Walking in the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:16-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 24, 2026.

We focused last week on how the Holy Spirit helps us, empowers us, to share the Good News of the salvation made available to us in Jesus.  We share that through the words we speak and through the actions of the life we live.  These work together by the help of the Holy Spirit to draw people to Jesus.

Today, we focus on the transformed life that we can live because of the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We should take a moment to recognize that this contrasts with the powerlessness of the Law to transform us.

Both Paul (Romans 3:20) and James (James 1:23) point out that the purpose of the Law is to show us our sin.  It is a great mirror to us of our own life and how short it falls.  However, that is the most it can do.  It cannot give us internal strength to battle against that sin.  Of course, it is helpful to at least see the problem.  Yet, it gives us no power or strength to overcome sin in our life.  What the Law and its penalties were powerless to do, the Holy Spirit is able to do within us.  He leads us in the battle of becoming like our lord Jesus.

He is the one who convinces us (convicts) that our righteousness is woefully lacking, but that Jesus is completely righteous.  He convinces us that Jesus is God’s means of salvation for us.

This internal work of the Holy Spirit to help us be transformed is the amazing grace of God for us.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Spirit of God versus the flesh (v. 16-18)

Notice that Paul uses the contrasting phrases of “The Spirit of God” and “the flesh.”  The flesh is not the same word as “body,” but it is connected to the body.  The flesh is that internal response that is rooted in the desires of our mortal body.  Because it is internal, it takes on spiritual overtones and can even seem like something other than us.

We have a multitude of strong desires that are rooted in our physical bodies.  Paul describes the difficulty of obeying God’s law in Romans 7.  Our flesh often wants what our mind knows to be bad.  It is also true that our flesh may not want what our minds and hearts know to be good for us.  Thus, both Romans 8 and Galatians 5 depict the flesh as being bent away from God and in towards pleasing self.  These appetites may have come about through experimentation or seeing peers and society “enjoying” them.

I bring this up because it is not God’s desire to keep heaping more and more laws on top of us.  He knows that our sinful flesh will continue to hijack our ability to obey them.  Yet, it is important for us to understand this because we are a people of way more laws than Israel ever was.  These united States of America have more and more laws every year.  However, they are not making us more and more righteous.  It was precisely because Israel had 1400 years of following the law that they could understand the amazing grace of God that was made available in Jesus the Messiah.

God’s solution was not more laws.  Rather, it was to first make Jesus available as the perfect man who could live in perfect obedience to God the Father and then make a way for those who would believe to follow him.

This all starts with the help of the Holy Spirit for us now in our mortal flesh, but it leads to the day when we will receive immortal, glorified bodies.  We will no longer have a flesh that is bent away from God and towards the lesser desires of our mortal bodies.

This flesh is not just contrasted with the Holy Spirit.  Paul states that the flesh and the Spirit are “contrary” to one another, or “opposed” to one another.  In Romans 8:7, Paul uses a stronger word.  They are “hostile” to one another.

This hostile opposition between our flesh and the Spirit of God leads us to a situation where we find ourselves wanting something but not doing it.  This can be a desire born of the Spirit that our flesh tries to keep from happening, and it can be a desire born of the flesh that the Spirit challenges us to put to death.

At Pentecost, something completely new was happening.  God was taking up residence within all those who put their faith in Jesus.  This internal presence of God works to give us power to reject the wrong desires of our flesh and follow the Spirit.

What exactly are the desires of the Spirit? John 15:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit comes to testify about Jesus.  Thus, He desires that we come to Jesus and follow him.  John 16:8-11 further details this that He desires to convict the world of its sin, need for the righteousness of Jesus and the judgment that looms over us.

In this passage, we will see that the Holy Spirit desires to express the character of Jesus in our lives.  Jesus is our master teacher; we are his students.  We need to learn his way of life and follow him in it.  We could never do this in our flesh because our flesh is hostile to the idea of actually following the words and life of Jesus.

