I found such a great description from John cassian from the 4th century.
It reminds me so much of my own struggle mostly at the beginning of my walk. I
said the beginning of my walk because as time goes by and we learn to put to death
the deeds of the flesh, we learn to practice “put off & put on” the
struggle truly subsides. It feels as if you reach a place where your soul knows
your spirit has taken charge of things now, so, it can rest because you have
made the decision to give the throne that was occupied by the self for so long, to
Him our only Master.
While it takes a tremendous work and commitment to put off the deed
of the flesh but we do it through learning to stand on God’s Word by faith. If
we learn to do it just because we have a “to do list” kind of attitude in our
mind, well, it’s going to make a major difference whether we overcome or not. It
is the difference between the victorious life and a life in bondage.
Here you go:
Wherefore in this passage we ought to take “flesh” as meaning
not man, i.e., his material substance, but the carnal will and evil desires,
just as “spirit” does not mean anything material, but the good and
spiritual desires of the soul: a meaning which the blessed
Apostle has clearly given just before, where he begins: “But I say, walk in the spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the desires of the flesh; for the flesh lust
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh:
but these are contrary the one to the other, that ye
may not do what ye would.”
And since these two the desires of the flesh and
of the spirit co-exist in one and the same man, there arises an internal
warfare daily carried on within us, while the lust of the flesh which
rushes blindly towards sin, revels in those delights which are connected with
present ease. And on the other hand the desire of the spirit is
opposed to these, and wishes to be entirely absorbed in spiritual efforts, so
that it actually wants to be rid of even the necessary uses of the flesh,
longing to be so constantly taken up with these things as to desire to have no
share of anxiety about the weakness of the flesh.
The flesh delights in wantonness and lust: the spirit
does not even tolerate natural desires. The one wants to have plenty of sleep,
and to be satiated with food: the other is nourished with vigils and fasting,
so as to be unwilling even to admit of sleep and food for the needful
purposes of life. The one longs to be enriched with plenty of everything,
the other is satisfied even without the possession of a daily supply of scanty
food. The one seeks to look sleek by means of baths, and to be surrounded
every day by crowds of flatterers, the other delights in dirt and
filth, and the solitude of the inaccessible desert, and dreads the
approach of all mortal men. The one lives on the esteem and applause of men,
the other glories in injuries offered to it, and in persecutions.
