Aggressive pursuit of His peace!

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Eph 2:3

Are you aware that all that most men will do in this life will be a fulfilment of the desires of the flesh and the mind? This is true both for believers and unbelievers. The origin of this is evidently Adam.

If language means anything, it implies that Adam was not acting out and fulfilling the desires of God. You see, Adam was the first to walk in the flesh. He gave birth to it. Then we are told that his mind was effectively dominated by the flesh, and then he fulfilled or acted on that which his mind and his flesh were agreed upon.

Adam was not deceived. It wasn’t something that Satan did to him, it was some deadly force, mightier that anything that the enemy could do. This force had seized control of the government of Adam’s life. Something had happened in Adam that made him eat of that tree in genesis. That is the origin of the flesh. Adam demonstrated a preference for the flesh, we can demonstrate a preference for the new nature.

I want you to see that the bible talks about the lusts or passions of the flesh and the desires of the mind. We are told that this is the effective summary of what the unbeliever calls life. Imagine what it means to have 80 or 90 years experience in the flesh. Paul is now writing to Christians and reminding them of this flesh walk. Majority of the men on earth today live all of their lives and die and never once walk away from the flesh!

Men effectively say “no” to the devil even when they were unbelievers, for it is evident that no sinner carries out all of the wild things that swim in his mind, yet according to the revelation conveyed through the apostle, no sinner has ever dominated the flesh in its passions, desirings and longings. In simple terms the flesh is a stronger opponent than the devil or the world.

The challenge mounted against your new nature in Christ Jesus will largely come from one or all of three sources: the world, the devil and the flesh. The greatest will directly come from the flesh. God has revealed in his word that both the devil and the world need the flesh in order to effectively challenge the new nature. In simple terms as I learn the secret of mounting an aggressive attack on my flesh, the devil’s foothold is reduced to zero.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh        Gal 5:16

You are aware that Jesus has not killed our flesh. A fellow who participates in the new nature of God in his spirit still has to face the challenge that the flesh will throw at him. Sometimes this challenge is subtle, and at other times blatant, but make no mistake – the flesh is the greatest challenge that can make mockery of the wealth resident in your spirit man this very hour.

The flesh imposes its regiment upon your soul in the form of desires. It is this desire or longing that is referred to as lust. There are tendencies in your soul today that are as old as you are, you grew up knowing that characteristic as true of you. Nothing could be farther from the truth though. Much of what we call our personality today is actually flesh-inspired tendencies of moodiness, gloom, sadness, worry and the likes. You even hear some Christians confidently refer to themselves as gloomy or melancholic – beautiful language for the supremacy of the flesh over the powerful force we know as the human emotion. Your soul is a gift from God. It is designed to express your new nature, just like your body was designed to be the house and dwelling place of God through your spirit.

As you read this, perhaps your flesh is already staging a protest, you think that gloom or some "5 minutes of daily madness" describes you for you have known these to be true all of your life, but it is not you, it is a gift from Adam through the fall. Do not take your emotions and your mind for granted – your soul has the capacity to transform every aspect of your life to whatever it is that you expose it to continually! If you expose your soul to the flesh, you will transform to and fulfil the lusts of the flesh! Experience after experience will confirm to you that it is your personality at work, but it is a lie. You must learn to resist the flesh’s hold on your spirit. In your new nature there is calm and boldness - the type that abounds in God's very nature.

Paul tells us in Galatians that there is an answer to this Adamic dilemma called the flesh. The answer is to walk in our new nature. Your true personality is expressed through your new nature. This true personality will not showcase itself by some overpowering force whether you like it or not, no! you are required to cooperate by yielding to your new nature.

It tells us a profound truth – if I walk in the spirit, I will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. This truth also implies that if I walk in the flesh I will not fulfil the lusts of the spirit. You see, the word “lust” simply means intense desire. There are things that your new nature wants fulfilled in your world today, just like there are things that your flesh wants fulfilled. It is up to you, which you choose to walk in.

Flesh will inspire you to say “I am a moody person” or “I am depressive by nature” when you say that, you are acknowledging the flesh. Your tongue is being used as the bucket to draw out of the wrong river, and its water can be very very bitter!! It is actually the flesh at work because mood swings or depression are not listed amongst the fruit of the spirit in Gal 5:22.

Take back your emotion today! Dig your foot in the sands of life and refuse to allow the flesh dictate how you feel any longer. The flesh is contrary to the new nature in your spirit. You see, just like salvation for your spirit is a gift, there are feelings of wellness in the river within you. You must receive these also by faith. Feelings are powerful, do not submit it to the forces of nature around you, for that exposes you to fleshly manipulations that will strip your emotions bare and cut you down. The hostility has been raging for as long as you have been born again. Now you must recognise that there is a war, then boldly fight to win! You dig your foot by taking a stand in the word. Only the word of God contains the blue print of your true emotion and mind. The more you know of yourself through God’s word, the less effective the flesh’s aggression on your life becomes.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:        Phil 2:14

Paul penned those lines with his hands and feet chained, treated like a common prisoner of Rome. He was standing waist deep in the fluid flow of the sewage system of Philippi! This man through whom God brought forth a large chunk of the New Testament was literally standing in dung. He wasn’t going to allow the flesh use this to seize the government of his emotions. He lifted his eyes and locked in on his new nature and wrote that all things can be done without murmuring! What a salvation we have in God.