All of this comes under the idea of walking “in” or “by” the Spirit.  Prepositions in one language do not perfectly map over to prepositions of another language.  Both of these prepositions work.  In some ways, the Holy Spirit is like an external guide with whom we walk.  In another way, He is the river in which we are born along in the right direction.  We could even say that He becomes the power and means by which we are able to walk with Christ, i.e., we walk with Christ by the help of the Spirit.  Yet, the Holy Spirit does all of this from within us.  He helps us to be aware of our actions, attitudes, direction, purpose and goals, and then, to tune them to those of Jesus.

(v. 19-21)

Paul tells us in verse 19 that the deeds of the flesh are obvious.  His point is not that our flesh wants all of these things at all times, but that these are the kinds of things that our flesh desires and leads us to do. 

No intellectually honest person will say that the Holy spirit wants us to do these things.  It is sad that some Christian groups have developed a theology that emphasizes grace to the point that you can do any sin you want, while thanking Jesus for his forgiveness.  This is a travesty and a heresy.  The Holy Spirit wants to help us live a transformed life that becoming more and more like Jesus.

Paul ends this by reminding them that people who live a life of doing the deeds of the flesh will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  Inheriting the Kingdom of God here is not talking about joining a church or being a professing Christian.  He is challenging people who are Christians not to follow after their flesh.  On one hand Christians are a part of the Kingdom of God in Jesus.  He is our King and we live out His commands by the help of the Holy Spirit.  However, the Kingdom of God is not yet fully here.  The verb “inherit” in verse 21 is future tense.  He is looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ when Jesus sets up a kingdom over this earth.  The saints, Christians who have been faithful to him, will be resurrected to serve as his administrators in this coming kingdom.  This is an inheritance that God has promised for those who come into a spiritual relationship with the Messiah, Jesus.

We have many opportunities to walk with our flesh every day.  This does not change when the Spirit indwells us following faith in Jesus.  Of course, Paul is not talking about a one-time thing.  “If you ever do one of these things, you will not inherit!”  No, he says, “those who practice” such things.  This is an ongoing choice to keep walking with your flesh in opposition to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

We all have moments in which we fail, but it isn’t over.  Think about what the Spirit does when you fail.  He convicts your heart about what you have done and calls you to repentance, i.e., change your mind and turn back to the righteousness of Christ.  None of us will inherit without continuing to repent and keep our eyes on Jesus.

(v. 22-26)

On the other hand, if I let the Holy Spirit produce the fruit of Christ in me, then I will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Paul could have continued by speaking of the “deeds” of the Spirit, but he switches to the picture of fruit.  Fruit is an organic process rather than a work project.  It is borne from within because of our new nature and grows a little bit day by day.

The Spirit of God within you empowers a whole new dynamic in which the character is slowly formed in you and expressed in your life.  This will go from an empty branch to buds to blossoms to fruit to ripening of that fruit.  In a sense, we have two natures: the old nature and new nature.  Which of these natures are you expressing?

The list of love, joy, peace, etc… are essentially different facets of our love for one another fueled by the presence of God Himself within us.  On one hand, I am letting the Holy Spirit do something within me (yielding to Him).  On the other hand, I am doing the things that the Spirit is showing me to do.

No fruit tree can be fruitful without pruning.  Bad branches that are broken or diseased must be cut off.  These would be the things on the list of the deeds of the flesh.  However, some branches need to be cut off in order to make room for other branches to be more fruitful.  In other words, sometimes the Spirit teaches us to remove things from our life, not because they are immoral or wicked, but because they are keeping me from being fruitful.  They are taking up too much space in my life.

Furthermore, sometimes God prunes things from my life.  I have nothing to say about it.  It just happens.  Yet, other times, the Spirit of the Lord points out something that we need completely prune out of our lives.  He works within us to convince us and empower us to do it.

This is the powerful evidence (fruit) of the Holy Spirit within us.  We will see all of these things start to show up in our life.  Yet, the Spirit will not be content with just a little love in our life.

None of us will be (are) perfect at this on this side of death.  However, we are not under the law of sin and death.  Verse 18 states that those who are led by the Holy Spirit are not under the Law (judged by it).  Rather, we are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).  Entering the presence of Christ upon death is not based on our perfection in these areas.  Rather, it is based upon His perfect work being applied to our lives by faith.  Those who trust Jesus and His Spirit to the end of their lives will enter into His presence.  In fact, some of our greatest righteousness will include repentance and forgiveness.

