The
Law verses the Spirit
As a human we will spend our energies in our life on
Earth either walking by The Law of Sin and Death or by the Law of the Spirit of
Life. We will be possessed by the Spirit of Sin or the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit
of Sin will operate against God's Will (and often our will) without our
permission. The Holy Spirit operates only with our permission as we conform our will to God’s will.
When a person is operating under the Law of Moses,
the monkey is on that person’s back. That is, they believe that they must
obey the Law in order to please the Lord. The driving force under the Law, is pleasing the Lord, that you might receive some favor
from Him, more specifically, salvation. If you displease Him you risk loosing
your salvation. This is a works based theology. Your righteousness is directly
proportional to your good works. This is the way the world operates. It is
under the Law. The more you do good the greater the
reward; and the more you do bad the more punishment. {Gal 2:16 Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of
Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be
justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified.} However, there is NO BENEFIT with Father for doing the works of the
Law according to this verse! You can only please the Lord through the Spirit. { Romans 7:4 So, my brothers and
sisters, you also died to the Law through the body of the Messiah, that you
might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we
might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the
sinful passions aroused by the Law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit
for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released
from the Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old
way of the written code. Roman 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Yeshua the Messiah, because through Yeshua the Messiah the
law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and
death. Romans 8:8-9 So then they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be
that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. } As born again believers we are dead to the Law but and now operating
under Grace by faith as we obey the Spirit of God.
Once we have chosen Yeshua by faith, and are born
again, we are dead to the Law. Our old life ended with the Law and the sin that
it revealed We were innocent until the Law came along.
The Law stirred up the sinful passions of our flesh and the result was death in
us. We are now dead to the Law so that we can follow the Spirit of Life, freed
from the Law and the sins it brought forth.
{ Col 2:11 In whom also you are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of the Messiah: 12 Buried with him in baptism,
wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of
the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.}
Yeshua even went so far forgiving all of our
trespasses; past present and future. He could have just erased our sins but
instead He took an eraser and erased all of our sins and all of the ordinances
(Laws) that exposed the sinful nature in us and then nailed the Law to His
cross as well. This is how He spoiled the principalities and powers (fallen
angels ruling over the Earth) because their jurisdiction over us is because of
the Law and sin, that is the Law of Sin and Death. They had a claim over us
because we cannot fulfill the Law and hence lead a life of sin. The soul that sins dies. So He, Yeshua, offers us a death
with Him, a new birth into Him and even the complete removal of the Law that
condemns us. The requirement that we have; is to believe that He actually Loves
us that much and to accept His offer to replace our life (or death as it were)
with His death to Live as one with Him by ongoing obedience to the Spirit of
God who now dwells within us. As a result of our obedience to the Spirit: He
has made exempt from the Law, He creates in us a righteous heart, He are
transforms our souls, He renews our minds and redeems our bodies. This is the
Good News!!
Satan has made every effort to deceive believers to
live under the Law. This theology says that we are saved by Grace but we then
live under the Law. The power behind this theology is self-control. That is,
self in control. The individual controls their actions with their will using
their own strength. The assumptions beneath this theology is that good works is
what pleases the Lord and that the He grades on the curve, the more good works
we perform the better standing we have with Him. It is a fear based approach to
the Lord. The question lingering in the mind is, have
I done good enough to deserve His Love and salvation? Punishment is to be
avoided and is feared. So one walking by the Law, is
always comparing their own actions against their perception of the Law’s
demands to see if they measure up. Their conscience is trained to regard their
interpretation of the Law as their guide.
They judge themselves when they fail, or violate
their conscience. Of course this also spills over to others. A Law keeper will
judge everyone around them to see if they are righteous, hoping that the others
are less righteous than himself. {John
If we attempt to live under the Law by trying to obey
it then we have just come back under the Law of Sin and Death and the stirred
up sin leads us to death again. So sin and death fights
against Faith and Life that the Spirit has given us. We then fall into
witchcraft and abandon Faith. {Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched
you, that you should not obey the Truth, before whose eyes Yeshua the Messiah
hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn
of you, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing
of faith? 3 Are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit, are you now made
perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain if it be yet
in vain. 5 He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles
among you, did He do it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?
Galatians 6:8 For he that sows to his flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit
reap life everlasting.}
The flesh refers to the material world and man's
strengths. Sowing to the flesh is attempting to gain righteousness by following
the Law using the strengths of man. Man then gets some credit for his efforts.
