Galatians 5.17,21 describes, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want….and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Can you feel the conflict inside? The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit? The conflict between what we want and what God wants? We are dead to the Spirit unless we nurture the Spirit within us. How do we do that?

The Word of God is the food of the Spirit that feeds our soul and provides Him His means for teaching, correcting, reproving and rebuking us so that we grow into the full image of Jesus, the Living Word of God. Unless we pursue the Spirit of God through the Word of God the Spirit of God will hardly be at work within us, winning the conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil inside us and outside of us.

Likewise, the Word of God is not meant just to be known, it’s meant to be applied. The Spirit of God within the heart of man is strengthened by doing the work of God. Like exercise, obedience to God is what makes us strong, fit and useful in the work of seeing God’s kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven. The Spirit of God is in the heart of people for accomplishing the will of God on earth as commanded in the Word of God.

When we do whatever we want, most of which is not in sync with the will of God, we will find ourselves in conflict with men and God. When we pursue pleasure, power and profit we are too busy building our own kingdoms to build the kingdom of God. In the pursuit of building our own kingdoms we have conflicts with those who oppose our goals, who keep us from the utopia we think we should have.

When we live in the Spirit our goal is the kingdom of God upon earth as it is in heaven. We focus on building His kingdom which causes us to love men, to serve people and to sacrifice for others so that they can see, hear and believe that God is and that God has come in Jesus the Savior of the world. The gospel will cause conflict but it will cause spiritual conflict within the person who is under conviction by the Spirit.

The servant of God who lives by the Spirit of God will find His own life at peace with God and men for like God, he does not seek to be served but to serve in order to ransom men for Christ. If we feel no conflict between our own kingdom and the kingdom of God then we should measure our fruit to see which kingdom we are currently building, if not God’s we risk losing His kingdom altogether.