 If you have your Bible, let's go together with me to Genesis chapter 25 and verse 23. The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb. Two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger. Somebody say stronger than the other. And the older shall serve the younger. Those of you online, drop that in the chat. The older shall serve the younger. You will understand what that means in just a second. The older shall serve the younger. As Christians, we understand, the Bible tells us this in Ephesians chapter two, verses one through three, that we are fighting three main enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is our visible enemy. It's not the parks, the mountains, and the oceans. It's the system that is in rebellion against God. It's the philosophy, the human wisdom that is rebellion against God. The world is started in the garden when the devil came against our first parents. He not only wanted them to rebel against God, he also wanted to redefine good and evil. The world is man's way of redefining good and evil. It's when we call what God calls evil, we call it good. And what God calls evil, when God calls good, we call it evil. And that system in rebellion against God and redefining good and evil, then redefining marriage, redefining sexuality, redefining pleasure, redefining love, that redefinition started from rebellion against God. The moment you overthrow God as your supreme authority, you have to come up with your own rules. We all love the benefits of the blessings of God's commandments without obeying them. We want the kingdom without the king. We want the prosperity without God's principles. It's just a human desire. We will create it to live in the good world. We want that good world. The only problem is the world, the system that is in rebellion against God and has redefined his morals is the world that we're against. We're not against people in the world. We're against the system. We're also against the devil because the devil is against us. The devil is a supreme enemy. Now most likely the devil is not walking around here and tempting each and every one of us. The Bible says he's the prince of the air. He has his headquarters in the second heaven. The same way as Joe Biden, for example, not that Joe Biden and the devil is the same. I'm just saying like, for example, we live in the United States, over 300 million in population and Joe Biden is our president. Though he is your president, you don't talk to him every day and he doesn't know you. He doesn't know you. Same thing with the devil. People who walk around and say, the devil has been tempting you and not really. The devil doesn't know you. The demons on the other hand are the ones who are doing his work on the ground. The devil is not like God. He's not present in every place at the same time. He doesn't move like God does. He can't indwell every person. And even when we drive out demons who claim that I'm a Lucifer, they're not actual Lucifer. They are either demons that take on the name because they were assigned by Lucifer or they're simply so proud of Lucifer they just take on his nature and his name. But you're actually not casting out the actual devil because he doesn't possess actual people. He might possess Judas and Ananias but you and I are not Ananias so we're not on that level. So when our battle with the devil, we're mainly dealing with his structure that he has established in this world through his demons, through his principalities and our big battle is against these spirits that are tempting us to do evil. So those are two enemies. We can deal with those. Our worst and the most difficult enemy is the one that lives inside. The Bible calls it the flesh. The flesh and unfortunately there is no deliverance ministry that can get that out of you. There is no surgery that can surgically remove that. There is no pill you can take that could completely squash that. And there is no amount of fasting you can do that could completely obliterate it, remove that, completely just remove that. You can go for 40 day fast, right after the 40 day fast, within the 40 day fast, the flesh will still be there. The flesh is our enemy. The flesh is, somebody said, is the traitor within who is in the relationship with the demons without. I like that definition. It's the Judas that lives inside of you who's making deals with the Pharisees on the outside. The flesh is somebody who will betray you, who is bent on betraying you. It's just looking for the opportunity. You can't change your flesh. You can't convert your flesh. You can't make your flesh Christian. It's bent on doing evil. The only thing the flesh needs to do that evil is an opportunity. Same thing with Judas. The Bible says Judas was the devil, but what he lacked in the beginning for three years is an opportunity. And then when the opportunity presented itself, he took it. And that's exactly what the flesh is. It lives within our inner circle, within us. This flesh is in the league with the devil. This flesh has a contract. It deals with the devil. And the devil needs the flesh because the moment the flesh yields to sin, the devil begins to gain a hold in the flesh. And if we keep yielding to sin, then the flesh becomes an open door to the actual demons. Flesh is not a demon, but if you yield to it long enough, it will give a place to one. Let me say that again. The flesh is not a demon, but if you yield long enough to it, it will give a place to one. And then you will have a flesh and a demon, and that is harder to deal with because one, we have to cast out and the other one, we have to crucify. Now the story