Walking With Christ

(Part 3 of 3)

⚓ Floatie:  Freedom Is Trained, Not Assumed

Galatians 5:16  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.(ESV)

Scripture does not promise the absence of desire.  It promises a stronger guide.

Many believers expect freedom to arrive automatically once they decide to pursue holiness.  When desire persists, they assume something is wrong with them.  Scripture frames the issue differently.  Walking by the Spirit is not a moment of resolve—it is a practiced posture.

Freedom doesn’t come from eliminating temptation.  Freedom is formed by training allegiance.

Fear-based avoidance produces fragility.  Formation produces resilience.

This distinction matters, because a fragile faith collapses under pressure, while a formed faith adapts and endures.

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✒️ Forge:  Why Suppression Always Breaks

Colossians 2:20–23  (20)If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—(21)“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (22)(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?  (23)These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.(ESV)

Many believers assume that strength comes from tighter control.  When desire feels dangerous, the instinct is to build fences, rules, and internal warnings.  At first, this looks like wisdom.  Over time, it reveals its weakness.

This is the kind of life Paul confronts when he addresses rule-based spirituality that appears disciplined but lacks power.

Rules can restrain behavior for a season, but they cannot reorder affection.  They teach avoidance without teaching allegiance.  The result is pressure without transformation.

Paul’s own confession makes this tension explicit.  Wanting what is right does not automatically produce the ability to do it.

Romans 7:18–20  (18)For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  (19)For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  (20)Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.(ESV)

This exposes the core problem: suppression assumes the will is strong enough to carry the load by itself.  Scripture says otherwise.  When desire is merely resisted instead of retrained, it waits.  When opportunity appears, it resurfaces with greater force.

This is why Scripture warns against lives without internal governance.  A city without walls is not free—it is exposed.

Proverbs 25:28  A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.(ESV)

Suppression does not fail because people are careless.  It fails because it asks restraint to do the work of formation.

Desire is not defeated by denial.  It’s redirected through alignment.

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⚒️ Anvil:  Training the Inner Life

1 Timothy 4:7–8  (7)Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.  Rather train yourself for godliness; (8)for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.(ESV)

Godliness is not sustained by intention alone.  It is sustained by training.

Scripture uses athletic language deliberately.  Training assumes repetition, resistance, fatigue, failure, and gradual strength.  No one trains accidentally.  No one becomes conditioned by hoping hard enough.

Spiritual integrity works the same way.

Most ethical collapse does not occur because temptation is overwhelming, but because preparation was absent.  When pressure arrives before formation, instinct fills the gap.  Instinct always reflects whatever has been practiced most.

What is repeatedly practiced becomes automatic.  What is automatic becomes authoritative.

Psalm 119:9–11  (9)How can a young man keep his way pure?  By guarding it according to your word.  (10)With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!  (11)I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.(ESV)

This passage is not about avoidance—it is about internalization.  Scripture is stored, rehearsed, and embedded so that response is shaped before temptation ever appears.

Formation happens upstream.  The inner life is trained long before the moment of choice.

This is why Scripture emphasizes guarding inputs and cultivating memory.  The heart responds out of what it has been filled with, not what it wishes it remembered.

Romans 13:14  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.(ESV)

This verse addresses provision, not impulse.  Ethical failure rarely begins with action.  It begins with cooperation—environmental, mental, habitual.  Provision is made long before behavior manifests.  Formation removes that provision by refusing to structure life in ways that weaken resolve.

This isn’t denial of the body.  It’s refusal to sabotage the soul.

The inner life is always being trained by something.  If it’s not trained intentionally, it will be trained passively.

Passive training always favors the path of least resistance.  True freedom is not found in constant vigilance against failure.  It’s found in a life so well-ordered that failure becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.

This is not perfection.  It’s preparedness.

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🔥 Ember:  Failure Is Instruction, Not Condemnation

Proverbs 24:16  for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.(ESV)

Scripture never pretends the righteous never fall.  It draws the distinction elsewhere—between those who rise and those who remain down.

Failure, then, is not the end of the story.  It’s information.  It reveals where formation is still incomplete and where vigilance must deepen.

This is why Scripture allows room for defiant hope even in moments of collapse.  Falling is acknowledged, but it is never granted final authority.

Micah 7:8  Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.(ESV)

The danger is not the stumble.  The danger is what the stumble is allowed to mean.

When failure is interpreted as identity, shame takes over.  Shame drives secrecy, isolation, and despair.  Scripture names this posture clearly and contrasts it with something better.

2 Corinthians 7:10  For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.(ESV)

There is a kind of grief that turns inward and suffocates life.  And there is a kind of grief that restores alignment and opens the door to repentance.  This is why confession brings relief rather than destruction when it is honest and timely.

Scripture doesn’t leave this theoretical—it shows what silence and confession actually do to a person.

Psalm 32:3–5  (3)For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  (4)For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.  Selah  (5)I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Selah(ESV)

Failure does not disqualify the faithful.  It instructs them.

Shame demands hiding.  Grace demands honesty—and then movement.

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🌿 Covenant Triumph:  Purity Is Direction, Not History

Romans 8:1–2  (1)There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  (2)For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.(ESV)

The gospel does not define people by their worst moments.  It defines them by their present standing and future direction.
Condemnation speaks in absolutes.  Formation speaks in trajectories.

Purity, then, is not the absence of a past.  It is the presence of alignment.  God does not require amnesia before obedience.  He requires allegiance now.

This forward-facing posture is not denial of reality—it is the refusal to be governed by it.

Philippians 3:12–14  (12)Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  (13)Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14)I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.(ESV)

Scripture consistently presents growth as pursuit, not arrival.  Progress matters more than perfection.  Direction matters more than distance already traveled.

And where human resolve runs out, Scripture promises divine intervention—not as a patch, but as transformation.

Ezekiel 36:26–27  (26)And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  (27)And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.(ESV)

God does not merely restrain desire.  He reshapes the heart that generates it.

What matters most is not where you have been, but who governs where you are going.

Where the Spirit leads, freedom follows.  Where freedom grows, peace takes root.

The Practice of Obedience:  Training Without Shame

Purpose:  To move from reaction to preparation, and from secrecy to alignment.

1. Physical Act:  Preparing Before Pressure

Identify one habit that strengthens spiritual alertness and stability.  This is not about restriction.  It is about reinforcement.

Speak aloud:  “I am training my life toward faithfulness.”

2. Relational Act:  Ending Isolation

Choose one trusted believer who knows your direction, not your details.

Say:  “I am choosing formation over secrecy.”

Isolation feeds temptation.  Visibility weakens it.

3. Spiritual Act:  Redirecting Desire

Pray:  “Lord, teach me to love what leads to life.  Retrain my desires toward endurance, not escape.”

Sit quietly.  Let conviction settle without accusation.

Series Closing Summary

• The body is a stewardship, not a possession
• Covenant is the boundary that protects union
• Formation is the path to lasting freedom

This isn’t about fear.  It’s about faithfulness.

This isn’t about perfection.  It’s about direction.

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[⚓ Floatie] [✒️ Forge] [⚒️ Anvil] [🔥 Ember] [🌿 Covenant Triumph]
This post follows the Forge Baseline Rule—layered truth for the discerning remnant.