Day 1

Galatians 5

¹³ You, my brothers, and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh^[a^]; rather, serve one another humbly in love

Yes, Christians are free, but what does it mean to be free? You are free to be a slave of Jesus Christ by choice. That means, although you are free, what makes you enjoy your life is if you subject voluntarily on your own to serve the Lord all the days of your life.

I think that is the message of Galatians 5:13

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh^[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”^[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other

Can you now see what freedom is all about? It is true you are called to be free; you are no longer a slave to the flesh. You know for example, somebody is an alcoholic, he is a slave to alcohol. He does not drink because he want to. He drinks because he must. Therefore, he is a slave to the alcohol.

When you become free, and you still do things that are wrong, it just means you are still a slave! This is because you keep regretting I wish I knew! I should not have done that or I should not have done the other. That is not freedom. If you are free to do things, you do things that make you enhance your joy, you do not live a life of regrets. A life of regrets is an example of somebody who is doing things because they must not it is because they enjoy doing them. In other words, when you make a choice of Christ, you make a choice to allow him to lead you and to guide you.

In your freedom, you do not allow the flesh to become your master. You know that is why we fast. What is fasting? Fasting does not help God in any way, but when you fast, you are trying to remind your body that it is not in control, God is! Eating is a necessity, I agree, but you can tell your body, wait a minute! I can stay without eating for the next 5-7 days, I am the one in command and in control, not the stomach. That is the freedom I have! The freedom to command my flesh not to do the things my flesh is insisting on me doing.

Day 2

Galatians 5

¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”^[b^] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

You know sex may be good, but if you feel you must have sex, even if you are not married yet, you are a slave to sex! If you feel you must have sex although your spouse is miles away from where you are, it means you are a slave to sex! Freedom is the ability to do what you want, when you want to do it, the way you want to do it, without something else controlling you and making you do things you would otherwise not choose.

Slavery is indulging the flesh, allowing the flesh to control you. Instead, Paul suggests,

Serve one another humbly in love.

In other words, you have made a choice to be Christ’s instrument for the good of the brethren. So therefore you make a choice to serve other Christians, to ask yourself how can I help them, financially, socially, spiritually, and it is not by force! It is a choice you have actually made. So, you choose to serve one another, and in doing so, since your motivation is not a force or an addiction, you do so humbly, in love. In other words, you have a desire for the good of these brethren, so you are doing your best to help them, and you are not trying to throw your weight around.

You know, the reason why this freedom is redefined, is because the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command love your neighbour as yourself. In other words, by choosing to be a Christian, you have chosen to live by this golden rule, what people have come to call the golden rule. The golden rule is, love your neighbour as you love yourself that is what Jesus taught us. Unfortunately, if you do not have this freedom that is given by being a Christian, you always love people for a selfish reason. You will always look for something that will make you do something. You keep asking what is in it for me? But the golden rule says no! You do things for others, the way you would want them to do to you, not because they have done it to you or will do it for you. However, if you do not want somebody to do something to you, why would you want to do it unto others? You have the freedom to choose to do good and the Bible is telling us, when you live by that law, the golden law, you cannot end up in any sin. This is because you will not do anything that will dishonour God; instead you will be serving others in your words and actions.

Day 3

Galatians 5

¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

If you keep on biting and devouring each other, it just means you have no freedom! This is because if you bite me and devour me, I will be looking to do the same to you. We both will end up in jail! Yet you are the one who started, by loving yourself, and not caring if you love others. In fact, Paul is telling them, watch out, be very careful, or you will be destroyed by each other. People who do not operate under this freedom that is given by Christ, cannot be good neighbours of one another and therefore, they end up doing things that boomerang back to them and hurt them. They did not have the freedom to make the right choices that would have enhanced the neighbourhood and make all enjoy their lives together with others.

So, living by the spirit or living by Christ’s direction is a life of freedom where you do not allow anything other than Christ to control your life. Verse 16 says,

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ 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^[c] you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

What are we learning? Galatians are being told, if you choose to go by the law of flesh, you will be under it. You will be forced to do things, but when you come to Christ, he gives you the desire to do good, the desire to do good things and enjoy pleasing the lord. So, you are no longer operating under the law of flesh. There is a lot of freedom that has come to you.

That is why the Bible is telling you, if you really want to live life of freedom, then you must surrender yourself totally to the spirit of God. He is calling it in verse 16, walking by the spirit. What does it mean to walk by the spirit? It means the spirit is the one guiding you, number one. So, you are seeking the spirit of God to guide you. Number two, you are unwilling to displease the spirit of God or do something or say something or think something that would displease the spirit of God, or grieve the spirit of God if you are walking by the spirit. Number  three, not only is He the one guiding you, not only are you not willing to displease him, but you also enjoy doing what the spirit wants you to do.

