Embark on a journey of profound transformation as we confront the spiritual realities that shape our existence. Tune in to discover how the choices we make carry eternal weight, and understand that our endeavors towards change are far from solitary. With divine guidance, the old self gives way to the new, and the battleground of our souls becomes the canvas for a masterpiece of faith. In this episode, we face down the daunting adversaries of our spiritual struggle—the devil, the world, and our flesh. Armed with Scripture and the life of Jesus as our compass, we delve into the truths that empower us to triumph over these forces and take every step in life as one towards our ultimate destination.
Prepare to challenge your convictions and realign your heart and mind with God's will, a pivotal stride in the metamorphosis into our godlier selves. This episode is an open invitation to scrutinize the often-overlooked flaws within us, illuminated by passages from Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians that guide us to rebirth. We share stories, reflect on the Scriptures, and discuss how embracing a life of righteousness and holiness is not just a command but a calling to live in sync with God's statutes. Join me, JJ, as we equip ourselves with the spiritual armor necessary for this candid exploration of inner battles and the beauty that emerges from a life renewed in faith.
Embark on a journey of profound transformation as we confront the spiritual realities that shape our existence. Tune in to discover how the choices we make carry eternal weight, and understand that our endeavors towards change are far from solitary. With divine guidance, the old self gives way to the new, and the battleground of our souls becomes the canvas for a masterpiece of faith. In this episode, we face down the daunting adversaries of our spiritual struggle—the devil, the world, and our flesh. Armed with Scripture and the life of Jesus as our compass, we delve into the truths that empower us to triumph over these forces and take every step in life as one towards our ultimate destination.
Prepare to challenge your convictions and realign your heart and mind with God's will, a pivotal stride in the metamorphosis into our godlier selves. This episode is an open invitation to scrutinize the often-overlooked flaws within us, illuminated by passages from Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians that guide us to rebirth. We share stories, reflect on the Scriptures, and discuss how embracing a life of righteousness and holiness is not just a command but a calling to live in sync with God's statutes. Join me, JJ, as we equip ourselves with the spiritual armor necessary for this candid exploration of inner battles and the beauty that emerges from a life renewed in faith.
All right. Thank you everybody for coming and joining us today for today's episode. I am your host, jj. I'm so good to see everybody here and I can see all the listeners and downloads and shares and I really do appreciate that. You guys could be listening to any other podcast, but you've chosen this one and we're going to continue our journey Towards living right and loving for God and making our shot for heaven. This heaven is real, heaven, hell is real, eternity is long and and the fire is hot.
Speaker 1:Now I know a lot of people like to you. We kind of ignore that part that you know, if you miss heaven, the other way is Not good, it's hell. It is that there is a hell. I know we kind of we don't want to think about that part and some people say well, this hell on earth and I'm telling you now the, the hell that you endure on earth, is nothing compared To the hell that you will endure If you don't make it to heaven. If I don't make it to heaven and I'm not I'm not exempting myself, because even Paul said If, after I myself have preached to others, I might become a cast away. That's how we're gonna talk about today, but I just thought it was, I guess, I guess felt led to say that you guys can be listening any other podcast which you've chosen. This one, I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much for my sponsors two bars of lyricists with this awesome new Audio setup and thank you for those who have helped me get this new equipment setup. It feels so much different than the headphones now. These headphones are amazing. Thank you so much for the contributions. Thank you so much for that's. So it's quiz, the creations she has. The walk with me cup we have. We're not even selling it at this point yet. We're still talking about what kind of pricing that would be if you wanted a Walk with me cup. But I will tell you this if you send me Two questions two questions so you got two questions, I don't mean like a question and an Apollo question to separate questions then I will see if I can get a Walk with me cup mail to you just got to put your information in or in the email, but I'll see if I get a walk with me cup. It's really, really, really nice, but I use it every day. Thank you so much for that.
