The Bottom Line, Ministries Christian News, Articles, & Poetry 
Feeding the Spirit to Defeat the Flesh
The battle began at exactly 5:30 am. My body lay wrenched across my bed snuggled deep beneath my fluffy and ohhh soooo soft comforter. I heard the dreaded sound clanging like a fresh piece of chalk pressed against the board too tight. Quickly, I silenced the annoyance and turned my head back resting onto the fluffy cloud like pillow.
At 5:31 the fog began to lift as the battle continued.
“Get up!” I heard the insensitive voice call out in my head.
“No…stay right here and rest. It feels so nice. Besides, it’s really cold outside of the covers.”
The practical voice echoed back doing it’s best to convince me to enjoy the warmth, but the retaliation increased.
“I said get up!”
“Nope. Rest away. You deserve to sleep in. Enjoy the extra sleep.” The counterattack insisted.
“You promised Him” The front lines were moving in as the raging war intensified. “You don’t always keep your promises to Him.” The truth rang loud and clear.
“She is today so back off!”
“You are right! I did promise him, and I intend to keep it!” I whispered aloud hoping my husband didn’t hear me and think I was crazy. At that moment, I gently shoved the covers aside and rose out of bed. The enemy of the flesh had been defeated that day and the truth of the spirit had won.
Do you know that we are engaged in a war? The war we fight in is that of the spirit otherwise known as Spiritual warfare. God tells us “we do no wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places“(Ephesians 6:12).
The battle I found myself engaged in that morning was not the first of my flesh and spirit nor will it be the last.
In Galatians, Paul speaks of the battles we encounter on a daily basis. “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (16-17). For “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (24-25).
Father God, help me to choose daily to walk not according to my flesh, but to my Spirit. Help me to feed my spirit more than I feed my flesh.
So, which one will you feed more your spirit or your flesh?
I know all about spiritual warfare. In my past, especially right before I was about to become a Christian, I was taunted and harassed by demons. I’ve even been bitten and had my skin scorched by them. I will tell you part of my testimony. I was working with people who had severe mental illnesses and I became interested in the connection between mental illness and reports of being demonized. Suddenly I began experiencing attacks. This drew me closer to the Lord, and I began handing out the Bible and copies of The Purpose Drive Life to clients. This all before I fully dedicated my life to the Lord. Suddenly weird things started happening. A clock radio would turn on automatically and the stereo’s cd player was skipping. There were other oddities as well. But I still kept drawing closer to the Lord. Eventually I left my job because I felt the Lord was calling me to missionary work. The very next day, I went to church to help out and the pastor asked me who Jesus was. I said about 10 different things, but never said “Lord”. Well the pastor had known about the oddities going on in my life, and he said that the Holy Spirit had given him 1 Cor 12:3 to challenge me. Part of the verse says that no one can say, “Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit”. There was a spirit of stubbornness that tried to hold me back. Finally I was able to mutter the words, “Help me.” The pastor laid hands on me, prayed, and I got out the most beautiful words, “Jesus is Lord”. As soon as I said those words, I felt a demon forcefully burst out of my body through my chest. Minutes later, I was able to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and had what I would describe as a “supernatural glowing sensation” inside. I truly love the Lord and I am very thankful for what He has done for me. God bless
All too sadly, our understanding of the hellish spiritual realm in this day and age is sorely lacking. I, too, have seen the enemy bind and inhibit children in the special ed classes where I would often substitute teach. I could only quietly deal with this, but even in quietness, the demons would submit to the name of Jesus and the power of His Word.
Excellent article, Renee! Joel thank you for sharing your experience. Praise God for those beautiful words, “Jesus is Lord.” Amen I experienced the devil fleeing once. My husband and I were praying and we sensed a terrible presence of something I can’t explain–hatred, anger, it was something malicious–our prayer stopped for an instant and we looked at each other and realized we both had sensed it, we joined together in unison and said,”We love Jesus Christ, you, Satan, be gone.” And it was like a fresh wind blow near us and we really felt the devil flee from us. Talk about chills. That was an experience of God’s magnificent power. Yes, there is a constant spiritual warfare among us–praise God for always being near for intervention. God is so good!
Susan,
“Jesus is Lord” are three important words I’ll never forget. There is wondrous power in those Words of Truth!
What amazing testimonies to the truth and reality of spiritual warfare. Thank you both for sharing. Jesus is Lord! Amen.
Jesus is Savior and Lord. His beautiful name is our defense against the onslaught of spiritual battles we will face. Sometimes the battles are to get out of bed, sometimes they are much more intense-like Joel’s (and my own very lengthy testimony).
Fixing our eyes on Jesus and calling on His name our enemy is powerless against us. We may not be without the scars of battle but we will not lose when we are on the side of our Lord.
There was a man who had two dogs, one was named “flesh” and other was named “spirit.” These dogs were always getting into fights. Someone finally asked the man which dog wins. The man replied by saying, “Whichever one I feed the most.”
We are sons and daughters of the living God and we walk by the spirit,sowing to the spirit we reap eternal life. Lord help us continue to feed the spirit Amen.
Joel great testimony!
If you are to jump across a chasm, it is better to make one long jump than two short one.
I heard a pastor state this today on the radio and he also said that the same action is needed for us to take in order to put away those sins that get in the way of our relationship with God; no half-hearten efforts will work.
Oh that we would love the Lord so that we can represent Him better.
“The dearest idols I have known’
What ere those idols be,
May they be torn from this throne,
That I might worship only Thee!”
I am also struggling a lot with the desires of the flesh. My greatest battle is not with demons or devil but my greatest battle is with the flesh and the desires of the flesh, and sometimes i feel defeated and sometimes i win. Its just a struggle but i believe that we are more than the conquerors through Christ Jesus