Stop Fighting Sin and Start Walking in the Spirit - Andrew Wommack - January 13, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/live/zVFELhe3xwM?si=iojoXpAbHl7Rg3Dk
List of Scriptures all in New King James Version unless otherwise stated.
Galatians 5:16
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
John 6:63
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Proverbs 23:7
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
1 John 4:17
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
1 Corinthians 6:17
17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Ephesians 4:24
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Galatians 5:17
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.
Romans 6:11
11 Likewise you also, [a]reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:6
6 For to be [a]carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Ephesians 2:3-10
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Romans 8:3-4
New International Version updated
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[a] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[b] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:3-4
New King James Version
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Error in NIV 1984 version and the New Living Translation says "sinful nature" not "flesh" in Romans 8:5-11. There is a huge and life-affecting difference in meaning as we as born again believers no longer have a sinful nature , we are new creations , our renewed spirit wants to please God . We do still however have the flesh which is at war against what our spirit wants to do.
Romans 8:5-11
New King James Version
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be [a]carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the [b]carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [c]through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 [a]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Ephesians 4:24
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 1:13
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Matthew 8:5-10
Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”
7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
John 20:25
25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
John 20:29
29 Jesus said to him, [a]“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Deuteronomy 31:8
8 And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”
Hebrews 13:5
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Isaiah 53:5
5 But He was wounded[a] for our transgressions,
He was [b]bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes[c] we are healed.
Isaiah 26:3
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Psalm 16:11
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Ephesians 1:19-20
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Romans 8:11
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [a]through His Spirit who dwells in you.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not [a]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
Philippians 4:4
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Isaiah 53:4
4 Surely He has borne our [a]griefs
And carried our [b]sorrows;
Yet we [c]esteemed Him stricken,
[d]Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Ephesians 1:3
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
James 1:23-24
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be [a]carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the [b]carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Following is the actual transcript of the video:
So, normally I speak on finances in my chapel services, but because we have KCBC with us today, I'm going to deviate
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from that a little bit. And I want to turn over to uh Galatians chapter 5 and
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just share some things with you. And again, uh I'm going to just jump in because if I go back and try and put
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this in his context, I could preach an hour on all of the other things that have been said. So, let me just jump
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into this. in Galatians chapter 5 and in verse um
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16 says, "For this I say, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the
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lust of the flesh." And I'm going to go on and share some of these other scriptures, but let me just point out in
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verse 16 what it doesn't say. It doesn't say that if you will not walk in the flesh, then you will walk in the spirit.
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Think about this. I would say a large section of Christianity, the way they are trying to get the power of God
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operative in their life is to turn against the flesh and they're trying to do away with all of these things. But
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this says you walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
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It's like when you walk into a room, you don't shovel the darkness out hoping that the light will come. You turn on
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the light and it drives the darkness out. And one of the keys to the Christian life is that you have to get
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so focused on God and on the good that it drives the flesh and the carnal stuff
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and the fear and all of these things that we deal with out of us. And again, so many people are focused upon their
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flesh and upon all of the negative things that are going on in their life and they don't realize it, but what
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they're doing is empowering the flesh by being so focused on all of their
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failures. Boy, you need to think about that a second because I think this is human
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nature is just to try and think that if I could get rid of this and if I could quit doing all of these things, then the
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power of God would start flowing through my life. This says you walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust
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of the flesh. That's really important. You know, when I I was raised in the Baptist uh church and they used to talk
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about dying to the flesh, which there is a truth there, but the way that it was taught, I disagree with the way they did
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it. But anyway, I remember one guy one time getting up and saying that every morning he imagined himself sitting in
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an electric chair and he strapped himself in and died to himself every
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morning. And this is back when I was a kid and I didn't know any better. So, I just thought, well, that's good. So anyway, I
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remember actually sitting there and in my imagination thinking I was I was mentioning all of my sins, lust, anger,
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bitterness, and I would just name all of these things and think about all of the junk that I did. And I was dying to
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myself, but what I was actually doing was resurrecting myself. I was thinking about all of my carnal stuff and I was
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focused on everything that was wrong with me. That's not the way that you progress in the Christian life. You find
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out what Jesus has done and you focus on that and you focus on his love for you.
