You Cannot Win against the Flesh by Suppressing the Flesh

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Gal. 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

The only way to defeat the flesh is by walking in Spirit. You cannot defeat it by suppressing it not to sin. Your flesh is you. You cannot defeat yourself. Only the Spirit of God can. As Major Ian Thomas explained:

“There are countless Christians fighting a battle that is already lost, trying in their own strength to overcome the subtleties of sin. That is a battle you can fight all your days, but I tell you now, you can never win! It is a battle already lost, lost in the first Adam… Victory over the flesh is not attained but received. ‘Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh’ Gal 5:16 . Now the devil loves to invert truth and turn it into a lie, and probably what he has been saying to you is this: ‘Try not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, and then you will walk in the Spirit’ as though the latter was a reward for the former. He knows that in this way, he will keep you preoccupied with yourself, instead of being preoccupied with Christ. There is nothing quite so nauseating or pathetic as the flesh trying to be holy!… Is that what you have been trying to do? You have been trying not to fulfil the lust of the flesh, in order to walk in the Spirit – fighting a battle already lost. What God has said to you is ‘Walk in the Spirit’ in an attitude of total dependence upon Him, exposing everything to Him, ‘and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh’ – for you will then be enjoying through Him the victory that Christ has already won.”