Galatians 5:16–17, 24–25 (NKJV) ~ “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.” “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Sometimes there are conversations that are hard to have, but just because a conversation is hard does not mean it should not be had. As a matter of fact, some of the conversations that make us the most uncomfortable are the very ones that cause us to look inward, grow, and become more like Christ. This week is going to be one of those conversations, so let me go ahead and get it started.
There are some things you know you should not do, and there are other things you do without even thinking about them. Some reactions have become automatic. Some attitudes have become familiar. Some habits have been with you so long that you no longer recognize them as something that needs to change. And then there are those things you simply want. You know what God is saying, but your flesh has an opinion too.
Let’s acknowledge something from the beginning; denying your flesh is not always easy. Sometimes you want to say it. Sometimes you want to do it. Sometimes you want to go. Sometimes you want to respond immediately. Sometimes you want what you want, when you want it, and the struggle between what your flesh desires and what the Spirit is saying is very real.
Paul does not pretend that struggle does not exist. Galatians 5:17 tells you plainly that “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” There is opposition happening within you. Your flesh can desire one thing while the Holy Spirit is leading you toward something completely different. But here is what you must understand: the presence of a struggle does not mean you have to surrender to the flesh. You have a choice.
Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Paul does not simply tell you what to stop doing; he tells you how to live differently. The answer is not merely trying harder to control yourself. The answer is learning to walk in the Spirit.
This connects beautifully with where you have just been. You walked out of bondage into liberty. You crossed over. You learned that you have not been this way before. You learned to give God room to lead, stay in His Word, guard your focus, pay attention, and refuse to go anywhere without His Presence. Now there is another truth you must face: you cannot ask the Holy Spirit to lead while continually allowing your flesh to make the decisions. There comes a point when you have to decide which one gets to lead.
Galatians 5:24 uses strong language: “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Crucifixion is not comfortable language because crucifying the flesh is not about making your flesh more comfortable. It is about refusing to allow your appetites, impulses, emotions, desires, pride, reactions, and old patterns to have authority over your obedience to God.
Sometimes crucifying your flesh means remaining silent when everything in you wants the last word. Sometimes it means walking away from something you still desire because God told you it is not good for you. Sometimes it means praying when you would rather sleep, forgiving when you would rather remain angry, waiting when you want to move, saying no when your flesh wants yes, or obeying God when obedience is inconvenient.
And sometimes it is much more subtle. Your flesh does not always announce itself. Sometimes it sounds like, “I deserve this.” Sometimes it says, “That’s just how I am.” Sometimes it says, “I’m going to say what I need to say.” Sometimes it says, “I’ll pray about it later.” Sometimes it says, “God understands.” And yes, God understands but His understanding of your weakness was never intended to become permission for you to remain controlled by it. His grace gives you power to become what He is calling you to become.
Here is the challenge that birthed this series; if you want your next three years to be greater than your last three months, something has to change. You cannot continually pray for a different future while feeding the same flesh that helped create some of the cycles of your past. You cannot ask God for greater territory while refusing greater discipline. You cannot continually ask for greater anointing without accepting greater surrender. You cannot ask God to change everything around you while refusing to allow the Holy Spirit to change something within you.
Romans 8:5 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Notice where this battle reaches, your mind. What you repeatedly think about, entertain, feed, watch, listen to, rehearse, and excuse can strengthen one side of this struggle.
So this week is not simply about behavior modification. It is about spiritual surrender. The question is not only, “What am I doing?” You must also ask, “What am I feeding?” “What am I excusing?” “What keeps triggering me?” “What desire has become too important?” “What reaction keeps winning?” “What has God repeatedly asked me to surrender?” And perhaps the hardest question: “What have I been calling ‘just me’ that God is actually trying to crucify?”
You said, “I’m more anointed today than I was yesterday.” Then allow the anointing to reach your private decisions as much as your public calling. Anointing is not permission to ignore discipline. If anything, what God entrusts to you makes surrender even more important.
Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Notice the word daily. Yesterday’s surrender does not automatically make today’s decision. There are things you may have to place before God again today. Your flesh may show up tomorrow with the same argument it gave you yesterday. But every day you are given another opportunity to say, “Not my will, Lord. Yours.”
This is not about condemning yourself every time you struggle. This is about recognizing that you no longer have to let the struggle determine the outcome. The Holy Spirit lives within you, and as you learn to yield to Him, your response can change. The goal of these five days is not simply for you to say, “I need to stop doing that.” The goal is for you to recognize what has been feeding your flesh, understand what it means to deny yourself, develop spiritual discipline, and intentionally choose the Spirit when your flesh wants something else. Because where God is taking you will require a version of you that knows how to say no to yourself so you can keep saying yes to Him.
Let’s Begin! Good Morning Sunshine! Your Flesh Doesn’t Get The Final Say!
Galatians 5:16–17 (NKJV) — “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.”
Paul wrote Galatians to believers who had received freedom through faith in Jesus Christ but were learning how that freedom should be lived. In Galatians 5, Paul makes it clear that Christian liberty is not permission to live according to every desire of the flesh. Galatians 5:13 says, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.” They had been set free, but they still had to decide how they would walk in that freedom.
Paul describes a conflict every believer will recognize. The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh. The flesh here is more than the physical body; it includes the desires, attitudes, impulses, reactions, and old patterns that resist God’s leadership. Becoming a Christian does not mean you will never experience a desire that conflicts with God’s will. You can love God and still have to tell yourself no. You can be anointed and still become angry. You can know Scripture and still be tempted to respond emotionally. You can genuinely desire God’s will while another part of you is saying, “But this is what I want.”
Paul does not tell believers to pretend this conflict does not exist. Instead, he gives them the answer; “Walk in the Spirit.” Victory over the flesh is not achieved merely by concentrating on everything you cannot do. It comes as you become increasingly yielded to the Holy Spirit, allowing His voice, His Word, His direction, and His fruit to influence the way you live. The flesh may speak, but it does not get the final say.
I need you to begin this series by acknowledging something that sometimes we do not want to admit, denying your flesh can be hard. There are moments when you know exactly what God would have you to do, but what you want to do feels completely different. Then there are other times when you do not even stop to think about it. You respond automatically because a reaction, attitude, habit, or pattern has become so familiar that it feels natural.
Sometimes you want to say exactly what is on your mind and have the last word. Sometimes you want to spend what you should save, stay in bed when you know you need to get up, hold onto an offense because forgiveness feels unfair, move ahead because waiting has become uncomfortable, or simply do what feels good in the moment. Your flesh can be very persuasive when it wants what it wants. But here is something you need to remember: wanting something does not mean you have to choose it. Every desire does not deserve a decision, every feeling does not require an action, every thought does not deserve agreement, and every impulse does not require obedience.
Proverbs 25:28 says, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” In biblical times, walls provided protection. A city without walls was vulnerable. In the same way, when you live without spiritual discipline, emotions, appetites, offenses, desires, and impulses can begin determining your behavior. This is why Paul tells you to walk in the Spirit.
Notice that Paul uses the word walk. Walking suggests movement, consistency, and daily choices. You do not take one step and call it a journey; you keep walking. Walking in the Spirit is the same way. It is not one dramatic moment when you surrender everything and never struggle again. It is a daily life of repeated choices to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you.
Romans 8:5 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” There is a connection between what you continually set your mind upon and what becomes stronger in your life. Pay attention to what you repeatedly feed with your attention, what you rehearse in your thoughts, the conversations you continually replay, and the desires you keep entertaining. Sometimes you can ask God to help you overcome something while continually feeding the very thing you are asking Him to help you crucify.