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And then as you do that, you're walking in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And what is
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walking in the spirit? A lot of people think walking in the spirit is being weird and being spooky
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and you have to have your collar turned around backwards or you have to always have this sick look on your face or
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whatever. You know Jesus said in John 6 63 he says it's the spirit that quickens
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the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you they are spirit
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and they are life. Walking in the spirit being led by the spirit is just literally being led by
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the word of God. You focus on what God's word says and you are just so focused on
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the word. Proverbs 23:7 says, "As you think in your heart, that's the way that
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you are." And so, if you are spiritually minded, which is wordminded,
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well, then the word of God will begin to dominate you and the truths of what Jesus has done will manifest in your
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life. So, you walk in the spirit is walking in the word and you shall not
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fulfill the lust of the flesh. Instead of being focused on all of our failures and on everything in us that needs to
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change, we need to focus on the things that Jesus has already done. And you
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know, those of you here at Caris have heard me say this many times, but those of you at KCBC,
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u the thing that turned my life around was when I got a revelation of who I was
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in Christ, what I call spirit, soul, and body. And when I begin to recognize that
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in the spirit, I'm already complete. My flesh isn't complete. My flesh is still
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uh being renewed and there's still things in me that need to change. But when I started recognizing that in the
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spirit I am identical to Jesus. 1 John chapter 4 verse 17. As he is, so are we
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in this world. 1 Corinthians 6:17. He that's joined unto the Lord is one
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spirit. That in my spirit I'm as righteous and holy as Jesus is. And when
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I started seeing that, that's what just transformed my life. And I still had all
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kinds of things that needed to change. I've still got things that need to change, but I'm saying I had a lot more things need to change back then. And I
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remember, you know, uh I used to be the janitor in the Baptist church. And so I
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would clean the uh church and stuff. And in the women's restroom, in the men's restroom, they only had a little tiny
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mirror, but in the women's restroom, they had a huge mirror. So I would go into the women's restroom when nobody
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else was around. And I remember looking at myself eyeball to eyeball and
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pointing my finger at me. And I learned this through Kenneth Copelan. He was really back then, this was in the early
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70s, and he was preaching on your righteousness and righteous position. And I remember hearing him say these
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things. And I remember going in front of that mirror and pointing my finger at myself and saying, "You are righteous."
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And the first time I ever said that, all of the hair on the back of my neck stood up like, "Oh, God, don't strike me dead
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for saying that I'm righteous because I had been focused on all of my unrighteousness and on everything in me
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that needed to change." But when I understood that in the spirit, it says in Ephesians 4:24 that we were created
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in righteousness and true holiness. And when I saw that, I start I had to start
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speaking to myself and preaching to myself. And I would stand and say, "You are righteous." And I would just say it
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until it got to where it felt good. And I started focusing on who I was in Christ. And you know, the scripture
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teaches that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And so as I begin to focus on Jesus, look what you've done.
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It begin to start being reflected in my life. It's just like this verse says, you don't turn off, you don't shovel out
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the dark to get the light to come. You turn on the light. You start seeing what Jesus has done for you. You start
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identifying with I'm not this person anymore. This is who I am in Christ. And as you focus on that, it begins to start
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being reflected in your life. Man, that is really simple. what I have just said and yet it is contrary to the
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way that most people approach seeing the power of God work in their life. And then in the next verse in verse uh 17 it
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says for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh
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and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things
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that you would. Now, some people have misinterpreted this
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and think that we still have a sinful nature on the inside of us that makes us do things. This is just when you get
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born again. I'm not going to spend time to do this, but if you go to Romans chapter 6, you can verify that your old
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man is dead and gone. You don't have an old man anymore.
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When you got born again, that sinful nature that compelled us to sin and we were by nature a sinner according to
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Ephesians chapter 2:3. That old nature is gone. You don't have anything
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compelling you to sin anymore. But that old nature programmed our mind. It
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taught us how to think. And you are like a computer and you're going to function
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the way that you were programmed until you reprogram yourself. So as born again
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believers, there's no longer a nature that is compelling us to sin, but there
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is the wrong thinking, the wrong attitudes, the wrong values that we were
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taught when we were under sin. And until we renew our mind, we aren't going to see a change. And so this is saying
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that the flesh and the flesh here, the NIV translates this as sinful nature.
