Hi, I am Grant Berry, author, and founder of Reconnecting Ministries and welcome to God Today. I want to share a scripture with you this morning. It is out of Galatians 5:16, and it says, “So I say [this is the apostle Paul talking] walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of your flesh.” I just want to share a little bit of how I received revelation to this scripture and how it has really helped to empower my walk with Yeshua. It says that “if we walk by the Spirit we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.” What does it go on to say? It goes on to say that the flesh and the Spirit are in opposition and actually they fight each other.
As I was reading this scripture one morning on a prayer walk with a brother, the Holy Spirit began to download to us a deeper understanding of what we now call “the Galatian’s process”. Where we will break off the flesh by using the tools: confession, repentance. Remember, confession and sin – when we are doing outward sins confession can be a negative thing. But, confession is a tool to break free of so many of the thoughts that come against our minds. So, we would use the tools, we’d break off, we confess whatever it is, ask the Holy Spirit, confess, go into repentance. But then what the Holy Spirit showed us is that it’s not just a question of confessing and repenting. Let’s say I was struggling with fear. I would confess the fear, I would repent of it.
Then the Holy Spirit started to shed light. Once you’ve broken off the fear and you’re moving away from it – receive – what’s the opposite of fear in the Bible? Perfect love casts out fear. In the Spirit, what is the fruit of the Spirit? It talks about it in Galatians 22, “In its place, I receive the love.” What happens when I receive that love? I say Holy Spirit, I break off the fear, I move into repentance. Now, Holy Spirit, I receive the love of the Spirit. It begins to wash me and bring me back to my peace and joy which is rightfully mine in the Spirit of the Lord.
Let me pray, let me pray for you this morning that you would come into a greater victory. That we all would come into a greater victory in our personal walks. That we would find ways to walk more effectively in the Spirit these days. To hold on to that peace and allow the peace and the joy to flow through us that we would be victorious in Messiah. God bless you.