Greek scholar, Rick Renner, did a study on the danger of Christians entertaining sin in their lives. In his book Sparkling Gems from the Greek, he showed how the word works in Galatians 5:19 comes from the Greek word ergos. It denotes to something being produced out of someone’s dedicated efforts. Paul connects this word ergos, to the flesh or carnal nature by saying, if the flesh is allowed to go its own way and do what it wants, it will work very hard to produce fleshly results in our lives. In fact, when the flesh is not surrendered to the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, it will work around the clock, 24 hours a day, to produce fruit that is hurtful, damaging, and even deadly. (Pg.493). This means that when we step back from meditating on the Word of God and renewing our minds to its truth so that our spirt-nature dominates over our carnal nature, we begin down a path that can lead to spiritual death. Before we became born-again, the Bible says we were under bondage to sin (Romans 6:17). Ephesians 2:2 says, “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” The Greek word for works here, is energeo, and denotes a force that is energizing. The devil had authority to accomplish his destructive will in our lives before we were born again. However, at the point of our salvation, Jesus set us free from the devil’s control and now the Spirit of God works in us and is supernaturally energizing us to fulfil God’s will for our lives (Philippians 2:13). However, if we choose to go back to living in sin, we resurrect that carnal nature with its destructive energy. We allow ourselves to become influenced by our unredeemed nature. As we continue along this route – we walk out of God’s will for our lives; and our willingness and instinct to hear and be led by His Spirit is dulled. Which is why we are told to deliberately put off the flesh nature and put on the Lord Jesus Christ! As you give yourself to the Word of God, know that you are being constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, giving God’s Spirit the power to lead you into victory over sin and supernaturally energizing you to do His will and keep you free from any destructive force of the enemy!