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And I think that that is 100% wrong because that sinful nature is gone. You don't have a sinful nature, but you do
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have the residue or the results of that sinful nature, an unrenewed mind. And
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you are going to function the way that you think. So the flesh here is not talking about a sinful nature. It's just
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talking about your physical body and your mental emotional state. You know
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the word carnal uh it says in Romans chapter 8 6 to be carnally minded is
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death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And a lot of people think that carnal is talking about you
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know some type of terrible sinful actions or attitudes and things like that. Well all you know extreme sin is
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carnal but you can be carnal and still not be sinning. Carnal just means of the
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it's this is and andology. This is my definition of it. But carnal just means
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you're of the five senses. The word carnal in Greek sarks s a arx,
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it literally means the flesh as stripped of skin.
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And if you stop and think about that, what that's talking about, it's not talking about just your skin, your epidermis, but it's talking about your
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flesh, meat. Matter of fact, the word uh carnal uh is carne, and that's where we
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get chili concarn from. Chili with meat is what that word means. When you say
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somebody is carnal, you say you're saying that they're a meatthead. I heard Kenneth Copelan say that decades
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ago. I don't usually give him credit for it, but since his Bible college is watching, I I'll give him credit. But
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anyway, when you say somebody's carnally minded, you're calling them a meatthead. And so anyway, to be carnally minded is
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death. You've got to, it's not talking about your sinful nature. It's just talking about that you've got a mind
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that hasn't been renewed. And so, wherever you focus your mind, wherever you focus your attention is what this is
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talking about, that is going to control you. If you focus your attention on the word of God and what the word of God has
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to say about how he's transformed you and changed you, then you will start
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seeing that change reflected in your actions. If you're focused on all of
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your flaws and failings, then you are going to see that reflected in your
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actions. You need to starve your flesh. Amen.
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And you need to feed your spirit. Now, I I'm uh that's not technically
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correct because your spirit's not hungry. Your spirit is perfect. Your spirit is
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full. Your spirit, as it goes on to say, if you go on down a few verses in verse 22, it says, "The fruit of the spirit is
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love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance." This is what's in your
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spirit. Your spirit's never starved. Your spirit's never depressed. Your spirit's never lonely. Your spirit's
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never discouraged. Your spirit is awesome. Your spirit is identical to Jesus. And then your spirit when you
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were born again, it was created that way. Ephesians 4:24. And then Ephesians
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1:13 says you were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. You're vacuuming
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packed so that your spirit does not fluctuate with things. It's your flesh,
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what the Bible here is calling flesh that fluctu fluctuates. That's your physical body and your mental emotional
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part. And depending on where your focus is, your flesh, not talking about just
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physical skin, but the part of you that's not born again, your mental, emotional part, your physical body, your
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flesh is the part that fluctuates. And what you've got to do is get to where you do not look and let the flesh
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dominate you. And you go by what the word of God says, who you are in Christ.
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And again, verses 22 and 23, you're full of love, joy, peace, all of these things. And that never fluctuates.
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Man, this began to change my life. You know, prior to me understanding this, I was up and down like a yo-yo. And it
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just depended on what was going on in my life. If I saw something awesome happened, I was just praising God and I
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was on the mountaintop. But if I say for instance prayed for somebody or prayed for something and didn't see it come to
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pass, man, I'd be discouraged and depressed. That's your flesh. Your spirit never is discouraged. Your spirit
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has never been depressed. You know, I was in Vietnam. I got
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touched by the Lord March the 23rd, 1968. And then shortly after that, I got
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drafted and sent to Vietnam. I'd had this really miraculous emotional
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encounter with God to where I mean for four and a half months I was just caught up in the presence of God and it was
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awesome. But after four and a half months the emotion of it wore off. And
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then when I was in Vietnam man I just I was a chaplain's assistant. I was out on a fire support base. I built my own
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bunker and I stayed in and I just sat there all day long. I didn't do anything. I just sat there for 14 months
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doing nothing. And I and uh anyway, I was always seeking to have this feeling
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and this emotion back. And I remember that during that time, there was a song that was real popular that was going
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around and it's I've got love like a f love like an ocean, joy like a fountain,
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peace like a river in my soul. And I wouldn't sing that because I said, I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a
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hypocrite and I'm not going to sit there and confess that I've got love and joy and peace and all of these things when
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I'm not feeling it. And I mean, I just uh I went through Vietnam the whole time
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just longing to have back this emotion and stuff. And then when I got out of
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Vietnam, you know, I'll say this for the benefit of KCBC. People People have trouble believing
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this about me, but when I got out of Vietnam, one of the guys that was in that prayer meeting March the 23rd,
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1968, when my life got changed, he became an associate with Kenneth Copeland. Joe Na was his name and
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Kenneth gave him his first plane and he used to travel with Kenneth. So when I
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got back out of Vietnam, uh, he invited me to one of Kenneth's meetings and I went over to brother
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Nichols church in Fort Worth and heard Kenneth Copelan preach. And I had been a
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Baptist boy. I'd never heard anything like that. And people will find this hard to believe, but I got so excited
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while Kenneth was preaching that I got up and screamed and ran laps around the
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church. Hallelujah. Those of you that know me think there's no way. I'm I'm telling you, it's the
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truth. I I just had never heard anything like that. And I got so excited. And
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anyway, the thing that I I began to learn that in my spirit, I had love,
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joy, peace all of the time. And what I was doing for 14 months in Vietnam, I
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was trying to contact God in just the physical natural realm. I was trying to
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feel his presence because I had felt I had a supernatural presence of God just fall on me for four
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and a half months. And I was wanting that back and I was trying to worship him in flesh instead of in spirit and in
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truth. And when I finally found out that I had love, joy, and peace in me the
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whole time, and I was just focused on what I was feeling out here in the natural realm, but I wasn't going by who
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I was in the spirit. Man, I just I got set free to find out that the whole time
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everything I was seeking, it was already on the inside of me.
