"This Ugly Flesh" -2

"An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." (Psalms 41:8) If only it were as easy as it is simple. The simple thing for us to do, is to quit feeding the flesh, and to concentrate on feeding the Spirit; and part of what is required to feed the Spirit, is to obey what the Spirit says to do. When the Spirit of God that is within us says, Don't do that, then we need to listen; and when the Spirit of God that is within us says, Do this or that, then we need to obey Him and do what He says. The opposite of doing what the Spirit says, is to do what the flesh desires; when the flesh wants something that is not good for our spiritual walk, the Holy Spirit inside of us will say, No, that is not good; but the flesh will beg to differ, and if not considered to be dead, then the flesh will have it's way by numbing our hearts to the voice of the Spirit. Not that I am an expert in walking in the flesh, but I have walked in the flesh enough to know what it takes to become numb to the Spirit of God; if this flesh is not considered dead in Christ, then it is alive unto sin, and sin will happen; and if not repented of and corrected, sin will become more and more a part of what we are, because the flesh will become stronger and stronger, bolder and bolder, even to the point of mocking God and the holiness that is to be lived out in our lives. This, my dear brothers and sisters, is where we find ourselves coming to see the relationship with this verse above; because an evil disease has cleaved fast unto us, which is the disease of sin, and the only reason that it has taken hold of us at all, is because we have given power to the flesh, this ugly flesh that is to have no power at all. It's the "they say" part of this verse that I find rather interesting, because they say also includes "we say", as in, we have no real faith at all. If we had faith, then we would walk by that faith, and we would not be laying down in the first place; but once we are laying down, then it is harder to get up because of our prideful heart, and the hardness of our heart against God. But God, who is abundantly merciful and full of grace, He is always the God of second chances (thirds and fourths too, if need be); and the glorious thing that we must realize, is that we must not rise up again at all, but it is Christ that has risen, and it is He that must rise up in us... "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24)