Transcription
So, normally I speak on finances in my chapel services, but because we have KCBC with us today, I'm going to deviate from that a little bit. And I want to turn over to uh Galatians chapter 5 and just share some things with you. And again, uh I'm going to just jump in because if I go back and try and put this in his context, I could preach an hour on all of the other things that have been said. So, let me just jump into this.
In Galatians chapter 5 and in verse um 16 says, "For this I say, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." And I'm going to go on and share some of these other scriptures, but let me just point out in verse 16 what it doesn't say. It doesn't say that if you will not walk in the flesh, then you will walk in the spirit. Think about this. I would say a large section of Christianity, the way they are trying to get the power of God operative in their life is to turn against the flesh and they're trying to do away with all of these things. But this says you walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's like when you walk into a room, you don't shovel the darkness out hoping that the light will come. You turn on the light and it drives the darkness out. And one of the keys to the Christian life is that you have to get so focused on God and on the good that it drives the flesh and the carnal stuff and the fear and all of these things that we deal with out of us. And again, so many people are focused upon their flesh and upon all of the negative things that are going on in their life and they don't realize it, but what they're doing is empowering the flesh by being so focused on all of their failures. Boy, you need to think about that a second because I think this is human nature is just to try and think that if I could get rid of this and if I could quit doing all of these things, then the power of God would start flowing through my life. This says you walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's really important.
You know, when I I was raised in the Baptist uh church and they used to talk about dying to the flesh, which there is a truth there, but the way that it was taught, I disagree with the way they did it. But anyway, I remember one guy one time getting up and saying that every morning he imagined himself sitting in an electric chair and he strapped himself in and died to himself every morning. >> And this is back when I was a kid and I didn't know any better. So, I just thought, well, that's good. So anyway, I remember actually sitting there and in my imagination thinking I was I was mentioning all of my sins, lust, anger, bitterness, and I would just name all of these things and think about all of the junk that I did. And I was dying to myself, but what I was actually doing was resurrecting myself. I was thinking about all of my carnal stuff and I was focused on everything that was wrong with me. That's not the way that you progress in the Christian life. You find out what Jesus has done and you focus on that and you focus on his love for you. And then as you do that, you're walking in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And what is walking in the spirit? A lot of people think walking in the spirit is being weird and being spooky and you have to have your collar turned around backwards or you have to always have this sick look on your face or whatever. You know Jesus said in John 6 63 he says it's the spirit that quickens the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life. Walking in the spirit being led by the spirit is just literally being led by the word of God. You focus on what God's word says and you are just so focused on the word. Proverbs 23:7 says, "As you think in your heart, that's the way that you are." And so, if you are spiritually minded, which is wordminded, well, then the word of God will begin to dominate you and the truths of what Jesus has done will manifest in your life. So, you walk in the spirit is walking in the word and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Instead of being focused on all of our failures and on everything in us that needs to change, we need to focus on the things that Jesus has already done.
And you know, those of you here at Caris have heard me say this many times, but those of you at KCBC, u the thing that turned my life around was when I got a revelation of who I was in Christ, what I call spirit, soul, and body. And when I begin to recognize that in the spirit, I'm already complete. My flesh isn't complete. My flesh is still uh being renewed and there's still things in me that need to change. But when I started recognizing that in the spirit I am identical to Jesus. 1 John chapter 4 verse 17. As he is, so are we in this world. 1 Corinthians 6:17. He that's joined unto the Lord is one spirit. That in my spirit I'm as righteous and holy as Jesus is. And when I started seeing that, that's what just transformed my life. And I still had all kinds of things that needed to change. I've still got things that need to change, but I'm saying I had a lot more things need to change back then.
