When the Flesh Drives, the Christian Crashes

There is a reason why some believers sputter, stall, and fishtail through the Christian life. It is not a lack of sincerity, nor a lack of biblical knowledge, nor even a lack of desire. The problem is humiliatingly simple: their flesh is still driving the car.

You will not grow in the Christian life while your flesh holds the steering wheel. You can underline verses, fill notebooks, and “Amen” every sermon from here to the Judgment Seat, but if the flesh is still calling the shots, your spiritual life will remain a wreck. The flesh only knows one direction: ditches.

Victory begins the moment you hand the keys to the Holy Ghost and stop telling God how to drive.

INDWELLING AND FILLING ARE NOT THE SAME THING

When you were born again, you did not just get forgiven, justified, and Heaven-bound; God moved in. Romans 8:9 states, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

At salvation, the believer becomes a walking, talking, blood-bought temple. Paul asked the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6:19, "What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own"

However, there is a monumental difference between being indwelt by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. Indwelling happens once and never fades. Filling happens repeatedly and only by surrender. Indwelling means the Spirit possesses you. Filling means the Spirit controls you.

Some believers are indwelt but not filled, which explains why they are spiritually frustrated, worldly, irritable, cold, prayerless, distracted, and powerless. Paul commanded in Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit."

The filling of the Spirit is not mystical electricity, emotional goosebumps, or charismatic novelty. It is the Spirit of God taking actual control of a life that finally surrenders the will.

THE FLESH DID NOT GET SAVED

The flesh did not get redeemed. It did not improve. It did not become cooperative. It is as corrupt, proud, petty, and allergic to holiness as it ever was. Paul wrote in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not."

The flesh hates prayer. The flesh hates preaching. The flesh hates conviction. The flesh hates holiness. The flesh will apologize but will not repent. It will dab its eyes with a tissue at the altar but refuses to bow its knee to the authority of Christ.

Galatians 5:17 gives the dynamics of this war: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

Romans 8:7 states, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

The believer’s assignment is not to negotiate with the flesh but to crucify it.

ONLY THE SPIRIT PRODUCES FRUIT

Religion can make a man behave, but only the Holy Ghost can make a man bear fruit. Real love, real joy, real peace, and real patience are not personality traits. They are the supernatural fingerprints of a surrendered life.

Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22–23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law."

Jesus declared in John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing."

A flesh-powered Christian ends up burned out, bitter, bored, or backslidden. The fruit of the Spirit is God’s signature that He is in control.

THE FLESH MUST BE KILLED, NOT COACHED

The flesh cannot be educated, refined, or rehabilitated. It must be executed. Colossians 3:5 commands, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

Romans 8:13 adds clarity: "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."

Paul gives the practical strategy in Romans 13:14: "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."

You cannot crucify what you keep feeding. You cannot conquer what you keep coddling.

THE WAR IS WON OR LOST IN THE MIND

Satan does not need your body if he can get your mind. Victory or defeat begins in the imagination long before it reaches the hands and feet. Ephesians 4:23 commands, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind."

Romans 12:2 states, "And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

Garbage in the mind becomes garbage in the walk. Holiness in the mind becomes holiness in the walk.

YOU DO NOT WISH INTO HOLINESS, YOU WALK INTO IT

Wishing will not make you holy. Walking will. Many believers have spiritual desires but fleshly habits. Habits always win until crucified.

Galatians 5:25 says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Galatians 5:24 declares, "And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."

Jesus stated in Luke 9:23, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

You do not drift into holiness. You walk into it one act of obedience at a time.

HOW TO KNOW IF THE SPIRIT IS NOT FILLING YOU

It is not subtle when the Spirit does not control you. The evidence is loud:

• Reaction replaces response• Appetite for holiness disappears• Offense becomes easy• Feelings outrank truth• Sin is excused instead of repented• Fruit is absent

HOW TO KNOW IF THE SPIRIT IS FILLING YOU

When the Spirit is not merely in you but over you, fruit appears, obedience speeds up, repentance grows sweeter, appetite for God increases, and actual change takes place.

2 Corinthians 3:18 explains, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

HOW TO BE FILLED AND STAY FILLED

This is not mystical. It is biblical:

1. Confess sin honestly1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

2. Surrender your willEphesians 5:17, "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."

3. Obey what you already knowActs 5:32, "And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him."

4. Saturate your mind with ScriptureColossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom"

It is a tragedy that some Christians have revival theology and funeral experience. They speak of the Spirit while living conquered by the flesh. They possess the Spirit, yet the Spirit does not possess them. Nothing will change until the believer hands Him the keys and stops telling Him how to drive.