Walking in the Spirit of God

By Pastor Gregory Dickow

If you’re having trouble with lust, temptation, pride, or maybe you just want to learn how to hear God’s voice, you need to learn how to walk in the Spirit.

We all face temptation and trials, and your life depends on whether you follow your Spirit or your flesh. So let’s learn How to Walk in the Spirit.

1. First of all, you have to be aware of the conflict. It’s one thing to be in a battle, but when the battle is in you, life will be very difficult. You’re made up of three parts. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. Now, your body is not your flesh. You always should take care of your body, but you should never take care of your flesh. Your spirit and your flesh are vying for the control of your soul and your body. Whichever gets control of your soul and body will declare victory. Follow these simple steps to give your Spirit the advantage. If you can learn to walk in the Spirit, it will protect you, provide for you and empower you.

2. You must put first things first. Gal 5:16 says, “I say walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” He doesn’t say overcome your flesh so you can qualify to walk in the Spirit. He says the exact opposite. Religion says as we stop sinning, then the Holy Spirit will come and live in us but that isn’t what the Bible says. It’s our union with the Holy Spirit that overpowers sin. It’s as you walk in the Spirit. The Spirit is the Word. The Word is light. Darkness left when the light came. When you walk in the Spirit, sin is overpowered. All of your striving won’t get sin to leave. The entrance of His Word brings light.

Walking in the Spirit means: yielding yourself to God’s Word and walking in love. When you walk in love, the Spirit drives out and overpowers the dictates of the flesh. As soon as the lights are on, darkness leaves. Walk in the Spirit and you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit and the flesh dies.

The flesh resides in your thinking. Overtake it with thoughts that yield to the Spirit – God’s Word. The flesh loves drugs which in the Greek is the word, pharmakea – which means witchcraft. Galatians 5 lists the works of the flesh including idolatry and witchcraft. You can destroy those cigarettes, speak over those cigarettes, but it doesn’t mean you’ve overcome it. Walk in the Spirit and you won’t want to smoke anymore. You can’t just say, “I’m never going to smoke anymore.” James 4:6-7 says, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil.”

The key to the devil fleeing is first submitting to God. As you submit to God, His Spirit, and His Word – then the devil will flee. The devil comes to someone yielded to their flesh. The flesh is a way of thinking that’s contrary to God’s way of thinking. Walk in the Spirit – and then you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Think God’s thoughts. Submit to God. Then the devil will flee. Draw near to God. Then you’ll purify your hands and hearts. How do you draw near? You worship and praise and love God. You believe His Word, and act on His Word. God accepts you right now. God says just draw near to me.

3. You’ve got to realize – You are not alone. You’re not the only one battling the flesh. Romans 7:21-22 in the Amplified Bible says “So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.”

Paul, the greatest apostle, dealt with this. You feel these thoughts and feelings, and you think, “I’m not saved” or “I’m not spiritual.” It’s not how much knowledge you have. It’s speaking, meditating on the Word to the point where it causes us to overtake the flesh. Identify what is flesh and what is Spirit.

There are 3 characteristics of a jelly flesh that are like the flesh. 1. It has no backbone. The flesh doesn’t stand for anything. It just cares about now. That’s a Christian with no convictions. 2. The prevailing currents carry it. That’s like Christians who just follow the crowd or just follow the most popular minister. Your flesh wants to try and do spiritual works so you can feel spiritual. Get planted. Get established in a church. Have backbone. Be someone who is established, connected and come hell or high water, follow the Word. 3. The jelly fish’s only defense is its sting. The flesh is the same way - we hurt others to protect ourselves. God protects us, so we don’t have to. Our flesh’s retaliation is to say something worse to them. Retaliate with God’s retaliation. Pray for them.

4. Recognize Your Flesh is not the real you. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." I’m not connected to my past. Honor the new in you. You have a new Spirit. You have love, the Father, a new covenant, a new name, a new family, and you have a new way of doing things. As we feed and honor the new man in us, we starve the old man. When you realize there is a battle inside you, and you realize you’re not the only one who has dealt with this, you can win the battle by walking in the Spirit, which is yielding to God’s Word, walking in love, and by drawing near to your father. You are a new creature, and you have a new Spirit inside you. Meditate on the Word, and as you do, you’ll no longer fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Delivered from Homosexuality.

BEING GAY...
(The Roberta Laurila Story)

