Most of us struggle in the flesh to please God. However, this is not the way God intended. When God gave us a new heart and put His Holy Spirit within us, He gave us the power to live a life pleasing to Him. Many of us started this way but then retreated to our default position. Our default position is to walk according to our flesh. We therefore slip back to walking our Christian life in the flesh rather than the Spirit. This is what the Bible calls double-mindedness. God has called us to be filled in the Spirit and walk by the Spirit.
Flesh
The flesh needs to be reckoned dead but as long as we live in our body we will be faced with its desires. Our desires are selfish and so drive us to see our world through those desires. The desires to be famous, rich, self-centered, and all other fallen desires. These need to be reckoned dead on the Cross. This is the only way of salvation we have to overcome our fleshly desires. Jesus did it for us on the Cross. Now we can avail of His victory by faith in His finished work on the Cross.
Spirit
Living now in the knowledge that His Spirit in us empowers us to overcome the flesh is the key to victory. This is a journey we all have to go through till we come to the place where we are completely free from the longings of our flesh. Few of us will attain this standard in this life. Many will struggle to the end because of double-mindedness. We have the way of escape but have to choose His way always. He has made it easy for us but we must say Yes to His way. There is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
