A message about our personal spiritual warfare.

1. Our spiritual warfare. Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:1-17. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

2. I want today to speak about “Spiritual warfare.” BUT, I will not be speaking about the Devil, demons, casting out, binding, etc. Yes, the Devil is our enemy, but you have one far closer to you to deal with first. It is our greatest spiritual battle we ALL face every day. Who are we ALL fighting today? Who did we fight against yesterday? Who will you be in battle with tomorrow?

3. If you have a mirror look into it now, and sadly you will see your greatest enemy, it is YOURSELF! The greatest battle we ALL face is the flesh! The natural man or woman! It is only in the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit can the real “spiritual you” take control and have the victory. We are going today to speak about the “Natural man” and the “Spiritual man,” and its “spiritual warfare.”

4. Body: The body is vital to being human, made up of organs, blood, muscles, flesh, and bones. Five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. Soul: The eternal or immortal part of a human being, an incorruptible core. Five senses of imagination, conscience, memory, reason, and affections. Spirit: The spiritual side of man, dead before conversion. Five senses of faith, hope, reverence, prayer, and worship.

5. Body: God is the author and creator of our bodies. The well-known passage of Genesis 1:26 says “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis powerfully portrays the creation of man and woman in the Maker’s own image. Bearing that image, they are living persons, clothed in flesh.

6. Soul/Spirit: God breathed into man and woman the breath of life; bones and flesh became empowered with spirit. The creation tells us that God made us from the dust of the ground, and breathed life into our very bones: “God breathed in the nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7. The passage does not say that the human was supplied with a soul as some other attachment to the body, but that by the breath of God, the man became a living body-soul, a living human being.

7. Man is made up of the temporal and earthly (the body) and eternal (the soul and spirit). The earthly and spiritual united. Man is a three-fold being, made in the likeness of God who is a trinity. But man’s spiritual nature is dead, until it is regenerated by the Holy Spirit that is why Jesus said “you MUST be born again.” Change comes only about by a “new birth.”

8. John 3:3-7 Water = natural birth. Spirit = supernatural birth. There is the natural man, and the spiritual man. The natural man is incomplete with a dead spirit. But when he gets saved he receives the Spirit of God, but does the Holy Spirit have all of him? He still has a fleshly nature and it battles with the spirit. So our TWO natures are very different from one another, and are in a war. TWO natures beat within ONE life. One is cursed, one is blessed. One I love and one I hate. And the one I feed will dominate!

9. After this life, this body dies; the question is what happens to our soul? The soul is eternal. Our body goes to the grave. It is all determined by the state of our spirit. Has it been resurrected or not? When our flesh dies, if saved, we go to heaven. All that separates us from that life of bliss and eternity of joy is the death of our flesh, so why not let it die here and now?

10. It does have a (soulish) body, for it can see, hear and feel. Have you notice in the passage about the “Richman and Lazarus”? Look at Luke 16:19-31. Both bodies are in the grave at death. BUT, the rich man could see, feel, thirst, talk, remember etc.

11. Eternity begins for the believer at the moment of salvation. But, here on earth we can live our everlasting life in the flesh or in the Spirit! “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” Galatians 5:17.

12. What to do with the flesh: Put if off “That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” Ephesians 4:22-24.

13. Crucify it. “And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” Galatians 5:24. Pronounce it dead. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” Romans 6:6.

14. Make no provision for it. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts” Romans 13:14. You cannot keep stray animals from entering your garden, but you do not have to pet and feed them. And if you do, they will stick around!

15. Have no confidence in it. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 15:57. Satan is so clever he takes the opportunity when we have an experienced a victory. He tempts us to think it was ME who was victorious.

16. Fulfil not the lust of it. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” Romans 8:1.

17. CONCLUSION: Now, according to our text, winning this flesh/spirit battle is what brings us to maturity.Growing up spiritually is hard to do, but we must continue in our growth. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Do you want to grow spiritually?

18. If we can help you: Internetpreachersforchrist@gmail.com Internetpreachersforchrist.co.uk