By: Roberta Laurila

Right from the day of my birth, there was a hint of future problems. When my mother first saw me, she expressed her love for me, then remembered she only had a boy's name chosen. Thus Robert became Roberta.
During childhood, my mother's heart condition and crippling arthritis kept her from doing the usual things with me that my friend's mothers did. I became a loner and a daydreamer. At the age of eight, I was imitating everything my older brother did, from smoking cigarettes to dating girls.
IN LOVE
When I was ten, I "fell in love" for the very first time with my lady school teacher. This crush lasted for three years until our paths separated when I began my freshman year in high school. My heart was grieved until I met a beautiful brunette in my class and new love sprang up in my heart. Of course I couldn't speak of this love to anyone. I began to realize that somehow, I was different. My whole being cried out to love and be loved. Living with my secret longings through those teen years was so difficult.
I tried being like my friends and began dating young men when my father would allow it. When he wouldn't, I became angry and rebellious. I built a bad reputation for myself and as the small town tongues began wagging, I started withdrawing, antagonistic toward all.
ABUSE
My Christian mother was very patient during those years, but my father was under conviction for not accepting the Lord. His cursing raged out of control nearly every night as he verbally abused my mother. These times sent me into a rage. It was during this time in my life that I decided no man would ever treat me like that.
I also rejected my father for getting mom pregnant again. She was in ill health and she hadn't wanted another child. I had also heard many stories of my father's first wife dying at childbirth and that filled me with fears of having children. No way was that for me.
Then at sixteen, my "steady" boyfriend tried to rape me. That event really confirmed to me that sex was filthy and an abomination.
TWO MARRIAGES
After high school, all my girlfriends were getting married. I became fearful of being left out. In desperation, I gave in to my brother's suggestion to meet one of his friends, twelve years older than myself. In less than three months, I married this man whom I didn't even love. After two years, I divorced him and began writing to a man in the Armed Forces who had loved me before my marriage. The decision to marry him came when I learned he would soon be going to Germany in active combat. I could receive an allotment check and wouldn't have to live with him. What a farce! Less than two years later, he came home and I soon divorced him.
Not long after, the Holy Spirit began to convict me of my sin. I had attended tent meetings in a Pentecostal church when I was a child and marched to the front night after night to get saved. But I'd given it all up when I realized I couldn't be good in the days following.
When I began to feel pangs of guilt, this made Satan angry. Soon after, I was introduced to a lesbian who had been in that lifestyle a long time and knew the ropes. She was a bad influence on me and soon I began drinking, which I had never done. The second night, she invited me to spend the night with her. I began meeting other lesbians and partying far too much. Not long after, I was fired from my job.
I soon met a girl who was my "type" and we lived together for eight years. Because of the guilt and drinking, my fits of jealousy and temper became uncontrollable. Then I left my first friend and began living with another. After a year I nearly killed her in the car after drinking too much wine. Needless to say, she left me for good.
SALVATION
I was home alone the afternoon of October 7, 1955. With fear and panic in my heart, I made the decision to take my own life. I was too ashamed to commit myself to an institution to find help for my troubled mind. Pride was still very much alive, even though I thought I was beyond help. I wondered how to call my friend to ask for her forgiveness. I wanted so much to be forgiven, but it seemed out of the question.
I started for the kitchen to turn on the gas jets. I had already had a few drinks to try to give me courage. Just before I entered the kitchen door, I fell to my knees in front a chair. With tears streaming down my face, I cried out, "God forgive me. God forgive me!'
Only later did I realize that I was saved at that moment. The Holy Spirit came to live within me, and began leading me in ways that confirmed my salvation. But in rebellion, I still held onto my old friends.
I had two lesbian relationships after my salvation. "God doesn't expect me to "quit loving women," I reasoned. Of course, I couldn't stop without supernatural help. And I didn't have anyone else to help. This was years before God raised up former homosexuals to begin ministries.
Ten years after I received Jesus Christ as my Savior, I was still living in sin. God began allowing me to feel the consequences of my rebellion. I could not have survived the trauma that followed without the Lord's care and mercy. God allowed the devil to pour out his wrath in such a devastating way. I still shudder at his trickery. With demonic signs and wonders, Satan convinced me that God wanted me to live with another woman while involved in Christian ministry.
The climax came following the suicidal death of a dear friend whom I had betrayed. It was from that shocking emotional experience that my stubborn will was broken. I promised God that I would not let her death be for nothing. Then came the vision.
THE VISION
While living in what seemed to be a hell on earth with my lover, God came to me one night. I was alone and in deep despair, The Lord gave me a spiritual vision of a worldwide ministry. This outreach would reach homosexuals who wanted a close relationship with Jesus Christ and who wanted to be set free from their sin.
As the vision unfolded, I knew God was saying I must leave this lifestyle forever. I was to begin interceding for Him to raise up individuals from the gay lifestyle and others, truly called by Him, to begin specific ministries to homosexuals.
Six years after the vision, God directed me to write my personal testimony of deliverance from lesbianism. My story entitled "Gay Liberation" was published in book form in 1975. It was the first of its kind and not many bookstores would accept it, due to the subject, which was "hush-hush" at the time.
INTERCESSION
Much has happened since that time. While I continued to intercede, God began calling forth former gays to minister. God has blessed my friendships with many of the "pioneers" in the Exodus movement, such as Frank Worthen, Robbi Kenney, Ed Hurst, and others. I have been blessed also to see many ministries begin in foreign soil. What a wonderful God He is!
God has kept me at a low profile. At times, I have rebelled concerning this. But deep down, I know I was called to intercede for others to be led by the Holy Spirit into the entire world.
Even as I write these words, tears are flowing down my cheeks. Surely God will complete His perfect plan to reach the many millions of the lost who have been so rejected and lonely so many years. I weep for the church, blinded by the enemy so it cannot see the need to teach gays. So many Christians cannot truly believe that God can set these people free. My great desire now is to reach those in the gay church. I am believing God to also work a miracle there. Our God reigns!
If you would like to contact me I can be reached at P.O. Box 403, Grandville, MI 49468 or 616-645-5683. I would love to help you in any way I can.
God Bless,Roberta Laurila