Discerning Flesh from Spirit Vs. Good from Evil

John 3:6 NKJV — “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Learning to discern between my ideas and God's ideas is the only way to become free from sin and death.

Learning to discern between my strength and God's strength is the only way to become free from sin and death.

I have to learn to recognize the vision of God's kingdom, the values of it, and choose the power of heaven (the cross is the power of the heavenly kingdom because it gets me out of the way and sets me under God).

There is something God wants, and something God doesn't want, from man.

If I just read the Bible and try to do what God wants, I will compete with God, not submit to Him.

If I Iearn to discern the difference between faith and assumption/presumption, then I can start seeing what God really wants.

If I learn to discern where I am tempted to push things I think God wants into being, and instead let Him conform my ways to His own, then I can begin walking in the Spirit.

I have to be born again... both in my thinking/emotion, and also in my will.

I know I am walking in the Spirit when my normal mode of being tossed back and forth by circumstances that seem good or evil gives way to a supernatural power to love, have joy, experience peace, patience, self control, kindness, gentleness, and goodness, despite circumstances that seem contrary to these emotions.

The good news is I can be a child who starts knowing God.  The more I know Him, the more I'll trust Him.  This isn't cheap grace.  Anyone who has ever undertaken this endeavor to learn to discern between soul and Spirit and to embrace weakness (boast of infirmities ) knows it is much harder than trying to be good. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NKJV — And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Am I ok with just being a human and God being God?  Adam and Eve were not.  Jesus was! Listen to what He said about it:

John 5:30 NKJV — “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

Paul said we have to live into the same truth if we want the same eternal life:

1 Corinthians 15:41-49 NKJV — There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Truth is, my flesh hates the easy yoke and light burden of being a human.  It wants to be good, even though it cannot be.

If I spend less time determining what is good and evil, and more time discerning my thoughts from God's, I'll spend a lot more time in glory... Beholding and becoming.