Spiritual Warfare: The Battle Within FLESH verse the SPIRIT

Spiritual Warfare: The Battle Within Flesh verse the Spirit 
Spiritual warfare happens every day, and it happens from the time we are born all the way until we die.  The spiritual war happens inside of us, it is the war between good and evil, the flesh verse the Spirit.  As a parent I teach my children to overcome and I discipline my children in the right way.  When they have a bad attitude, I discipline them that they may change, that they may repent and go the right way.  We also understand spiritually that God discipline us, that we may repent, that we may turn away from everything that is of the flesh, that we can enter into everlasting life, that we can win the war on the flesh.  I want to read to you what the Apostle Paul wrote about this in Galatians 5: 16-17; “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  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.”  So, the question is, what are the things that you wish?  Because the things that you wish could be for good or for evil.  If you are living in the flesh the things that you want to do are worldly things, sinful things, and the Spirit is waging war against those things that YOU wish to do.  But on the contrary, if you are living in the Spirit and you wish to do things that are righteous and pure because the Holy Spirit is in you, then the flesh that rises up in you wishes to do what is against the Spirit of God, it wishes to do things that are wicked and evil, and you will constantly have this battle between good and evil in your soul.  It is not a sin to be tempted, Jesus was temped, but He overcame.  And Jesus showed us the way to overcome in all situations.  But it is a sin when we are tempted in the flesh to fall into the things that the flesh wishes and that the flesh desires.  And as soon as you fall into that evil desire then sin sets in, which ultimately leads to DEATH, physical death and then spiritually our souls, if we reject God will be cast into everlasting death, the second death, which is the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone.  Hell is real, demons are real, satan is real and JESUS CHRIST is also real.  We need to make sure that we engage in spiritual warfare every day, that we OVERCOME the desires of the flesh, that we put the desires of the flesh in submission to the SPIRIT OF GOD and that we live by the Spirit.  We need to wake up praying and say; “LORD, I will deny myself, take up my cross today and follow you.  I will reject the desires of the flesh and I will live holy and righteous.  Let me be a vessel of honor who pleases you and lives for you with all of my heart…”  We need to pray that every single day and put on the full armor of God that we can WIN the spiritual battles.  If we don’t win the battles we won’t win the war.  Strive with Jesus, engage in spiritual combat and don’t let anything distract you from going forward with your faith in Jesus Christ.  May the grace of Jesus be with you.