That is when you say I am walking by the spirit. If that is the way you are walking, the Bible is confirming to you, you will not be gratifying the desires of your flesh. This is because whatever the flesh wants, like oh you feel hungry, or you miss sex, you are able to tell it no, no! You need to free. Flesh can’t control you.

What they call the three Gs that bring the men of God down, Gold, girls, or glory; do not control you. Glory is the pride, when, you strongly want to have a good name, or you want to have power. This is not when the spirit of the Lord is the one guiding you.

Gold is when you strongly feel, I want to be wealthy! I will be somebody who has the money. But the spirit shows you, no, no! I am still okay with or without money. It does not mean you will not get money, but it means it is not driving you.

And lastly girls or guys is when you feel you must have sex outside marriage. If walking by the spirit, sex will not be a problem because you have subjected everything to the spirit of God. So, you do not do what the flesh is telling you to do, you do what is right to do.

Day 4

Galatians 5

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ 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^[c^] you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Paul says the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit. So, the moment you now walk by the spirit, rest assured, the spirit will lead you away from many things that the flesh desires. The flesh may desire a bit of wine, a bit of alcohol, However, the spirit of god is saying, do not be drunk with wine! Do not be drunk is command. But little wine will finally lead you to break the command. So, the spirit will push you away from the things the flesh wants. Flesh is saying one thing; the spirit of God is leading you to a different thing. That is how you will not fulfil the desires of your flesh.

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 do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law under that force. That is what you need to know. The moment you allow Christ to control you, he will not lead you the same way your flesh or natural desires of your body will take you. He will lead you to another way. The difference is that you will enjoy following the spirit of God. God’s direction, and there are no negative repercussions out of walking in the spirit of God or regrets.

Flesh and spirit are in conflict with each other; so that they are not according to verse 17, you do not do what you want. If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. Paul  explains exactly what it means to walk by the spirit. You do not do what you want, you do what the spirit wants. We then can then say, you are walking by the spirit and when you walk in the spirit, you have a new freedom, and you enjoy walking with him.

verse 18 is saying,

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

If you really are being led of the spirit therefore, you have come out of the rule of law of flesh. You now just listen to the spirit of God and obey him. Number two, he gives you the power to obey him. Not only is he going to guide you, he gives you the ability to say no to sin and to actually follow him and obey him in every way.

Looking at your own life, do you see this struggle of flesh? This contrariness? That sometimes the flesh is telling you to go one way, and the spirit is telling you another way? Unfortunately for you, the spirit will not force you to obey him. I remember a young man crying oh God! I have such challenges on the issues of sex! Why do not you castrate me! .God will not castrate you! It is a choice you have to make, and the moment you subject yourself to the spirit of God, then you will discover these strong desires will be managed by the spirit of God. You will no longer be pushed into sexual addiction when you allow yourself to be controlled by the spirit of God.

What are the other things that are leading you to have this struggle? The struggle is not to obey the Spirit of God, the struggle to do things that you later regret about? It is all the question of, have you subjected yourself to the Lord? Are you born again?

What does it mean to be born again? It means you have admitted your weakness, your sinfulness, and your helplessness. Number two, you have repented of all the things you have done or thought or said that do not please the Lord. Number three, you have now committed yourself to be the slave of the spirit of God, so that he now controls you, and you are asking him, come into my life and now control me. You discover that once he is in your life, he will give you fresh new desires that are contrary to the desires of the flesh.

Day 5

Galatians 5

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Do you hear that? For the result of works of the flesh just look at verse 19, 20, 21,

It is a long, long, long list of things that the Spirit of God will lead you away from. This is because they are the deeds of the flesh and they can be quite something. Paul is teaching something really important for us in the walk with God. How to fight against the flesh.

Please notice that Paul is not talking about walk by the spirit, and not by the flesh, he teaches when you walk by the spirit there is a result that will occur, you will not gratify the desires of your flesh. In other words, it does not mean once you are a Christians these desires are dead, but he somehow give you victory over them.

I think that is the same message the Bible is also giving in Ezekiel 36:25-27,

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. That is what every Christian looks for, asks for, a new spirit. It means removal of the heart of stone that makes you reject God’s ways and go to the wrong way. I think we really must be grateful for this offer the Lord is giving us. Something mystical is happening when you surrender your life to the Lord. The spirit gives you this new power to say no to sin, things that earlier were controlling you, he gives you power to walk away from them, and therefore to live in a way that honours God.

That is why the word of God is clear, that, if you want to be a Christian, then walk by the spirit. You know, we cannot be changing one set of commands to another. We have subjected ourselves to Christ, he now controls us. You know he has already told you, that there is no need of trying it; it is a no-win battle to go on your own. You need this new heart so that he can control you and guide you.

Day 6

Galatians 5

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions

You know, this list that we are talking about is a list that tells you whenever you are doing them; you are no longer walking by the spirit. That is why he is saying the works of the flesh are evident. You will be able to tell you are actually walking in the flesh and you cannot argue that you are walking by the spirit when clearly the things you are doing are very different.

