If
My mom used many old sayings to get the point across to me when I was young. She continued using many of them until the day she went to be with Jesus.
One such saying when I would attempt to offer a weak excuse for being lazy over something using the word “if” was, “If a frog had wings, it wouldn’t scrape its bottom every time it tried to hop.”
You can never get some old sayings out of your memory banks.
In some areas of Christianity, an excuse of “The devil made me do it” seems to be in vogue when a person is not behaving in step with who they truly are in Christ.
In Scripture, our conflict between who we are meant to be and truly are, as opposed to who we used to be and are no longer, is defined as a war between the flesh and the Spirit and hits at the heart of our new identity versus our old one.
Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The first key to walking in our new identity is realizing which covenant we are meant to function under now. Trying to walk in our new identity while thinking like we are under an Old Covenant way of relating with God creates a conflict.
Before Christ, we did not have a renewed spirit that is born again and has heavenly DNA. Only by being born again do we become born of the Spirit and are made alive by the Spirit to the things that before seemed outside of us and often far from us. But if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law.
That means people led by the Spirit are not taken by the Spirit back under the law for being right with God in any way. The Law is dead to them now, and a new way of living has been opened up to them. The Law cannot judge the fruits of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Now that we have found our life in the Spirit, we are allowed to do life according to the Spirit. We are given the privilege of walking according to the Spirit and no longer being relegated to the limitations of our strength and wisdom according to our natural self.
We no longer have to live a life that often yields to impulses at the moment that were stirred by the lust of our flesh. We get to live above that type of being and doing now. We get to be the new person God made us and live in the power of the Spirit to manifest His fruits in our lives as we yield to His wisdom, power, and ways. No one in Christ is a prisoner any longer to their flesh, their old way of living. It is for freedom Christ set us free. “If” is a tiny word that seems to yield a lot of power and influence in many lives. Let your “If” be swallowed up today in the power of the Spirit.
