Spirit-filled Day 2: Not Fleshly

Charles Stanley said in his book The Wonderful Spirit-filled Life that the Christian life was absolutely dependent on Christ living in us through the indwelling and all filling Holy Spirit. “If the Christian life was simply a matter of doing our best, there was no need for God to send the Holy Spirit to help us…God was looking for a lifestyle and an attitude that superseded our best, a lifestyle and attitude that we could never attain through our own efforts. The Christian life is not simply difficult…It’s impossible.”

 You cannot be spiritual without prayer and you cannot have a prayerful life and not be spiritually filled. When the Wind/Breath/Spirit of God enters into our life, we Are spiritually quickened. This can be seen in the Old Testament portrait of Ezekiel’s Valley of the Dry Bones (Chapter 37):

 Spirit-Filled Prayer Life Is Not Fleshly. First, we want to see what a Spirit-filled life is not. Notice Ezekiel says the bones were very dry. There was certainly NO life in them, but also they were extremely decomposed. I don't know how much drier bones can be if there is no flesh on them, but Ezekiel 37:2 says, "and indeed they were very dry". 

 The flesh usually means worldly. A fleshly spirit is preoccupied with doing things without God’s presence or power, and that type of mind-set actually ends up without God’s presence or power. It leads to death, decay and decomposition. It may have pleasure for a season, but its end is to be a dry, defeated and ultimately dead.

 It is not coincidence that the first true infilling of the Holy Spirit occurred after the disciples were gathered in one accord in prayer (Acts 2). Throughout the seven portraits of prayer, we saw examples of events in the Old Testament that parallel a vibrant prayer life. In order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must be filled with prayerful spirit and stripped of the carnality of fleshly spirit. 

 And though the Bible says that the mind that is set or fixated of the flesh is death, God is going to give this bones a new flesh, not of a cold, calloused dead heart of stone, but a living heart of Spirit filled flesh as the body of Christ. In the chapter just previous to Ezek. 37, God had told the prophet in chapter 36, “²⁶I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them."

Just like in Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, if you are living a life filled or controlled by anything other than the Spirit of the Living Lord and God Jesus Christ, you will experience nothing but ultimate defeat and land yourself in the valley of dry bones. 

Rom. 8:5-8 says, “⁵ For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  ⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,  ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot  please God.”

So many Christians lead defeated lives because they are trying to serve to masters, being double-minded, unstable in all their ways. I know because I have been there and I have definitely done that. God wants to clothe us, not in carnality, not in fleshly lusts and worldly deceits, but clothe us in the new flesh as an incarnation of Christ in you, the hope of all glory!

 Gal. 5:16-17 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 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.

 You cannot be filled with the Spirit of Christ if you are filled with the worldly flesh. A spirit-filled life will be clothed with the veil of Christ's flesh, a new spirit will turn stone hearts into truly alive hearts. 

Hebrews 10 says this, “¹⁹Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹and having a High Priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

 In both the Tabernacle and the Temple, the veil separated the holiness of God from the sinfulness of the humanity. But God bridged that gap by sending Christ in the flesh, and as a High Priest, His blood was sprinkled on us, taking away our sins and our bodies were bathed and baptized in pure water.  

Step One of being filled with the Spirit is pray, seeking God to strip away your sinful carnal self. Those bones are dry because the flesh has fallen off, but then God asks a seemingly ridiculous question, "Can these bones live?”

Ask a ridiculous question and you’ll get a ridiculous answer: YES. Our bones and flesh can live for Christ with a new spirit filled in us. 

 Dear God, peel off my old fleshly ways. Peel away my carnal and stone-cold heart. Instead, give me the veil of the flesh of Christ, the new self which has the Holy Spirit infused and infiltrated into my heart of flesh and blood.