Paul ends with a description of what it means to follow Jesus.  To belong to Jesus is to crucify your flesh with its passions and desires.  It should be obvious that a crucified groom (Jesus) would only want to be with a crucified bride (all those who believed him enough to follow the Spirit).

“If we live in the Spirit” is a statement about the spiritual life we have in Christ.  If I truly have put my faith in Jesus and his eternal life has taken up residence within me by the Spirit, then I need to walk by, with, and in the Holy Spirit.  It is not enough to be made alive.  We need to cooperate with the Spirit so that the righteousness of Jesus might be growing in our lives.

Praise God that we have a savior who covers our sin and yet does not leave us stuck in them.  Let’s put our faith in Him and put to death those desires that hold us back from becoming more like him.

Walking in the Holy Spirit audio

The Battle of the Mind- 3

Subtitle: The Leverage of Desires and Emotions

Galatians 5:16-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 22, 2025.

As we continue this series on the mental battle that Christians encounter, we must deal with the reality of our desires and emotions.

Desires look toward something in this world or future.  It focuses on bringing something into our sphere of experience.  Emotions, on the other hand, have more to do with the way that the world (reality) around us affects us.

Of course, these can play off of one another.  I may desire something, but the reality of whether it can happen or not can create frustration and anger, or it may create excitement, anticipation, and a euphoric feeling of near success.  Similarly, our emotions can spin off new desires.

This world of desire and emotion is a powerful part of what it means to be human.  God created our ability to desire and have emotions.  Therefore, there is something about them that is good and should not be excised from our life.  Yet, in our fallenness, they can lead to all kinds of harmful actions and patterns of life.

An example of this is the area of sexuality.  God designed humans as sexual beings and called it “very good.”  Yet, if we let our fleshly desires drive our sexuality, it will become destructive to ourselves and others.  It will pull us outside of the good design, the good purpose, for which God intended it.  Thus, it is not a person’s sexuality that should be “fixed.”  Rather, it is that world of the mind and heart in which we make decisions on how we are going to express that sexuality.

These desires and emotions are strategically placed within a person.  They wield an incredible amount of leverage upon us.  With that in mind, let’s look at our passage.

Be led by the Holy Spirit and not your desires (v. 16-18)

A follower of Jesus should seek to be led by the Holy Spirit and not the desires of their flesh.  This is what Paul is saying.  However, we should note the chain of understanding.  We are disciples of Jesus, followers of him.  However, he is not on the earth right now.  How can we follow him?  Yes, we can read his words and live them out, but Jesus promised something even greater than that.  He promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon believers.  Jesus would lead them through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, to be led by the Spirit is to be led by Jesus (is to be led by the Father, too). 

Though He does speak to us in our hearts and minds, the Holy Spirit often uses the Scriptures and other believers to speak into our lives, or at least, to trigger His communication to us.  This inner dialogue between our spirit and the Holy Spirit is not meant to exclude these others in our life.  Instead, it incorporates it.

In verse 16, Paul uses a word for desire that has been translated as lust in other versions.  It simply means a strong desire or passion for something.  The desire may or may not have a bad target.  Ultimately, a believer should always pay attention to the target of their desires (is it good and acceptable to God). 

However, this word also involves a strength of desire that is greater than normal.  You could picture a person driving a car around a corner that is designed for 25 mph.  To drive your car around the corner is clearly in alignment with the design of the road (the target is good).  However, the speed at which you drive could be compared to the strength of your desire.  To drive around the corner doing 125 mph is going to end in disaster for me and anyone else in the car.  Am I carried away by the strength of the desire?

We tend to think of strong desire, or lust, as bad.  But verse 17 compares the “strong desire” of the flesh with the strong desire of the Holy Spirit.  This is important.  God has strong desires for us.  However, He doesn’t have the problem of “going too fast around the corner.”  As humans, the strength of our desire can overwhelm our ability, but the Spirit of God can have strong desire without it pulling Him off track.

Thus, we should not focus so much on how strong our desires are, but rather on the source of them.  The strong desires of my flesh will pull me off the way of the Lord, but the strong desires of the Spirit will keep me in the way of the Lord.