And I remember, you know, uh I used to be the janitor in the Baptist church. And so I would clean the uh church and stuff. And in the women's restroom, in the men's restroom, they only had a little tiny mirror, but in the women's restroom, they had a huge mirror. So I would go into the women's restroom when nobody else was around. And I remember looking at myself eyeball to eyeball and pointing my finger at me. And I learned this through Kenneth Copelan. He was really back then, this was in the early 70s, and he was preaching on your righteousness and righteous position. And I remember hearing him say these things. And I remember going in front of that mirror and pointing my finger at myself and saying, "You are righteous." And the first time I ever said that, all of the hair on the back of my neck stood up like, "Oh, God, don't strike me dead for saying that I'm righteous because I had been focused on all of my unrighteousness and on everything in me that needed to change." But when I understood that in the spirit, it says in Ephesians 4:24 that we were created in righteousness and true holiness. And when I saw that, I start I had to start speaking to myself and preaching to myself. And I would stand and say, "You are righteous." And I would just say it until it got to where it felt good. And I started focusing on who I was in Christ. And you know, the scripture teaches that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And so as I begin to focus on Jesus, look what you've done. It begin to start being reflected in my life. It's just like this verse says, you don't turn off, you don't shovel out the dark to get the light to come. You turn on the light. You start seeing what Jesus has done for you. You start identifying with I'm not this person anymore. This is who I am in Christ. And as you focus on that, it begins to start being reflected in your life. >> Man, that is really simple. what I have just said and yet it is contrary to the way that most people approach seeing the power of God work in their life.
And then in the next verse in verse uh 17 it says for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. Now, some people have misinterpreted this and think that we still have a sinful nature on the inside of us that makes us do things. This is just when you get born again. I'm not going to spend time to do this, but if you go to Romans chapter 6, you can verify that your old man is dead and gone. You don't have an old man anymore. When you got born again, that sinful nature that compelled us to sin and we were by nature a sinner according to Ephesians chapter 2:3. That old nature is gone. You don't have anything compelling you to sin anymore. But that old nature programmed our mind. It taught us how to think. And you are like a computer and you're going to function the way that you were programmed until you reprogram yourself. So as born again believers, there's no longer a nature that is compelling us to sin, but there is the wrong thinking, the wrong attitudes, the wrong values that we were taught when we were under sin. And until we renew our mind, we aren't going to see a change. And so this is saying that the flesh and the flesh here, the NIV translates this as sinful nature. And I think that that is 100% wrong because that sinful nature is gone. You don't have a sinful nature, but you do have the residue or the results of that sinful nature, an unrenewed mind. And you are going to function the way that you think. So the flesh here is not talking about a sinful nature. It's just talking about your physical body and your mental emotional state.
You know the word carnal uh it says in Romans chapter 8 6 to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And a lot of people think that carnal is talking about you know some type of terrible sinful actions or attitudes and things like that. Well all you know extreme sin is carnal but you can be carnal and still not be sinning. Carnal just means of the it's this is and andology. This is my definition of it. But carnal just means you're of the five senses. The word carnal in Greek sarks s a arx, it literally means the flesh as stripped of skin. And if you stop and think about that, what that's talking about, it's not talking about just your skin, your epidermis, but it's talking about your flesh, meat. Matter of fact, the word uh carnal uh is carne, and that's where we get chili concarn from. Chili with meat is what that word means. When you say somebody is carnal, you say you're saying that they're a meatthead. I heard Kenneth Copelan say that decades ago. I don't usually give him credit for it, but since his Bible college is watching, I I'll give him credit. But anyway, when you say somebody's carnally minded, you're calling them a meatthead. And so anyway, to be carnally minded is death. You've got to, it's not talking about your sinful nature. It's just talking about that you've got a mind that hasn't been renewed. And so, wherever you focus your mind, wherever you focus your attention is what this is talking about, that is going to control you. If you focus your attention on the word of God and what the word of God has to say about how he's transformed you and changed you, then you will start seeing that change reflected in your actions. If you're focused on all of your flaws and failings, then you are going to see that reflected in your actions. You need to starve your flesh. >> Amen. >> And you need to feed your spirit.
Now, I I'm uh that's not technically correct because your spirit's not hungry. >> Your spirit is perfect. Your spirit is full. Your spirit, as it goes on to say, if you go on down a few verses in verse 22, it says, "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance." This is what's in your spirit. Your spirit's never starved. Your spirit's never depressed. Your spirit's never lonely. Your spirit's never discouraged. Your spirit is awesome. Your spirit is identical to Jesus. And then your spirit when you were born again, it was created that way. Ephesians 4:24. And then Ephesians 1:13 says you were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. You're vacuuming packed so that your spirit does not fluctuate with things. It's your flesh, what the Bible here is calling flesh that fluctu fluctuates. That's your physical body and your mental emotional part. And depending on where your focus is, your flesh, not talking about just physical skin, but the part of you that's not born again, your mental, emotional part, your physical body, your flesh is the part that fluctuates. And what you've got to do is get to where you do not look and let the flesh dominate you. And you go by what the word of God says, who you are in Christ. And again, verses 22 and 23, you're full of love, joy, peace, all of these things. And that never fluctuates. Man, this began to change my life. You know, prior to me understanding this, I was up and down like a yo-yo. And it just depended on what was going on in my life. If I saw something awesome happened, I was just praising God and I was on the mountaintop. But if I say for instance prayed for somebody or prayed for something and didn't see it come to pass, man, I'd be discouraged and depressed. That's your flesh. Your spirit never is discouraged. Your spirit has never been depressed.
