Your Civil War

Walk by the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16

Fritz Ridenour writes: "You want to do right, but you do wrong. You want to choose obedience, but you choose sin. Sometimes you'd almost swear you were a split personality, a regular 'walking civil war'." Sound familiar? Most of us fight our civil war in the shadows, out of sight, feeling all alone. And when we're at our lowest Satan whispers, "Face it, you'll never be good enough. Why not just give up and accept the inevitable?"
Any time we mix this flawed world with our failed nature, we've got the right combination for Spiritual defeat. But we can win!
Paul writes, "Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
What a profound statement!
God's Spirit and our flesh are completely opposite. But when we're walking in the Spirit we cannot possibly carry out the desires of the flesh. So, we're either operating from the realm of the Spirit and we're under His control, or we're operating in the realm of the flesh and we're under its control. And that's a choice we must make each day.
Everything that tempted you as a lost person can still defeat you because you have that same old nature. It doesn't improve. The cutting remarks you used to make, you'll still make. You can still throw temper tantrums, right? Lustful thoughts will still invade your mind. Therefore, in the power of the Spirit you must throw up your hands and say, "Lord, get this stuff out of me. I can't conquer it on my own!" It's at this point that He takes over and the battle goes your way!