Don't be deceived by this popular but erroneous thinking in the church today. So many are teaching and believing that sin is okay because that's your flesh while your spirit is good with God.
If you continue in Christ, and I think you will (you strike me as being a devout Christian) you will come to the place where the things you struggle with now will not only be defeated in your life
but you will not want to do them anymore. Do not accept a compromised gospel that teaches you that your flesh is going to continue in the bondage of sin and will always want to sin the same old sins but it's okay because you're good on the inside with God. That's a horrible compromise with sin that the Bible does not teach. But it is the belief that most Christians, it seems, have adopted.
I used to be a rage-aloholic. Anger and rage were my tools of choice to scare and bully people into submission in order to keep my life safe and carefree, and to keep me 'right' about things (for fear of the truth). But I've grown in Christ, and now not only do I not use those tools of the flesh to get my way
I don't want to use those things anymore. I've been taught by God to trust Him for what I was trying to gain for myself by bullying mean and inconsiderate and hurtful people into compliance with my anger and rage.
The scripture that acted like the piercing sword in heart, separating me from my sin by destroying it in me, was this:
"1What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. " (James 4:1 NASB)
The word that acts like a double edged, piercing sword separates us from our
disobedience. The word is not a sword that separates our sin from our spirit so as to make it that we can accept sin in our bodily members while we relish the righteousness of Christ we have on the inside and so all is good with God. If we try to justify and rationalize bondage to sin by assuring us it's only in our body not in our spirit because of Christ's righteousness we will in fact not be good with God at all. We will be assigned a place with the
hypocrites at Christ's return where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth:
"...for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.45“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46“Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47“Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48“But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ 49and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:44-51 NASB)
I will never get this sin residing in the flesh and whether it’s me sinning or not.
My own mind tells me if I am sinning I am sinning and it’s coming from somewhere.
In my severe gambling days I couldn’t help myself.
At times I would find myself gambling and had no recollection of getting up from my desk or leaving the house and going the gambling place.
I did everything I could think of to stop.
I even got some oil. Went to the gambling place when it was closed and sprinkled oil on the doors and prayed for angels to guard that door and stop me going in.
I hated what I was doing but didn’t understand why and no amount of prayer and willpower could help me.
Even claiming in the name of Jesus did not help.
Where on earth was this coming from?
If in Jesus I have new nature then why do I sin?
Galatians 5:16-17
The Spirit’s Power
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful
nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. NLT
Then we read
Galatians 5:16-17
Walking in the Spirit
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. 17 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. NKJV
Its confusing one says nature the other says flesh.
The Greek used here is
g4561. σάρξ sarx; probably from the base of 4563; flesh
So to me I really struggled with
If I am in Jesus and have a new nature why do I sin and struggle with habitual sin.
Then if it purely resides in my flesh then it is me still sinning and if it’s me still sinning then I don’t have this new nature, I am not a new creation.
I lost my head up my arse.
Then one day after 30 years of this struggle.
Waking up with guilt every night at the same time asking God to kill me cause I couldn’t kill me myself even though I devised plans to do so.
I woke up and thought well I have woken up there must be a reason.
Even thinking that I also thought I’m gonna gamble today.
I said to God what’s the purpose of today if I’m gonna gamble and go to bed tonight in torture?
Then he said to me “This is the purpose, the issue is not that you gamble the issue is why you gamble. You have wasted your years trying to appease me, be good, earn my love. Truth is Bill you have no idea what love is about. I know your past I know your upbringing, you never knew your dad, your mother threw you out at a young age, you suffer beatings, you were fostered and your foster dad sexually abused you. You do anything you can to be liked and loved and accepted but you can’t do it.
Truth is you can’t accept being loved for whom you are. You have so much pain and hurt and rejection and every time you pray to me you only focus on trying to earn my love”
Then he said to me “Do you want to know what I think about you, are you willing to let me heal you of the past to give you a future, trust me.
I did and it was a painful process and God healed me.
Not gambled since.
I think what I am trying to say is that a genuine believer will not make an excuse for sin, including habitual sin.
To me a genuine believer cannot believe all is well if they struggle with sin.
If however they do especially with the problem I had there is a reason for the cause.
The reason needs to be dealt with, when it is cause will be dealt with.
sorry if I have digressed.