A heart-wrenching truth every believer must face
Have you ever felt like you were living a double life?
One moment, you’re flowing in your God-given gift—teaching with wisdom, prophesying with clarity, serving with joy. The next moment, you catch yourself speaking with malice, harboring bitterness, or manipulating others to get your way.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. You’re experiencing what Scripture calls the war between the flesh and the Spirit—and it’s happening right in the middle of your calling.
A Tale of Two Natures
Scripture presents us with two stark lists of attributes—and the contrast will take your breath away.
The Attributes of Sin (from 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, Titus, and 1 Peter):
- Malice, wickedness, bitterness
- Wrath, anger, hatred
- Envy, deception, guile
- Evil speaking, blasphemy, filthy communication
- Foolishness, disobedience, hypocrisy
The Attributes of God (the fruit of His Spirit in us):
- Love, joy, peace
- Patience, kindness, goodness
- Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
- Forgiveness, compassion, truth
Now, pause for a moment and imagine this terrifying scenario: What if you could only access the first list? What if every Godly attribute were completely and eternally inaccessible to you?
Your bitterness would poison every memory with no hope of forgiveness. Your anger would rage without the possibility of peace. Your envy would consume you with no chance of contentment. Your hatred would define every relationship with no access to love. Your deception would corrupt every word with no ability to speak truth.
You would exist in perpetual agitation without rest, perpetual craving without satisfaction, perpetual darkness without light. Every good thing—every moment of joy, every act of kindness, every breath of peace—would be forever beyond your reach.
This is the biblical reality of separation from God.
To be cut off from God is to be cut off from His attributes. And that fire—that burning torment—isn’t just about physical flames. It’s the soul-crushing reality of experiencing only sin’s attributes for eternity, with no access to the goodness, mercy, love, and peace that flow from God’s nature.
This is hell. Not just a place of punishment, but a condition of being eternally severed from every good thing that makes life bearable.
Luke 16:23-24
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
Imagine being in a state where just a drop of relief, access to God’s attributes, would bring you some peace….
This is the true Grace of God, that He allows us to live a life with access to His attributes so that we can know Him, and He has paid the sacrifice needed to have that access for eternity.
The sobering reality of your current condition: You’re living in a war zone between these two natures, and one of them has to go.
What It Feels Like to Live in Spiritual Duality
Every time you choose to operate in the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit, you’re getting a taste of that hellish existence. You’re temporarily cutting yourself off from God’s attributes and sampling what eternal separation would feel like.
- When bitterness takes hold, you lose access to forgiveness and peace
- When wrath controls you, gentleness and patience become unreachable
- When envy consumes you, contentment and joy are impossible
- When hatred fills your heart, love becomes foreign to your experience
This is why sin feels so torturous—even temporarily. You were created to reflect God’s nature, and when you operate outside of it, your soul burns.
This is our base state without God, and the curse of death pronounced in the garden.
We believe that because we experience peace or feel love, joy, and compassion, these attributes are part of the “human condition”; however, in reality, they are remnants of being created to reflect God’s nature (because these are attributes of God’s nature). This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus, “You must be born again”. Jesus was telling him, You will be trapped in your base state for eternity if you are not born into God’s Kingdom. (The analogy of being born again speaks specifically to being born of the water AND spirit – baptism and being filled with God’s Holy Spirit).
Through this rebirth, we receive eternal access to God’s attributes…
But here’s another sobering truth: even after your rebirth, whenever you operate in the flesh, you’re sampling that darkness—and allowing it to pollute the very gifts God has given you for His glory.
The War Paul Described Is Real
“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Romans 7:15).
Paul—the great apostle—struggled with this same duality. The very man who wrote most of the New Testament confessed to an internal war between wanting to serve God and finding “another law” warring against his mind.
If Paul experienced this battle, how much more should we expect it in our own lives?
But here’s the hope: Paul didn’t stay in Romans 7. He moved forward to Romans 8.
How to move forward.
God hasn’t left you hopeless in this battle. He’s provided a clear path to victory:
1. Abide in Christ (John 15:4-5)
“Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Your gift doesn’t flow from your effort—it flows from your connection to Jesus.
2. Renew Your Mind (Romans 12:2)
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What you feed your mind determines which nature dominates.
3. Put Off the Old, Put On the New (Ephesians 4:22-24)
This isn’t passive—it’s an active daily choice to reject fleshly patterns and embrace Spirit-led living.
4. Crucify the Flesh (Galatians 5:24)
“They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The flesh must be daily denied its rule.
5. Walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16)
“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” This is moment-by-moment dependency, not a one-time decision.
The Choice Before You
You stand at a crossroads. You can continue operating in a mixed state—part Spirit, part flesh—confusing those around you and limiting your effectiveness for the Kingdom.
Or you can commit to the process of transformation, allowing God to purify the stream through which your gift flows.
The world has enough gifted people operating in the flesh. What it desperately needs—what Jesus is building—is a body of Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, Spirit-purified believers who will glorify Him in every act of ministry.
The choice is yours. Will you settle for a mixed stream, or will you pursue the pure flow of the Spirit through your life?
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).
Your gift is waiting. But more importantly, your Savior is waiting to sanctify it.
What resonates most with you about this battle between flesh and Spirit? Share your thoughts in the comments below—your story might be exactly what someone else needs to hear today.
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