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You know, let me share this with you. And just for time sake, I'm running short on time here, but just for time
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sake, let me just summarize this. But in the eighth chapter of the book of um
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Matthew is where the Roman centurion sent to Jesus and asked him to come and
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heal his servant. And while Jesus was coming to his house, he sent another
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servant and he said, "Look, I don't need you to come under my roof. You speak the word only and my servant shall be
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healed." And when Jesus heard that, he marveled. There's only twice in scripture that
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it's reported that Jesus marveled. One time was at this centurion's faith. He says, "I have never found so great a
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faith. No, not in Israel." And then he also marveled at his disciples unbelief.
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Amen. He was shocked at how how strong this man's faith was. And he also
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marveled and was shocked by his disciples. There's a reason that they were called the disciples.
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You know, it's amazing that his disciples, the people spent three and a half years with him, didn't have as much faith as a man who was not even a Jew.
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He was a gentile. And he marveled at that. And the thing that made him marvel was because this
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gentile recognized the power, the authority of his word. And Jesus said,
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"I've never seen such great faith." And then the Lord showed me that this is right about that time when I came out of
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Vietnam and begin to learn these things. And I'd been raised a Baptist and in the Baptist church, you believed in
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salvation, but they didn't believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, didn't believe in healing, didn't believe in prosperity. You were basically saved and
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stuck. And we used to sing songs about when we all get to heaven and and we
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were all excited about heaven and just trying to hold on till we got to heaven. And when I finally began to realize that
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man, miracles are happening and I heard about Kenneth Hagen and all of these things and and he would see visions and
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see demons and have fire jump in his hands when he laid hands on people. I got to seeking those same things and
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looking for some physical manifestation and stuff. And so uh during that time
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the Lord showed me this about the Roman centurion. And then he contrasted that with John chap 20 and this is after the
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resurrection of Jesus. He appeared unto his disciples but Thomas one of the 12
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uh disciples was not present. And so the other disciples told him that we've seen Jesus. He's resurrected from the dead.
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And Thomas said there in John chapter 20 somewhere around verse 20 somewhere in there. He says, "Unless I see with my
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eyes the print of the nails, unless I put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe."
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That's a choice. Non-believing is a choice. Believing is
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a choice. He said, "I will not believe." That was his decision. And so after
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eight days, the Lord showed up and he just showed up in the room with the doors locked and he walked right up to
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Thomas. And of course, Jesus hadn't been there when Thomas said those things, but he knew everything that Thomas had said.
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So he walked straight up to Thomas and he says, "Thomas, put your finger into the print of the nails and thrust your
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hand into my side and be not faithless but believing." And when Thomas saw
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that, it doesn't say that he ever did touch him. He went, he just knew that by Jesus knowing what he had said and
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everything, he knew that this was Jesus. He knew that Jesus was raised from the dead. and he fell down on his knees and
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he says, "My Lord and my God." And Jesus responded to him by saying, could you
20:50
put that verse up? It must be the next verse. Verse 29 says, "Jesus said unto him, Thomas,
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because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not
21:01
seen and yet have believed." And God spoke to me through that.
