Apart from the Holy Ghost, there is no life except the flesh life. Paul the apostle said, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). The flesh is beset with fears, doubts, and numerous struggles that are impossible to overcome without the life of the Spirit. Romans chapter eight is filled with the contradictions of the flesh in war against the Holy Spirit. Every battle within the believer is a struggle of the flesh against the Spirit. Most Christians have no sense of what is wrong, and they do not understand why they are living in constant defeat. The flesh must die to the Spirit. Only Jesus Christ can bring about that death in us.

The righteousness of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ. He came in the flesh to put flesh to death by His sacrifice. His blood was shed as our substitute of death. If we surrender fully to His glorious victory, we will be free to live above the flesh life. It’s a powerful victory where the flesh loses all control to defeat us. Again, the Apostle Paul declared, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). This is Lordship living or living completely victorious over the carnal life of flesh and sin.

It does not stop there; it is not just negative victory. Where flesh once was on the throne of the heart, it is now replaced with the Holy Ghost on the throne. “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). The mortal body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. He is supernatural and divine, and He comes to flood the soul with “rivers of living water.” Jesus said it, not Joseph Chambers. “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” (John 7: 38-39). This is the desperate need in the Lord’s church today.

Study church history and you will find that Martin Luther; Reformation Leader, Charles Finney; Presbyterian Evangelist and Educator, Dwight L. Moody; Baptist Evangelist and Educator, and almost every other past historic saint was filled with the Holy Ghost.

Those that speak of this Spirit-filled life as an experience reserved only for first century Christianity have missed the truth of both the Holy Scripture and church history. More important is the empty church world that is full of empty religious people. We are cheating God and leaving our world empty of the powerful witness of Holy Ghost filled saints. Apostle Peter made it plain that this promise is for every one of you, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:39-40). It is life that is breathtaking when you live it full of His Holy Spirit.