Spirit Over Flesh
Spirit Over Flesh. Written By Manashantii Monday 18th May 2020
Do not be led by lust, desire and imperfect feelings which are negative. Feelings can be deceptive. Feelings change, lust and desire makes us a slave to our flesh, sinful nature and the physical realm; this makes us a slave to negative imperfect feelings. Those that walk in the flesh are self-seeking, their main priority is self-preservation, they focus on Self-love, they have an inaccurate knowledge of sin and most importantly they are ruled and led by their soul. Walking in the word of God and in the Spirit enables you to be in control of your emotions in a productive way.
When we become born again Christians we become spiritually reborn and must no longer live like the past morally or spiritually. Christianity is a journey where God prepares our soul to be in obedient alignment with God’s wisdom and plans. If you are ruled by your flesh (which is your physical or old nature) and soul that means that you are ruled by your sin nature and you are of the world (or worldly). Self centredness and worldliness causes spiritual death. We must kill our old nature or our old self or our sin nature and submit our mind and flesh to God. We must let our spirit control our mind and flesh this brings us life and peace. We must have a spiritual relationship with God. See:- Romans 8v6 at the end of this article. We build a relationship with God by praying, reading the Holy Bible, worshipping God, fasting, speaking in tongues, praising God and living a morally righteous life according to the Holy Bible. The Holy Spirit is a great motivator, He helps us to be heavenly conscious, through prayer and Bible study He nourishes our spirit.
Your pre-frontal cortex of your brain governs Logic, Reason and Will power. A hypnotic state is when your pre-frontal cortex is turned off. Television and hypnosis desensitises your pre-frontal cortex and puts your brain in a hypnotic state. The Limbic system governs Emotions, passion and self-preservation.
Psychotherapy is friendship building with the aim to develop the client’s emotional and social skills. The aim of psychotherapy is to encourage you to question and reason your behaviour and gain psychological insight into yourself. I believe that diagnostic skills, mentoring and educating clients are useful skills including building respect and trust. Building respect and trust is very important at the beginning of every relationship. The secular psychotherapies helps you to understand your feelings and may give you emotional insight into your problems but it does not help you to be emotionally free of the past and to focus on the future, also by dwelling on feelings it encourages emotional immaturity. Focusing on historical experiences and past feelings especially being ruled by feelings of self pity, passion and self centredness keeps you in a carnal state of mind. Mainstream secular psychotherapy works on the soul and completely ignores working on the Spirit. It is important to gain insight into yourself and to be able to reflect. Writing and talking can be useful for gaining insight into yourself and give you space to reflect. Spiritual maturity requires being ruled by the Spirit, being responsible, able to be guided by discernment and crucify the flesh.
I am in favour of Christian and Biblical counselling especially Biblical psychotherapy with a focus on developing your Spirit and building a relationship with the Holy Spirit, but a psychotherapy that encourages the client to write their thoughts and feelings down, writing down and planning goals, writing a personal growth plans diary, using therapeutic painting, prayer walking, using dance or movement as therapy or doing housework to relieve stress and pent up emotions if possible. Writing may not be suitable for everyone, some people prefer to talk. Encouraging the client to focus on the future and God is also important.
I believe that mainstream secular psychotherapy isn’t completely the best solution. Mainstream psychotherapy and psychologies encourages you to be feeling led, examine your behaviour and obey your thoughts. It is good to examine your behaviour but it is not always good to be feeling led and act upon your thoughts. Dwelling on imperfect feelings is the antithesis of life ; the outcome of this is that you feel emotionally terrible because it is a curse on yourself.
Psychological freedom without Spiritual freedom means that you are not truly and completely free. Christianity offers Spiritual freedom. Spiritual freedom is total freedom it means that you are free eternally and will experience perfect peace after this life.