that we've read today, and this is the story of a woman who was pregnant with two children. And we know that Rebecca had two kids within her. Verse 22 says this, the children struggled, somebody say struggled. Guess where they struggled? The Bible says within her. There was a struggle. This was before struggle, this real hashtag was popular. There was a struggle within. And this was real. The Bible says this children struggled within her. And she said, why this is happening to me? And she went to ask the Lord and the Lord said, you got two nations inside of you. And then God begins to give a prophetic picture of what's going to happen to these nations. But I believe this is also a good picture of what is happening to each and every one of us. He says this, that the older will serve the younger. And he says that the younger will dominate the older. When you became a Christian, the older part of you, which started at the day of your birth called the flesh, is bent on evil. The moment you became born again, you surrendered your life to Jesus, there came the new you. It was not a new year's resolution that made new you, it's the surrender to Jesus that made new you. This new you is the younger you. And the Bible gives us this picture of what is happening. There is a struggle. There is a war that's taking place inside of you right now between the old you and the new you. The old you wants to dominate and it feels like it has the right to dominate because it's older. Because it's been here before. The younger is the one that says, well, I'm the right one because I came from God and it's the right thing to do and there is a battle that is taking place every day. But I believe this is also a prophecy. And the prophecy is this, is the younger will dominate the older. And the older will serve the younger. Your old nature will live in subjection to the new you, to the new desires. Maybe you came to church here today and you are a brand new believer. Maybe you've been a believer for some time and there is the old nature, old desires to smoke, to drink. Maybe homosexual tendencies, maybe even depressing thoughts that are coming back. Maybe it's pornography that's drawing you back. Maybe it's the anger or it's the jealousy or perhaps it's even desire to dimble into the occult. I wanna encourage you today that just because the older you is present, it does not mean the newer you is absent. So many people feel like that the presence of temptation is a sign I have not been transformed. Because I am tempted, it means that I am not holy or I am not righteous, my friend. The only reason you're tempted is because you are righteous. Because when you're not righteous, you don't get tempted. You simply indulge in sin. You practice sin. Come on somebody. The Bible says the Holy Spirit within us, He resists the flesh. See, having the Holy Spirit does not mean you lose the flesh, it means you get a struggle. Because before you got saved, you did not have a struggle with the Holy Spirit. You simply had a struggle to obey God because you were by default doing sinful things. You indulge in sin instead of struggle with sin. But the Bible makes it very clear, even the delivered Christians, even the ones that have more study Bibles than they should probably, they have so many study Bibles. They have so much scriptures that they have memorized. They go to church all the time. They pray and fast. Even those Christians still struggle against the flesh. It does not mean that they struggle the same way that you and I struggle, but they struggle sometimes to keep their mouth shut. They struggle sometimes in traffic. Sometimes they struggle with thoughts of discouragement and depression. Sometimes they struggle with the way they want to call their children or their spouse. Sometimes they struggle with things in their emotions, in their sexuality or in things in their attitude, but they struggle. Being a pastor doesn't remove the struggle. Being a prophet doesn't remove that struggle. Being an evangelist does not remove that struggle. Knowing and being used mightily by God does not remove that struggle. There is no height you reach in God that eliminates or aborts the older one. The older one will be there and this struggle remains for the remaining part of your life. And what I want to encourage you with this morning, that this struggle pushes us to depend on God. This struggle pushes us to depend on the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna share with you in the conclusion of this message, three practical steps the Bible gives us to overcome this struggle. I'm gonna use the example of driving a manual car. If you're taking notes, write this down, victory over the flesh is not automatic. It's like driving stick shift. It's like driving a manual car. I don't like driving a manual car. I remember I was taught how to drive a manual car. First time I was learning how to drive. I was about 12 years of age. My mom and my dad, we had a cow in Ukraine. And one of the things that we had in our street is that we had to take care of the like hurting the cows for, I think it was for a week, every four or five months. And so my parents were very nice. The fact that they took the car on the fields where the cows were eating and they were giving driving lessons to their kids. Well, not to their kids, to their kid, to me. Sorry. Yeah, I was the only one getting the driving lessons. I was like 12 or something years of age. We had to put pillows so that I could see where the car was driving. And the worst part about the Ukrainian cars is most of them were manual transmission. So there was no gas and