God in His wisdom and sovereignty uses our sinful and ugly flesh to force us to turn to our spirit so that we may gain more of the Spirit for His building by the growth of God in us; the flesh causes us to turn to our spirit, having no confidence in the flesh, so that we serve in spirit and live in spirit. Amen!
We believers in Christ love the Lord Jesus and have been saved by Him; He has shown us mercy by coming to reconcile us to God, justify us before God, and regenerate us with God’s life.
Now, as those who possess the life and nature of God, we are children of God, and our Christian life is a learning to turn to our spirit so that we may be one with the Lord in all the things that we do and say.
However, we discover that there’s something with us, something within us, that will not let us serve the Lord and express Christ; there’s an ugly thing in us which we cannot control or subdue, our flesh.
Our body was created by God to be pure and sinless, for God wants to gain a vessel to contain Him and express Him.
However, man fell to Satan’s seduction and partook of the wrong tree; as he took of this tree, all three parts of his being were negatively affected.
His spirit became mortified, deadened, having no function; his soul became the self, independent from God and not choosing God; and his body was transmuted into the flesh.
Now our flesh is the meeting place of Satan, sin and death; this meeting takes place all the time, and it never stops.
We believers in Christ can testify, along with the apostle Paul, that in us, that is, in our flesh, nothing good dwells.
We have Christ in our spirit as the tree of life, and whenever we set our mind on the spirit we have and enjoy life and peace.
But when our mind is not set on our spirit but on the flesh, we are in death, and Satan has a way to operate in us to expand his kingdom of darkness in our being. Oh Lord!
Our body today is the body of sin and the body of this death.
On the one hand, the body of sin is active and powerful, full of strength and vigour in doing things in the world and in sinning against God.
On the other hand, the body of this death is weak and powerless in doing things for God or in acting to please God.
We are in the middle; our mind needs to choose whether to be set on the spirit or on the flesh. Oh Lord Jesus! May we daily choose to turn to our spirit exercise our spirit, and remain in our spirit!
God uses the Ugly Flesh to Force us to Turn to our Spirit to Gain Him for His Building
As we grow in the divine life and also in the human life, we discover what Paul also discovered in Romans 7, that sin dwells in us, that is, in our flesh.
Many times we want to do things to please God, we decide to do things that are good, and we set our being to do the good and not the evil. At such a time, something rises up in us to overcome us and put us down, even to defeat us.
Even more, if we are not watchful for just one moment, we can be in the flesh, and we sin and make mistakes.
For the sake of His economy, God in His wisdom and sovereignty uses our sinful and ugly flesh to force us to turn to our spirit so that we believers in Christ may gain more of the Spirit for God’s building by the growth of God in use (Col. 2:19; Zech. 4:6). Wow!
We may want God to save us from the flesh, even to remove the flesh from us; however, God uses our ugly flesh to cause us to turn to Him and gain more of Him.
We hate the flesh, and the flesh is not us; the flesh is something in us that has been corrupted, transmuted, and filled with Satan. However, the ugly flesh is here helping us and even forcing us to turn to the spirit.
Many times we are exposed that we are living in the flesh, and we discover that by default we just live in the flesh; at such times, we are forced to desperately turn to our spirit.
May we not be disappointed with our failures and mistakes of with our living in the flesh; may we rather turn to our spirit and live in spirit.
We need to praise the Lord for our spirit, for the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (Rom. 8:6).
When we truly discover that our flesh is a hopeless case, we will be fearful and trembling, looking to the Lord and turning to the spirit in doing everything.
We will be on the alert, and we will pray that the Lord would come in, keep us in His care, and keep us in the realm of the spirit.
Otherwise, if we are not kept by the Lord and we’re just a little careless, we will be in the flesh.
How we need to turn from the flesh to our spirit day by day, even moment by moment! How much we need to see that our flesh is a hopeless case and that it is here for our good, for the ugly flesh forces us to turn to our spirit!
As we see the flesh with all its manifestations and realize that we have a choice, we will turn to our spirit, we will trust in the Lord, and we will no longer have any confidence in our flesh (Phil. 3:3).