Speaker 1:We're gonna go ahead and jump right into everything. Because we did get a question based on what we were talking about last week, from the old to the new, and and basically the question was whoa, oh, what do you mean by this old to new? What am I supposed to be changing? Well, the simple answer is you aren't changing anything, and I can't stress that enough. But for some reason we start thinking that it's us that's changing these things. And if we could change is, let's be honest, if I could change From the old to the new, then when I got tired of the new and I can go back to the old. But if it's God's this changing me, then that change is permanent. It's a real change, not temporary.
Speaker 1:And you know, we hear a lot of stuff about, like we talked about last week and people talked about there are drugs and this and that, and they were doing all sort of self-destructive behavior. If it was them that was changing that, that behavior, then you know they would end up going back to that behavior. So what really are we talking about? From the old man to the new man, first thing we got to talk about is what that old man is and what really afflicted the old man, the old man, the old humanity, the old you, the old me are, have to face three enemies Constantly, even the new one, the new man. We all do this too, but we have three enemies that the old man succumbed to and that the new man must fight. The one enemy is, of course, the devil, the Satan. You know, be as above the slew foot, however you want to call him, is the devil, satan, lucid, whatever you want to call, that is your first and primary enemy. However, this devil has gotten so good at what he does that he delegates is His, his power. And you know, you always say, if you ever been in management school, they tell you a good manager is good at delegation. Well, he's gotten really good at delegating his Authority, or his power, or his mission that's probably the best word is mission, and so what he does he's in this brings into our second Enemy, which is the world with thought, with their ungodly less, and which appeals to your third enemy, which is your flesh. Now, oh, by the way, before we get into the actual scriptures we're talking about here, we have a rule on this podcast and if you see your first or second time, you you probably you're gonna end up repeating this rule, just like everyone who's been with us from the beginning.
Speaker 1:When we talk about a scripture, we gonna read the verse or two above, or verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. Why? Because context is key. So we're gonna start in Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 14, and I was reading from the King James version and Not saying the other versions are invalid. I just feel that the King James version has the strongest language right. So King James version says for as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same and that through death he might destroy him. That had the power of death. That is the devil.
Speaker 1:Now, what we're talking about here is Jesus having the same temptations of while he was in the flesh, and how those temptations came directly from the devil to his flesh. John 1st, john 2, 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, of the pride of life, he's not of the father, but his other world. I mean, that's pretty self-explanatory. Everything that you see that's designed to get your attention, that designed to keep you away from the love of God, all of those things are not of God. That is not to say no and I need to pardon me to say this for clarification and it's not to say that you can't have nice things. That's not because the Bible also said I've come, that you have life and life more abundant thing, and you know I ask you prayers according to my riches and glory. So it's not to say you can't have nice things. It's about putting things in the perspective and that you put in God first. Hebrews 4 and 15.
Speaker 1:But we have not on high priests, which cannot be touched with the feelings of our affemurities, but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. That goes back to the first scripture. Jesus knew exactly what it felt like to be tempted. Jesus knew exactly what it was like to be angry. Jesus even said be you angry and sin not, so you. You don't have to walk around like some flower child and you know, and with you know harps and stuff like that. It's about being able to handle the temptation and being able to refute it. You avoid it, overcome it. But two of the enemies are outside of the body the devil and the world. The greatest enemy, though, is within us. The greatest enemy is how we react to the devil and the world.
Speaker 1:Mark 7, 21 and 23 from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adultery's, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye Wait what you mean? You could just look at somebody wrong and that sin Absolutely Blasphemy, pride, foolishness. You know, let's stop right there again, because so much of today we're talking about pride in this and pride in that. And you know, pride, pride, pride. We're not supposed to be doing that as Christians. You know, and I'm not saying that you can't say hey, little Johnny, I'm proud that you made all A's in your report card. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about pride in ourselves, pride in our, our shells, as it were, our skin color, our, our think, even pride in our sin.
Speaker 1:And on the verse 23,. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. Now, if you read up above it, it says you know, if I eat something, am I defiled? And Jesus was saying no, it's not what you put into you that defiles, he was what comes out of you. That's why reading the whole chapter is important, because that just explains what I was just reading here.
