Determined Desires

Posted By Elisa

Week 12

Galatians 5:16-24 NLT
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

Last week in our study of Galatians, we arrived at the key verse, “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (Galatians 5:1). Paul was, of course, referring to the ceremonial and civil law the Judaizers were requiring the Gentile Christians to follow. Paul accused the Judaizers of preaching false doctrine, and warned the Galatians that it spreads like one piece of yeast through a batch of dough.

After reading last week’s passage (Galatians 5:1-15), we were left to figure out what is the yeast spreading through our dough? In other words, what false doctrines do we believe? I suggested that we may be able to discern false doctrines by considering what we’re afraid of being persecuted for, based on Paul’s comment that he wouldn’t have been persecuted if he wasn’t preaching the truth (5:11).

I must confess. I am afraid of being persecuted for pointing to the hard truth in God’s Word. I don’t really want to say anything that is going to ruffle someone’s feathers. Do you? Today’s Scripture passage provides a prime example. I’d like to skip over the convicting verses describing our sinful nature and move right on to the Fruit of the Spirit. Those are the verses we all know and love; we have them written on our coffee mugs, decorating our trivets, and hanging in frames around the house. While these verses are incredibly valuable and merit attention, skipping over the previous ones is a grave mistake that forsakes valuable instruction from the Lord. So, without further ado, let’s jump into the tough stuff together!

Paul establishes in this passage that there are two forces at play—the desires of the sinful nature and the desires of the Spirit. If we are living by the Spirit, we will bare its fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we are living by our sinful nature, there will also be fruit, of an entirely different kind. Right here, in the list of the sinful desires, is the litmus test of our faith; it is where we will find evidence of what is our God, the depth of our faith, and the subtle ways we’ve accepted the culture’s false teaching. See, not only is the acting out of sinful desire a problem, but also our willingness to accept it in ourselves and in others for various reasons is equally troubling. We do this because we are afraid of being persecuted for not going along with the crowd or concerned that we may hurt another’s feelings if we speak the truth.

The process of accepting false doctrine can be quite subtle. Beth Moore refers to it as friendly captivity. At first, we’re repulsed by the desires of the sinful nature. But after a while, we get use to them. We may still say we don’t really like the _______ sin, but it doesn’t quite have the sting it used to. We reason, “Well, it’s his or her life to do with as she pleases…”, so we stop mentioning it and eventually say nothing at all. That’s where our mind shifts from considering the sin detestable in God’s sight to acceptable in our sight. As we witness “the sin” permeating the cultural norm, and even becoming a regular part of our lives, we begin to question whether it is really sin at all. We witness it in friends and family members, even people we respect and admire. As a result, we begin to rationalize it, ultimately simplifying our faith to the Ten Commandments. We march around believing we’re all just fine the way we are, especially if we’re not committing murder! If that were possible, God wouldn’t have included this list of sinful desires in His Word. Paul says these are the desires of our sinful nature—everyone’s! No one is excluded. The only way to flee these desires is to live by the Spirit and according to the truth.

I’m am not attempting to be legalistic, or add to the Word of God, but rather sincerely consider what this desires of the sinful nature actually look like in day-in an day-out life. Consider some of these examples that came to me after just a few minutes of sitting quietly and evaluating life:

sexual immorality = watching Desperate Housewives, which glamorizes adultery and promiscuity
lustful pleasures = reading romance novels or imagining a different life with another man
idolatry = making mini-Gods out of people, things, accomplishments in your life
sorcery = believing in superstitions and good luck charms
jealousy = wanting the bigger house next door and dreaming of life in their pool
outbursts of anger = blowing up at the kids, only because your frustrated and haven’t set consistent boundaries or consequences
selfish ambition = making life all about me, myself, and I
division = finding a problem at church, school, work, or even in your family, and pressuring everyone to pick a side
wild parties = not challenging your son to skip the weekend frat parties because it’s his life and you think you shouldn’t say anything

God is giving us pretty clear instruction. The list of sinful desires is spelled out. We’re all affected, personally, in our families, with our friends, and in our churches. We need to take a stand, even in the face of persecution, to flee from the desires of the sinful nature and sprint toward the freedom offered in Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit. We cannot allow the sinful nature to give way to accepting false doctrine and being led astray. The consequences are great. Inheriting the Kingdom of God is on the line. It is time to choose a side in this earthly playing field. It is time to, for those of us who belong to Christ Jesus, to nail the passions and desires of our sinful nature to his cross and crucify them there once and for all. It may be a daily act, but we have to start with it being a determined act.

Heavenly Father, you are so mighty and gracious all the same time. You do not waver back and forth in what is okay and not okay. Lord, we pray that you would help us to recognize the sinful desire at work in our lives. Thank you, in advance, for making a way to live righteously through being united with Jesus Christ and filled with the indwelling Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Faith Walking

Have you struggled with wanting to see evidence of the Fruit of the Spirit in your life?
Have you ever considered the effect of the sinful nature at work in your life?
Do you realize that you need to continually, throughout your entire life, be in a process of repentance in order to combat the desires of the sinful nature?
Do you understand that the Fruit of the Spirit isn’t something we do, but something we receive from the Holy Spirit as we are united with Christ?
Read Titus 3:3-7 and 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, 7:1, for an additional word from the Lord on this subject.

The Next Step

Spend time today in prayer. Journal your thoughts with the Lord and share your heart with Him. Tell God about your sin, what you’re afraid of being persecuted for, and what you know is wrong but just don’t want to change. Ask Him to reveal His truth to you. Listen to His voice and accept His words of assurance that you are set free in Christ. Today is the day to unite yourself to Him. Just do it…determinedly!

Faith Walking Challengers…
Be sure to leave a comment and let us know about your success or struggles from this past week so that we can praise God and pray for you. Or post about it at your blog and leave us a link!

Galatians Devotional 12 in Word

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This devotional is downloadable and printable for your personal use. However, it may not be reprinted for distribution with out permission from Elisa Pulliam. You may contact her at extragrace (at) gmail (.) com.

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