I was baptized in water when I was 15-years-old.
I was born again by the Spirit of God when I was 37-years-old. Then I had another spirit in me, to lead me and to guide me. Now I could overcome through God. I was a new creature.
II Cor. 5:17 … Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Overcoming through God’s Spirit is not automatic.
We learn to hear God and to pay attention to that small voice speaking in form of a thought, an idea … and then we choose to do that which is in keeping with the instruction given by that “small voice” in us, The Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth, The Comforter.
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When I was born again in 1975, the Holy Spirit said to me: “Joan … you know all those mistakes you’ve been making all these years? Those weren’t mistakes. Those were sins.”
SINS? … I was very shocked! I thought they were mistakes.
With that word from God, I was born again immediately by the Spirit of God and was given the Holy Spirit to dwell inside me to lead me and guide me.
But even though I was given the Holy Spirit, I still had to learn to hear which spirit was of God for we have thoughts and ideas coming by our own flesh, thoughts from devils, and thoughts and ideas from God, and often all three speak things to our minds that seem “good”.
Thus the apostle John said:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: I Jn. 4:1
We can pray, asking God to confirm which thought is from the Spirit of God.
We can pray, asking God for wisdom.
James 1:5 … If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
We overcome through God … not through our own ideas.
Our flesh is greatly lifted up in pride when we do something based on our own wisdom.
But when we ask God for HIS wisdom and receive HIS direction, how can we take fleshly pride for the idea was not from ourselves but from God …
Thus we keep our flesh under submission to God by seeking God’s wisdom and by choosing God’s wisdom.
The apostle Paul said …
I Cor. 9 … Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.