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contrasted it with the um centurion's faith that says I don't need you to come to my house you speak the word only and
21:14
my servant shall be healed and when I saw those things I prayed and I said God
21:20
I want your best I don't you know God can reach you in multiple ways and there's many times
21:26
that he told people he says according to your faith so be it done unto you and and so uh sometimes he would go and lay
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hands on people other times with the uh nobleman's son and with the uh centurion. He just spoke his word. So,
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I'm not saying that it's all one way or the other. God will meet you where you are, and God still speaks in audible
21:46
voices to people today. I've never had that happen. God will still show you things. There are people that see
21:52
things. I've had people come up and said, "They saw two angels standing behind me when I minister." I don't
21:58
doubt that those things happen, but I've never seen anything with my physical eyes. I've never audibly heard the voice
22:04
of God. And I believe part of it is because when I saw these things that I'm talking about, I said, "God, I want your
22:10
best." And I said, "I want to operate in the highest form." He he told Thomas
22:16
that there is a greater blessing on those who would just believe the word of
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God instead of having to have some physical proof, having to have a goosebump go up and down your spine.
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And I made a decision right then. I said, "God, I want your best." And you know, prior to that time, I used to get
22:35
a lot of prophecies. People would call me out. Since that time, I could be sitting there and there could be eight ministers in a row and everybody will
22:42
get a prophecy but me. And I I believe a lot of it is God honoring what I've said. Now, the Lord
22:48
has I get some prophecies. I'm not against prophecy. I'm not despising prophecy. I'll let God speak to me and
22:55
minister to me any way he can. But I'm saying when I quit focusing and seeking those things and coveting just some
23:02
physical proof, some fe some feeling and I just started going by what the word
23:07
said. That's what this is describing here is walking in the spirit is not
23:14
always walking in some emotional thing. It's just walking in the word. You're going by what the word of God says. God
23:21
says he'd never leave us nor forsake us. And yet you go into a typical church and
23:26
they'll start by saying, "Oh God, just come and be with us today." And he says, "I'm never going to leave you nor
23:32
forsake you." How's he going to answer a prayer like that? And then at the end, they'll say, "Oh God, just go with us as
23:39
we leave here today." You know what that is? That's unbelief.
23:45
It's at the very least it's ignorance. Or at the very worst, it's just unbelief. Most people know that God
23:53
loves them because the word says it. If you were to ask the average Christian, "Does God love you?" Oh yes.
24:01
But if you don't feel something, I've had people come up and say, "Would you just pray that God will pour out his
24:07
love in my life?" No, I won't pray that because it says God has already
24:13
commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter 5:8. And people
24:19
say, "Well, I know that, but I don't feel anything." That's really what it gets down to. They're trying to contact
24:25
God. They're trying to walk in the flesh and have a relationship with God. But for you to really see the power of God,
24:32
you're going to have to get to where you walk in the spirit, which isn't talking about walking in weirdness or anything
24:37
like that. It's talking about walking in the word. What does the word say? God will never leave you nor forsake you.
24:44
And you just have to get to where you believe that. Whether you feel it, whether you see it, whether all of your
24:49
circumstances look complete, completely contrary. God's word says by his stripes you were healed. Are you going to go by
24:56
that or are you going to sit there and say, "Well, I know he says I'm healed, but the truth is
25:01
I don't feel it." And here's a doctor's report that proves. All that is, that's
25:06
the flesh. That's the natural realm. I don't deny the natural realm. I don't deny that my flesh exists. I don't deny
25:14
that I got things in my body that sometimes don't look like I'm healed,
25:19
but I do deny them to dominate me. And I do deny to let that be what controls me
25:26
and how I act. Did you know emotions, feelings are like
25:32
if if this was a stove right here and if I wasn't paying attention and I was talking to you and if I just put my arm
25:38
on that stove and if it was hot, I guarantee you I' my I'd feel that pain and I'd withdraw from it before I even
25:45
had time to think about what had happened. You know, in my house in Florison when we lived out there, I
25:51
heated our house with a wood wood burner, and that thing would get up to 1,500 degrees. And I mean, there's a few
25:59
times I touched it, and I guarantee you, you can feel it when you touch something
26:04
like that and you just withdraw. So, pain isn't something that we like, but it serves a purpose. And if I was just
26:12
talking and wasn't paying attention, put my arm on something like this, I could burn myself, do a tremendous amount of
26:17
damage. But that pain, that physical feeling would make me withdraw from that. This is the way that emotions are.
