¹⁵I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. ¹⁸I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. ¹⁹When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. ²⁰But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.  ²¹It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²²I love God's law with all my heart. ²³But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. ²⁴Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? ²⁵Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  Romans7:15-25

⁴³"When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. ⁴⁴Then it says, `I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. ⁴⁵Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation."  Matthew 12:43-45
 

Struggle is something that none of like but most of us find ourselves caught up in more often than we like. We are always facing trying circumstances whether it be at home with family members, at work with the boss or coworkers, or in life with our friends or people we come across. I find that after giving myself completely over to Christ and His will that my biggest struggles have been with myself.

These struggles with myself stems from the mess I have made in the past by making my flesh the primary controller of mind and my actions. Now that I have devoted myself to fulfilling the call of God in my life, I have made my mind and spirit the entities in charge of my flesh and my actions. I am now realizing that the laws of the flesh and the laws of a mind focused on Christ are constantly at war with each other. Christ told us to put our flesh to death on a daily basis. I realize that in some circumstances and in some situations that I have to put my flesh to death on more than a daily basis. Sometimes two, three or five times a day. In Romans Paul says that with our mind we are slaves to the law of God, but with our flesh we are slaves to the law of sin. It then depends on us who we will choose to serve, our flesh or God.

I can honestly attest to the fact that switching the frame of mind from serving the flesh to that of serving God is a hard thing to do. Paul reminds us in Romans again that when we intend to do good and Godly things with our mind that evil lies close at h and to remind us of the needs of the flesh. When the flesh does win out (and I will again honestly say that sometimes it does) Satan is right there to point out our failures, weaknesses and inadequacies hoping that we will quit trying to good and Godly things since our flesh is so strong. But that is just it! It is our flesh. If we continue to put our flesh to death on a daily basis then it cant win over our mind and spirit because it is dead. When we choose to serve God with our mind and spirit then our flesh has to fall in line and come with us. It then becomes slave to and under the subjection of Christ.

As we continue to grow in our servant hood to God, we begin to find that those struggles that were hard for us in the beginning, with perseverance have become small issues that don't even faze us anymore. An important principle to remember is that of vacancy. As we begin to take charge of our flesh and continue to put our fleshly desires to death, it is important to realize that we have created a vacancy where that desire once resided. It is necessary not only to evict those desires and to clean up their mess, but also to invite a new Godly principle or desire to fill the vacancy. This will make it easier to bring that fleshly desire into the subjection of Christ when it returns to find that it no longer has a space to reside. It also prevents it from coming back stronger, making it harder to evict the next time.

Struggles are an everyday occurrence. On a spiritual level they will continue to exist as long as we have an enemy. But in all spiritual struggles we have the upper hand because they are the mind and spirit versus the flesh. The upper hand lies in our ability to put our flesh to death and subject it to the will of God.

Mike Aguilar, January 2002