Speaker 1:Now, as you say to me well, jj, what am I supposed to do? What am I? How do I get over this? How do I get around this? The Holy Ghost is what helps you to conquer that fleshly nature. The Holy Ghost is what helps you conquer your biggest enemy. Jays four and four, the adulterers and adulterers know, you're not, that the friendship with the world is empty against God Plus. Whoever, therefore, is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That is now, now, jj. What do you mean? I have to have the evil face all the time when, when worldly people talk to me no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Your job is to reach people who are in the world. Your, my job is to reach people who are lost. That's what our job is. That's what we're supposed to do. However, we cannot be friendly with the world who seeks to undermine God. We have to maintain that. I guess you might call it professional religious relationship, and I just made that up on the spot. It may not even be accurate, but we have to maintain a certain distance to where we can still talk to people in the world, still be friendly with them, but not friendly with the sin that they commit.
Speaker 1:Why Romans eight and seven? Because a carnal mind is enmity against God is not subject to the will of God. Neither, indeed, can it be when you're all about. You know the next score, the next job, the next, you know the next person you're going to sleep with or the next dollar you're going to make. You cannot, you cannot be subject to the will of God, because God can very well put you on a different path and then you fight the will of God. I myself am a person who has done that. I can tell you right off the bat God had me doing a thing and it was time for me to move on to a different thing, and so God ended the job. God ended. God calls me to get fired. God used me to cause me to get fired, and I was angry at God because, well, I like that job and you know God was like well, but I got something better for you, because you are supposed to be subject to my will, not the other way around.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 2 is 16, and that he might reconcile both unto God and in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Well, not. What does that mean? Now, here's where you got to read the whole chapter, because we're talking about how you are. You are, it is an actual fight between the world and God for your soul, and you're the only one here that can determine which way you're going. So what is what are we talking about? What kind of determination?
Speaker 1:First of all, we got to consider what our flesh generally does as the old man Now, the sins that we have, the sins that we take part in, confirming sinful, earthly nature, a carnal nature, as you would. We like to throw that word carnal around a lot and we don't really define it. A carnal is a is really based on what we feel. Now there are other sins that come from simple human nature, but the carnal sins are our sins that we come up with. So say, for example, and we have a human nature that that predisposes us to lie. That's just how it is. It's just you. You'll see a two year old just bust out a lie and you know that line. But then we'll have our own sin and I like to use I use the term Dixie cream a lot because I know I shouldn't be doing it, but I'm doing it and I should not be eating Dixie cream, but I love Dixie cream, so I eat Dixie cream and you know, I don't know the exact scripture I have, but he said Paul's Bible said Well, if you know to do good and do it not, this is a sin to you and I know I shouldn't be eating that stuff, but I love it.
Speaker 1:It is the best donut. No, they are not a sponsor yet and I would not reject the sponsorship from them, but they are really the best donuts I've ever eaten. Besides, well, they run a close second. Well, yeah, they just barely edge out. Daybreak out in Kansas there's a daybreak donut that had a very similar donut to. But anyway, let me move on.
Speaker 1:In Galatians 519 to 21, it says the work of the flesh and manifest. Which are these? Adultery, ornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, hatred. Let's stop right there. Hatred you just ate something, hate someone. This is work of the flesh. Now, I'm not talking about hating sin, that's a completely different thing. But when you hate a person instead of their sin, that is a work of the flesh. Variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies you know, you know, in this line you come across so many heresies and people have no idea that they're heresies because mama told them, a grandma told them, a great grandma told them and they didn't know that there was heresies when they were told to them. Let's move on.
Speaker 1:Emmyings, murders, drunkenness, drunkenness, yes, this is all the work of the flesh, revelings and such like, for which I tell you before, as I tell you in time pass they wish, do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of god, any of these things that we just talked about. You, if you're not a hered in the kingdom of god, there's only one other place you can go, and I, I, I stressed I cannot stress that enough and we like to glaze over the stuff that we are, that we are guilty of say, for example, like idolatry. Yeah, I mean, there's different degrees of idolatry, but they're all the same. If you put something before god, that is idolatry. If you would rather go to work and go to church, or let's not say, go to church, if you rather go to work than read your bible, then that's idolatry. If you would rather like is a good example for me. If I'd rather sit at home, then go out and reach the laws, my home is an idol to me and guess what? I gotta fix that. I gotta pray to get that out of my spirit.