The word for Soul in Hebrew is called Nephesh, the word for Soul in Greek is called Psyche. The word psychology comes from the Greek word Psyche and Logos means science, reason and judgement this forms the modern word psychology in the English language. In religion the Greek word logos means Divine reason and creative order. Soul is made up of the self which is your character, Identity and personality; Soul is also made up of the emotions, thoughts, imagination, mind, will, intellect and consciousness.The word of God protects the soul.
Christianity is more than just morals. Your spirit is the part of you that helps you to communicate with God and guides you to spiritually discern things. Your spirit is also called your inner man. When you become a born again Christian your spirit becomes reborn again. Jesus is the solution for salvation. Christianity is prophecy and Spiritual knowledge that helps you to overcome circumstances; knowledge that is put to practice is faith in action.
This is how to be led by the Holy Spirit and led by your faith in God; read the Holy Bible then talk to God about how you are feeling emotionally and physically; your priority should be to be guided by the Holy Bible and to do what is morally right and do what is right according to the Holy Bible. Perfect your relationship with God and you will hear the Holy Spirit; and The Holy Spirit will guide you. Know God’s love through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible. As Spirit things are in a different dimension to the Soul realm Christians use faith to do Spirit things. Problems are caused by imbalances in the soul and the (flesh) physical yet all religions except some Christians fight their battles using the soul when the spirit is the problem solver. Everything has spiritual roots and is birthed in the spiritual realm before it manifests in the physical realm. God is our ally, healer, deliverer ; and the Holy Spirit is our counsellor and is also called the Comforter. As we build a relationship with The Holy Spirit, God changes our Spirit.
God will give you what you need. God’s love and acceptance is the greatest and transforms the soul and spirit. Find comfort in the Holy Spirit. Faith has a spiritual element that develops and builds your spirit. Prayer refines and prepares you for something great. Prayer purifies you. Have faith in God and rely on God’s ability. Develop a mindset of Christ. Live by the word of God. As you grow in holiness whilst alive on Earth you will become sanctified. you.
Read the Holy Bible aloud and slowly like you are eating a delicious spiritual meal that you don’t want to stop eating; The Holy Bible is Spiritual food, so have a Spiritual feast, feast in the Spirit. Feed your spirit by reading the Holy Bible aloud at least once a day. Read and speak the word of God with your mouth, open your mouth and read aloud. Speak to God because you sincerely love Him, not just for what you can gain; because it is a blessing to spend time with God. Muttering the Holy Bible is called Spiritual eating or Spiritual feasting at the very least murmuring the passages in the Holy Bible helps you to engage in a relationship with God. Practice fasting only if you can. Fasting helps you to grow and connect in the Spiritual realm.
Thank and praise God aloud. Express your passion for God, pray. Humble your flesh, crucify your flesh, submit your flesh, let your spirit dominate and lead your heart, your spirit must supersede your fleshly (physical) experiences; this is what I mean by Spirit over flesh. Use your inner man (Spirit) to fight your carnal and fleshly nature. The Spirit must dominate the soul. Let the Holy Spirit help you to question and resolve your unbelief. Allow Jesus to be your mediator and coach. Fight your battles in the spirit by prayer, worship, defending humanity and praising God, do not be ruled by your flesh. Praise God, trust God, have faith. Seek inner peace which is directed by the Holy Spirit. Pursue Godly peace and walk in the Spirit.
Being Spirit over flesh means judging relationships in the spirit not what you see in the physical and psychological realm, and all your relationships should include God. So you choose your friends by their walk in the Spirit with the Lord, not who they are in the world.
Read the Holy Bible. Read, then read again, then read again, then analyse. Apply what you read. Write. Set a target. Analyse, Apply and explain your experience in writing. When you read, whatever you read psychologically and spiritually moulds you. Reading the Holy Bible frees your soul from chains and worldly bondage. Every Bible verse is healing to the soul and prayer is the most authentic expression of the soul (or of the heart). Christians read the Holy Bible to make a relational and spiritual bond with God.
