The Flesh Is Weak by Gloria Copeland

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All through the Scriptures we see that spiritual failure
is due to the weakness of the flesh. The law was
weak through the flesh (Romans 8:3). Thus, Israel
failed God. Peter failed because of the weakness of
his flesh.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told His
disciples, “What, could ye not watch with me one
hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into
temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak” (Matthew 26:40-41). I had always read that
as if He were saying, “Pray that you don’t enter into
temptation.” Jesus was telling them, however, that if
they would pray, when temptation did come, they
wouldn’t enter into it. Luke’s account is even clearer.
“Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest [so that you don’t]
enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46).

Temptation will come. But if we’ll get our spirits to
be ascendant over our flesh and our minds, we
won’t give in to it. We need to spend time
communicating with God in order to keep our
priorities right. This is the key to overcoming the
weakness of the flesh.

Only hours after the incident in the Garden of
Gethsemane, Peter was tempted and denied the Lord.
Had he prayed, he probably would not have given in
to the temptation. Peter’s heart wanted to follow the
Lord. When Jesus warned Peter he would deny Him,
Peter said, “Oh, I would never deny You! I would die
for You. I would go to prison for You.” That was his
heart speaking.

Jesus said, “The spirit…is willing, but the flesh is weak”
(Matthew 26:41). Peter’s heart was right, but the
weakness of his flesh was his downfall. His flesh gave
in to the temptation.

We want to please God and to serve Him with our
whole hearts, but must overcome the weakness of
our flesh.

We are peculiar creatures. When we enter into the
salvation of God, we become new creatures in Christ
Jesus—spiritual beings in natural bodies. Therefore,
we must learn through the revelation of God by His
Spirit, how to function the way He intended. The
Holy Spirit will teach us how to walk in the spirit even
while we live in a natural body.

God wants to use us to manifest His life and minister
the gospel to the world. As long as we are in this
flesh, we have the ability to minister to others who
live in the flesh. Otherwise, we could all just go home
to be with the Lord, because the Bible teaches that
to be absent from the body is to be present with
the Lord—and that would be far better.

We have allowed our flesh to dominate us through
a lack of knowledge and a lack of fellowship with
God. The Lord is calling us to walk in the spirit and to
allow Him to manifest Himself to this world by His
Spirit. We are to habitually conduct ourselves in the
sphere of the spirit.

But the Body of Christ as a whole has never done
that, though we have had the potential ever since
the Day of Pentecost. Some have come closer than
others, but the Church as a whole has never walked
in the spirit as we are going to walk in our day.

In 1977, a well-known preacher prophesied that men
on this earth will walk and talk and act like God. He
said that religious people would mock them and say,
“They think they’re God.” And the Spirit said, No,
they are not God; they are only children of God,
agents of God, ambassadors of God who have been
sent to do the works of God
.
You and I are going to stand in that place in this
hour, and the world will be astounded. They would
never dream it could be possible for mere men to
walk in so much power and authority. To do this we
are going to have to put into practice what the Holy
Spirit is teaching us. The more the Holy Spirit reveals
the spiritual realm to us, the more we will conduct
ourselves in it. Galatians 5:25 says, “If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The place to begin is to “pray, lest ye enter into
temptation.” The flesh will do whatever it’s trained to
do. If you give your attention to the sin in this world,
your flesh will desire to practice sin and to follow
after the spirit of the world. If you expose your flesh
to the things of God, it will learn to behave and walk
after the Spirit of God. Hebrews 5:14 in The Amplified
Bible reveals that if we are mature, we have our senses
trained to discern between good and evil, by reason
of practice.

If you’re lazy, it’s because you have practiced being
lazy. If you’re diligent, it’s because you have practiced
being diligent. Each of us has things that hold us
back from walking in the spirit. Otherwise, we would
all be just like Jesus.

You don’t get hooked the first time you smoke a
cigarette. You have to practice it before it becomes
a habit. Drinking alcohol is caused by the weakness
of the flesh, even though a person may be born again
and know better. Alcoholism is the result of practice.

A person doesn’t become addicted the first or second
time he drinks. But if he practices, it will become a
habit. It’s the same with drugs, adultery or any other
work of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).

Gloria Copeland

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