Flesh and Spirit Don't Mix

     As I was walking through a store yesterday, gazing at all the products and items available for sale, and even admiring the ingenuity of the inventors who had come up with designing those items, I realized a truth about myself, and, I think, about people in general. It's as if we have two people inside of us.
     One person (which is actually "the flesh" in us) wants everything it sees. The other person (or our spirit) wants what God wants. The first one is attuned to this physical world and it's values and material things and pursuits, and the second one is attuned to His Spirit and Kingdom pursuits. Which one gets fed the most wins! The prosperity "gospel" trys to blend the two, but the truth is that the flesh then infects the growth of the spirit, when that happens, and spiritual blindness occurs as a result.
     It is akin to God offering us life, and not death, and to Him telling us that we can't serve Him and Money. If one is constantly being unrestrained in buying whatever he wants (if he has money) he is fulfilling his own lusts. What of the fruit of self-control? Why does God give us that? To be able to say "no" to those lusts and temptations of the flesh.
     Of course, it is not only about buying things, but basically involves all things our flesh wants, such as eating too much without restraint, saying whatever we feel like saying no matter who it hurts, looking at, reading or listening to anything our flesh wants to, heaping on confort upon comfort, or even doing whatever pleases "me" at the expense of everyone else. In a few words, it is being self-indulgent.
     It's not about being legalistic, as some who are being self-indulgent would say. It's about realizing which person we are feeding (the flesh or the spirit) and the effect it has on growing into Christ likeness. If we feed the flesh, (or sow to the flesh) we will of the flesh reap destruction. If we feed the spirit (or sow to the spirit) we will reap everlasting life. (Gal. 6:8) Here it is again- Life (His food and ways) of Death (The flesh's food and ways)
     Those of you who were unknowingly lured into the prosperity gospel, drop it and run for your life. I know how appealing it can be. I was snagged briefly when I first came to the Lord, as the TV was all I had  for my instruction, but the Lord rescued me out of it, by opening my eyes.
     Perhaps He is having me write this post, to use it to rescue you too. In a nutshell, it is serving the god of self, instead of the true and living God, while believing it has His endorsement. Ask God for His truth and He will show it to you, if you are truly opened to hearing Him.