Video Transcript: The Battle Between the Wildfire and the Peacefire

When does this war begin in a person's life?  We're all born into this world's kingdom as citizens of the earthly kingdom.  This kingdom over here, we're all born into it.  We're born into a family, and we're all citizens of the earthly kingdom.  But when someone hears and believes the good news about Jesus Christ, that He came to this earth as a man, that he lived a sinless life, that he laid down his life on the cross to satisfy God's justice, and that He rose from the dead to give his resurrection life to those who believe in Him, that person becomes what the Bible calls Born Again.  Jesus put it this way, in a conversation with Nicodemus in John Chapter 3, he said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  So when a person is Born Again in Jesus Christ, they become a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom.  And all things become new.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.  The old has passed away.  Behold, all things have become new.”

When we enter the Heavenly Kingdom, we enter as a Babe, just like we entered the earthly kingdom as a babe.  We still have our citizenship in this world, but when we're born again, we become a babe in the heavenly kingdom, as well.  And now our allegiances have changed.  And things are different in this kingdom.  In the Heavenly Kingdom, it's ruled by the law of love and faith in Jesus Christ.  The earthly kingdom is ruled by our natural desires, our selfish desires, and our conflicts are ruled and governed by those desires, but when we become a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom, when we're Born Again, we become a babe and the Lord begins to desire for us to grow and to become a mature believer.  Jesus Christ makes us His workmanship, transforming us into His image, moment by moment, day by day from glory to glory.  

In Romans 12:2 we read, “Do not be conformed to this world to the earthly kingdom, but be transformed, be changed by the renewal of your mind, change the way you think, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  

In the earthly kingdom, our conflict choices are motivated by our natural desires, what the Bible refers to as the flesh.  And the Apostle Paul describes the works of the flesh in his letter to the Galatians in Chapter 5.  We read, “The acts of the flesh are obvious.  Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  

In the Heavenly Kingdom, our choices are motivated by faith that works through love that is given us to us as a gift from God, through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Everything we need to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, everything we need to mature as a believer is given to us freely by God - His Word, His Holy Spirit, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness that He offers to anyone who will believe in Him and follow Him, is free.  All he asked from us is our allegiance to him, to present our body as a living sacrifice, that he might change us and have his way with us, and then use us as ambassadors of the Heavenly Kingdom as we live and work and encounter conflict in the earthly kingdom.  This is our privilege as citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom.  “For it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not from ourselves, it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:8.  

Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

When we make faith choices in reliance on Jesus Christ, we are no longer dominated by the power of the flesh.  As we grow from a babe to a mature Christian, we begin to walk in step with the Holy Spirit and we bear what the Bible calls fruit that looks like Jesus Christ.  Paul describes that fruit in Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things, there is no law.”

This is the fruit that the Lord wants to develop in the lives of his people.  This is the fruit that He will display through his people in the midst of their conflicts, love, joy, peace, patience, these are available to the follower of Jesus Christ, who will seek him at the Peacefire and respond to their conflicts according to that relationship of relentless reliance on Jesus Christ.  

So the war in every Christians life is the war for the desires of our heart.  Who will control our heart’s desires, the flesh, from the earthly kingdom, or the Holy Spirit from the Heavenly Kingdom?  1 Peter 2:11, “Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, citizens of another country, another kingdom, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.” Peter describing the spiritual war that we live in.  

Who we give our attention to will control our desires and our choices.  Romans 8:5-8, “Those who live according to the flesh, have their mind set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”

The flesh and the spirit oppose one another.  This is the war.  At any given time, we'll serve one or the other.  We cannot serve both at the same time.  In Galatians 5:16-17 we read, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill or gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires, what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”  

When we give our desires to the flesh, we will focus on the wildfire and pursuing our desired outcome.  But when we give our desires to the Spirit, we’ll focus on the Peacefire and what the Lord is doing in the midst of our conflict.  

Do you see the dramatic difference this can make in how we respond to a conflict?  We win the spiritual battles in this war by spending time studying God's Word, by spending time in prayer, by receiving counsel from mature Christians and making faith choices in a relationship of relentless reliance on Jesus Christ.  

This spiritual war is relentless.  In any given conflict, you may know through your experience, I do through mine, we can make spirit led choices in one moment and a flesh motivated choice in the next.  When we see the works of the flesh manifest in our own choices in the wildfire, our response is not to give up, or give in, but to immediately return to the Peacefire, ask the Lord's forgiveness, thank him, and get back in the fight.  

In your conflict story, a curious question.  What works of the flesh are evident?  What might the Lord do in your conflict story if you began to submit your desires to the Holy Spirit?  

Let's review the notes from this lecture.  There is a war between the wildfire and the Peacefire, a spiritual war between Satan and God, a war between our natural desires and the desires of the Holy Spirit.  We're all born into the earthly kingdom.  And when someone is Born Again, they become a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom.  These kingdoms have contrary values and laws.

These kingdoms battle for the control of our heart’s desires.  The works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit indicate which Kingdom controls the desires of our heart at any given moment, by which are evident.  This war rages moment by moment, day by day.  And this war will continue for as long as we live in these mortal bodies.  

Thanks for watching this lecture.  God bless you.  We'll see you next time.