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I don't deny that emotions exist. And if I start feeling discouraged, if
26:31
I'm not encouraged, if I'm not happy in the Lord, instead of me ignoring that and say, "Well, I refuse to go by that
26:38
and I'm just going by what the word says." No, what I do, I take those emotions and I say, "This is an
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indication to me of something." Isaiah chapter 26:3 says, "The Lord will keep
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him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him." So if I don't have peace, if I'm worried about something, I
26:55
say, "Father, thank you." because this means that I'm not focused on you the way that I should. And so I just throw
27:02
aside what I cast my care about whatever is bothering me over on the Lord and I go back to focusing on what God's word
27:09
says. It says in Psalms chapter 16 verse 11, the Lord uh in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy at his
27:16
right hand are pleasures forever more. If I don't have fullness of joy and if I
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don't have pleasure in my life, I don't ignore it. I just sit there and say, "Father, this is an indication that I'm
27:28
not in your presence the way that I should. I know I'm positionally there, but I'm not focused on it, and so that's
27:35
the reason that I'm not having this." So, I don't ignore natural things. I don't ignore physical things if my body
27:42
hurts, but I I do deny that that's all that there is. There's a spiritual me in
27:48
the spiritual realm. I've got the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead living on the inside of me and
27:55
that's what's going to dominate me. So that's what these verses are talking about. The way you get to see the power
28:02
of God in your life isn't by focusing on the negative, the flesh, and all of the
28:07
physical things that look contrary to God's word. You get it by focusing on the word of God. That the word of God is
28:14
spirit and it is life. And as you focus on the word of God, then as you think in
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your heart, that's the way that it is. Did you know the battle really is in
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your mind? It's in your focus. Whatever you're focused on. passage of scripture over in 2 Corinthians chap 10:es 3-5
28:33
says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds
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casting down of imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Notice it says
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these weapons cast down thoughts and imaginations.
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Your mind is where the battle is raging. You'll hear a lot of people talk about
29:00
spiritual warfare and ridding planes and going up into high buildings to fight against spiritual wickedness in high
29:06
places. There's been a lot of weird stuff done in the name of intercession. But really, the battle's right here
29:12
between your ears and Satan is fighting you over this. And
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so, are you going to focus on the flesh? Again, the flesh here is just talking about your physical natural body and how
29:24
it feels. Or are you going to focus on your soloulish realm, how you feel in
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your emotions and how you think? Are you going to focus on that? Or are you going to focus on who you are in Christ?
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Are you going to rejoice even when you don't feel like rejoicing? Hallelujah.
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You know, I really believe that one of the keys of seeing my son raised from the dead after he had been dead for four
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and a half hours and in a morg stripped naked with a tow tag on. One of the
29:54
reasons that happened is because I began to start having the same feelings and emotions that anybody would have if you
30:00
had your son die. But I didn't like it. And I knew that Jesus said that uh he
30:07
bore my sorrows and carried my grief. And I just determined I am not going to
30:12
grieve. I am not going to get into grief. I don't care what happens. Even if my son died, I'm not going to grieve. And I
30:19
started rejoicing and praising God. Not because I felt like it. See, that was walking in the spirit. My spirit always
30:26
has love, joy, and peace. My flesh had sorrow and grief and questions and all
30:34
of these kind of things. And I just refuse to let the flesh dominate me. And right as we drove by this property, this
30:41
is before we owned this property, but right as I drove by here, right there, I
30:46
just said, I am going to start praising God. And I started worshiping the Lord, not because I felt like, I started just
30:52
thanking God and praising him. And when I did, uh, it's like the Lord brought
30:57
back to my remembrance prophecies. And the Lord connected the dots. And all of a sudden, I realized this boy's got to
31:03
live for these things to come to pass. And I started laughing. I started doing
31:08
it out of nothing but just walking in the spirit and doing it because that's what the word said. But it's like you
31:14
got this river. You got this well of living water on the inside of you. And when you start acting on what you
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believe is in you in Christ, it's like sticking a bucket down into the well and you start drawing that out. And when I
31:28
started praising God, not because I felt like it, but because I was just trying to obey what the word says. I mean, the
31:35
joy of the Lord began to come up. And I actually got the laughing. Amen. And I told Jamie, I said, "This going to
31:42
be the greatest thing we've ever seen." And by the time we got into Colorado Springs, uh my oldest son came out and
31:49
he said, "I don't know what happened, but five or 10 minutes after I called you, uh Peter just stood up, sat up and
31:55
started talking and he was raised from the dead with no brain damage. No more than he had before.