brake. It was that crazy pedal called clutch. And you had to figure out when to push it, when to release it. And if you push the other one too hard, goes like this. And you know, it's fine when you're on the field. It's totally different when you are uphill. And you can be practicing when the guy behind you decided to pull in closer. And so, and that's how I learned how to drive first. But because my first car was not a manual car, I avoided those car like a plague. My first rule was make sure the car is automatic. I do not wanna be thinking about hmm, hmm, hmm, and then shifting the gears. And so, but just about two weeks ago, I had to drop off some garbage. My dad was fixing some things in our house and had to drop off the garbage. And so, I was waiting for somebody to come with the truck and the rest actually. But my dad had a truck already and my dad's truck is this old, was it Ford? I think it's Ford, very old truck. And so, I was like, you know, I'm just gonna borrow dad's truck. The only problem is that it's manual transmission. So my dad's like, you know how to drive it? I was like, pfft, of course. So I got in that thing, and that thing is like, it's like old school Ford, you know, like very weird sounds. And so, and you know, that gear, that stick shift, like it's like long. And I was like, man, how does this thing work? And I'm about to Google it just to kinda get a refresher because I don't remember last time I drove this sucker. And so, it's fine, everything was downhill. As long as it was downhill, I was fine because I was able to kinda mess with it. My dad wasn't there, so he wasn't seeing, you know, like all these wrong gears that I was putting the stick into. And so, it dropped everything off, everything is fine. And the way back, there is a hill. And I'm literally asking you guys at play, please Lord, don't let nobody be behind me. And there's a person who's as close as possible to my truck. And you know, when you're nervous, you begin to mess up. And so, and I'm thinking, okay, like release the clutch slowly, press on the gas slowly. Don't push it too hard because it's gonna roll back, you're gonna hit the car, police will get involved, you're a pastor, that's not good. And so, by God's grace, I was able to navigate and I did not hit the car and I was able to get in and then I learned very important lesson. And the lesson is, don't drive, automatic, don't drive a manual. As I was thinking this week, a lot of people have a manual mindset toward overcoming the flesh. And they think that because Jesus died on a cross or because I got saved, automatically, excuse me, they have an automatic mindset. They think it's automatically I will have victory in my life. This specially happens to those of us in the deliverance ministry who get delivered and who feel like automatically after this, I'm free. And then you get, as long as your life is good, smooth, everything is fine, until temptations come in and then because we don't learn how to walk, we don't learn how to walk in this victory, guess what happens? We begin to have problems. And I wanna share with you today three practical gears or three practical pedals you have to use in order to have victory over the flesh. The first one is the clutch. I mean, I'm sorry, the first one is called consider yourself dead. The Bible starts with overcoming the flesh with this verse, Romans chapter six, verse 11. It says likewise you also reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's interesting and here it does not say that therefore crucify your flesh. It says consider, somebody say consider. So that means you have to consider yourself, reckon yourself, think yourself. This is not about what I do, this is how I think. Now why do I consider myself dead to the flesh? First of all, let's just start with this. In our culture today, it's very popular to think of yourself in a way that's factually not true. A guy in a Dutchman in Netherlands court actually went to court to change his birthday, change his age from 69 to 49. You know his argument was, I feel 49. I identify as a 49. He actually brought a note from a doctor that says, yes, he feels 49. So the judge declines the offer and he says, well, I appreciate that you identify yourself 49, but the problem is there are facts we can't shift and change because of how you identify or feel. People do the same thing today with their gender. You know, they're born, for example, a male and they say, well, I identify as a female. Well, the problem is that no matter how much you identify, consider and think of yourself, there are facts your feeling identifying cannot alter. But the opposite is also true. It's possible to have facts that do not influence and update your thinking. It's possible to think one way when the facts are completely opposite. For example, the Bible says when Jesus died in Romans that our flesh, the one we're battling with died with him. So why am I still battling with it? Well, we don't start with the battle first. We start first with the victory. You don't overcome your flesh by fighting your flesh first. You overcome your flesh by considering, this is what I call the clutch pedal. You gotta press this all the way to the end and you have to come in agreement in your mind and heart with what God says about you, not with the struggle you're currently going through. By birth, you identified with Adam. But by baptism, you identified with Christ. Come on somebody. When you were born, you identified with Adam. But when you got into water, you symbolized your life and said, I identify with Jesus. That's why Christians call our members of Christ. Why? We