Typically, desires are rooted in the senses of our body.  I want to feel this, taste that, see this, hear that, etc.  Notice that God gave us senses to help us.  There is a good way in which we are to operate in these areas.  Desire can also be something more abstract.  In 1 John 2:16, we are warned against the “pride of life.”  The feeling of pride that often comes from the adulation of people and their willingness to serve us for favors is just as real though it may not be directly tied to a physical sense.

Thus, we should see the problem as an internal one within our natural self, rather than our body per se.  Our nature is to desire something as an end in itself.  “I’ll be happy once I get that job, …make that amount of money, …get that person to love me, etc.”  But, God did not design our senses and the things of this world to be the goal of our life.  These things are all means by which we can live a life that reflects God to the world around us and walks in harmony with His purpose.  To make them the goal is to turn them into an idol.  They are supposed to be an aid to us in going after the greater goal.

One pastor- I believe it was Spurgeon- pictured the death of a human as becoming a worm carnival.  In other words, you leave this body behind and a bunch of worms will revel in destroying it, and then they will die.  I bring this up because we become like those worms when we live for things, rather than for God.  We simply consume the things of the world around us that are dead in and of themselves.  There is no true life in these things, no matter how much I consume.  If your life is just a carnival, then it will come to an end one day.  You will die and realize you wasted your life consuming dead things that cannot help you.  May God help us to live for a higher purpose, that the things of this life would only be means by which we image Him and worship Him.

The flesh strongly desires to target things as an end in themselves, but the Holy Spirit has a strong desire to help us become like Jesus, perfectly imaging the Father.  Thus, we need to learn how to let the Holy Spirit become the source of our desires.  We should seek to desire what the Holy Spirit desires, instead of our natural self.  This creates an internal battlefield.

The battlefield already existed before you were a Christian.  However, you had no clue about the desire of the Holy Spirit.  You were a casualty of your own desires and those of the culture around you.  Yet, when you became a believer in Jesus, you became aware of this problem within your flesh.

Praise God that we are not left alone in this battle.  At salvation, we became aware of the strong desire of the Holy Spirit that we put our faith in Jesus.  Once we yielded to that, the Spirit then works to make us more like Jesus.  He does that by taking up residence within us.  He works in our heart and mind to make us aware of all the ways that the strong desires of our flesh have pulled us off track.  He also gives us strength to get back on track.

In fact, let us be clear.  Paul says that your flesh and the Holy Spirit will desire things that are hostile to one another.  Your flesh will not want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  When someone is confronted with the truth about Jesus, there is a battle in them.  The Spirit of God is showing them that it is desirable to follow Jesus, but your flesh wants to shrink back away from that in fear.

Still, you are more than the desires of your natural self.  You can choose to follow the Holy Spirit (who supplies strength for you to follow through by faith on that choice), or you can choose to operate from the natural self.  In fact, a life of living for the flesh can be covered up with an outward appearance of following Jesus (think Judas). 

Verse 17 talks about the way in which we can want to do one thing, but end up doing another.  You may want to follow the Spirit, but the flesh is pulling  you off track.  You can even analyze this in your mind and despise your lack of following the Holy Spirit.

Yet, this is not just a problem for Christians.  Even unbelievers who are ruled by their flesh cannot simultaneously satisfy all of their desires.  In order to have one, they may be forced to sacrifice another.  One person desires to feel good (euphoria) over other desires and pursues a life of substance abuse.  Whereas, another may never touch drugs and the like because they desire money and the power it gives them greater than feeling good right now.

To bring this back to Christians, you may desire to be moral and good, like Jesus, but your natural self simply seeks satisfaction and doesn’t care about the morality.  Without Christ and the Holy Spirit he sends to us, we would be powerless in this battle.  Thus, all people deal with this reality that some desires are stronger than others for them.  Whereas the next person struggles with a different hierarchy of desires.  The Holy Spirit is given to empower us in this fight.

Throughout this passage, Paul has used two different phrases that are basically synonymous: walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit.  The second has the Spirit as an external guide showing us the way.  The first is less specific.  It can be seen as the person who has a relationship with the Holy Spirit within them.  We have seen this before with the difference between being filled with the Spirit (internal picture) and being baptized with the Holy Spirit (external picture). 