Judiciously speaking, both Satan and our flesh were condemned once and for all on the cross (Rom. 8:3; John 3:14; Heb. 2:14; 2 Cor. 5:21).
However, God allowed the flesh to remain in order to help us and force us to turn to Christ in our spirit, having no more confidence in the flesh.
When we are young in the Lord and also young in the human life, we trust in the flesh, we appreciate the spiritual or nice side of the flesh, and we do so many things in the flesh – even without realising it.
But as we fail and keep turning to our spirit, as we go through many failures and make many mistakes, we become more and more desperate to turn to our spirit. Oh Lord Jesus!
Without the help rendered to us by the sinful, ugly flesh, we would not be as desperate to gain the Lord or to have Him wrought into us (Rom. 7:24-25; 8:2, 6, 13).
Our God truly works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform; He works in a mysterious way by allowing the ugly flesh to remain and bother us, even to cause us to fail again and again, so that we may be forced to turn to our spirit and gain more of Christ for God’s building!
We hate the flesh, we do not like it when we live in the flesh, and we are so disappointed when we see how much we live in the flesh.
But there’s no need to be disappointed or discouraged; we simply need to see what the flesh is, realise that we can’t overcome it, and simply turn to our spirit!
We may want to be victorious or holy, but God wants us to gain more of Him!
We may want to have the victory and reign in life, but God wants to work Christ into us to the extent that we trust not in ourselves but in Him, live not ourselves but live Christ, and express not ourselves but express Him.
So God uses even the ugly flesh to force us to turn to our spirit. Oh, how much we need to pray before the Lord, even remain in a continual and constant prayer before Him regarding this matter, asking Him,
Lord Jesus, You have to come in; You have to keep us in Your care! We do not trust in ourselves, for in our flesh nothing good dwells. Oh Lord, keep us in the realm of the spirit. If You don’t keep us, Lord, we will be careless and we will be in the flesh. Show us what the flesh is. Expose the flesh in our experience. Oh Lord, we open to You! We want to come under Your shining today. Keep us one with You. May even our ugly flesh act as a reminder to cause us to turn to our spirit. Save us from being disappointed when we make mistakes, when we live in the flesh, and when we have failures. Oh Lord, keep us turning to our spirit today! Make us desperate, dear Lord, that we would gain You and allow You to work Yourself into us! May we not look at our repeated mistakes and failures but just turn to our spirit, set our mind on our spirit, and live in spirit! We worship You, God, for Your wisdom and sovereignty in using our sinful, ugly flesh to force us to turn to our spirit so that we may gain more of the Spirit for His building by the growth of God in us!
Though we Seek the Lord, we Fail often and become Desperate to Turn to our Spirit to gain more of the Spirit!
We all can testify that, as believers in Christ who love Him and want to pursue Him, we fail so many times.
Our goal may be holiness or spirituality or victory; God’s goal, however, is to work Himself into us to make us glorious (Rom. 8:28-29; Eph. 5:27).
Often, when we’re in a difficult situation, when we fail repeatedly and often, we are more open to the Lord and more willing to turn to Him, even to allow Him to work Himself into us.
We may care for victory and sinlessness, but God doesn’t care for that; He cares only for working Himself into us so that we may gain more of God for the building up of His Body.
![And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated [to be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers. Rom. 8:28-29](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/And-we-know-that-all-things-work-together-for-good-to-those-who-love-God-to-those-who-are-called-according-to-His-purpose-1.jpg?resize=400%2C500&ssl=1 "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated [to be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers. Rom. 8:28-29")
We may want to not sin, not make mistakes, but be holy, victorious, and spiritual, but the Lord uses our mistakes and failures, even our ugly flesh, to make us more desperate to turn to our spirit so that we may gain more of Christ!
We may be afraid of the flesh, for we realise that it is stronger than us and it causes us to fail so much.
So we may ask the Lord to make us those who reign in life over sin, death, and Satan, and we may implore Him to remove the flesh from us.
However, even though we may try diligently to reign in life, we will experience more failure than success. This is our story day by day. We fail so much, and we may even think that we are a failure. Oh Lord!
