“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
(Matt. 26:41)
When the Spirit of God comes into a believer’s body it does not cancel out the flesh. In fact, you will be more conscious of the latter than you ever were before. Paul tells us these two natures are diametrically opposed to one another, so that at times a saint cannot always do what he or she should do or what they would like to do (Gal. 5:17).
Before Pentecost Peter had a fearful temperament that could be intimidated by his peers. But he still possessed this weak trait after being filled with the Spirit (Gal. 2:11-14). Notice too that Barnabas was involved in this. We are told of him that he was a good man and filled with the Holy Ghost. Also the Holy Spirit played a great part in Samson’s life, but in spite of this the weaknesses of his flesh were manifest from time to time.
What are the lessons we can learn from this? One that I feel important is not to expect more than we should from Spirit-filled believers. I think some of us expect more from them than even God Himself does. We need to remember what God does about such:“For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” (Psa. 103:14) And the second, being equally important, not to get discouraged when we fail to meet the high standard we have set for ourselves as Spirit-filled believers.
“God knows what we would do if we could do it.”
(rds)
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