Part of our spiritual battle is to recognize that the Spirit is within you to lead you.  Reading the Word, prayer, godly counsel are all ways that the Spirit uses to show us the path forward.  However, this brings us to a point of action that requires faith.  He truly is trying to lead us on behalf of Jesus. 

We should also see the Holy Spirit as a path or atmosphere that we are seeking to stay on or within.  He is our helper, and if we stick with Him, stay in step with Him, then we will be far more successful in this battle.  The battle to follow the Spirit and not our natural self is essentially a battle in our minds and hearts.  As it is won, we can then do those things that make us more like Jesus.

The flesh will result in not inheriting the Kingdom of God (19-26)

Paul warns the Galatians that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God if they let themselves be led by their flesh.  Is this about salvation, or is the Kingdom of God a particular reward that God gives to certain believers?

In Romans 8:6, 13, Paul makes it clear that following the flesh leads to spiritual death, but following the Spirit leads to eternal life.  So, this is not just about a particular reward in the future that certain believers will experience.  It really is about eternal life, salvation.

The Kingdom of God can be thought of something that is in the future.  That is, Jesus is going to come back and set up a kingdom on the earth.  This is not to ignore the fact that the Kingdom of God is already here in a very real sense.  The point is this.  The Kingdom of God has phases in regard to what God is doing.  It is best to think of it as the particular way that God is expressing His life to believers at a particular time. 

Right now, we can participate in the Kingdom of God that has been made available through Jesus.  By the Spirit, we listen to our Lord and live out his commands.  However, a day is coming when I will die.  Am I leaving the Kingdom of God?  Of course, not.  My spirit will go to Christ at the right hand of the Father.  My participation in the Kingdom of God and the life He gives through it will have changed.  After the resurrection and return of Jesus to earth, glorified believers will attend Christ to the earth.  This too will begin a new expression of God’s Kingdom and the life we receive through it.  Thus, the Kingdom of God is eternal, but not static.

Yet, we should note that the term inheritance is in general a reference to our reigning with Christ in resurrected (glorified) bodies.  Some people who appeared to be followers of Jesus, but really were masking a life of following their flesh, will find themselves shut out from what God is doing.  This is essentially the picture that is given to us with the Lake of Fire at the end of the book of Revelation.  The wicked will be shut out of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Verse 21 introduces a word that is translated as “practice” in the NASB.  “Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  We tend to connect this verb to things like sports and music.  In this case, practice is about something that is not the real event.  It is merely preparation.  However, when we say that a physician practices medicine, we do not mean it in this way.  In that case, it speaks of the very real decisions that a physician makes as they care for their patients.

This word speaks of what we do, but not just in a point in time.  It is talking about something we continue to do.  It also focuses not on the end of the action, but on the routine of it.  A person who routinely practices (does) what works of the flesh will find themselves shut out of God’s goodness. 

Paul moves from the flesh to the Spirit.  However, he does not continue to use the “practice” word.  He could have, but instead, Paul uses a different word, the fruit of the Spirit.

This contention between works and fruit is being used to highlight the powerful differences between following our flesh or the Spirit.  Of course, we are to practice the works of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit adds a powerful idea.  Like a fruit tree, we are to connect to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit comes from Him to us.  The supply of the Spirit in our lives enables us to bud, blossom, grow, and evidence ripe fruit.  This demonstrates that more is going on than just choosing to do certain things.  Rather, the presence of the Holy Spirit within us supplies and works life into us and through us.  The list of fruit is not even about giving us a set of check boxes.  “I have the love fruit now!”  Rather, it shows us a list (not exhaustive) of the kinds of things that will be expressed when a person is following the Holy Spirit.  Fruit is not always in season, but it is on a path to ripeness.  Give yourself to the Spirit of God, and He will help you to grow in these kinds of things.

Verse 24 speaks of the need to crucify the flesh, our natural self and its desires.  When we come to Christ, we have had years of serving the flesh, so it has a lot of leverage upon us.  The flesh is not only hostile to the strong desire of the Spirit, but it is also hostile to us crucifying its desires.  Thus, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to put these fleshly desires to death and give ourselves to the spiritual desires of Christ. 