You know, I was in Vietnam. I got touched by the Lord March the 23rd, 1968. And then shortly after that, I got drafted and sent to Vietnam. I'd had this really miraculous emotional encounter with God to where I mean for four and a half months I was just caught up in the presence of God and it was awesome. But after four and a half months the emotion of it wore off. And then when I was in Vietnam man I just I was a chaplain's assistant. I was out on a fire support base. I built my own bunker and I stayed in and I just sat there all day long. I didn't do anything. I just sat there for 14 months doing nothing. And I and uh anyway, I was always seeking to have this feeling and this emotion back. And I remember that during that time, there was a song that was real popular that was going around and it's I've got love like a f love like an ocean, joy like a fountain, peace like a river in my soul. And I wouldn't sing that because I said, I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a hypocrite and I'm not going to sit there and confess that I've got love and joy and peace and all of these things when I'm not feeling it. And I mean, I just uh I went through Vietnam the whole time just longing to have back this emotion and stuff. And then when I got out of Vietnam, you know, I'll say this for the benefit of KCBC. People People have trouble believing this about me, but when I got out of Vietnam, one of the guys that was in that prayer meeting March the 23rd, 1968, when my life got changed, he became an associate with Kenneth Copeland. Joe Na was his name and Kenneth gave him his first plane and he used to travel with Kenneth. So when I got back out of Vietnam, uh, he invited me to one of Kenneth's meetings and I went over to brother Nichols church in Fort Worth and heard Kenneth Copelan preach. And I had been a Baptist boy. I'd never heard anything like that. And people will find this hard to believe, but I got so excited while Kenneth was preaching that I got up and screamed and ran laps around the church. Hallelujah. >> Those of you that know me think there's no way. I'm I'm telling you, it's the truth. I I just had never heard anything like that. And I got so excited. And anyway, the thing that I I began to learn that in my spirit, I had love, joy, peace all of the time. And what I was doing for 14 months in Vietnam, I was trying to contact God in just the physical natural realm. I was trying to feel his presence because I had felt I had a supernatural presence of God just fall on me for four and a half months. And I was wanting that back and I was trying to worship him in flesh instead of in spirit and in truth. And when I finally found out that I had love, joy, and peace in me the whole time, and I was just focused on what I was feeling out here in the natural realm, but I wasn't going by who I was in the spirit. Man, I just I got set free to find out that the whole time everything I was seeking, it was already on the inside of me.
