We Must Cooperate with the Holy Spirit in Keeping the Old Man Crucified

2. Make no provision for the flesh.

Romans 13:14

“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

Galatians 6:8

“For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Romans 8:5

“For 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.”

Romans 8:4

“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Here before us is very definite and practical instruction on the way of conquest of “the old man” which is constantly ignored and often willfully disobeyed by Christians. How can the Holy Spirit make real within us our complete severance from “the old man” and all that pertains to the old creation when we daily make ample provision for the renewal of that life within us by feeding him upon the food that makes fat? What is food to “the flesh” is fodder to the Spirit and vice versa. Search your own life under the Spirit’s guidance to discover what stores you have on hand that are making “the flesh” fat in you and then throw the entire supply away and stock your shelves with those things upon which the Spirit can feed.

God’s law of sowing and reaping in the spiritual realm is as inexorable as it is in the material realm. If we sow to “the flesh” we shall reap of “the flesh.” What folly for a Christian woman to think she can sow to “the flesh” in mannish hair, dress, indecent clothes, trashy books and worldly pleasures and then reap in return an unspotted husband, Christian children and spiritual fellowship in the home! And what inconceivable absurdity for a church to sow to its young people the dance and the movie and expect to reap a prayer meeting or a revival! To which are you sowing your time, your strength, your money—to “the flesh” or to the Spirit?

What things do you “mind”? It is a strong word. Upon what things are your mind, heart, will set? In what kind of things are you so immersed as to be oblivious to other things? With the desire for what kind of things are you saturated? With a consuming, compelling passion for what kind of things are you filled? You are responsible for the direction your desires take because in cooperation with the Holy Spirit He will direct you away from the things of “the flesh” toward the things of the Spirit. Are you making provision for “the flesh” in the things that you “mind”?

The world judges a Christian very largely by his “walk.” To a world deaf to every other kind of a message the Christian may witness by his “walk.” But what kind of a witness is the Christian if the worldly man finds him walking just where and just as he walks? What power will a Christian walking “in the flesh” have to deliver a sinner from the sphere of the flesh? Here is largely the secret of the shameful fruitlessness of the Church of Christ in the world today. Are you walking “in the flesh” or in the Spirit?

God commands every believer to take a definite, decisive attitude toward “the flesh” and to maintain it by the Holy Spirit’s power under all circumstances.

1 Peter 2:11

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”

Galatians 5:24

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts.”

It resolves itself into a total abstinence of all that feeds or fosters the life of “the flesh” and a full appreciation of all that starves and stifles it.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Dear Lord, You have clearly shown that each of us is accountable for what we sow, and You will judge us based on whether we sowed to the flesh or to the Spirit. May we learn to work together with the Spirit.