We should see our flesh like a spoiled child who throws a fit in the grocery store in order to get what they want.  There is no easy way to deal with this.  We basically deal with the flesh one fleshly desires at a time.  As they crop up, we need to recognize them for what they are, and then, we need to ask the Holy Spirit what the positive, spiritual action would be that will enable us to become more like Christ.  Crucifying the flesh is more than not doing fleshly things.  It also involves doing what the Spirit of Christ is leading us to do.

For example, a person who is a thief, but becomes a Christian, doesn’t just stop stealing.  He also works to make restitution to those he stole from.  He may even have to face jail time.  Paying the price of our wrong actions and carrying the burden of their effects can be done in praise to God.  Yet, it is amazing how often God takes the negative effects of our sin and redeems by the help of the Holy Spirit.

This weekend, there was a wedding at our church.  A couple who had been living together, but not married, chose to honor God by being married.  For them, crucifying the flesh involved committing to one another in a way that their flesh had resisted for a long time.  Yet, now, they repent of their past actions and choose to honor God going forward.  Their marriage won’t be perfect, but they are doing the spiritual thing that will bear fruit in their life as they continue to follow the Holy Spirit.

Let this be our prayer everyday.  “Lord, strengthen me to say no to this desire of my flesh and show me the positive thing that I should do to break its hold on me!”

Desires & Emotions audio

Lessons from the Underground Church 10: Treacherous Quarreling

This is a 13 week series that will not be posted on our website.  If you would like an audio of the sermon or a written article on the sermon contents then please contact the church at AbundantLifeEverett@frontier.com.  You can also leave a message at 425.438.1500.  Thank you for your interest.

Father, Turn Our Hearts

Luke 1:11-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 20, 2021, Father’s Day.

We are celebrating Father’s Day.  It is easy in life to let your heart turn towards the things that it wants to turn towards.  It doesn’t help when you have a society that elevates following the heart over doing what is right and pleasing God.

Don’t get me wrong.  Sometimes, God puts things in our hearts, but the follower of Jesus will wrestle with those things, seeking to be intellectually honest before God.  They desire more to follow him than to follow their own heart.

Today, we will look at a man who was grieved by the fact that he and his wife couldn’t have any children, and through his interaction with an angel, we are reminded of God the Father’s heart for us.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Father’s impact

In this passage, we are not told whether Zacharias was praying for a child that day in the temple.  He was a priest who had been picked by lot to offer the incense in the Holy Place before the veil, and the Presence of God.  We are told that he and his wife were “well advanced in years.”  This probably means that his years of praying for a child had long since ceased, and his hopes for such had long since died.

God the Father chose a particular day, when it looked like there was no hope, and in fact he wasn’t even looking to see if there was hope anymore.  It was at that moment that He sent an angel to give Zacharias the good news.  God had a present for him, a large measure of grace; he was going to have a son!  As exciting as this news was to Zacharias, notice that this grace is not all about him and his wife.  It is also about the nation of Israel and its need to turn back to God.  We must always remember that the grace of God in our life is a present from a loving Father, but it is also intended to bless more than just me.  It is our natural tendency to be short-sided in regard to the grace of God in our life.

This is probably the first time that Zacharias has seen an angel.  Though we are not given a description in Luke, the angel explains that he is Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.  This angel called Gabriel also interacted with Daniel in Daniel chapters 8 and 9.  There he is described as looking like a man (no wings).   So, it is most likely not what Gabriel looks like that startles Zacharias, but the fact that no one is supposed to be in the Holy Place at that time, but him.

There are things that can make men afraid.  Zacharias is a righteous man who has been serving God “blamelessly.”  It would be easy to say that a righteous man shouldn’t fear anything, even that we shouldn’t fear God; He is on our side!  However, God still does things, or allows things, in our life that we can’t control, and that we weren’t expecting.  Fear is a natural response in these times.