You know, let me share this with you. And just for time sake, I'm running short on time here, but just for time sake, let me just summarize this. But in the eighth chapter of the book of um Matthew is where the Roman centurion sent to Jesus and asked him to come and heal his servant. And while Jesus was coming to his house, he sent another servant and he said, "Look, I don't need you to come under my roof. You speak the word only and my servant shall be healed." >> And when Jesus heard that, he marveled. There's only twice in scripture that it's reported that Jesus marveled. One time was at this centurion's faith. He says, "I have never found so great a faith. No, not in Israel." And then he also marveled at his disciples unbelief. Amen. He was shocked at how how strong this man's faith was. And he also marveled and was shocked by his disciples. There's a reason that they were called the disciples. You know, it's amazing that his disciples, the people spent three and a half years with him, didn't have as much faith as a man who was not even a Jew. He was a gentile. >> And he marveled at that. And the thing that made him marvel was because this gentile recognized the power, the authority of his word. And Jesus said, "I've never seen such great faith." And then the Lord showed me that this is right about that time when I came out of Vietnam and begin to learn these things. And I'd been raised a Baptist and in the Baptist church, you believed in salvation, but they didn't believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, didn't believe in healing, didn't believe in prosperity. You were basically saved and stuck. And we used to sing songs about when we all get to heaven and and we were all excited about heaven and just trying to hold on till we got to heaven. And when I finally began to realize that man, miracles are happening and I heard about Kenneth Hagen and all of these things and and he would see visions and see demons and have fire jump in his hands when he laid hands on people. I got to seeking those same things and looking for some physical manifestation and stuff. And so uh during that time the Lord showed me this about the Roman centurion. And then he contrasted that with John chap 20 and this is after the resurrection of Jesus. He appeared unto his disciples but Thomas one of the 12 uh disciples was not present. And so the other disciples told him that we've seen Jesus. He's resurrected from the dead. And Thomas said there in John chapter 20 somewhere around verse 20 somewhere in there. He says, "Unless I see with my eyes the print of the nails, unless I put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe." That's a choice. Non-believing is a choice. Believing is a choice. He said, "I will not believe." That was his decision. And so after eight days, the Lord showed up and he just showed up in the room with the doors locked and he walked right up to Thomas. And of course, Jesus hadn't been there when Thomas said those things, but he knew everything that Thomas had said. So he walked straight up to Thomas and he says, "Thomas, put your finger into the print of the nails and thrust your hand into my side and be not faithless but believing." And when Thomas saw that, it doesn't say that he ever did touch him. He went, he just knew that by Jesus knowing what he had said and everything, he knew that this was Jesus. He knew that Jesus was raised from the dead. and he fell down on his knees and he says, "My Lord and my God." And Jesus responded to him by saying, could you put that verse up? It must be the next verse. Verse 29 says, "Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." And God spoke to me through that. contrasted it with the um centurion's faith that says I don't need you to come to my house you speak the word only and my servant shall be healed and when I saw those things I prayed and I said God I want your best >> I don't you know God can reach you in multiple ways and there's many times that he told people he says according to your faith so be it done unto you and and so uh sometimes he would go and lay hands on people other times with the uh nobleman's son and with the uh centurion. He just spoke his word. So, I'm not saying that it's all one way or the other. God will meet you where you are, and God still speaks in audible voices to people today. I've never had that happen. God will still show you things. There are people that see things. I've had people come up and said, "They saw two angels standing behind me when I minister." I don't doubt that those things happen, but I've never seen anything with my physical eyes. I've never audibly heard the voice of God. And I believe part of it is because when I saw these things that I'm talking about, I said, "God, I want your best." And I said, "I want to operate in the highest form." He he told Thomas that there is a greater blessing on those who would just believe the word of God instead of having to have some physical proof, having to have a goosebump go up and down your spine. And I made a decision right then. I said, "God, I want your best." And you know, prior to that time, I used to get a lot of prophecies. People would call me out. Since that time, I could be sitting there and there could be eight ministers in a row and everybody will get a prophecy but me. And I I believe a lot of it is God honoring what I've said. Now, the Lord has I get some prophecies. I'm not against prophecy. I'm not despising prophecy. I'll let God speak to me and minister to me any way he can. But I'm saying when I quit focusing and seeking those things and coveting just some physical proof, some fe some feeling and I just started going by what the word said. That's what this is describing here is walking in the spirit is not always walking in some emotional thing. It's just walking in the word. You're going by what the word of God says. God says he'd never leave us nor forsake us. And yet you go into a typical church and they'll start by saying, "Oh God, just come and be with us today." And he says, "I'm never going to leave you nor forsake you." How's he going to answer a prayer like that? And then at the end, they'll say, "Oh God, just go with us as we leave here today." You know what that is? That's unbelief. It's at the very least it's ignorance. Or at the very worst, it's just unbelief. Most people know that God loves them because the word says it. If you were to ask the average Christian, "Does God love you?" Oh yes. But if you don't feel something, I've had people come up and say, "Would you just pray that God will pour out his love in my life?" No, I won't pray that because it says God has already commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter 5:8. And people say, "Well, I know that, but I don't feel anything." That's really what it gets down to. They're trying to contact God. They're trying to walk in the flesh and have a relationship with God. But for you to really see the power of God, you're going to have to get to where you walk in the spirit, which isn't talking about walking in weirdness or anything like that. It's talking about walking in the word. What does the word say? God will never leave you nor forsake you. And you just have to get to where you believe that. Whether you feel it, whether you see it, whether all of your circumstances look complete, completely contrary. God's word says by his stripes you were healed. Are you going to go by that or are you going to sit there and say, "Well, I know he says I'm healed, but the truth is I don't feel it." And here's a doctor's report that proves. All that is, that's the flesh. That's the natural realm. I don't deny the natural realm. I don't deny that my flesh exists. I don't deny that I got things in my body that sometimes don't look like I'm healed, but I do deny them to dominate me. And I do deny to let that be what controls me and how I act.
