Each one vying for our submission and obedience to its purpose and its desires.

The one a pathway to death and destruction, the other the pathway to life and victory.

There are so many wonderful children of God who struggle in their daily lives wanting to do what is right, and yet many find themselves doing the exact opposite of what their hearts are telling them to do.

No one is exempt from this battle, from the least to the greatest in the kingdom of God all have experienced this epic struggle between the flesh and the spirit at one time or the other in their lives. Whether its with food or pornography, or walking in love, even down to spending time with God.

These struggles rage in the lives of believers full of good intentions but having no clue how to overcome the flesh and walk in the spirit.

Even the great Apostle Paul struggled with the flesh at times, God knew that we would have to continually have to battle our flesh from doing whatever it wanted to do, that's why He has given us steps in which we can take to overcome the flesh and walk and live according to the spirit and the things of the spirit.

The first step to overcoming the flesh and walking in the spirit is to get out of the trap of condemnation. Satan loves this weapon, and he uses it often to hinder God’s children from ever walking in the victory that belongs to us through Christ.

The moment we mess up Satan comes with his accusations against us, he says things like, “your going to hell”, “you will never make it” , “your not worthy”, etc.

And if we buy into these lies then we will be hindered from ever being free from our flesh.

We make being in the spirit some grandiose thing that is nearly unattainable, something so far away and hard to reach. But if we look into the word of God we can clearly see that the only qualification to being in the spirit is to have God’s spirit dwelling in you.

If you are born again, having excepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior then God’s spirit indeed does dwell in you therefore according to the Bible you are in the spirit, not the flesh, even if and when you mess up and sin.

I’m not condoning sin there are many who live any way they want to and don't even attempt to live holy lives unto the Lord, these kind will find themselves facing the righteous judgment of God.

But those who strive to do what is right even if they don't always succeed, those whose hearts generally desire to please God, with God’s help you will get to the place you want to be.

Remember we are saved only by God’s grace not by our works. Your righteousness is not based by what you do, or what you don't do. It is based upon Jesus Christ, who through him alone , and his grace, salvation comes to those who once were lost.

Our sins are only washed away by the blood of Christ not by our own works.

That is why when we mess up and even when we sin God’s grace is what sets us free.

We walk in the spirit by faith in Jesus Christ , not by faith in what we do or don’t do.

When our view of our righteousness is founded upon what Christ has done, not by what we have done , then condemnation , and self inflicted feelings of worthlessness , will begin to fall away.

Romans 7: 18

When we speak of “the flesh” what we are really talking about is our human nature or our minds and our own wills.

The Bible shows us that as we operate in our flesh no good thing can come out of it . we must remain in the spirit to walk in the victory God has for each of us.

The only way to stay in the spirit is to walk by faith, not by sight, not by feelings.

When we blow it, in stead of saying to ourselves, that were no good , or that were worthless, or weak , or whatever, we need to say what God says about us.

We need to remain in faith, and the way we do that is to stay in agreement with God’s word, no matter what we do, if we will stay in agreement with God we will stay in the spirit.

Remember that in the flesh is death, there is no good thing in it and no good thing that can come out of it. but if we remain in the spirit there is no death, but a life that just gets better and better day by day.

That’s not to say we will never have problems but when we walk in the spirit we will have peace and joy no matter what goes on around us.

To live in the spirit we must crucify the flesh daily remember our flesh is our sinful nature our own will and desires. The only way to kill the flesh is to stop feeding it, the more we give into the flesh the more we do the things our flesh wants . The stronger it gets and the harder it becomes to resist it. Likewise the more we feed our spirit with the things of God the stronger it will become and the easier it will become to be totally obedient to God and remain in the spirit.

If you are reading this and you are struggling with your flesh remember these words

You are loved by God, you are special to God.

And you can overcome whatever obstacle is hindering you today. Your righteousness and standing with God has nothing to do with your goodness or your own works it has everything to do with what Christ did for you.

God is changing us more and more each day until we come into His same image and he does this not through us but by His spirit .

You will get to where you want to be if you look to God and agree with what He says about you. If you will kill your flesh by starving it and feed your spirit you will begin to walk and talk and think and speak and be in the spirit not the flesh get ready it’s coming you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you ! (Phil 4:13)