Published by admin on 19 Aug 2016 at 10:30 am
THAT BEGUN IN THE SPIRIT CANNOT BE FINISHED IN THE FLESH
This morning when asking the LORD what to write about, absolutely IMMEDIATELY the Spirit spoke to me Galatians 3:3, so here we go. Through history man has learned to mix different metals to create alloys, which are stronger together than any of the individual metals are alone It’s just in our nature to try to invent and improve things. And I see the same thing happening where people try to mix the things of the Spirit of God with the things of the flesh, thinking they would end up with something that would work better than the Spirit or the flesh alone. But the “alloy” they produce has no strength at all and fails when put to the test. Why is it that we try to mix the Spirit with the flesh?
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Sometimes we must think we are a “special case” that the rules God makes don’t apply to us. The Apostle Paul dealt with these same issues as evidenced by his writings some 2,000 years ago, and we are still making the same mistakes today. I have had many long conversations with people seeking to be healed or delivered from different afflictions. In every case where healing was begun then lost, it was from the very same thing: they had begun in earnest with the Spirit of God, but along the way had gotten back into the flesh. They were attempting to produce an “alloy” of Spirit and flesh, and it just wasn’t working out, and they couldn’t understand why God wasn’t keeping His Word.
Well, the answer is so simple, that we look right past it, for SURELY it is more complicated than we understand. Let me tell you, it is NOT complicated at all: God is very jealous over His Word to enforce it. Notice I said, “HIS WORD”. He does not “share” the things of the Spirit with the works of the flesh. Let’s go back and have a look at the very first Commandment:
Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
You will notice He did not say, “You can have other gods before me, I’m happy to share your allegiance.” But that is exactly what we try to do when we mix the things of the Spirit with the things of the flesh. You say, “Well, it works with metals, we can produce alloys that are stronger than one metal alone.” Yes, you can. Things of the flesh can be mixed, but NOT with things of the Spirit. Tell me, how well it work out when you mix oil and water? Not so good? Yes, you can add alcohol and get them to mix, but how good does it work when you have sickness in your flesh, and you get God involved, and you add alcohol to the mix to make it all better, does it work? No. Spirit and Flesh are opposite to one another.
If you’re sick and you go to the doctor, you can in some cases have a measure of success. People try to convince me that you can mix doctors and God; that God gave us doctors and hospitals to heal us, but it’s like adding water to oil. Either work alone, but they don’t mix well. Here’s where I lose a lot of folks, because they’re set in their ways. Like I said, the Apostle Paul dealt with these exact same issues 2,000 years ago, and nothing has changed about the nature of man. I don’t tell people not to go to the doctors, for they have helped people who have broken bones, or been in wrecks. But I do tell them not to think they can start with God and end with the flesh. If you’re going to rely on God to heal you, then don’t go back into the flesh, or it will backfire on you. And it does, every time.
People will argue with me about that all day long. That’s fine, they have their opinions. But I have the proof in my flesh of not having had a sick day in over 23 years now since I made God my Healer. I will have no other healer but Him, and He knows it, and He honors His Word concerning me. I’ve had a few accidents along the way through the years, and a couple years ago I fell from a ladder and really messed up my ankle. The family I was with wanted me to go to the doctor, and I didn’t want to, but rather rely on God as in the past to heal me. I suffered terribly for many days, not getting any better, but rather worse. Common sense would tell you, “Go to the doctor, dummy”, but I don’t have “common sense”, I have “Holy Spirit sense”. Well, I finally relented and went in for x-rays, and they told me it was only a sprain. I knew better. When I got home from the trip two weeks later, I went in for more x-rays, and the doctor there told me, “What idiot looked at those x-rays?” there had been five fractures, but they were now healed. You see, my trip to the doctor in the first place was a waste of my time and resources. God wanted the glory for my healing.
Back to “mixing Spirit and flesh”. I have personally known people whom I have extensively ministered to about healing, laid hands on them and saw them healed, and they KNEW they were healed. But they stopped listening to God, and went back into the flesh. They let people talk them into going back to the doctor to “make sure they got it all”, and sure enough, they ended up back in the same mess again if not worse. Why? Because they tried to mix the things of the Spirit with the things of the flesh. God will NOT share His glory with a man. Either HE is the Healer, or He will bow out and let you try to get it on your own. God is not a man that He should lie. HE delivered the Hebrews from the Egyptians captivity by the hand of Moses, and Moses was only God’s instrument. Moses was NOT the deliverer. And because at the last Moses took upon himself to get water out of a rock by striking it, when God said for him to SPEAK to the rock, Moses himself never stepped foot into the Promised Land. God wouldn’t allow it, He wouldn’t allow Moses to share His glory.
God really doesn’t seem to have a problem with you going to the doctors and letting them do what they can, and if they fail, to come to HIM to be healed. But He DOES seem to have a problem with going to HIM, then running back to the doctors when it looks like nothing is happening. God does allow our faith to be tested, and I’ve certainly had my share of testing, but my ONLY faith is in Him, and He has never failed me. I tell people, “If God can’t heal you, what hope do you possibly have that a doctor can heal you?”
It would be like taking your car to a certain mechanic. They work on it, but the problem persists, so you take it back, and they work on it again. Still no good, so you take it to another mechanic. Will that first mechanic ever touch it again? No, now you’re on your own. Likewise with God; What He has touched, He will finish, but if you take it elsewhere, He is done. YOU WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM….PERIOD. Now God doesn’t do every healing instantly, though he can if He so chooses. Sometimes it is a process. No, I don’t know why, so don’t ask me. I don’t know everything about healing, but I DO know a lot, but there are things God does for His own reasons, and He never asks my opinion. And most likely He won’t ask YOURS, either. All I know is this: the Apostle Paul hit it on the nose in Galatians 3:3, Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Happy is the person who starts with the Spirit and ends with the Spirit. I believe God will add many good years to the life of the one who will not compromise the things of the Spirit with the flesh. We hope for salvation, and we are granted it by faith in what God says. Can we gain salvation by the works of the flesh? No, salvation is the free gift of God that we receive by faith. Many think we can earn our way into God’s Kingdom, but they have it all wrong. Yes, we will have good works along the way, but we do not earn salvation. Good works are a by-product of salvation; NOT salvation is a by-product of good works. By the way, if you haven’t received God’s free gift of salvation, you need to do so RIGHT NOW. It is written in Psalm 103:2-5:
Psa 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Psa 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Psa 103:4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Psa 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord Jesus paid in full for your sins, AND, He heals all your diseases. It’s free for the asking, what are you waiting for? He did it all, and He didn’t need a doctor’s help, either.
A healthy body is the result of taking God at His Word and doing what He says to do. The Apostle Paul said “bodily exercise profiteth little”, but he did not say it “profiteth none”. We must do what we can to stay fit, unless we want our latter years to be miserable, BUT, part of living in the Spirit of God is heeding what God says to put into our body or not put in our body. We can be led by the Holy Spirit and do what God says, and live out all our days strong and healthy. Or we can do what we want to do on our own. It’s a choice we all must make. Better to start with the Spirit, and STAY with the Spirit, and never go back. As for ME? I’m living healed, and you can too.