Did you know emotions, feelings are like if if this was a stove right here and if I wasn't paying attention and I was talking to you and if I just put my arm on that stove and if it was hot, I guarantee you I' my I'd feel that pain and I'd withdraw from it before I even had time to think about what had happened. You know, in my house in Florison when we lived out there, I heated our house with a wood wood burner, and that thing would get up to 1,500 degrees. And I mean, there's a few times I touched it, and I guarantee you, you can feel it when you touch something like that and you just withdraw. So, pain isn't something that we like, but it serves a purpose. And if I was just talking and wasn't paying attention, put my arm on something like this, I could burn myself, do a tremendous amount of damage. But that pain, that physical feeling would make me withdraw from that. This is the way that emotions are. I don't deny that emotions exist. And if I start feeling discouraged, if I'm not encouraged, if I'm not happy in the Lord, instead of me ignoring that and say, "Well, I refuse to go by that and I'm just going by what the word says." No, what I do, I take those emotions and I say, "This is an indication to me of something." Isaiah chapter 26:3 says, "The Lord will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him." So if I don't have peace, if I'm worried about something, I say, "Father, thank you." because this means that I'm not focused on you the way that I should. And so I just throw aside what I cast my care about whatever is bothering me over on the Lord and I go back to focusing on what God's word says. It says in Psalms chapter 16 verse 11, the Lord uh in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy at his right hand are pleasures forever more. If I don't have fullness of joy and if I don't have pleasure in my life, I don't ignore it. I just sit there and say, "Father, this is an indication that I'm not in your presence the way that I should. I know I'm positionally there, but I'm not focused on it, and so that's the reason that I'm not having this." So, I don't ignore natural things. I don't ignore physical things if my body hurts, but I I do deny that that's all that there is. There's a spiritual me in the spiritual realm. I've got the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead living on the inside of me and that's what's going to dominate me.
So that's what these verses are talking about. The way you get to see the power of God in your life isn't by focusing on the negative, the flesh, and all of the physical things that look contrary to God's word. You get it by focusing on the word of God. That the word of God is spirit and it is life. And as you focus on the word of God, then as you think in your heart, that's the way that it is.
Did you know the battle really is in your mind? It's in your focus. Whatever you're focused on. passage of scripture over in 2 Corinthians chap 10:es 3-5 says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds casting down of imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Notice it says these weapons cast down thoughts and imaginations. Your mind is where the battle is raging. You'll hear a lot of people talk about spiritual warfare and ridding planes and going up into high buildings to fight against spiritual wickedness in high places. There's been a lot of weird stuff done in the name of intercession. But really, the battle's right here between your ears >> and Satan is fighting you over this. And so, are you going to focus on the flesh? Again, the flesh here is just talking about your physical natural body and how it feels. Or are you going to focus on your soloulish realm, how you feel in your emotions and how you think? Are you going to focus on that? Or are you going to focus on who you are in Christ? >> Are you going to rejoice even when you don't feel like rejoicing? Hallelujah. >> You know, I really believe that one of the keys of seeing my son raised from the dead after he had been dead for four and a half hours and in a morg stripped naked with a tow tag on. One of the reasons that happened is because I began to start having the same feelings and emotions that anybody would have if you had your son die. But I didn't like it. And I knew that Jesus said that uh he bore my sorrows and carried my grief. And I just determined I am not going to grieve. I am not going to get into grief. >> I don't care what happens. Even if my son died, I'm not going to grieve. And I started rejoicing and praising God. Not because I felt like it. See, that was walking in the spirit. My spirit always has love, joy, and peace. My flesh had sorrow and grief and questions and all of these kind of things. And I just refuse to let the flesh dominate me. And