Have you noticed that the first three sins on the list have all to do with the sins of sex? Do you notice that? He is saying, the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery. Sex is one of the things that destroy the people of God. When they want to think they can fight it on their own, remind them we need God’s help for sure.

The problem of sexual sin is quite something. This is because it destroys marriages but even the single people are totally destroyed! If your girlfriend doubts your sexual purity, she will be up and running away from you fearing what you might be tempted to do! You know it will be important to understand why people who are living through sexual sin, whether we are talking about homosexuality, or we are talking about pornography, etc. whatever we are talking about, casual sex, all those people are people controlled by the flesh. They are slaves of the flesh. That is what Paul is teaching us.

The world, whether is in Africa or elsewhere, sex seems to drive issues. What we are calling sexual freedom today is succumbing to this control of the flesh. The Greek word that is being used here I am told is, include adultery, or fornication, but you know there are others that are called bestiality, where you have sex with animals. Even prostitution is in the same immorality list together with incest. Sexual immorality is a very encompassing word. When you talk about sexual immorality, he is saying, it is a mark that you are being controlled by the flesh.

You know it is the same thing when you talk about impurity and sensuality, because impurity is referring to any sexual activity not authorized by God and sensuality is the idea of sexual indulgence.

If you are not married to your sex partner, sex is wrong! You might wonder where the line is regarding any kind of sexual involvement. It is very clear! One man, one woman, after they have been joined by the Spirit of God, then sex - the fact that you have paid dowry, no! But that you have gone before God to make your vows and a man of God has prayed over you, then we can say what God has joined you. Not what elders have joined, but what God has joined let no man put asunder. If you have sex just because you have paid dowry, you are entering into a dangerous ground. Sexual immorality is any sex before God has joined you together. Clan leaders do not do so on behalf of Jehovah

Therefore, debauchery and sensuality is something that should not be mentioned among the people of God.

What about sorcery? It is also listed as a sign of the flesh. For sure, the works of the flesh are obvious. Whether you talk idolatry, is also worship of anything apart from the one true God. and today of course that is a mark that you are being led by the devil. Idolatry is having something that you fear beyond God or that you love beyond God. It may be wealth, it may be even your job, you feel like you are willing to do anything your boss tells you even if it displeases the Lord. It may be a hobby. By the way you can also worship comfort so that in order not to lose comfort you are willing to do anything even if it does not please the Lord. Anything you give priority over God is your new god, and it is idolatry. That is what we are being told it is a clear mark that you are following the work of the flesh.

Sorcery was used by the ancients to supposedly come into contact with the deities. The word has a close association to black magic, witchcraft… etc. even ancestral worship, is all part of it. So, when you see somebody paying the debts of the ancestors in order to appease the ancestral spirits, something Jomo Kenyatta talks about in his book Facing Mount Kenya, is idol worship.

Kenyatta argues it is not really worship; it is appeasing the ancestral spirts. But the Bible does not allow you to deal with spirits of the dead. So, when you enter there, that is part of the sorcery! And it is something that you need to ask yourself why you would go that direction and yet claim to walk in the spirit. Anything that has to do with ancestral worship, doing things so that the spirit of the dead is appeased, it is a sign and works of the flesh.

Day 7

Galatians 5

²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

The same applies to drug addiction whereby anything that changes your mind is wrong because the word of God commands us to be sober! How can you be sober when you are taking substances that will make you not know yourself? Now, I think that is something you need to talk about within the church.

But on the list are also the issues of enmities, strife, and jealousy. All  are on how you relate to other people. We are told as a baby Jesus grew in favour with man. In other words, he knew how to relate with people well. so, it is a sign of the flesh when you are just a difficult person. You cannot be the one who is always fighting, and you enjoy it. Just fighting others and being difficult to them, and you enjoy it suggest work of the flesh. It is a sign that you are being led by the flesh.

The cause of this may include even envy. What is envy? Not being happy with what you have, and you have desire to possess what God has chosen to give to others and not you. Paul wants to make sure that we do not read his list in such a way that we think we can have a loophole before God that is why it is so comprehensive. You need to understand why he is saying in verse 21,

and things like these,

In other words, this list as long as it is not fully comprehensive, there are more things. Understand anything else like these is condemned even if it is not on the list. He is saying if those are the things you do, you certainly not make it to the kingdom of God. You are led of the flesh. You cannot just excuse it or dismiss it; it is important you understand you are going the wrong way for sure.

so let me read the list again,

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Thus, the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; this is occult and whatever, then social issues, that is hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, things that will make you difficult to work with. It also may include selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; all those are things that will make you destroy the church. It is the work of the flesh. What about drunkenness, orgies, and the like? All these things are a sign you are being led by the flesh and you are not walking by the spirit.

May we learn that walking in the spirit is a life of freedom away from this evil list.

 

 

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