What Is The Trinity Of Our Flesh? by ‘Brother Bill’
The flesh worships a trinity of its own: me, myself, and I. It is a small god, but it is attentive, and it never asks anything of you that you did not already want to do.
It runs on three fuels — competition, condemnation, and comparison — and Paul, who had watched it operate up close in more than one congregation, wrote down the inventory:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!!!!!!!!! (Galatians 5:19–21 NKJV)
Read that list again and notice how many of the items are things you can do sitting down, in a comfortable chair, with a phone. Hatred. Contentions. Jealousies. Dissensions. Envy. A man can work his way through half of that catalogue before lunch without ever raising his voice or leaving the house, and can be persuaded the entire time that he is being civically engaged.
The Holy Spirit does not negotiate with that trinity. He does not counsel it, coach it, or help it set achievable goals. He crucifies it, and He grows something else in the crater.
But, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 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. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:22–26 NKJV)
Observe what is not on that list. There is no sanctified tribalism. There is no holy contempt, no righteous sneer, no discernment gift that happens to consist entirely of finding out what is wrong with people. The fruit is not a better-educated version of the old appetite. It is a completely different spiritual tree.
That’s why we must be born again in God’s spirit to get a new heart as the old man has no place in God’s kingdom: Ephesians 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
How can the old man die? Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Romans 14: 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
So, let’s die to live. — Blessings brother bill/dad