right as we drove by this property, this is before we owned this property, but right as I drove by here, right there, I just said, I am going to start praising God. And I started worshiping the Lord, not because I felt like, I started just thanking God and praising him. And when I did, uh, it's like the Lord brought back to my remembrance prophecies. And the Lord connected the dots. And all of a sudden, I realized this boy's got to live for these things to come to pass. And I started laughing. I started doing it out of nothing but just walking in the spirit and doing it because that's what the word said. But it's like you got this river. You got this well of living water on the inside of you. And when you start acting on what you believe is in you in Christ, it's like sticking a bucket down into the well and you start drawing that out. And when I started praising God, not because I felt like it, but because I was just trying to obey what the word says. I mean, the joy of the Lord began to come up. And I actually got the laughing. >> Amen. >> And I told Jamie, I said, "This going to be the greatest thing we've ever seen." And by the time we got into Colorado Springs, uh my oldest son came out and he said, "I don't know what happened, but five or 10 minutes after I called you, uh Peter just stood up, sat up and started talking and he was raised from the dead with no brain damage. No more than he had before. And I'm telling you that walk, that's walking in the spirit. What does the word say about you? Here's what your circumstances say about you. You're struggling to get your rent paid to pay your tuition. You're struggling with this. Are you going to focus on that or are you going to use your spiritual weapons and cast down those negative thoughts and just go by what God's word says that you're blessed? Ephesians 1:3, you're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Whatever you set your hand unto is blessed. Are you going to go by what the doctor says or are you going to go by what the word of God says?
>> Again, I'm not saying that you deny the flesh, but you deny that that's all that there is. You deny that that is reality. There is a greater reality, and that's the spirit. >> And the only way for you to effectively, accurately know what the spirit is doing is through the word of God. Because Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And so, we've got to get to where this word becomes our identity. This tells us who we are. >> Hallelujah. >> You know, if you want to look and see if your hair is combed, you can't go by just how you feel. Right now, I hope my hair is combed, but I can't see my hair. Did you know I have to go look in a mirror to see if my hair is combed? and I take uh uh action based on what I see in that reflection. The Bible says over in James chapter 1 that the word of God is a spiritual mirror. And whoever looks into this perfect law of liberty and continues therein will be blessed in his deed. So I can't see if my hair is comb. I can't go by how I feel. I have to look at that reflection. And this is the only way that we can accurately see into the spirit realm. You can't just go by how you feel. So people say, "But but I don't feel the presence of God in this place." And so you pray and say, "Oh God, come and be with us." You've already started in unbelief because you aren't operating in what the word says. Now, if you wanted to pray this way and say, "Father, according to your word, I know that you never leave us nor forsake us, and you're here, but man, there's no manifestation." We want to see your power manifest. We want to see you released. And so, Father, we release you and you start speaking forth those things. That's a different way of approaching it. But just to come and go totally by your emotions and totally by what you see and totally by what you feel, that's what the Bible calls carnal. And a carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That's in Romans chapter 8. I'm not sure I'll quote all of this. So, let me just turn over here and read this to you.
In Romans chapter 8 and in verse 5, it says, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." Notice again the emphasis on your mind. Being in the flesh isn't necessarily just going out and living in sin. It's really where your focus is. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. You can tell whether you're walking in the spirit or whether you're walking in the flesh by where are your thoughts? >> Are your thoughts on what the doctor said and on the pain that you feel in your body? Or are your thoughts on what Jesus has said and what God's word says? You can get to where the word of God's more real to you than what you see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. >> Hallelujah.
