from the dead and your members as the instruments of righteousness to God. So
not only we make a decision but we actually have to now devote our body and we have to,
this is part of discipleship is we present our body as a living sacrifice to God. We can do that
by bringing our body to service at church. We can do that by waking up earlier to pray. We can do
that by fasting. We can do that by intentionally putting our body in the place where it serves God.
Honestly, your body is either your servant or it's your slave and it's either an instrument
of righteousness or an instrument of wickedness and that decision lies with you. So you make a
decision not to let the sin reign in your life but then you gotta go one step further and you
actually have to make a conscious decision to let your body be an instrument of God. Number four is
devotion and this is walking in the Holy Spirit. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 it says, I say
then walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now I want you to notice,
it does not say have the Holy Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Every
Christian has the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit does not have have every Christian
and therefore a lot of Christians live a carnal defeated lives not because they don't have the
Holy Spirit but because they yield to their flesh. As a Christian because you have the Holy Spirit,
it does not mean you lose the flesh. It just simply means now you have a friction,
you have a conflict. In this conflict, you decide who you yield to and if you yield to the flesh,
you will live an unholy life but if you have the flesh and you yield to the Holy Spirit who lives
inside of you, you will live a holy life and so this is more than just coming to church, this is
more than just believing that God exists, this is more than just once in a while I give few dollars
in the offering basket. This is actually walking in the Holy Spirit. It's not enough to even speak
in tongues. It's not enough to go to church. You have to walk in the Holy Spirit. What does that
look like, it's walking in line with the Spirit's promptings and the Spirit's desires. It's knowing
the Holy Spirit so close, knowing the Holy Spirit so near that you're actually obedient to His word,
to His promptings and to His direction, talking to the Holy Spirit, listening to the Holy Spirit and
allowing the Spirit to fill and guide your life and the Bible says when that happens,
it doesn't say the flesh disappears, it doesn't say the flesh becomes born again. It actually says
that you will now have the power to resist the urges of the flesh. The flesh will still be bad,
the flesh will still have urges, cravings, desires and lusts. It's just now there will
be a superior strength added to your willpower called the Holy power, the Holy Spirit power
that will enable you to overcome. Now this idea that you're just gonna play passive and the Holy
Spirit will do all the work is not scriptural. The fruit of the spirit is self-control. The
fruit of the spirit is not Spirit control that means Holy Spirit is not going to take control,
Holy Spirit will empower you to exercise control. Now step number five on how to overcome the flesh
and that is discipline and that is to crucify the flesh. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 24 it says,
those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Jesus says if anybody
looks at the woman and lusts after her, he has committed adultery in his heart and then He says,
if your eye causes you to sin, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. So He's not talking about
the physical members of our body, He's saying if there are trigger points, if there are things in
our life that are causing us to sin on good days, they're actually beneficial to us on the bad days,
they cause us to sin. Jesus says we have to crucify that. You may say but Vlad,
I thought you said that we are already dead like to the flesh, to the sinful desires. Yes the same
way as we are already righteous yet we still live out that righteousness. The same way as the power
of sin is broken over us yet we still fight sin. The same way as Jesus has already crucified and
took care of all of our crosses yet we're still battling with them and we still have to renounce
them. Why? Because Jesus destroys the power of the flesh but not the presence of the flesh and
then you still have a work to do and that is to crucify the things that Jesus has crucified
on the cross by intentionally going through a season of discipline, going through a time,
sometimes of actually excruciating pain of denying yourself of the things of the pleasures of sin so
that you can walk in the victory. In Galatians it talks about don't be mocked. God is not going
to be mocked. Don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked. He who sows into the flesh will reap
corruption and so the idea of crucifying our fleshly desires, it's not hurting your body.
We're not talking about inflicting pain. We're talking about going and foregoing through a season
of self-denial and discipline in our pursuit of more of God, looking at our life, things that are
hindering our pursuit of God and cutting them off and so that we can bear more fruit and so that God
can be glorified and the Holy Spirit will help us with that and after that, we'll experience brand
new resurrection. No my friend, not everything is a demon even if you get delivered, you will still
have flesh to deal with but thankfully, we have the help of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
God's word that is given to us to help us overcome the flesh, help us to overcome the world and help
us to resist the devil. God is on your side. You will be victorious. You can do all things through
Christ who strengthens you. No matter how many times you got beaten, no matter how many times
you have fell, get up, go forward again, rise up and fight again because in Christ, you are
already more than a conqueror. Hey, thank you for watching this video. I hope this brought an
encouragement and also a little bit of direction to you. Hey, if this was a blessing to you,
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