May we not be disappointed with our failures! As long as we love the Lord and seek Him, He will use even our failures to gain what He is after and work Himself into us!
Our ugly flesh causes us to fail again and again, but as we fail, we turn to the Lord and we simply choose Him again.
Our failures press us to the Lord; our failures make us desperate to get into the spirit.
If we seek the Lord Jesus and love Him, even the sinful compound of the flesh will become a help to us in gaining the Lord.
Because we fail so often, we are desperate to turn to the spirit, and in this way we gain more of the Spirit (Exo. 23:23, 29-30; Judg. 2:21-3:4).
Our goal may be holiness or spirituality, but God’s goal is for Him to be added to our being, even to be wrought into us for the building up of the church.
When we temporarily achieve some victory or spirituality, we are not as open to the Lord as when we fail and make mistakes.
When our condition is excellent, we may actually be closed to the Lord’s inward working. Oh Lord! But when we make mistakes and fail, when we’re in a poor situation and in a low state spiritually, we are more desperate to turn to our spirit and gain more of Christ! Oh Lord!
This doesn’t mean that we should fail or be in a low situation spiritually by choice; rather, mistakes come, we fail, and we find ourselves in a poor situation even though we love the Lord.
But this should not discourage or disappoint us; rather, this should make us more desperate to turn to our spirit and again more of the Spirit!
Our hardships, defeats, failures, and disappointments force us to realise that there’s no hope in the flesh.
We may still have some hope in the flesh, but then we make so many mistakes, we have so many failures, and we experience defeat so often; this breaks our confidence in the flesh.
We need to realise that our ugly flesh is good only to force us to turn to Christ in our spirit, even to press us in our spirit so that we may remain in our spirit all the time (Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:17-18).
Our ugly flesh only helps us to be desperate to turn to our spirit and to keep us watchful to stay in the spirit. This is what the Lord cares for, that we would gain Christ as the Spirit for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
The Lord does not care for whether or not we have a victory; the Lord cares for only one thing—that we gain Christ as the Spirit by setting our mind on the spirit (Phil. 3:8; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 8:6). Amen!
If we do not love the Lord and if we don’t care for His purpose, we may not realise how the ugly flesh forces us to turn to our spirit; however, if we love Him and pursue Him, we will experience many failures, and this will press us into our spirit!
If we experience defeat as the flesh operates in so many ways, we will realise how dreadful our flesh is; our flesh is altogether not dependable.
It is through such experiences of failures and mistakes that we become desperate to turn to our spirit and come to the Lord in prayer, even be watchful in prayer so that we may remain in our spirit.
May we continue to seek the Lord, turn to Him, and not remain in our failures or mistakes. May we never be disappointed with ourselves and our situations but rather, turn to our spirit for the Lord to have a way in us!
Lord Jesus, we love You and we believe that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose! We love You, Lord, and we see You in love. We want to know You, enjoy You, and experience You. Oh Lord, may we see that You are so wise in using our ugly flesh to force us to turn to our spirit and gain more of Christ! Keep us turning to You, Lord! May our failures press us to the Lord and make us desperate to get into the spirit! Oh Lord, work Yourself into us a little more today! May we not be disappointed with our failures and mistakes but may we turn to our spirit again and again so that we may gain more of the Spirit! Amen, Lord, may we be those who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh! May all our failures and mistakes make us more open to the Lord and more willing to turn to Him to allow Him to work Himself into us! Amen, Lord, keep us in our spirit, being watchful and praying, so that You may gain us and we may gain You for Your building!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Romans, pp. 521-522, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Chapters 5 through 8 of Romans – the Kernel of the Bible (2025 ICSC), week 1, The Line of Life and the Line of Death in Chapters 5 through 8 of Romans.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– What is the Flesh? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
– The True Nature of Our Relationship with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for America blog.
– Being forced by the flesh to turn to our spirit, a portion from, The Flesh and the Spirit, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
– The Ministry Produced through Revelation and Suffering, Part One: Revelation (3), via, Shepherding Words.
– Romans (Program #51) – The Flesh and the Spirit, via, Bible study radio.
– Message 4: “The Spirit Himself with Our Spirit” (1) via, LSM YouTube.