The direct result of living under the Law to fulfill the Law is the corruption
of you heart, soul and body. Any time we attempt to follow the law using man's
power, that is: man's wisdom or understanding, man's strength, man's methods or
man's timing, we are sowing to the flesh and the result is corruption and
death. This is the deadly nature of living by the Law. Trying to fulfill the
Law not only does not account for anything of worth, but it also brings you
into witchcraft and takes you back to corruption and death. Witchcraft by the
way is man's attempt to use supernatural power to carry out man's fleshly (materialistic)
goals.
The Law exposes sin and the sinful nature of the
Flesh. {Rom
Attempting to overcome our sinful
nature by our efforts leads to a very stiff, rigid and fearful life style. The individual is captive to their concept of the
Law and to the limit of their strength to control the lusts of their sinful
nature from the appetites of their own flesh. As long as their strength is
sufficient they believe that they have won the battle of the Law and
righteousness, but their own words and attitudes betray them. When the sinful
nature of the flesh wins one, they consider it a moment of weakness. Even when
they are in control, beneath the surface is the raging lusts
of the sinful nature, not dead but hidden, under control, waging a war in their
mind and heart, demanding to be expressed. The sinful nature which uses the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life control the flesh.
A person walking this way must always be on guard lest these lusts get out of
control and surface, and are seen by others. They are not righteous but
hypocrites, because the sinful nature has not been brought to death just well
hidden. If the lusts do surface then the carefully built facade of
righteousness cracks and their true nature is exposed for all to see. This is a
serious problem because they have judged others for this very same thing and
will thus be judged themselves in these moments of weakness. However, in the
privacy of their thought life these hidden motives and appetites are entertained
and considered. THIS ALONE IS SIN, the fact that these lusts and appetites even
exist. This is the Law of Sin and Death at
work. The sinful nature is the ground in which the lusts grow. Underneath the
sinful nature is fear. Controlling these lusts is not righteousness, being
completely dead to them, is. Yeshua examines the motives of the heart. If they
are a pure, selfless, Love for others and Him because of your faith in Him then
you are righteous, if not, you are evil. {All have sinned (or
are full of sin) and come short of the glory of God}. Walking by the Law leads to death. This is because
the Law defines sin and the flesh is sinful and sin leads to death. Fear is the
opposite of faith. Fear attaches itself to sin. Everything we do is done either
out of fear or faith. Only what is done because of faith in Him is righteous.
Anything done out of fear is sinful and leads to death. Our doings come out of
our beings. We are either faith full in heart of fear full in heart.
The story of the rich young ruler, in Matthew and
Mark illustrates this. Yeshua came upon this young rich man, who approached
Yeshua and asked Him what must I do to be saved. The
real question he was asking was; am I righteousness enough to be saved,
probably believing in his heart that he was. Yeshua has a way of seeing right
though our facades. Now Yeshua knew immediately the condition of this
man’s heart, but went ahead and asked questions to prove a point, He
quoted the Law. The young man’s response was that He had obeyed the Law
since a child. In other words his response was yes I am righteous, and thus
deserve to be saved. However, Yeshua knew better and exposed his heart with the
command; sell all that you have and give it to the poor, then you will have
real treasure in Heaven. You see the young man loved wealth and its power more
than he loved the Word, Yeshua. He was afraid of losing his wealth. He could
not part with it. He loved or feared the Law but disobeyed and turned His back
on the very Word of God. He had in fact disobeyed the First Commandment; {You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all of your strength and love your
neighbor as yourself}. He thought
that he was loving the Lord his God with all his
strength, soul and heart, but in fact his heart was far from Him. He used his
strength and soul in an attempt to fulfill the Law perhaps believing that his
wealth and power were God’s blessings proving his own righteousness, only
to discover that his heart had deceived him. If, in fact he loved the Lord his
God with all of his heart, he would not have even asked the question but
instead would have fallen at His feet and worshipped Him, begging Yeshua to
show him what he could give to further His Kingdom. If faith in Yahweh dwelt in
him then the Spirit of God would have been there too and revealed who Yeshua
was to him. If you know the Father then He will reveal the Son and if you know
the Son then He will reveal the Father.
