Spirit Life and Self Life – Fruit Pt 1
Scripture: Galatians 5:16-26 TPT (Click Link)
16 As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. 17 For your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit and hinder him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your old self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit. 18 But when you are brought into the full freedom of the Spirit of grace, you will no longer be living under the domination of the law, but soaring above it! (Galatians 5:16-18 TPT)
Two powers are at work in each of us who is born-again by God’s Spirit. Both are hungry for our hearts and both are determined to control the outcome of our lives. We choose moment by moment to yield to one or the other. I remember hearing an illustration that this reality is like two dogs inside me fighting for control of my thoughts, words and actions. Which dog wins? The one I feed the most!
As we learn to yield to the Holy Spirit, we are learning to deny the power of the self-life. We can spend a lifetime using our will power to resist the things we know will destroy us, and yet every time we relax for even a moment, we snap back like a stretched rubber band! But when we learn to yield to the Spirit instead of trying to resist and suppress the desires of the self-life, real change begins to happen! And as that change takes place, we’re less often merely trying to keep the rules, and we’re more often flying free above the bondage to rules and the downward pull of the self-life. More and more, as this grace-filled process works in us, our God-loving hearts think, speak, and act at the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
For the next few days we’re going to explore that process and the wonderful provision God has given us, the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit lives in us to remind us of our relationship with God our Father, to remind us of the Way, The Truth, and the Life, and to guide us into living the life of Jesus Christ, one Spirit-prompted choice at a time. I’m using The Passion Translation (TPT) as our text for these days we’re exploring the Fruit of the Spirit. I’ll include the day’s verses in the devotional and put a clickable ink to the larger passage in TPT at the top of each page. I welcome your comments and insights as we explore together!
Prayer:
Father, We desire to be led by your Holy Spirit. Please lead us on the pathway of joyful response to the work of grace your Spirit desires to complete in us. For Jesus’ sake!