What or whom we are controlled by will determine how we live and what people think of us.
The story of a burning bush that would not be consumed is one of the most striking word pictures painted by God’s Spirit. It graphically reveals that Almighty God can burn and yet not consume, if He so wishes. The bush is also a graphic picture representing both God and His children. Believers have the Holy Spirit and God’s inspired Word living within them. Jeremiah said, “His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it in, and I could not” (20:9).
Failing to release the divine living in our soul allows the body to ignite fleshly lusts. The smoldering fleshly cinders that are always at war with the Holy Spirit will gain control. We will either release the Spirit’s fire or release our lustful nature sparks. If you’ve ever exploded in wrath or had temptation take control, you are your own best example of the war between the Spirit and the flesh.
But the heat from the Spirit’s fire will quickly overcome its restraints, leaving only the ashes of disappointment. God’s children must allow the Spirit’s holiness to control their lustful fleshly tendencies and the Word of God to master their lives.
I learned later in life that Christians should constantly share love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control or they will experience lives that ooze the foul odors of their flesh.
As believers, we have God’s divine fire living in the core of our personalities. If we fail to share God’s holy love with those around us, we will break into imitation love—which is self-centered and lustful. When we don’t release the fire of God, we release the lusts of the flesh—which are non-discriminate, over-reactive, and self-centered. With the Spirit and the flesh, it is an either/or situation.
Release the fruit of the Spirit in your life, and you will be shocked at what God will do through you.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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The Rev. Dr. Bob Segress served as a licensed psychological clinician for twenty-five years. Upon retiring, he served for fifteen years as a prison minister. Retiring again, he began writing full-time after a period of boredom. He has written: The Biblical Approach To Psychology while serving as a college educator, The Shelton Series, and, in 2012, Ten Years Inside Shelton Prison. Currently, he writes for several publications such as Halo Magazine.