identify with Jesus. We're called branches and he's divine. Why? Because he's not just our Lord, he is our head. We identify with Jesus Christ. So if I am battling with some craving, if I am battling with some demonic passion, if I am battling with some kind of an inward battle, I don't start with that battle. I start with his victory. And I say, I identify with Jesus. I reckon myself dead to this sin. It still might have a hold over my life, but because of baptism, because of my belief, I identify with Jesus. And from the point of victory, I will fight. From the point of triumph, I will fight. And from the point of his death, I will put to death the lust of the flesh. Amen. This is so freeing because it's not about what I'm doing. It's about how I'm believing. And sometimes the struggle is so strong, we think the flesh is the one that's supreme in my life. Even if it acts supreme, it's already been crucified on the cross. Now this, on the other hand, does not mean that the flesh is gone. Just because you press the clutch pedal, it doesn't mean you're gonna drive. Now you will roll, just not drive. In order to drive, you're gonna have to use other pedals. Point number two is not only we consider ourselves dead already because we identify with Jesus, point number two is we crucify the cravings. The scripture says clearly, those who are Christ, meaning we identify with Jesus, have crucified. So it's not talking about Jesus crucifying now, it's us crucifying. All right, so we know that the flesh is already dead. You may say, but I don't get it. If it's dead, why I have to crucify it? Because on the cross, Jesus crucified, destroyed the flesh's power, not its presence, and not its influence. And now you and I have also a work to do, and that is to crucify its desires, as the Bible says, and passions, Galatians chapter five, verse 24. I call this using the brake pedal. Now for those of you who drive manual, you're heroes in my eyes. You know one thing is that not only you have to know how clutch works and the accelerator pedal or the gas pedal works, you have to learn and you have to use the brake. Now you don't use brakes to get forward, you use brakes so you don't end up in a hospital. We use brakes so that when it's a red light, we stop, we use brakes in case somebody in front of us decides to either slow down fast, so the brakes are very important. We don't drive on brakes, but if you drive without having them, you will not drive very long. Christian life is not about don'ts, but if we don't have don'ts, we won't have any do's. So many Christians limit to their life, I can't do this. I can't, oh, as Christians, we can't get that. That's not what Christian life is about, but if you don't have a brake pedal in your car, okay, because you're so free spirited and because you're just so focused on just adventure, just me and just God, it's all about love, it's all about self-expression and liberty. I'm a friend, that self-expression and liberty can end you in ER. As Christian life, we know that Jesus gives us all things to enjoy. Even in the paradise, He gave Adam every tree to eat from, but He still put a brake pedal there. Don't touch that one. We still have don'ts, and we have to have seasons, moments in our life where our flesh has to get a break. A good time to use a brake pedal is on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, when it comes to fasting. You can, when you're fasting, when you're abstaining from something that's not of God, when maybe you're drawn to a conversation or to a meeting that, you know, if you go there, it's gonna pull you away from Christ. This is a good moment. Do not be a Christian who constantly only uses the gas and simply say, well, I'm just moving forward, moving forward. You can't always move forward without ever having moments that you crucify. Put to death, the Bible says. Deny yourself. But our Christian life is not about that. But without that, there's also no Christian life. So first one we consider. Second one is we crucify. And third one is we commit. Commit to what? We commit to the Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter five verse 16, it says, I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I call this the accelerate, the gas pedal. And this is the one that makes a huge difference in our life. You can use the clutch and if only thing you're doing is you're using the clutch and the brake pedals. How many of you know you're not gonna get out of your garage? You will be safe, but you won't get anywhere. If the only thing a Christian does or obsesses with or is focused on is, yes, in Jesus everything is earned, everything is given to me in Christ. Yes, I have all the victory in Jesus. And now only thing I have to do is not smoke, not drink, not sleep around, not hang out with those who do, not sell dope, not smoke dope, not be around those who have dope, not gossip. And if your whole life is no, don't, don't, don't, don't, you're gonna be safe, but that's not what cars were created for. For you to go forward in your Christian life. Not only we accept what Jesus did on the cross and we identify with Jesus, that's who we are. We also put away certain things at certain times that come and infringe on our victory and infringe on Jesus' standards for our life. But the key that determines how fast our Christian life goes is really this one thing. It's your communion and your covenant and your commitment to this one person. His name is the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says, walk in the Holy Spirit. And this is what it says. You will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It doesn't say just go to church. It doesn't just say have a Bible. It does not say just make sure you believe God exists. It doesn't just say, hey, make sure you don't cheat on your taxes. Hey, make sure you vote this particular way. It doesn't say, hey, make sure you don't kill. He says walk in the Holy Spirit. And my friend, it's possible to simply hit the brakes and hit the, hit the clutch button, clutch pedal and simply just live your life. Jesus did everything. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to fast. I don't have to pray. I don't press in. I don't draw closer to the Holy Spirit. And then our Christian life will have a limit and stagnation. Not because we're doing something bad, but because what we're capable of doing that's good, we're not doing. Relationship with the Holy Spirit has a potential to a spiritual speed in your life. Most cars can drive over 100 miles per hour. Same thing with your spiritual life. There is a potential deposited inside of you. Your spiritual life can go five miles per hour. It can go 50 miles per hour, or it can go 100 miles per hour. The question now is this, how hard are you willing to push the gas pedal? The question now is this, how deep are you willing to get to know the Holy Spirit? You cannot get more of the Holy Spirit, but you can know the Holy Spirit more. You can get more, you cannot get more of the Holy Spirit, but you can be filled with the Holy Spirit more. I wanna challenge you today. There is a potential, there is an engine, there is a transmission, there is gifts, there is anointing, there is power, there is purpose, there is fulfillment, there is joy, there is peace, there is longsuffering, there is kindness, there is goodness, there is miracles, signs, and wonders, all inside of the Holy Spirit. And he is like a pedal. He's available and he says, I want you to talk to me. I want you to ask me. I want you to, I want your spiritual life to go faster. I want the speed in your life. And for speed to happen, you have to connect, commit, and communicate with the Holy Spirit. As a father, as a mother, as a businessman, as a student, as a high school student, you have this pedal. I wanna encourage you today to walk in the Holy Spirit. If you're battling with lust, if you're battling with fleshly desires, if there is a war inside of you, a conflict, an identity crisis, consider yourself dead already through Jesus Christ. Identify yourself because of what Jesus did on the cross. Second one, begin to take these desires and say, Lord, I say no to these desires, but the real power to actually stick with that decision and to find new fulfillment in good decisions, the real power comes from the Holy Spirit. See, this is the problem that happens. We think that because we get the Holy Spirit, automatically we will have victory over the flesh. The presence of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee the victory over the flesh. It's the yielding to the Holy Spirit that does. The Bible doesn't say, if you have the Holy Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It says, if you walk in the Holy Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How many of you know if you have legs, it doesn't mean you're walking. All of us are sitting right now, yet we all have legs. The only way to walk with your legs is you actually have to get up and use them. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit, but many Christians, they are simply parked in their Christian life. They're simply sitting in their Christian life. And I wanna challenge you today, not only to speak in tongues, but I wanna challenge you today to let the Holy Spirit have more control over your life, not only so you can overcome the inner battle, not only so that the younger can dominate the older, but so that you can flow in power, so you can be used by God, so that your life will not be simply from nine to five and just waiting for the weekend. Your life will have a meaning, that your life will have a purpose. There will be signs and wonders following your life, that there will be gifts dispatched in your life. There will be a speed in your life. There will be no feeling of I'm stuck. My life sucks, my life is stagnant. God wants to break that off of you in this century at hungry-gen church. God wants you to live a life that is fulfilled, life that is abundant, life that is victorious, life that is miraculous. Come on, somebody help me out there online. Life that is filled with this power, life that is filled with this miracles, life that is filled with his answers, life where you see God move in your life, where you see God move in your family, where you see God move in your finances. And God says, I gave you the pedal, I gave you my spirit, he lives inside of you. Talk to him, communicate to him, speak in tongues, fellowship with the Holy Spirit because I am a God of miracles. Come on, somebody. Hey, thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed this content and this was a blessing to you, would you help us and hit thumbs up so that it could help more people to discover this video. It cost you nothing, but it can go a long way to help with the algorithm. As well as if you're not subscribed to our channel, hit subscribe, click on the bell so that you can be reminded each time that we upload videos. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you're interested in learning more about Hungry Gen, our internship, our conferences, deliverance and so many other things, go to HungryGen.com for more information. And as always, remember, better is not good enough, the best is yet to come.