Our Sanctification: Walking in the Spirit vs. the Flesh

The Limitation of Unsanctified Walk

Even though you are saved and sanctified, if your walk with God is not sanctified, you will be limited in the experience of victory.

1 Peter 2:9 (NET) - "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

You are not a holy nation because you live holy but because you are citizen of the holy nation. Nationality precedes recognized actions.

God's Desire for Control

God is not in people's life the way people claim. However, God wants to be in charge. He is the only One who is meant to be in charge. He offers to be in charge of our lives. His Word is His offer. The extent to which you embrace His word is the extent to which He takes control of your life.

God never took control of a person who does not know what His word says because His Word is His offer.

1 Peter 2:10 - "who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

Ephesians 2:13 - "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

The Opposition of the Flesh

We are holy people who are opposed by the flesh. The flesh is responsible for all the misdemeanor and misbehavior of a believer.

Romans 7:17-19 - "But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice."

While the flesh is in control, a sanctified walk is not possible.

Understanding the Nature of the Flesh

The flesh is the body, essences, appetite, passion, and mental processes of the input and output free of the control of the Spirit. The flesh is the natural human life free and devoid of the presence and intervention of the Spirit of God.

The voice of the flesh are the feelings and appetites, agitation, anxiety.

The most fleshly people are the self-absorbed people.

The flesh is never satisfied.

The Works of the Flesh

Works of the flesh: None of it exists without the language of the flesh. The language comes, the voice picks it up with an appetite and then, it leads to the works of the flesh.

Galatians 5:19-21 - "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."

James 1:14-15 - "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death."

When the flesh is at work, you will be amazed at what the flesh can think of. David, a man after God's heart, took his time to come up with different devilish plans to cover up his sins with Bathsheba.

2 Samuel 11:6 - "Then David sent to Joab, saying, 'Send me Uriah the Hittite.' And Joab sent Uriah to David."

2 Samuel 11:14-15 - "In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, 'Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.'"

The only language the world speaks is the language of the flesh. Every communication from the world is a communication to your flesh.

The Solution: Walking in the Spirit

Romans 7:24-25 - "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."

There are two possibilities in believers now.

1 Corinthians 9:27 - "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

Romans 8:1 - "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

Galatians 5:16 - "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

Walking in the Spirit has to do with being mindful of the thing of the Spirit.

Romans 8:5 - "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."

What you are manifesting is a result of where your mind is.

1 John 2:15-17 - "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

Conclusion

True sanctification requires more than positional holiness; it demands a daily choice to walk in the Spirit rather than yield to the flesh. While we are holy by citizenship in God's kingdom, our experience of victory depends on disciplining our bodies, setting our minds on spiritual things, and embracing God's Word as His offer to control our lives. The flesh will always oppose our sanctified identity, but through mindful focus on the Spirit and rejection of worldly communications, we can live out the holiness that already defines who we are in Christ.