Law keepers say that you have to sacrifice to get
God’s blessings, the Spirit says that you Love to be God’s
blessing. The purpose of the Law was to show mankind that we are sinful. The
only way to be sinless is to obey every single command of the Law (all 633)
without fail out of a pure heart, which is humanly impossible. Breaking even
one commandment in our heart makes us a sinner. Condemnation and guilt are the
consequence of the being sinful. If there were no Law then there would be no
condemnation nor guilt. We are born under the Law, condemnation and guilt. We
are rightfully accused by Satan and his hierarchy of our sinfulness. There is
no human solution to this dilemma. The Good News is that there is a Human/God
solution, but only one, His name is Yeshua. He, as a human, did in fact walk
this Earth without one single sin. He was born of woman and the Spirit, thus
being both human and God. He perfectly obeyed His Father by following the
leading of the Holy Spirit every time and fulfilled the Law perfectly. He came
to Earth because Father knew man’s dilemma. Out of His love for man,
Father sent His Son as the Lamb of God. Since He was perfect He was not under
condemnation and guilt. The Accuser had no hold on Him. Since He was perfect He
was then eligible to be a sacrifice for mankind’s sins. Yeshua offered
Himself to His Father as a sacrifice for all of mankind’s sins. He took
upon Himself every sin and every consequence of every sin for every man and
woman that has ever been born on the Earth.
All of the sins of mankind and its consequences were poured
out upon Yeshua including spending three days in Hell at Satan’s
disposal. The reward for His sacrifice was every man. Since He paid the price
for every man’s death He has the right to every man’s life. Every
man is under the Law and carries his own sin and it’s consequences until
he comes to the revelation of this fact. All that is required is for each man
to accept Yeshua’s sacrifice and receive His Love to be born again. Once
this happens that born again man/ woman becomes Yeshua’s righteousness. This
is called Grace. Father only sees His Son when He looks at the born again
believer. We and Yeshua become one. Yeshua has already taken our sin and we
freely receive His righteousness. We now come under His Lordship. We are His
property and He is now our Master. He Loves us and His
approach to us is as one who willingly and Lovingly gave Himself for us. This
is a Love relationship between our Creator and ourselves.
Yeshua fulfilled the Law while on Earth because He
walked by the leading of the Holy Spirit. He destroyed the Law by His death and
resurrection for all of those who receive His sacrifice. As a result, as born
again believers, we are dead to the Law, condemnation and guilt. When we are
born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, we are filled with the Spirit of
Yahweh. We do not have to concern ourselves with fulfilling the Law with its
condemnation and guilt. We are free as we are following the lead of the Holy
Spirit! However, the sinful nature of our flesh must be put to death. The
sinful nature of our flesh and the Spirit are a war against each other. Fear
will attempt to draw us back to the Law through the sinful nature of the flesh.
Faith will draw us to the Spirit who will manifest the righteousness of Yeshua
in us as we obey His leading.
The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Yeshua
and Father to us, to create in us a new heart, redeem our flesh and transform
our souls into righteousness. That is to cleanse us of all unrighteousness,
body, soul and spirit. This is the same Spirit that brooded over the waters at
creation and brought forth the creatures of Earth. The Spirit of Yahweh is
about the creation of true righteousness in us. The Holy Spirit creates true
Holiness in us. This requires the death of self, the sinful nature of the
flesh. Under the Law, self attempts to control the sinful nature of the flesh.
This is like the one evil twin brother trying to make the other evil brother
righteous, it is not possible. The only way for righteousness to be worked out
is for the death of both evil twins and the birth of righteousness in us. That
is the job of the Spirit through Yeshua’s Love.
We experience His Love for us because the Spirit
reveals Him and his Love to us which leads us to willingly sacrifice the lusts
of our sinful nature and even the appetites our flesh. The Law of the Spirit of
Life is that The Spirit of Yahweh lives within us and through us and we will by
His nature be righteous. We become righteous not just in Father’s eyes
but in heart by the leading and work of the Spirit within.
The Law and the Spirit are at odds with each other
and are in fact at war. The Law brings death and the Spirit brings Life. We
must choose the working and leading of the Spirit at every turn to see the Life
of Yeshua continuously flow through us. This is done by faith in His Love for
us and His willingness to transform us. This is the faith that is accounted for
righteousness, as with Abraham. The alternative is to choose the Law and by
definition try to fulfill it by faith in ourselves. This is misplaced faith, a
form of idolatry. It is no different than any other religion.
