Crucifying The Flesh

This is an excerpt from the book, And The Word Was God, written by Last Fambisayi

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts (Galatians 5v23)

There is a battle that is fought between the spirit and the flesh. This is mainly because ”the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary to one another… “(Galatians 5vs17). The flesh has its own desires that are contrary to the desires of the Spirit.
The flesh, because of its sinful nature, desires adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness and wild parties.

Crucifying the flesh will help you to leave the big match on television and go into your room to study the Word of God and to spend time in prayer. If you are failing to overcome these temptations, it’s high time you crucified your flesh

The desires of the Spirit on the contrary are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Galatians5 vs 19-21; vs22-23). Something needs to be understood to avoid confusion.

The words flesh and body in today’s world can be used interchangeably, but if you see these words in the Bible, know that they do not exactly mean the same thing. The body, according to the Bible, is the physical suit in which your spirit and soul live. The flesh, watch this, is a way of thinking, it is a mindset that opposes the Word of God. Crucifying theflesh according to Galatians 5vs24 does not mean crucifying the body, as in taking a hammer and nails to pierce through your palms, it means to put to death the mindset that contradicts God’s Word. Bodily exercise is profitable, fleshly exercise is deadly. Have this understanding ladies and gentlemen everytime you read your Bible, that the body is physical and the flesh is spiritual, it is a mindset.This is according to the Bible, not according to the English dictionary. Today, flesh and body can be used interchangeably.

The flesh fights against the Spirit. It is the flesh that tells you to hate when the Word says to love, it is the flesh that tells you to be angry when the Word says to be joyful, it is the flesh that tells you to worry and panic when the Word tells you to have peace. The flesh has a sinful nature, and it needs to be crucified, to be put to death. The body needs to be nourished, cherished and exercised. The flesh delights in parties and in drinking and in getting drunk.

The body is trained and whatever it is trained to do is exactly what it does. If the body is trained to do the things of the flesh, a person will be drinking, smoking, partying, murdering, hating others, walking in strife and doing all sorts of sin because that is how it will have been trained. If the body is trained to do the things of the Spirit, a person will be loving, joyful, gentle, peaceful, meek and temperate. The body can be trained to wake up at 6am, it can be trained to slap back someone who slaps it and it can be trained to eat junk food. It is dangerous if the body is not trained by the Spirit and that is why Paul says to crucify the flesh. Crucifying the flesh is refusing to satisfy the desires of the flesh and agreeing to satisfy the desires of the Word. The Bible says we are dead to sins (Romans 6vs2; 1Peter 2vs24). Picture this, Janet is a girl who likes cooking food. Janet knows many many things about cooking recipes and about food types for different times and events. At school, she is always quiet and rarely talks to her friends because her friends are always talking about music, fashion and sports. When her friends are talking, she rarely contributes anything to the conversation. This is because she is dead to fashion, music and sports. This is what we should do when we crucify the flesh. We become dead to sin, inactive and unmoved, not even motivated to sin. The Bible says, ”our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should no longer serve sin“ (Romans6vs6).

Crucifying the flesh involves doing away with the mindset that contradicts God’s Word. Now watch this: Janet’s friends begin to talk about food, suddenly, Janet brightens up. She becomes very excited and takes over the whole conversation. She becomes a talk-show hostess at that instant and everyone else will be asking her questions. Now go back to 1Peter 2vs24, ”that we, being  dead to sins, should live unto righteousness…..“ Living unto righteousness means we become alive to righteousness. Janet is dead to fashion, music and sport, but she is awake to food and cooking. If you have crucified the flesh, you become dead, unconscious to sin and alive, conscious to righteousness. You are only interested in what the Spirit is interested in and very awake to the things of the Spirit.

Watch over your body lest your fleshly mindset takes over the body and you end up doing that which pleases the flesh and displeases God. Paul faced this problem and he confessed saying, ” 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. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, that I do.“(Romans 7 vs18-19). This can only happen if you do not crucify the flesh, it will end up determining what your body does. Crucifying the flesh will cause you to switch off the television if it is showing horror or pornography, crucifying the flesh will shut your feelings such that even if you are in closed doors with a person of the opposite sex, you will not have any desire whatsoever to be engaged in sexual immorality.

Crucifying the flesh will help you to leave the big match on television and go into your room to study the Word of God and to spend time in prayer. If you are failing to overcome these temptations, it’s high time you crucified your flesh. A person who has not crucified the flesh has his body controlled by a mindset which contradicts God’s Word. It is a mindset that is controlled by emotions. It is a mindset that depends on the natural or physical weapons to fight the things of the spirit.

A person who has not crucified the flesh struggles with tithing and literally disagrees with everything in the Bible. It takes a person who has crucified the flesh to stand up in Church and say, ”stop the fundraising exercise, I will pay in full,“ a person who does not depend on his own abilities and on natural, visible abilities but on God’s abilities; a person who depends on God for literally everything including the clothes to wear that day. We see a person who had not crucified the flesh in Peter. When the captains and officers came to arrest Jesus, we hear that ”Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus“ (John 18vs10). This man had been with Jesus for 3years yet he had not crucified his flesh. He still depended on physical things to fight spiritual wars. Where did a disciple of Jesus get a sword? It is just like seeing a pastor’s armourbearer or a pastor’s personal assistant (PPA) with a gun. Peter had not crucified his flesh. Paul on the other hand said, ”but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood (Galatians 1:15). Paul says he never listened to the requirements of the flesh, because he now understood that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. Folks, choose to crucify the flesh. Put to death the old man and his deeds(Colossians3:9)

We have to let go of the ideas that we fight the wars of the spirit using physical weapons, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. Sometimes God allows some things to happen to us so that He can see if we have crucified the flesh and become dead to sins. You may hear the Pastor in Church saying, ”We have failed to pay rentals so we are going to hold our services at Mrs Johnson’s house.“ This is an opportunity for God to see if you have crucified the flesh. If you have crucified the flesh, you will stand up and say, ”I will give you all the money to pay for the rentals in full.“  such an attitude is for the person who has crucified the flesh, who knows that his sufficiency is of God (2Corinthians3vs5), a man who trusts wholly in the Lord, and maketh not flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17vs5-7).Crucifying the flesh will strip you off your dependency on money. You will not pray to God asking for money, but you will ask for exactly what you want. You will not say, ”God give me the money to buy my child a new bicycle,“ as if to confine God’s ability to money, but you will say, ”God, give my child a bicycle.“ Crucifying the flesh will result in a substitution of selfishness for selflessness. You will quit praying the give me type of prayers, ”give me a house, give me a car, do this for me, anoint me, enrich me, empower me, heal me, bless me.“ A person who has crucified the flesh will spend more time praying for other people. TLG