Oh, how easy it has been to set my mind on my flesh this past week! I’ve been in pain a long time. I had a procedure on Thursday and I’m now healing. Flesh can hurt us, take us off course and take our focus away from what brings us life and peace: the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost. My flesh isn’t what it used to be! It didn’t used to slow me down. My prayer is to have one more issue fixed this year and my flesh will hopefully improve greatly! I can throw off some of this weight and begin to exercise again, up my metabolism and accomplish more for the Kingdom. How our flesh can take over and damage us, whether it’s physical pain, sinful fleshly desires or elevating our bodies as a god, all of these have the capacity to veer us off course and even destroy us.
“I am not my body, I am my soul,” was a mantra I marched to early in my college years. I saw so many obsessed with physical image and social media has magnified this even more! This is wasted energy, spending our precious time worshipping our bodies and spending loads of money on altering our physiques. The dissatisfaction we feel is rooted deeply in the soul. Changing our bodies will not take this away. Just like money, our fleshly desires will become an addiction. We will always want more.
How can we even survive here without being consumed with fleshly things? We cannot get away from our flesh because we live within it! One day I will turn loose of this flesh and pass over into eternity. How do I survive until that moment comes? I must set my mind in the Spirit, that part of God who visits me, speaks to me, comforts me, and the list goes on and on. I choose what I allow to take root in my soul. If I continuously think on things of the flesh I will quickly be partaking! If I set my mind on God’s Spirit, I am gently guided, led and tempted towards God and the tasks God has for me. Focusing on the flesh places myself before God Himself. God is certainly more important than I!
This is a discipline. It doesn’t come naturally. Let’s set our minds on God’s Spirit by sitting still, listening, confessing about how our flesh can reign supreme. Let’s ask for God’s help and give God permission to speak, guide and direct. May we raise our spiritual radar! God will do amazing things if we do!
Jeni Martin Johnson 
If I could humbly throw some light into this I would like to. Paul sometimes refers to our flesh nature as our body and sometimes our ‘self’ nature. The ‘self’ nature should not be confused with our mind, emotions and will (our soul). Both body and soul are ours from the Father. Inside of everyone is a spirit core where dwells our spirit and anti-spirit (or ‘self’ nature). Spirit and anti-spirit war within us. That is the battle you are describing. The beautiful thing is that when our ‘self’ nature (antispirit) arises we can repent of it and give it over to God. The more we do this the less we contend with this monster. Repentance also strengthens our spirit. What few understand is this is a continual process that takes a long time. The more we are obedient to Jesus, repenting of our ‘self’ nature the faster we will mature spiritually.
Took us a long time to figure this out for it is not well known or taught unfortunately. By not understanding that our anti-spirit is not a legal part of us, but a squatter, means that we have full authority to ask Jesus to remove it from us by repenting of it. The key is to get our will to agree with His spirit rather than agreeing with our ‘self’ nature.
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Well said my friend!! I like your term, “squatter!”
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