32:04
And I'm telling you that walk, that's walking in the spirit. What does the word say about you? Here's what your
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circumstances say about you. You're struggling to get your rent paid to pay your tuition. You're struggling with
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this. Are you going to focus on that or are you going to use your spiritual weapons and cast down those negative
32:24
thoughts and just go by what God's word says that you're blessed? Ephesians 1:3,
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you're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Whatever you set your hand unto
32:36
is blessed. Are you going to go by what the doctor says or are you going to go by what the word of God says?
32:42
Again, I'm not saying that you deny the flesh, but you deny that that's all that
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there is. You deny that that is reality. There is a greater reality, and that's
32:53
the spirit. And the only way for you to effectively, accurately know what the spirit is doing
33:01
is through the word of God. Because Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."
33:09
And so, we've got to get to where this word becomes our identity. This tells us
33:15
who we are. Hallelujah. You know, if you want to look and see if your hair is combed, you can't go by
33:22
just how you feel. Right now, I hope my hair is combed, but I can't see my hair.
33:29
Did you know I have to go look in a mirror to see if my hair is combed? and I take uh uh action based on what I see
33:35
in that reflection. The Bible says over in James chapter 1 that the word of God
33:40
is a spiritual mirror. And whoever looks into this perfect law of liberty and
33:46
continues therein will be blessed in his deed. So I can't see if my hair is comb. I can't go by how I feel. I have to look
33:53
at that reflection. And this is the only way that we can accurately see into the spirit realm.
34:02
You can't just go by how you feel. So people say, "But but I don't feel the presence of God in this place." And so
34:08
you pray and say, "Oh God, come and be with us." You've already started in unbelief because you aren't operating in
34:14
what the word says. Now, if you wanted to pray this way and say, "Father, according to your word, I know that you
34:20
never leave us nor forsake us, and you're here, but man, there's no manifestation." We want to see your
34:26
power manifest. We want to see you released. And so, Father, we release you and you start speaking forth those
34:32
things. That's a different way of approaching it. But just to come and go totally by your
34:38
emotions and totally by what you see and totally by what you feel, that's what the Bible calls carnal. And a carnal
34:45
mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That's in Romans
34:52
chapter 8. I'm not sure I'll quote all of this. So, let me just turn over here
34:57
and read this to you. In Romans chapter 8
35:03
and in verse 5, it says, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
35:08
of the flesh." Notice again the emphasis on your mind.
35:13
Being in the flesh isn't necessarily just going out and living in sin. It's really where your focus is. They that
35:19
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. You
35:28
can tell whether you're walking in the spirit or whether you're walking in the flesh by where are your thoughts?
35:35
Are your thoughts on what the doctor said and on the pain that you feel in your body? Or are your thoughts on what
35:40
Jesus has said and what God's word says? You can get to where the word of God's more real to you than what you see,
35:46
taste, hear, smell, and feel. Hallelujah. You know, some of you have heard me tell this story, but my board
35:52
back I couldn't tell you, but maybe 15 years ago or something like that, they made me go get a physical
35:59
uh for insurance policy. And so, I had to go do one of these treadmill. And they wanted to shave the hair off my
36:05
chest and put these things on there. And I told them, I said, "This is virgin hair. It's never been touched." I said,
36:11
"You can't shave my hair." wearing. So anyway, they put these electrodes on but
36:17
because you know I got to sweating. I think it was 15 minutes that I went and
36:22
I got to sweating and these things started falling off and so I was holding two of them and a nurse was holding two
36:28
and the doctor was holding two as I was running. And anyway, I finished the treadmill test and then he looked at
36:34
this print out and when he got to the 11 minute and 53 second mark or something like that, he he started grunting and
36:42
looked at this and he said, "Oh, this isn't good." And he wrote out the name of another doctor and he gave this to me
36:48
and he says, "You go straight there. Don't go back to your office. We're going to put you in the hospital and
36:53
we're going to run further test on you and we may do open heart surgery on you before the day is over."
