Galatians 5:18
18 But [de] if [ei] ye be led [ago] of the
Spirit [pneuma], ye are [este] not [ou] under [hupo] the law [nomos]. KJV-Interlinear
18 But if you are led by the
Spirit, you are not under the Law. NASB
There are two and only two spheres of influence
that run or control your life. The first
is the sin nature by which your carnal life functions, and the second is the
Holy Spirit under which your spiritual life is guided and controlled and
functions.
You are under the control of one or the other,
never both at the same time.
When you, as a believer, confess your sins, God
forgives you those sins and restores you back into fellowship, 1 Jn. 1:9.
When you commit a sin, then you are of course knocked
out of fellowship.
When you are out of fellowship, you are ruled by
the sin nature within you.
When you are in fellowship, then you are ruled by
the Holy Spirit.
You cannot feel or detect, or measure the presence
or affect that either has on you. You cannot
sense the sin nature, nor can you sense the Holy Spirit. Despite what some holy-rollers try to fake.
When you were saved, then at that very moment of
your initial belief in Christ, all three members of the trinity came into and
dwell in you. They will remain in you
forever. You cannot feel their
presence. You cannot measure their
presence. You cannot detect their
presence.
Even before you were saved, you were born into this
world with the sin nature in you. And
again, you cannot feel it, measure it, or detect it in any way. But the sin nature is the mechanism that brings
deterioration and corruption into your body and life.
But unlike the spiritual side of life, the sin
nature is restricted to your physical body, and will leave you, when you
die. The body remains behind to disintegrate
back into the dust of the earth. The
soul, on the other hand, goes off to heaven and will one day be united with a
new permanent body, your resurrection body, which will not have the sin nature
in it.
But while you are alive in this world, you have to
live with what you have, and learn to control which sphere in which you will live
your life. That control is through
confession.
In the carnal life, your sin nature has control of
your life. You never really ever have
any self-control while living out of fellowship.
When you confess your sins, then your life is
within the boundaries of the spiritual life within which the Holy Spirit
exercises control. But the Holy Spirit’s
control is in making clear the spiritual things of life and forming the various
attributes of your soul using doctrine as the primary building ingredient. You still have to believe the doctrine
learned and utilize it before it becomes efficacious in your life.
But using the Holy Spirit as your chief
communicator and builder, gives you far greater freedoms and control over your
life, than you would have under the sin nature.
The sin nature takes your life away. The Holy Spirit promotes greater life
opportunities for you.
And remember, by definition, each sphere is
separate from the other. You are either
in one, or the other, never both simultaneously. So, by that standard and your conscious use
of confession, you can know when your life is functioning in the spiritual
sphere, or the carnal sphere.
