For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die

                                    ”For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:                                               but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”.

Romans 8:13 (KJV)

Some people don’t understand what the concept of being “born again” truly entails.  We put on the new nature of God.  We turn towards Him.  Turning away from our sinful past, we start walking (living) out our lives with a desire to please Him. 

So what have we turned from?  Hopefully we are turning from our sin.  We’ve turned from our old desires.  Desires that fed our flesh.  They made us feel good.  They made us feel important.  They made us feel we weren’t responsible for our actions.  They made us feel entitled to hurt others, and entitled to hurt ourselves as well. 

We crave attention.  We crave fullness.  We crave control.  We crave vindication.  We crave what others have.  We crave what we do not deserve.  What do your cravings lead you to?  Is it happiness, or is it despair?

God’s Spirit is not unholy.  He will lead us into what God has prepared for us.  We can trust Him.  If God says in our spirit “put down that cigarette”.  Then putting it down will be to our benefit, and as we look to the Spirit in our walk He strengthens us in order to actually “put down that cigarette”.  We know being born again is all about how well we can humble our spirit to God’s Spirit.  If we decrease, He can increase.  Decrease by dying.  We need to die to our old flesh.  By putting our old nature to death, and then adopting God’s holy nature.

God reveals His nature as we allow His Spirit to guide us.  This requires humbling our old spirit.  Say “yes” to Gods way.  If He says, “stop lying to your spouse”.  You’ll stop doing the things you needed to lie about.  If you hate lying to your spouse, as a result of listening to the Spirit of God, you’ll be convicted when your actions are going to need a lie or two to cover up.

Your flesh is forcing you to lie in order to continue feeling good.  God will reveal what sin He wants you to work on next.  I think of it like our sin is an iceberg.  It's a giant one.  That giant chunk of ice is floating around, endangering us, and what we see is just the beginning.  There’s a lot we don’t see.  When you’re new to Christ, He’ll show you the major stumbling block(s) in your life.  These are typically the main sins we know about through adopted morals that exist in the open community.  The average Joe may have a problem with drinking.  He thinks his life isn’t so bad, but learning about Jesus, he feels convicted for wasting his time, money, and brain cells; and he has developed an inclination to please God.  He starts whacking away at that iceberg.  He does a good job of it as well.  So he’s given up his bar rushing each and every weekend, and up pops this desire to look at pornography.  See, at the bar, he hooked up with skanks, and checked out some of the hotter skanks he didn’t have a chance hooking up with.  So, the drinking in the bar had some hidden bonuses that reared themselves when he took that lifestyle into subjection.  Now he’s watching questionable content on late night TV.  He’s looking at these skanks, and feels compelled to sin.  He feels God’s conviction through His Holy Spirit, and realizes that this is ungodly, as he studies his Bible daily, and reads, “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart”,  Matt 5:28 (KJV).  So, our regular Joe puts down the remote, and picks up his Bible, especially when there are questionable images floating around.

Speaking about floating, our iceberg still has plenty of heft, and is in danger of sinking our ship, even with Joe chipping away at the sin that keeps getting exposed as He walks with God.  That iceberg keeps exposing its top no matter how much of it you are able to chip away, this is because every aspect of who we are has been compromised by sin.  We were born into it. 

We know that we cannot cover our own sin.  Jesus came into the world, so that we may have life, by paying our debt of death.  Sin requires death as a payment.  We owe this debt due to all the sin we’ve conspired to do.  Walking with God will make our lives more pleasing to Him, and to ourselves, and to those around us, yet this action does not remove our debt.  Our debt was settled on the Cross 2000 years ago, and placing our faith in the Son of God, who gave His life so I may live, the one who gave His life as a gift, freely, will be the only way to enter into God’s kingdom. 

Accept God’s eternal gift.  Turn the desires of your heart over to Him.  The Holy Spirit will lead you to the goodness that is pleasing to our Father in Heaven.  As you desire the Love from your Father in Heaven, you will give love to those around you.  Even to your enemies, you will find a compassionate heart.  You'll find a heart that beats for Godliness, and not for the destruction of your soul.