The Law requires that we acknowledge that there are
rules and principles that we must live by to be righteous. The Spirit requires
only that we Love Yeshua and allow the Spirit to lead us in every action. By
the Spirit the Law is dead to us so we can ignore the law and its demands and
do what ever the Spirit leads us to do. If we fail to follow the Spirit and do
our own will then that is disobedience and its consequences are nullified
already by Yeshua’s sacrifice. The Spirit will teach us to recognize the
difference between the two and by convicting us of following our own will, will
lead us to more dependence upon Yeshua. All of the rules and Laws do not apply
to us. We are the princes and princesses of a Kingdom of no Laws. However, the One who created the Law lives within us to direct us to
carry out His will on Earth. He is by far greater than the Law that He created.
The World is under the Law but we are no longer members of the World. Just like
a citizen of the
We no longer attempt to conform
our behavior to the Law but are transformed by the Spirit of God within. Paul
understood this as indicated by his statement that everything for him was
lawful but not everything was expedient. That is, we are free to do anything,
but if we do something that is against Yeshua’s will then we have to go
through the convictive and restorative work of the Holy Spirit which in not
expedient. There is no eternal consequence for that disobedience since Yeshua
has already paid the price for that sin, it costs him nothing more. We are in
Him and He is in us. We are still the righteousness of God in Yeshua and before
Father.
We must operate in the Spirit if we are going to
follow the Spirit’s lead. This means our spirit should be functioning in
all five senses; sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Our spiritual
intuition must also be working. This can only happen by being born again. Our
spirit must come alive, otherwise, we are left with
just our mind and emotions which cannot connect to the Spirit by themselves.
All we have in that condition is the ability to listen,
read, reason and feel, all of which will fail to connect us to the supernatural
Spirit of Yahweh. We are just left with the Law (death) and no Life. This is
why we must be born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. These are the
prerequisites to being lead by the Spirit. It opens the door to the
supernatural realm of the Spirit.
Satan, of course, does everything in his power to
bring us back under the Law and the bondage of self. He cannot stand freedom
and power in the hands of humanity. One of his tactics is to convince us that
after being saved by grace we must work out our salvation by obeying the Law.
This is what got the Galatians in trouble. They bought this lie and fell into
witchcraft. Witchcraft is attempting to use supernatural power to carry out our
will.
A Law keeper will search the scriptures to determine
what the Law is for he has decided that it is Fathers will to obey the Law. He
will then analyze every situation to determine what Law applies and will then
do what ever that Law tells him to do (and usually imposes his idea of what the
Law says on everyone else). All that is necessary for this approach is the
ability to read the scriptures. There is no requirement to be born again, or
have an relationship with Father, Yeshua and the Holy
Spirit. This is why there are so few Law keepers that actually experience
miracles, or anything supernatural. The Law is not living but in fact death.
There is no relationship with the Law, just our perception of the Law. Any
relationship a Law keeper has is with himself, since
he interprets and applies the Laws and principles himself (or another if he has
decided to follow a man). If the Law keeper has advanced to the point of a born
again experience and realizes that he is saved by Grace, then he will search
the scriptures for the principles of God to apply and obey then in every
situation. In both situations he is relying on his own interpretation of the
scriptures and his own strength and wisdom to determine and fulfill God’s
will. Those who are a little more advanced realize that they should hear
Yahweh’s voice, so they search the scriptures hoping that He will speak
to them through the scriptures, and every now and then He does, while He is
yelling at the top of His voice to them directly. They are tuned to the wrong
station. Law keepers have a very difficult time letting go of the scriptures.
In extreme cases they will actually replace Yahweh with the scriptures. They
have more faith in their interpretation of the scriptures than they have in
Yeshua. In fact if Yeshua stopped speaking to them they would most likely not
even know it. They search the scriptures thinking that in them is Life, like
the Pharisees before them {John
Following the lead of the Spirit works completely
different. This walk is all about the relationship between the Creator and the
creature. There is no room for human wisdom, strength and interpretation of
scriptures. The Spirit led believer is functioning with his spirit and does not
trust himself. He has placed his trust in Yeshua’s ability to speak to
and lead him, not on anything of himself. He carries on conversations with
Yeshua and receives his direction by listening to and obeying His voice. {My sheep hear My voice and know Me} The
Law keepers get very excited about this prospective, believing that the Spirit
lead individual can easily be deceived (or IS deceived in some circles). When
it all boils down, the Law keepers, who trust in themselves are already
deceived while the Spirit led who, trust in Yeshua, have placed their trust in
the only source of Truth, Yeshua, who is Truth and Grace. He and He along will
keep us from deception. We dare not put our trust in any fallen man including
ourselves. Yeshua often said {beware lest
men deceive you}. He never mentioned once that I can find where He said
beware lest Satan deceiving us, only men.
