Episode 17 | Submitting To The Flesh Vs. Submitting To The Spirit

Sometimes our felt needs drive us to seek escape or equilibrium via means that are appealing but ultimately unfulfilling, and many times even damaging. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, self-deprecation, self-aggrandizing, “fitting in,” consumerism - and the list goes on and on - hold out the promise of meaning, escape, relief, or happiness. And they often deliver a temporary, fleeting version of those promises.

When we seek repeated solace or escape through vices, they become habits. We often turn to them without concerted thought or the exercise of mind and will, particularly in seasons of stress, loss, or exhaustion.

In today’s episode we discuss what it might look like to replace these habits, born out of fleshly and socially derived instinct, through the power and filling of the Holy Spirit. God always gives us the ability to imagine a different way. If you are facing your own addictions or self-gratifying desires, rather than the seemingly dualistic decisions of “give in” or “try harder,” God prompts us to imagine all that he created us to be and invites us to trust him and submit to his love and his ways. He asks us to participate with him in the process of transformation. Through that process, he promises a renewal of mind and heart (will). By the power of the Holy Spirit we can experience the re-shaping of our desire and form new, life-giving habits.