Speaker 1:Now the the problem is is that if we're not constantly in control, if we're not constantly on top of these things. The heart I heart when I'm not talking about the red thing that pumps blood throughout your veins, I'm talking about your soul the heart is capable of unbelievable things, and when you think about it and we try to use our minds to sort of get this thing under control, it doesn't work, because it's impossible to please god this way, even though we think we're doing it, we think we're doing a good job, we're thinking we're on top of it, but we we not controlling our heart and we're not controlling our mind, and we're in while trying to do both of those things, we're not doing the most important thing, which is pleasing god Romans 8 and 7 because the carnal mind, our carnal mind, is enmity against god, for it is not subject of the law of god, neither, indeed, can be yeah, that's the scripture I was talking about earlier cannot be subject to the will of the heart. And so, for this reason and this is why all of these things that we talked about, this is the reason why god gave us a renewed nature. Verse chromatians 6, 17. But he that is joined to god, unto the lord, is one spirit, one spirit. Like you, you are literally reborn with the spirit of god, and so now you got a new nature, because now you want to, you want to have a godly nature. So now you got to have a new mind. A new mind first, chromatians 2 and 16, for who had known the mind of the lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of christ. So there's your new mind. So now you have a new way of thinking. You're not thinking a carnal way. So now a new heart. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 1:The kesekeal 36, 26 to 27 this is one of my favorite scriptures, by the way a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. This is actually a prophecy of the coming holy ghost. Didn't happen at that time came in, of course, as you know, the book of acts. A new heart and new spirit I would put in you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them rome's five and five and hope. Make it not a shame, because the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which was given to us. This is a fulfillment of that ezekiel scripture.
Speaker 1:Now, that's not all. Now we got this new man ephesians 4 and 24 that you put on the new man which, after god, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now we like to throw that word righteousness around, we do. We love throwing that word righteousness around. We like throw around holiness. But we don't never really define what either one of these things are, because it's we don't want to convict ourselves in that way. It's just, and we just do. We just don't want to. We don't want to convict ourselves, but we want to talk about those things as we go along here.
Speaker 1:But we also have a new life, rome six and four. Therefore, we are buried with him and by baptism unto death. That like as christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father. Even so, also we should walk in the newness of life. Yes, you're getting a whole new life by getting the holy ghost, a whole new set of different. I'm telling you, when you get the holy ghost, the next day seems so much brighter, it seems so much happier.
Speaker 1:Second. Now, wait, wait, wait. Let me just stop right here say the problems that you had, the responsibilities that you had the day before you got the holy ghost don't disappear. I have to say this because somehow people get this pie in the sky. You know, I'm just gonna come, come and pray through and hopefully all my problems will disappear. That doesn't happen, but now you have a new hope in how to face him.
Speaker 1:So, um, first, second, corinthians, 5 and 17. Therefore, if any man being a christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away because all things become new, and by all things we're talking about, our sinful, our nature, our, our fleshly nature has become new and we can now be taught by Christ how to live for God. We get to be taught like that. So now? So how does that happen? You got to put off the old man. You have to. The old man has to go away. We don't really have time to go into it, but I'm going to just touch on it a little bit. If he's just for 20 to 24 that you're putting off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which means you're going to talk different, now you're not.
