Victory over the flesh is so hard to put into a formula, because no formula exists. We are a people that want everything so neat and tidy and easy to impliment into our daily lives. The ways of the Lord are not always so. His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. So it is with the flesh. We want to repair it, to fix it up, to make it reputable and our servant. We hang on to it like it is our very life and we believe all the lies that our flesh speaks to us. We take care of it and dress it up in religious attire hoping to go un-noticed for what it truly is...death and misery beyond compare. We accept it's delights as a child accepts candy from a stranger, only this is our familiar friend...one we can trust...God says it must die! In fact, God says that it is already dead. This statement flies in the face of our perceived reality...If the flesh is dead, then why do we seem to have so much trouble with it? Or is it the flesh that we are having the trouble with? God's word says that "those that are in Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it's lusts and passions". His word also says "to walk in or by the Spirit and we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh". Put these two together and you get "your flesh is dead...don't let your dead flesh control your new life in the Spirit...make no provision for the flesh". To understand victory one must have a proper definition of the enemy...who or what it is we are fighting against. The flesh is this...the way we lived and undestood life and our reactions to it as a lost dead person and after salvation as a deceived saved person. Old habits are hard to break, especially if one is striving to break a habit that really no longer exists. We are new creations in Christ Jesus...old things have passed away...all things have become new. It is a matter of seeing by faith and believing by faith that which God says is true regardless of how we feel. Satan's ploy is to get you to fight against an already dead enemy so that you become a believer caught up in a kind of civil war with yourself. Jesus said that "a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand". This is what we become when we enter into the conflict of suppression and renovation against the flesh. We fall into the flesh to fight against the flesh. We strive to win the battle. We are trapped in an endless cycle of supposed victory and defeat...Sometimes we appear to win...sometimes we lose terribly. This is all part of Satan's master plan to discount the word of God, defeat our faith, and plunge us into an endless cycle of doubt and despair. The force of sin brings about the presence of sin into our lives disconnecting us from the fellowship in Jesus that we need to have new life. We become unable to walk in and by the Spirit and the lusts of the flesh are fulfilled. "Sin's desire is for you but you must master him" (original). Sin, the satanic counterfit of the Holy Spirit, exercises a force compelling believers to live, act, and react according to a dead entity...the believers flesh. We never engage the real enemy in spiritual warfare because he goes unseen behind the facade. If you end up fighting the wrong enemy how can you ever have a victory? You can't, and this is exactly what Satan wants. Jesus said "I am the vine, you are the branches...abide in me...without me you can do nothing". To abide in Jesus is to walk in and by the Spirit...not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh...That is victory my friend...that is freedom. To see ones' self crucified with Christ and living by the Spirit and not by the flesh, by faith, is to believe what God says is so...regardless of what we feel or how things may appear to be. Jesus is the victor...We enter into His victory as we abide in Him. Be a believing believer...trust it is so...and the response to your faith is all the grace and mercy of God to overcome decidedly..