I discovered in my own life that sadness and gloom have gradually lost their appeal to me. There used to be an intense war in keeping my soul away from gloom and sadness, but I have realised that the war is only as intense as the ignorance that my soul walks in. As the light of God’s word has shown me my true feelings and my true emotions, the intensity of the war has reduced! The flesh hasn’t given up, but the intensity is largely gone in this area. We can aggressively walk in the new nature taking territories of our emotion and mind back one stand at a time …..


…To be continued

According to his mercy

S SEKOU ABODUNRIN

4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Titus 3:4,5

The apostle Paul in his letter to Titus, himself a minister, makes these most revealing of statements and in the process presents a truth worthy of our consideration. This is damaging to the slant of the human mind in its natural reasoning. It seems that the intelligence behind these verses defies human logic. One can easily relate to it if Paul had said … not by evil works, which we had done, … but Paul sets Titus’ mind on a course that keeps him in tune with divine facts. We tend to loose sight of this, and this is the very reason why the Apostle thinks it important to tell a fellow minister like Titus and the Holy Spirit thought it important enough to be recorded for all eternity. Think about it, the human has a tendency to over estimate our goodness or “works of righteousness”.

There are two operations of the Spirit highlighted by the Apostle here – the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the washing of regeneration. These two operations are of God and not of man; by faith, we are the thankful recipients of both.

The Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel -

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36: 25,26

The significant “I” in that place is the living God. He uses the symbol of water to represent the Spirit of God in his workings. I want you to notice that man needs to be clean – both God and most men are agreed on this point. God is certain that the man in need of cleansing cannot cleanse himself. Man disagrees with this, for man nurses the ambition of self-deliverance. God undertakes this sprinkling with “clean water” that separates man from sin. This beautifully illustrates grace – this cleansing is all of God, the man is required to submit himself to this divine operation. It is beautiful; God declares, “I will cleanse you”. The cleansing with water is the means by which man will be given a new spirit. This is the new birth.

This cleansing with water according to Ezekiel is the washing of regeneration spoken of in Titus. When Paul therefore says that the washing of regeneration and renewing are of the Spirit and not of man, he is uttering divine truths.

You’d most likely have heard about the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the genesis account. It holds some keys for us that will help us in understanding the truths presented to Titus. Man has eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of this tree is knowledge, a knowledge lacking in divine insight. He possesses a skewed and distorted perspective of things for this knowledge is apart from God. Prior to eating of this tree the knowledge that man functioned by flowed from fellowshipping with God. This means that all of the goodness that man related to flowed from God in the beginning. Asides from the goodness that was in God, Adam acknowledged no other type of goodness.
Man learnt another source of “good” when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are lessons we can learn from God’s instruction to Adam in the garden – man is not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Eating the tree symbolizes partaking of the flesh.

The flesh represents another form of intelligence imparting a knowledge that is enmity against the true knowledge of God. It operates from two areas of strength. This is represented by “good and evil”.

The implication of this is that every man will respond to the flesh by having a visible outflow of evil or good. Stated simply there are “bad sinners” and “good sinners”, but sinners all the same! Without struggle you can more readily accommodate the good sinner for he is less of a menace. We often concentrate our reconciliation efforts on the “bad” sinner exclusively because his need is more discernable. Truth is no one wants a good sinner in hell. The reason we do this is because we mostly fail to see that salvation had nothing to do with man’s good or bad works.

We are trained through norms and customs to shun the flow of evil that originates in the flesh – rightly understanding that this is not good. The trouble starts when custom judges that there are actions originating in the flesh that are considered “good” – this is where the biblical revelation deviates from what natural man is willing and ready to accept. According to the word of God, no product of the flesh is truly good. Man measures his “good” against “evil” and considers that his estimation is correct. This is the error of the knowledge of good and evil.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:… Romans 7:18a

The more you grasp of the grace of God, the more aware you become of this distinction between these two forms of goodness – flesh inspired goodness and divine goodness. While most men can relate to “good versus evil”, the point communicated through the grace of God is the subtle danger of reliance upon the goodness of the flesh. The goodness of the flesh is as deadly spiritually as the evil of the flesh is, for both flow from death.

Fleshy good is rooted in pride; you see this when you present the gospel to a man that is of good behaviour. He is convinced that it is the other notorious fellow that needs the gospel, for his own good deeds has met God’s standards and secured his eternity. You will find this stated in some form or another by all such men. The end result is a resistance to God’s grace. Sometimes the problem is with the fellow presenting the gospel; he is also as confused about the real issues.

True goodness is of a divine origin and is a gift received into the human spirit for expression in this world.

The “good” of the flesh is acceptable to the human mind and is not shocking as the evil of the flesh is, but all products of the flesh are shocking to the divine mind and logic. Fleshly good could not cleanse man. It produces morality and not spirituality. While morality itself is not bad, you discover that it represents a stronger resistance to receiving the grace of God than almost any other product of the flesh. The moral man devoid of divine revelation is often puffed up not realising that he is in dire need of help. Unconsciously the moral man looks to the goodness of his flesh, convinces himself that his good outweighs his bad and judges himself complete wanting nothing – he is deceived. It is the utter failure of this fleshly good that warranted God undertaking to cleanse man by himself. When a man shuns the revelation of this divine goodness, he relies on the goodness of his flesh – this is the reason for and the origin of religion. Flesh is the force sustaining all forms of religion. God presents kindness and mercy sustained by his own nature and life.

It seems that the last frontier we cross is an awakening out of the confusion of not distinguishing the false goodness of the flesh, from the true goodness that flows from God’s nature alone. Like you are engaged in the battle of good vs. evil, you need to recognise the subtler, but more damaging battle of good vs. good!

… to be continued