Many fathers try to look like they aren’t afraid, but if we don’t keep our heart and eyes turned towards God, we can become entangled in a web of fears.  You can spend your life trying to become greater than your fears, or you can turn to the One who is greater than all that you fear.  In fact, when we are not living right before God, we often fear things that we shouldn’t.  Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”  We can become trapped by a mixture of real things and figments of our warped imagination.

The real problem in life is not that we fear, but that we are truly bad at fearing the right things.  There are many fathers today who are not afraid to abandon their children, or they are not afraid to help a girl abort their baby.  They aren’t afraid to abuse the woman that they are with.  Really, they don’t fear God who has warned those who do such things of the consequences of the things they are doing.  We are not afraid to play God in our labs, businesses, and government buildings.  We are not afraid of throwing off the time-proven wisdom of the past for the seduction of a future that we think we can control.  Yes, the real problem is that we aren’t afraid of running off the cliff with all the other lemmings.

In the end, God is not a danger to those who serve Him in love.  I should add a caveat to this.  It all comes down to the definition of “danger.”  Jesus served the Father faithfully in love, but he died on a cross.  Yet, God is showing us through the resurrection of Jesus that any danger He purposefully brings before us, or even allows to come before us, has a way through it that brings us to the good things that He intends for us on the other side.

In truth, He is a danger to our flesh, but He is Eternal Life, Peace, and Joy to our soul, and to our future.  He really does love you, and will bless you if you will turn to Him in faithful love.  Like Zacharias, we must be those ones who are rare in a land of men who have turned away from God.  We must pass that reality on to the next generation, both with our natural children and with the spiritual children that God brings into our lives.

The Father’s desire

As the angel describes God’s purpose for the child that Zacharias will have, we see the desire of our heavenly Father’s heart, and the things that were keeping Israel in bondage.

The term “children of Israel” is used in this context as a reference to generation, and not as a reference to age.  It is not talking about everyone under the age of 12, but of the current generation who had been birthed by the generation before.  It pictures each generation as Israel giving birth to the next generation of Israel.  The nation of Israel, both young and old, were the children of Israel, just as we today are the children of the United States of America. 

The problem with any nation is that our hearts get turned away from God the Father.  No matter how good our beginning may have been, all nations run into peril as more and more of their people turn their hearts away from God.  The Father’s desire was that the hearts of that generation be turned back towards Him.

We must not see God as a Father who is hurt and mad that His children don’t love Him.  Instead, we must see the reality of what happens to children who turn away from loving parents, and cast off their godly instruction.  Such children turn towards foolish things, and the path of folly always brings ruin to a person and to a nation.  God’s heart breaks over the folly that is taking over, not just our land, but all of the nations on this earth.  With a Father’s heart, He cries out, “Why will you die?  Choose Life, and turn back to Me!”

He also desires to turn the hearts of the fathers towards their children.  When our hearts are turned towards God, He teaches us to have our hearts turned towards each other in the right way.  There is a plague of fatherless children across our land.  Too many fathers have rejected the heavenly Father and His desire to turn their heart towards their wives and children.  This is not just a problem for fathers.  Mothers and children have the same problems too.

However, men, we must be bold as lions and care for the people that God has put in our lives.  Regardless of how they respond, we must love them and seek God’s best for them, by showing them what a righteous man looks like, and how he lives.  This world successfully seduces our hearts away from what really matters because it first seduced our heart away from God.  This is how Satan plunders us from the goodness and inheritance of God.

Ultimately, the Father desires to turn the disobedient towards the wisdom of the righteous.  Israel had become disobedient children.  They were fathers who were disobedient to the heaven Father, and children who were disobedient to earthly fathers.  They refused to hear the words of wisdom spoken through the righteous men of the past, and written down in the Bible.  In short, to turn is to repent.  There is a lot of turning going on in this world.  People turn from one thing to the next seeking their own happiness.  However, it is not good enough to repent of one fleshly pursuit to go after another.  The only repentance that will actually do you any good, and even do good for the people around you, is the repentance that turns all the way around back towards God.  Finally, when we are truly oriented towards Him, He is able to turn us back around to the people and things in our life in wisdom and righteousness, in a way that gives life, and not death.  May God help us to cast aside disobedience, hear the heart of a loving Father, and turn into the path of life!