I didn’t need it. I was wide awake.

Each time I would awake from this trance-like state, I had this thought, “Overcome. Or, be overcome.” Hmm, that’s odd. Back to sleep.

Again, I’d awake. “Overcome. Or, be overcome.” I kept hearing it again and again this morning. I must have heard it a dozen times.

Immediately, I thought of Romans 6:16 which says, “Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master?”

Read the entire verse in context:

“Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace. So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you. Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.” Romans 6:14-18, NLT.

Sin is no longer your master. You do not have to obey it anymore. I get this. I understand this. I do not have to obey sin anymore. I have the power of Christ in me to choose right. I used to be enslaved to sin, but now, I am enslaved to Christ. My new master is righteousness. I am righteous in Christ. It’s not anything I can do.

I remembered another scripture as well from 2 Peter 2:19 that says very simply, “You are a slave to whatever controls you.”

So, my heavenly challenge this morning was simply this instruction: Overcome or be overcome. This was obviously a warning from my Father. Either I overcome or I will be overcome. Either I will master my flesh, or my flesh will master me.

I think the key to overcoming anything in your life is found in Galatians 4:

“Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:16-23, NKJV.

The flesh and spirit are contrary. They don’t agree. They are always at opposite ends of the battle, “so that you do not do the things you wish”.

The answer is to be “led by the Spirit”. What does that mean? How do you do that?

I’m still not sure. I’m working this one out as I go. But, here’s where I’ve landed. Sin no longer is an issue for us as believers. Sin was dealt with on the cross. We are free from yesterday’s sins, today’s sins and tomorrow’s sins. We are free.

But, this war we wage against doing the things we know are wrong is a battle of our flesh, not our spirit. Our flesh, like a computer, is programmed and wired to respond a certain way. As a kid (and a non-believer), we were wired to process information incorrectly, through our flesh (our feelings, our emotions, our memories).

As believers we must “repent”, we must “meta-noeo”, or “change the way we think”. We must reprogram our flesh to respond to our spirit. Our spirit, upon rebirth, is new again. We have “new hearts” and new desires. But, our flesh fights against those spiritual desires.

Listen carefully to how Paul describes this battle between flesh and spirit in Romans 7:18-19, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.”

Later on in versus 23 and 24, Paul talks clearly about this war in our members (flesh) and then he cried out for deliverance from his “body of death” (flesh).

My steps from here on out are simple–walk in the Spirit. Try to make decisions based on the Spirit. I need to focus on the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”.

I need to filter my decisions through those nine fruits. Do my decisions produce love? Joy? Peace? Longsuffering? Kindness? Goodness? Faithfulness? Gentleness? Self Control?

That’s where I’ll start this week–memorizing those 9 spirit fruits.