Speaker 1:Don't try, do not try, do not try to change this on your own, like if the old man used to curse like a sailor, he used to talk about stuff. If the Holy Ghost will change that, it will automatically change that. Oh, let me finish the scripture in reverse. Which is corrupt, according to the deceitful us? If you lie, if that's your thing, it's lying and you don't have to tell me because I'm telling you that was one of my things. The man lying was a thing, but the Holy Ghost will help you get rid of that. And it's literally like one day when I got the Holy Ghost back in 94, and then this is going to wrap this up here. We're going to come back to this Ephesians 24 and 22.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I noticed as soon as I got the Holy Ghost and it was literally like the next day, because I was in the army and I got kicked out and we did some stuff and my mouth was reckless oh, my gosh, my mouth was so bad and every other word was four letters and 16 letters and 28 letters. It was bad, but that was the very first thing that I noticed when I got the Holy Ghost. Yeah, the next day was like oh, wow, that was a great, great church service we had last night. But then the very first thing I noticed right away was that my language was cleaned up. Yeah, I'm not going to say that, you know, just because this is the way it happened to me is how it's going to happen to you. Something else will probably be, probably be reborn in you. But right away I noticed that my language was cleaned up and even though later on, you know, I kind of figured out what had happened and I'm trying to not be very specific, but my language was cleaned up, the curse words were gone.
Speaker 1:The way I used to kind of, you know, manipulate people, that was gone. That was gone. And the way that I allowed myself to be manipulated by myself, that too was gone. And, yes, that I don't know how I used to do that to myself, but yes, I used to do that to myself. I would manipulate myself and it would be crazy, and I into thinking I was something more than what I was. You know so, and that was the old man, and that disappeared in July of 94.
Speaker 1:Now, that's not to say, and I'm just going to be have a moment of honesty with you guys If you backslide, because I had a period where I got mad at God and I backslid. That does not mean that this that the old man doesn't come back. The old man does come back and, as a matter of fact, it comes back worse than it did when you first got the Holy Ghost. So you want to be very careful. You want to be very careful when you get those Holy Ghosts and you don't want to have a situation where you are reckless with the gift that God is giving you Because this gift, this gift, is worth so much. You know the Bible talks about how it's worth more than pearls and whatever you know value system that the Bible had at that time. Those men had at that time. You know they are men that wrote it, but they were divinely inspired and they were inspired by God to tell you that, no matter what kind of value system you got right now, they didn't have Bitcoin back then. So if I told you the Holy Ghost was worth more than 25,000 Bitcoin, just to kind of get you an idea of how much this Holy Ghost is worth, then it makes more sense.
Speaker 1:If that, I hope that wouldn't. That it can go rambly a little bit, but putting off the old man with the and replacing it with the new, the new man is the best decision you could ever try to make, because once you do that, the Holy Ghost is going to help you install that new man, rewrite your programming, change your nature. It has not to say that everything that you've dealt with before is going to go away. If you had a problem with the opposite sex, then that's just. God's spirit is going to help you get over that temptation. And I know we're running a little bit over, but it's important that sometimes you get into the middle of these lessons and you run out of time and I don't want to end it, but this is what I'm going to do today Putting on the new man. What is that new man? What is that? What does that mean? And we always like throw those turns around.
Speaker 1:Holiness, righteousness, new man, you are as getting someone who's baptized in Jesus' name and getting the Holy Ghost after you've repented of your sin. That is literally a death, a spiritual death in the repentance, a spiritual death. That's his image, his name was a spiritual burial and getting the Holy Ghost with a spiritual rebirth. And once that's done, once that is done, it is. I cannot express to you the amount of the amount of change that you will go through, and it is a change that will get you through some of the hardest times in your life. You know, get you through the best times of your life. Because I don't know about anybody else, but I can personally say that JJ here, sometimes the hard times isn't what will cause JJ to fall. There's a good times that will cause JJ to fall, because I was kind of getting into the situation where it was JJ that did the thing that caused a good time, rather than it was God, and so I would get outside my lane. And if you ever heard of this story, heard the saying that if anything get outside your lane, you will crash, and that's exactly what happened to me. Now I said we're out of time, we're a little bit over. I do.
Speaker 1:Thank you all so much. If you have any questions I don't know if I mentioned in the beginning If you have any questions, send them to walkwithmebibostudyatgmailcom. Walk with me, biblestudyatgmailcom. Feel free to share this podcast with anybody who you may be talking to about God or anybody asks you about God. Thank you so much for doing that. Thank you all so much for listening. Y'all have a great day. Oh and, by the way, if you know anybody you know, check on somebody, tell them that you love them, tell them that you're thinking about them and you have to be blessed.