Today, however, the first step is simply recognizing the conflict because you cannot surrender what you refuse to identify. Sometimes the flesh is obvious, but sometimes it hides behind language that sounds reasonable. It may say, “I’m just being honest,” when you really want permission to say something hurtful. It may say, “That’s just who I am,” when God is trying to change a behavior you have carried for years. It may say, “I deserve this,” when the Holy Spirit is calling you to restraint, or “I’ll do it tomorrow,” when God has already told you to move today.
This is where spiritual maturity requires you to slow down long enough to ask yourself, “What is leading me right now?” Is this the Holy Spirit or my emotions? Is this conviction or my preference? Is this God’s timing or my impatience? Am I responding from wisdom or reacting because my feelings were hurt? Am I doing this because God said yes, or because I desperately want the answer to be yes?
James 1:19–20 tells you to “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Sometimes crucifying your flesh happens in the few seconds between what happened to you and how you choose to respond. That pause can become sacred space. Instead of immediately responding, you pray. Instead of immediately sending the text, you wait. Instead of immediately defending yourself, you ask God whether a defense is necessary. Instead of saying yes simply because you want something, you ask whether God wants it for you. You are teaching your flesh that it does not get to make every decision simply because it speaks first or speaks loudly.
Jesus gives us the ultimate picture of surrender in Luke 22:42 when He prayed, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Jesus did not pretend what was before Him was easy, yet His surrender demonstrates something that must become central to your life: God’s will must become greater than what you want in the moment.
“Not my will, but Yours” is not always an easy prayer. Sometimes God’s will requires waiting when you want movement, silence when you have plenty to say, forgiveness when your emotions want to hold onto the offense, or discipline when comfort would feel much better. Sometimes it requires walking away from something you still want. But denying yourself is not God trying to take your life away from you. Sometimes God’s no is protecting the yes He has prepared for your future.
This is why the thought behind this series is so important, if you want your next three years to be greater than your last three months, something in you must change. What if what God wants to do next does not require another opportunity first, but another level of discipline? What if the next door is not the first thing that needs to change? Maybe your response, habits, thinking, prayer life, or the way you handle frustration needs to change. Perhaps God is preparing the next three years by dealing with something in you right now.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Transformation is not merely God changing your surroundings; it includes God changing the person who will live in those surroundings. You may be asking God for greater territory, influence, opportunity, anointing, and impact, but greater requires something from you too. Luke 12:48 reminds you, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.” If God is preparing to place more into your hands, He may first be teaching you how to govern what is happening within your heart.
Your gift cannot be the only thing growing. Your discipline, character, prayer life, ability to wait, ability to say no, and willingness to obey when obedience is uncomfortable must grow too. Greater anointing should lead to greater surrender, and greater opportunity should be accompanied by greater spiritual maturity.
This connects with what you learned in the previous series; you have not been this way before and you have to learn to give God room to lead, stay in His Word, guard your focus, and remain close to His Presence. Now God is taking that lesson deeper. If you truly want Him to lead you, you have to recognize when your flesh is trying to take the wheel.
Galatians 5:25 says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Walking in the Spirit means the Holy Spirit becomes more than Someone you experience during worship or prayer. His leadership reaches your conversations, decisions, reactions, relationships, schedule, appetites, boundaries, and private choices. He cares about what you say when you are angry, how you respond when you do not get your way, what you entertain in your thoughts, and what you choose when nobody else is watching.
Galatians 5:22–23 includes self-control among the fruit of the Spirit. Self-control is not simply gritting your teeth and trying harder. It is evidence that the Holy Spirit is developing something within you that enables you to respond differently. Sometimes one of the most powerful spiritual words you can say is no. No, I am not going to respond that way. No, I am not returning to that pattern. No, I do not have to satisfy every appetite, win every argument, prove myself, accept every invitation, or follow every feeling. My flesh does not get the final say.
First Corinthians 6:12 says, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” So consider this today: What has been exercising too much power over you? What makes you feel as though you have to respond? What do you believe you cannot say no to? What repeatedly interrupts your discipline or receives more of your obedience than God does? Do not answer those questions with condemnation; answer them with honesty.
