WAR GAMES

WAR GAMES

"All flesh is grass."  1 Pet. 1:24

The poor unsaved human being has only the flesh and its desires to lead their life about and I am speaking about fallen humanity; not humanity climbing up, but humanity helplessly and irrevocably going down, so that it never can rise, except by a miracle of Divine power lifting it out of the dust, that is being saved by grace and the spirit brought back to life. I am dealing with the fact and the moment a man sees the spiritual, and answers it by following Christ, he becomes conscious of CONFLICT with the flesh. The CONFLICT of the child of God with the flesh is the CONFLICT of the overthrow of a recovered empire. Before you were a Christian you lived in the flesh. Now that you are a Christian you live in the spirit. Your own spirit is enthroned. You had it in the prison and starved it and neglected it; dead, and sometimes even said that you did not possess it; that is how dead it was. In the moment in which you gave yourself to Christ He put that spirit, your spirit, back on the throne of your personality, quickened, you feed it and nourish it with the Spirits help, for He put it there in partnership with His own Spirit, in order to realize your whole life; and the first thing is that the flesh become subservient to it. BUT THE FLESH does not become subservient immediately. The flesh which so long was degraded and by the fact that you allowed it to have its own way by answering its desires, and dwelling wholly within it, when put in its right place, under the spirit, it REBELS. Regeneration does not mean a sudden convulsion, of such a nature that all the fibers of my flesh cease to make their own demands. The FIGHT is long and strenuous, and sometimes almost to blood. I want every young Christian here, every young man and every young woman who is fighting this fight, to remember that he or she is conquering a recovered empire. You have set up the throne, but you have to win and cultivate and restore the whole territory. A man can be cleansed in a moment by the Spirit of God, but there is then the whole campaign of conquest to go forward. What I do plead for is that you shall be patient. That very thought comes out in the words, "Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Gal. 6:9) That is a recognition of the fact that the flesh which has been rampant and masterful for years, when you take the throne in the fear and fellowship of the Holy Spirit of God, is not immediately conquered, the long habits of years are not immediately broken. But the Spirit of God will continue to renew your mind and refresh your heart towards the goal the Father has spoken (Matt. 5:48) and that Jesus says to "go and sin no more" (John 8:4). Many are told to pick up their cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), and I hope they have ears to hear (Deut. 9:24; Matt. 11:15; Mark 4:23; Luke 8:8). The cross brings death to the flesh and quickens the spirit (Eph. 2:1).