The kingdom of God, and the kingdom of darkness.

We are advancing toward one, always.

There is no neutral ground.

I got caught up in confusion about this— about the flesh.

I was confused to think the flesh was this gray, neutral, paused area.

This area that I could not have to address in my life as a believer in Jesus because “well, we will never be perfect until we get to heaven…”

Oh stop.

I know this to be complete truth, but I was using it as an excuse to continue to allow sin in my life.

We give in to the temptation to misrepresent the Christ.

It’s like this…

I personally believe that the nature of the flesh is sin. It was programmed, trained and raised up by a sin nature, and hopefully maybe our parents were able to plant a few of the seeds of God within our hearts along the way.

If you don’t renew your mind at salvation, and study the Word of God to understand what’s new now and walk it out in a practical way, then you will be fully saved in your spirit, but still acting the same as you did when you were unsaved.

You’ll be calling yourself a Christian but still sounding and acting like the devil— as you “get in the flesh,” on everyone you encounter.

People will not understand the real Christ.

This is a real issue to me—only because I did this.

What’s happening when I choose to gossip, accuse, slander, manipulate, guilt, shame, back bite, or be angry?

It’s so much more than just trying to modify behavior and in our own strength stop that bad behavior.

Here’s the bigger picture.

I’m choosing the wrong kingdom by allowing and tolerating the temptation of evil and watching it to wreak havoc on those around me by giving into the temptation to sin.

Just like an alcoholic or a drug addict giving into a temptation to drink again, or get one last fix.

No more, no less.

The Holy Spirit gives you the unction, the ability to stop those words from leaving your mouth.

He highlights that ungodly thought, to see if you’ll capture it.

Immediately, squash it.

Don’t ponder too long.

Make it obedient to Christ.

We can instead through His power encourage, cheer on, pray for each other.

When we allow the fleshy reactions and responses to those around us, we will dilute His message, we will misrepresent.

We will turn people off from experiencing the real Jesus.

It’s a big deal to wear the Christian T-shirt.

The ‘God’s girl’ logo.

Does your attitude represent? Do people see authentic Jesus in you?

I know I’ve missed it…

So acknowledge that you’re not perfect in the flesh, because its true…your flesh was trained by darkness and sin until you received salvation; it wasn’t trained by God yet, so there’s really just minimal good in it.

It all needs to be washed and made new.

Now that you’re born again, your flesh can be trained by God, should you choose.

We must decide to no longer tolerate the sin in our flesh; even those things, especially those things we call little things, things that are ‘no big deal.’

They are a big deal, because Jesus doesn’t act like that.

Satan does.

Stop tolerating the influence of the kingdom of darkness with old habits and excusing them as flesh, because well, ‘we can’t be perfect.’

We can consciously attempt to have a realistic balance of our IN CHRIST identity, and acknowledge and call out sin as it tries to present itself in our lives sometimes, stopping it in its tracks.

No judgement here. I’ve done it all.

But I did decide to acknowledge and recieve who the Bible says I am, and confront some stuff in my life that needed adjustments.

We can— we must —recognize the flesh acting out, and confront it with God’s truth about who we really are.

We choose which kingdom we will represent.

Let what comes out of your mouth, shows on your face, and acts out in your actions represent the Christ.

We don’t have to be in a lifelong process of bondage to flesh.

God’s been trying to help us since the beginning, we just haven’t known to let Him.

The choice is ours.