I wondered about
this when He first showed me those verses. Then I realized it was because the
world focuses its eyes on man. The Earth is the realm of man,
Yeshua is King and Creator in the realm of the Spirit. The people of Earth look
to men for wisdom, instruction, money, help and salvation. Most everything is
second hand from some other man. This is what the scriptures refer to as
drinking milk, something that someone else has digested and supplies. If what
the person received was revelation from Yeshua and that is given to help a baby
Christian then you have healthy milk, anything else is artificial and tainted
milk. A baby is to drink milk for a very short time, months not years. A long
term milk drinking builds relationships with the dependency on men not the
Lord. This is the way of the world. When you have many who look to a few men
for wisdom etc. then you have great potential for deception. This makes it
simple for Satan, one deceived man will lead thousands
astray. This has been repeated time and time again in both the World and the
Church. Unfortunately, in the church system we have many leaders that believe
that they have the truth and that all of the others do not (and they will warn
you to believe their truth and not to stray from their truth). Now someone has
to be wrong, or maybe a better way to put it; is anyone right? Probably not,
certainly including this author. All we can offer is a few little pieces of
Truth, sand if you will (little pieces of rock). The Truth is Yeshua the Rock.
We must build on Him not our grains of sand. Also, we are not allowed to throw
our rocks at each other either.
When we put our trust in the King of Spirits we are
operating in a different realm, one that is not of this Earth, the
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are at the Spirit led
believers disposal. He has access to Yeshua’s realm by dreams and
visions. He is given revelation, wisdom and understanding by the same Spirit. One
must be taught by the Holy Spirit to understand the language of the Spirit,
just as the Spirit taught Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha,
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Yeshua.
It is in the walk of the Spirit that theory becomes
reality. The reality has far more depth and width that does the theory. It is
the experience with Yahweh that proves the theories we so easily accept. It is
like watching a movie and talking about what the characters were really saying
as opposed to living the very experiences that the movie depicts. Experience
with the Living God takes over where theology leaves off, and you never go
back. The spectators can argue all day but for those who are experiencing His
training and presence there is no debate, they know the Truth, because they are
walking with Him.
We can be led by our mind, our emotions, our physical
senses or our spirit. Our mind, emotions, senses and spirit will mislead us and
are untrustworthy because of our sinful nature. Only our spirit that has been
trained to follow the Holy Spirit can be trusted. This is being a disciple of
Yeshua, that is, the Holy Spirit training us to follow Him. This walk is not
natural but supernatural. True believers will see supernatural signs following
in their paths {These signs will follow them that believe…}.
If the signs are absent then so is true Faith. Hope brings the spiritual into
the physical realm. {Faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.} This verse
says that Faith is actually the result of bring the spiritual into the physical
realm. For example in healing, faith is the healing, hope is what brought
healing from Yeshua to the physical person. The only signs that follow Law
keepers is human effort, condemnation and guilt when
human effort fails. Love, hope, faith and joy follow those who are being lead
by the Spirit of God. The natural result of being lead by the Spirit is the
gifts and fruits of the spirit. The Law keepers like the fruits of the Spirit
but deny the gifts. However, the gifts are necessary to grow the fruits. The
fruits can be faked. However the truth is revealed when the man comes under
fire, fake fruit, like a wax mask, will melt away exposing the flesh, but real
fruit gives off a pleasant aroma when baked.
{1 Cor 12:8-10 For to one is given by the Spirit the word
of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another
faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning
of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation
of tongues: }
{Gal 5:22-25 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. }
When you have this combination of gifts and fruit in
a human there is nothing on this Earth that can stop him from expressing Yeshua
in word and deed, to his generation. He is a son on God. This is the Law of the Spirit of Life at work.
Walking by the Spirit of Life leads to spending eternality with the source of
Life, Yeshua. Walking by the Law leaves you under the Law of Sin and Death and leads to spending eternity with the one
who deceived man to becoming a law unto himself.
{The Spirit
brings Life and the Law brings death.}