Use therapeutic writing to motivate yourself, talking to God helps you to recognise the patterns between current circumstances and past issues. Ask God questions. Acknowledge the source of your problem. Pray against the route cause of your problem. Know the word of God, spend time in God’s presence. Motivate yourself, set small achievable goals, step by step you will achieve big things. God will minister to your Spirit and you will grow in the supernatural also. Writing and listening to self and talking illustrates the true condition of your soul. Thinking, writing and reflecting unveils your desires and purpose, revealing knowledge of yourself and your spirit. Sometimes the process can be inspirational, motivational, you can gain understanding, insight and perspective or it may touch your imagination. It is important to maintain peace and calmness as this increases your memory and concentration and your ability to summarise; it is good to spend time reflecting and recollecting your thoughts and feelings and writing them down. It is also good to review what you read and respond to it in writing and prayer and you can use questioning, self enquiry, self exploration and expression but remember that it is all examining the soul, if you want to heal and grow it is important to be Holy Spirit led. Use therapeutic writing as a methodical way of mathematical thinking, it is real life problem solving with the leading of the Holy Spirit, meditating on the word of God and listening to the Holy Spirit. Praise and honour God. Read the Holy Bible and listen to God. For more on therapeutic writing please see my article called Manashantii’s writing method . See also Reflective writing with prayer the link is at the bottom of this article.
People try to understand things with worldly understanding, but to understand spiritual things you need to use spiritual discernment, spiritual wisdom and faith. Commit everything to prayer. Too much knowledge and information without spiritual discernment causes psychological confusion and is dangerous. Spend time listening to God by reading the Holy Bible, practice praying and sitting in silence and deciding what to do, you can also write your thoughts and feelings down.
Praying in tongues is a powerful way to let your Spirit and your faith lead your flesh.
Another way is to set an appointment to spend time with God and honour it. Practice self discipline and motivate yourself to do it. Read The Holy Bible, listen as you read, see what talks to your spirit. Ask God to tell you the meaning of what you are reading, He will speak to your spirit. Read, Reflect, Research, Remember and Respond to what you read by writing and praying. Sit in silence reflecting on what you read. It is good to spend time in prayer giving an offering of thanksgiving, praise and repentance to God. Prayer motivates and strengthens you physically, psychologically and spiritually. Jesus is perfect love, a perfect sacrifice and a perfect example to follow. When you worship God it is good to keep it flowing and dynamic, this helps the Holy Spirit to lead. When you read the Holy Bible write down Holy Bible verses that speak to you in a notebook or journal and read those verses daily as time goes by write and read more verses, do this to build up your faith and knowledge in God and as a result building up your inner man. Proclaim the word of God on yourself daily.
Idolatry is when you put people or things before God. Stop holding on to past relationship(s) that have an ungodly soul tie, stop holding on, stop looking back, let go off ungodly relationship(s). You are God’s child so relate to God and His people as your close friends only. You can’t be friends with someone who is your spiritual opposite, a spiritual opposite is your spiritual enemy, don’t be distracted, stop looking back at what you have left behind, focus on the future and God. Build up your Spirit. Plead the blood of God over yourself. Experience the greatness of God. Prioritise being led by the Spirit and let your Spirit submit your flesh always.
Philippians 4v13 I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.
Proverbs 3v5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 25v28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
Colossians 3
Galatians 3
Galatians 5v16 -18 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.18 If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Galatians 5v19-26 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornicaton, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance,: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Romans 5
Romans 8
Romans 8 8v6 King James Version For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Romans 8v6 New Living Translation So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
Romans 8v6 New International Version The mind governed by flesh is death, but the mind governed by Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8v6 English Standard Version For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 12
Isaiah 28v29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
John 14v26-28 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, He shall teach you all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If he loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Jeremiah 17v9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
John 6v63 (Jesus speaking) It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
2 Corinthians 10v5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Manashantii
See:- Explaining The Soul And The Spirit
The Definition Of The Soul And Spirit
Reflective writing with prayer