– What is the Function of Your Spirit? More via, Holding to truth in love.
– Being Desperate to Overcome Deadness and Lukewarmness in Order to Be Vitally Living and Active for the Increase of the Lord’s Recovery and the Building Up of the Body of Christ, outline via, The Church in Chicago.
– The flesh forcing us to turn to the spirit, a portion from, The Flesh and the Spirit, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– Setting our mind on the spirit, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique. - Hymns on this topic:
– Thru my death with Christ, from Adam I am free, / Thru my life with Christ, new life is given me! / Minding not the flesh, old Adam cannot move, / Minding just the spirit, life divine I prove. / Minding just the spirit is God’s saving way, / Minding just the spirit, Christ we will display; / Minding just the spirit, we can overcome, / Minding just the spirit, we the race may run. (Hymns #593 stanzas 4-5)
– Minding flesh no longer, / I’ll the spirit mind; / Self-will never follow, / But the Spirit’s find. / Christ within empow’rs me / Spiritual to be! / E’en my body quick’ning / By His pow’r in me. (Hymns #594 stanzas 3-4)
– Praying always in the spirit, / Never in the flesh or mind! / If this secret we will practise, / God’s full presence we will find. / Praying always in the spirit / Is the secret we are told! / In the spirit, God to contact, / Is the secret we must hold! (Hymns #780 stanza 1 and chorus)
About aGodMan
Life-study of Romans, pp. 521-522, by Witness Lee
In His wisdom, God uses our ugly flesh – which causes us to fail so often – to force us to turn to our spirit so that we may gain more of the Spirit for God’s building.
May we not be disappointed with our failures and mistakes but rather let the Lord press us into our spirit to gain more of Christ.
Amen, brother.
Waoo, The Lord when he was here on earth was not as human history relates it as a Disney king; he was ugly without a beautiful appearance and this was to show how ugly humanity is without God…the only beautiful thing is to God…the only thing is His son not us…but when I get up and look in the mirror I can say my spirit is Zoe and I am happy for the day. 🥳
Enjoyed that The Lord does not care whether or not we have a victory. The Lord cares for one thing that we gain Christ!
Though dealt with on the cross by Christ, God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed the flesh (in which nothing good dwells) to remain with man.
We should not be disappointed but rather praise Him that we also have the spirit.
And though the flesh is a hopeless case, it is here for our good. It is here helping us, alerting us, and forcing us all the time, moment by moment, to turn to the spirit, to trust in the Lord, and to no longer have any confidence in our flesh. God is sovereign, Amen!
Our failures in the flesh notwithstanding, our desperation and care should be for only one thing – that we’re pressed into the spirit, be saturated more and to gain Christ!
Brother, what surprised me is that we are carrying and moving with death, but our Almighty God wrought in us to turn our mind into spirit so that we can communicate with Him fully.
It is impossible to improve our flesh at all.
The most important thing for us is that God can use our weakness of flesh for good.
When we are weak, we can be strong and powerful by turning our mind to the spirit. Praise the Lord for His mercy.
Amen, the flesh is helping us by forcing us to turn to our spirit.
Yes, the flesh is hopeless and we hate it, but on the other hand, it causes us to turn to our spirit.
Even our failures, God will use for us to gain more Christ and often, when our condition is pitiful, we are more open to Him doing so.
Amen, we need to measure our days differently. Not whether we were victorious but whether we gained Christ!
We should not be too disappointed that we have the flesh. The flesh forces us to turn to our spirit. How unfathomable is the Father’s wisdom.
The only thing God cares for is that we gain Christ. Our fear of the flesh compels us to turn to our spirit and gain Christ. We must have realistic and humble expectations.
Although we diligently try to reign over death, sin and Satan, we experience many failures. God is able to use our failures to work more of Christ into us.
Our sinful, ugly flesh makes us desperate to flee into our spirit.
God’s goal is not holiness, spirituality or victory. His goal is to work Himself into us. The Christian life is not a matter of victory; it’s a matter of gaining the Spirit.
May we continually set our mind on the spirit in order to gain Christ.