You know, some of you have heard me tell this story, but my board back I couldn't tell you, but maybe 15 years ago or something like that, they made me go get a physical uh for insurance policy. And so, I had to go do one of these treadmill. And they wanted to shave the hair off my chest and put these things on there. And I told them, I said, "This is virgin hair. It's never been touched." I said, "You can't shave my hair." wearing. So anyway, they put these electrodes on but because you know I got to sweating. I think it was 15 minutes that I went and I got to sweating and these things started falling off and so I was holding two of them and a nurse was holding two and the doctor was holding two as I was running. And anyway, I finished the treadmill test and then he looked at this print out and when he got to the 11 minute and 53 second mark or something like that, he he started grunting and looked at this and he said, "Oh, this isn't good." And he wrote out the name of another doctor and he gave this to me and he says, "You go straight there. Don't go back to your office. We're going to put you in the hospital and we're going to run further test on you and we may do open heart surgery on you before the day is over." Now, what would you do if a doctor told you that >> now we're in church or we're in Bible school and you got your best behavior on and so all of your Oh yeah, out of you know most of us had fall apart like a $2 suitcase and I just it took me a few seconds to listen and process what this guy said and finally I said that's a lie. I said, 'I don't receive that.' And this doctor, he just wasn't used to people telling him he was a liar. And he he looked at me like, "What are you saying?" I said, "I do not have a heart problem. You look at that thing and tell me that that says I got a serious heart problem." And he began to back up and he says, "Well, you were just off 100th of 1% in one spot." He said, "You could be perfectly fine." He said, "Everybody's heart's different." And he didn't mention this, but later I got thinking those things fell off. That could have caused some anomaly in the printout. But anyway, he says, "You could be okay. I just think we ought to go get you checked out." I said, "That's not what you told me. You told me I had a serious heart problem." I said, "You lied to me." I said, "How dare you lie to me?" And this guy just tore up the paper and said, "Leave." and he flunked me on my test and they wouldn't give me any insurance. So anyway, I've got a doctor that's a friend of mine in Shreveport and I went down there and he ran a test and it turned out he said, "Your heart's as good as a 17-year-old." And so there was no problem. But anyway, my point is, see that most people if something negative comes up in the flesh, we are more moved by that than we are by what God's word says. That's walking in the flesh. Our mind is stayed upon that. You can tell if you're in the spirit or in the flesh by where your mind is. When somebody told me I had something seriously wrong, I just didn't believe that. That's not what I've been believing. And praise God, I'm healthy today.
The next verse says, "For to be carnally minded is death." Notice again the emphasis on the mind. Every one of these verses has something to do with your mind. That's where the battle is taking place. Your little spirit's perfect. When you got born again, you're complete. One-third of your salvation is over. Your spirit's never going to get any better. It's not going to be infused with more power or cleaned off, dusted off when you get to heaven. Your spirit's perfect. It's your mind and your body that's the problem. And it's primarily your mind. As you think in your heart, so are you. So, it says to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. If all you do is think spiritually minded, all you can get is life and peace. If all you plant is tomatoes, all you're going to get is tomatoes. You can't plant tomatoes and get okra. >> Come on. >> Everything produces after its own kind. >> I don't have to be with you when you plant your garden. Just let me come see what's growing in it and I'll tell you what you planted. >> I don't have to be with you all the time. Just show me how you're thinking and I can tell you what you've been meditating on, what you planted in your life. The next verse says, "Because the carnal mind is enmity." The word enmity means it's the enemy of God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Goes on to say, "But you aren't in the flesh. You've been born again." >> Amen. >> But you can walk after the flesh. You can walk like a person that doesn't have the life of God living on the inside of them, but that's not really who you are. And so, the whole key is you just got to focus on what Jesus has done for you.
I want to commend all of you here at Caris and also car uh Kenneth Copelan Bible College there. Man, this is the greatest thing you'll ever do to put God's word first, to begin to learn the truth, to renew your mind. Romans 12:2 says, "You get transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God." And so, we're sowing things that the Lord has shown us from the word of God and sharing it with you. And if you will receive this and start walking in what God's word says and not letting your emotions and your feeling and the physical facts dominate you, but you get to a place that you're so full of the word of God, every time somebody pokes you, the word comes out. Every time somebody does something, man, the word comes out. What does the word have to say about this? That's walking in the spirit. And if you'll walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's not a matter of just struggling to help God. Let God help you overcome this sin. It's a matter of just seeing what Jesus has already done and getting so focused on it that honestly you don't see yourself as that other person. You don't look at things the way that other people do. You look at everything through the word of God. Amen. >> Praise God. >> So, I want to thank again Dr. Herby and Terry and George Pearsons and KCBC. You guys are a blessing. I'm looking forward to being with you. Thank you for being with us, man. What a blessing. And I believe that together we are going to go out and make a difference in this world. >> Amen. So, God bless you. We love you. Thank you for joining us. And praise God, I'll invite Terry and George back one of these days to minister here. God bless you. We love you. Goodbye. You all are dismissed.