37:00
Now, what would you do if a doctor told you that
37:06
now we're in church or we're in Bible school and you got your best behavior on and so all of your Oh yeah, out of you
37:13
know most of us had fall apart like a $2 suitcase and I just it took me a few seconds to
37:20
listen and process what this guy said and finally I said that's a lie. I said, 'I don't receive that.' And this doctor,
37:28
he just wasn't used to people telling him he was a liar. And he he looked at me like, "What are
37:34
you saying?" I said, "I do not have a heart problem. You look at that thing and tell me that that says I got a
37:40
serious heart problem." And he began to back up and he says, "Well, you were just off 100th of 1% in one spot." He
37:49
said, "You could be perfectly fine." He said, "Everybody's heart's different." And he didn't mention this,
37:56
but later I got thinking those things fell off. That could have caused some anomaly in the printout. But anyway, he
38:04
says, "You could be okay. I just think we ought to go get you checked out." I said, "That's not what you told me. You told me I had a serious heart problem."
38:11
I said, "You lied to me." I said, "How dare you lie to me?" And this guy just
38:16
tore up the paper and said, "Leave." and he flunked me on my test
38:22
and they wouldn't give me any insurance. So anyway, I've got a doctor that's a friend of mine in Shreveport and I went down there and he ran a test and it
38:29
turned out he said, "Your heart's as good as a 17-year-old." And so there was no problem. But anyway, my point is, see
38:35
that most people if something negative comes up in the flesh, we are more moved
38:40
by that than we are by what God's word says. That's walking in the flesh. Our
38:48
mind is stayed upon that. You can tell if you're in the spirit or in the flesh by where your mind is. When somebody
38:53
told me I had something seriously wrong, I just didn't believe that. That's not what I've been believing. And praise
39:00
God, I'm healthy today. The next verse says, "For to be carnally minded is death." Notice again the emphasis on the
39:06
mind. Every one of these verses has something to do with your mind. That's where the battle is taking place. Your
39:13
little spirit's perfect. When you got born again, you're complete. One-third of your salvation is over. Your spirit's
39:19
never going to get any better. It's not going to be infused with more power or cleaned off, dusted off when you get to
39:25
heaven. Your spirit's perfect. It's your mind and your body that's the problem.
39:30
And it's primarily your mind. As you think in your heart, so are you. So, it says to be carnally minded is death, but
39:38
to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
39:43
If all you do is think spiritually minded, all you can get is life and peace. If all you plant is tomatoes, all
39:51
you're going to get is tomatoes. You can't plant tomatoes and get okra. Come on. Everything produces after its own kind.
39:58
I don't have to be with you when you plant your garden. Just let me come see what's growing in it and I'll tell you what you planted.
40:05
I don't have to be with you all the time. Just show me how you're thinking and I can tell you what you've been meditating on, what you planted in your
40:12
life. The next verse says, "Because the carnal mind is enmity." The word enmity
40:18
means it's the enemy of God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither
40:24
indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
40:34
Goes on to say, "But you aren't in the flesh. You've been born again." Amen. But you can walk after the flesh. You
40:41
can walk like a person that doesn't have the life of God living on the inside of them, but that's not really who you are.
40:48
And so, the whole key is you just got to focus on what Jesus has done for you. I
40:53
want to commend all of you here at Caris and also car uh Kenneth Copelan Bible College there. Man, this is the greatest
41:00
thing you'll ever do to put God's word first, to begin to learn the truth, to renew your mind. Romans 12:2 says, "You
41:09
get transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that
41:14
good, acceptable, and perfect will of God." And so, we're sowing things that the Lord has shown us from the word of
41:21
God and sharing it with you. And if you will receive this and start walking in what God's word says and not letting
41:28
your emotions and your feeling and the physical facts dominate you, but you get
41:33
to a place that you're so full of the word of God, every time somebody pokes you, the word comes out. Every time
41:40
somebody does something, man, the word comes out. What does the word have to say about this? That's walking in the
41:46
spirit. And if you'll walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of
41:51
the flesh. It's not a matter of just struggling to help God. Let God help you overcome this
41:58
sin. It's a matter of just seeing what Jesus has already done and getting so focused on it that honestly you don't
42:05
see yourself as that other person. You don't look at things the way that other people do. You look at everything
42:10
through the word of God. Amen. Praise God. So, I want to thank again Dr. Herby and
42:18
Terry and George Pearsons and KCBC. You guys are a blessing. I'm looking forward to being with you.
42:26
Thank you for being with us, man. What a blessing. And I believe that together we
42:32
are going to go out and make a difference in this world. Amen. So, God bless you. We love you.
42:39
Thank you for joining us. And praise God, I'll invite Terry and George back one of these days to minister here. God
42:45
bless you. We love you. Goodbye. You all are dismissed. [Applause]
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