We cannot rid ourselves of the flesh but, in cooperation with the Lord, we can use our ugly flesh to cause us to work out our salvation with fear & trembling.
Hallelujah for our ugly flesh and hallelujah for our mingled spirit brother!
We all need to turn from the flesh to the spirit.
We need to realize that the flesh is a hopeless case and that it is here for our good.
It is here helping us and forcing us all the time, moment by moment, to turn to the spirit, to trust in the Lord, and to no longer have any confidence in our flesh.
Hallelujah, the flesh is here helping us and forcing us to turn to the spirit.
We should not be disappointed. We have the flesh, but we also have to say,
What a mercy to see that even our sinful, ugly, flesh with its defeats, failures, defects and shortcomings can be a help to us, because in His sovereignty, the Lord uses it to press us into our spirit , that we may gain more of Him!
God is not interested in our spiritual victory but that we we grow with the growth of God and gain more of Him as we turn to Him, realising that apart from Him we are hopeless case!
This sharing reminds me of a song we love and sing many times – Draw Me, Dear Lord! You can sing along via Hymnal.net here https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/ns/302 and via songbase here https://songbase.life/615
Draw me, dear Lord.
Draw me today.
From everything else, dear Lord,
Draw me away.
1. O Lord, this whole world
Seems to weigh me down.
All the cares, the strife, the sin,
Within me and all around.
2. But, Lord, I want to set my heart,
And, Lord, I want to stay with You.
’Cause only when You’re near to me
Is everything okay.
3. And though everything may fall apart
Or everything go my way,
It doesn’t really matter, Lord,
As long as I gain You today.
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Ameen!!
Indeed our God is so wise. He has made ways for us to press us and cause us to open up and turn to our spirit that we may gain the Lord fully.
Oh what a wonderful God we have. Truly, His heart is a heart of love. His heart is always good toward us. And He is faithful to His calling that we may gain Christ.
This is very encouraging!!!🙏🙏🙏🥰🥰🥰
Nm 14:8-9a If Jehovah is pleased with us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against Jehovah, nor should you fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.
Js 14:10b-11 And now, look, today I am eighty-five years old. Today I am still as strong as I was on the day Moses sent me out; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for battle and for going out and coming in.
Are we loving seekers or mere letter keepers?
What is the condition of our ❤️? Is it open for the Lord to make His home in us?
If we’re not aware of how crucial our heart is—how it’s the very place where true, inward transformation begins—then the Lord cannot settle there. It’s in our ❤️ that the divine seed is sown, and it’s there that He longs to dwell.
Yes, we may exercise our spirit by calling on His name and worshiping Him, but if our ❤️ is far from Him, we become letter keepers rather than loving seekers. Instead of expressing Christ, we may end up expressing the satan.
Letter keepers focus on outward appearances—becoming critical and judgmental: pointing fingers at how people dress, celebrate holidays or birthdays, or make lifestyle choices. The moment we start saying, “You should or shouldn’t do this,” we elevate the outward letter above the inward reality. And that reality is Christ. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
So, we must learn to continually turn our ❤️ to the Lord.
Only when He shines through His living Word can we truly see what we are treasuring in our ❤️. If our heart is filled with love for culture, opinions, traditions, and personal preferences, He cannot make His home there.
All the real issues—jealousy, resentment, gossip, murmur, materialism, and pride—are rooted in the heart. Unless we are emptied of these, we may know much, but we’ll lack the subjective genuine experience of Christ.
How can He be the owner of the house if He’s not allowed to enter and take possession?
2 Corinthians 3:16
But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
If we daily and moment by moment turn our ❤️ to Him, we will love Him more, receive His life and light, and shine together as His lampstand in every locality.
Then, satan will not prevail. The tree of death will wither, and the spiritual forces of evil will be overcome by the praising, glorifying army we become.
“Love is related to life, and life is related to light…” brother Lee
For us to genuinely, deeply, and intrinsically love Him, we need to know Him. You would never, ever marry someone you don’t know. To know Him, we need to read the Word.
Once we begin to truly know Him, life within us is strengthened, and light comes upon us, shining on the path of transformation we are walking.
Amen!