Romans 8:1 reminds you, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” This series is not an invitation to spend five days beating yourself up. It is an invitation to become more aware of what needs to be surrendered so you can become increasingly responsive to the Holy Spirit. Conviction does not say you are hopeless; conviction reveals an area where God wants to transform you.
There is a future you are praying for, assignments you have not yet touched, doors you have not yet walked through, and greater responsibility ahead. If you want your next three years to be greater than your last three months, do not only ask God to prepare it for you, but ask God to prepare you for it. Your preparation begins today by pausing before you respond, praying before you decide, listening before you move, and questioning a desire before you satisfy it.
When your flesh says, “But I want…”, give the Holy Spirit enough room to answer. Your flesh can have an opinion, your emotions can have a voice, and your desires can make their request, but they do not get the final say. God does.
Let’s Pray:
Father, in the name of Jesus, thank You for another day and for the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Thank You that You have not called me to overcome the flesh through my own strength. You have given me Your Spirit to lead me, teach me, convict me, strengthen me, and produce Your fruit within my life. Father, show me the areas where I have allowed my flesh to have too much influence over my decisions, reactions, habits, words, thoughts, and desires. Show me the things I do automatically without stopping to ask whether they honor You. Give me courage to be honest about what You reveal without falling into condemnation. When my flesh wants one thing and Your Spirit is leading me toward another, give me discernment to recognize Your voice and strength to choose Your way. Teach me to pause when I am angry, pray when I am uncertain, wait when I am impatient, and seek You before saying yes simply because something appeals to me. When I want to defend myself, help me discern whether You are telling me to speak or remain silent. Father, teach me to sincerely pray, “Not my will, but Yours, be done.” There are things I want, outcomes I prefer, and answers I would choose if everything were left to me, but I want Your will more than temporary satisfaction. If there is something I am asking You to bless that You are asking me to release, give me courage to let it go. If I have been saying, “That’s just how I am,” about something Your Spirit is trying to transform, renew my mind and change me. Prepare me for what I have been praying for. If I want my next three years to be greater than my last three months, help me accept the discipline required today. Do not only prepare doors, opportunities, assignments, and territory for me; prepare me for them. Grow my character with my gifting, my discipline with my opportunity, my prayer life with my territory, and my humility with my influence. As You increase the anointing upon my life, increase my surrender. Holy Spirit, lead my everyday life. Lead my conversations, reactions, thoughts, decisions, relationships, schedule, appetites, boundaries, and private choices. Produce Your fruit in me, especially self-control in the places where I have struggled to say no. I refuse condemnation, but I welcome Your conviction. When You show me something that needs to change, help me not hide it, defend it, excuse it, or blame someone else. Give me grace to simply say, “Lord, change this in me.” Help me remember that every desire does not deserve a decision, every feeling does not require an action, every thought does not deserve agreement, and every impulse does not require obedience. When my flesh speaks loudly, help me listen more closely to Your Spirit. When my flesh says now and You say wait, help me wait. When my flesh tells me to speak and You say be silent, help me be quiet. When my flesh tells me to hold on and You say release it, help me let go. When my flesh says, “This is what I want,” teach my heart to ask, “But Father, what do You want?” My flesh does not get the final say over my future. My emotions, appetites, old patterns, and past do not get the final say. You do. Teach me to walk in the Spirit one decision, one conversation, one reaction, one temptation, and one act of obedience at a time. Crucify in me whatever continually competes with Your will, and make me more sensitive to Your Spirit, obedient to Your Word, disciplined in my choices, and surrendered to Your purpose. Father, I want where You are taking me, but more importantly, I want to become who You need me to be when I get there. In Jesus Christ Mighty and Matchless Name, Amen.
Nugget ~ Every desire does not deserve a decision. Your flesh may speak loudly, but it does not get the final say. Pause, pray, listen to the Holy Spirit, and choose what moves you toward the future God is preparing you for.
Blessings…
Love, Dr. Jean
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