Tag Archives: flesh

THE GREATEST WAR EVER WAGED

What, do you think, is the greatest war ever waged? Great wars of the past? Napoleonic wars? The two great World Wars? Russia versus Ukraine? The IDF versus Hamas? The war of Armageddon yet to come?

No, not by a long shot! The greatest wars ever fought in the world are the outcome of the greatest war… within.

‭James‬ ‭4:1‭-‬3‬ ‭NLT‬
[1] “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? [2] You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. [3] And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”

Every war ever fought on earth is the outcome of the war that rages in us, the self against God’s Spirit. Adam’s choice to follow the self lost the war for all mankind from then on. We, until we submit our lives to Jesus through faith in His death, will continue to lose the war.

‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16‭-‬18‬ ‭NLT‬
[16] “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. [17] The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. [18] But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”

In many streams of the church today, there are subtle ways in which spiritual leaders feed the self in themselves and in us. They elevate themselves by adopting titles, and others, for example, by encouraging competition through spiritual gifts.
They promote discontent by teaching the “prosperity” gospel; they foster doubt when expectations are not met instead of building faith in a faithful God… and much more.

Instead of preaching Jesus, as the all-sufficient Saviour, they focus on experience as the test of true spirituality. Faith becomes “faith for…”
whatever we want rather than “faith in…” a sovereign and faithful Saviour.

And so, the war inside keeps waging and is often lost to our greatest enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. This world and what it offers is the lure instead of godliness and the world to come.

The discipline of suffering and hardship becomes “the devil is attacking me, stealing from me,” instead of “God is disciplining me so that I may share in His holiness.”

‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:10‭-‬11‬ ‭NLT‬
[10] “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. [11] No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

God’s love and sovereignty are traded for a cosmic war, with us as the prize, and no assurance that God will win.

For those who have committed themselves to a faithful Creator who is sovereign in all things and who works, in all things, for our good, the war has already been won.

‭Romans‬ ‭8:37‬ ‭NLT‬
[37] “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

‭Colossians‬ ‭2:13‭-‬15‬ ‭NLT‬
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. [14] He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2:14‬ ‭NLT‬
[14]” But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.”

‭1 John‬ ‭5:4‭-‬5‬ ‭NLT‬
[4] “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. [5] And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Victory begins in the deepest recesses of our hearts when we make the choices that initiate our victory against the world, the flesh and the devil.

‭1 John‬ ‭2:15‭-‬17‬ ‭NLT‬
[15]”Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. [16] For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. [17] And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

So, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to be overcomers through the victory Jesus won for us on the cross. If we do this, we can be sure that we are not part of a warring world that persistently fights to satisfy its own selfish desires.

‭Romans‬ ‭6:4‬ ‭NLT‬
[4] For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives….
[6] We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. [7] For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin….
[10] When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. [11] So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus….
[13] Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
[16] Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living….
[18] Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

When we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ’s authority and power, we are no longer involved in the wars that are tearing the world apart. We are in the company of Jesus, who won the war to end all wars and is coming again as the Prince of Peace to establish His reign of eternal peace.

‭Isaiah‬ ‭9:6‭-‬7‬ ‭NLT‬
[6] “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [7] His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”

JOURNEY TO WHOLENESS

JOURNEY TO WHOLENESS

“Jesus answered, ‘Flesh give birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'”  John 3: 5-8 (NIV).

That’s it! It’s a mystery — a secret finally revealed.

Every other religion has a set of beliefs and a set of rules to which its devotees subscribe the  origin of which is in the mind of man and the outcome is the best or worst that man can produce. The only authority religion has is force applied from the outside or persuasion based on lies. It cannot produce life or change a human being’s basic nature.

Jesus, the Son of God, however, was sent from the Father to remove the barrier between Himself and His human offspring and to return the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him and receive Him. The Spirit’s work is to restore in us what He intended us to be from the beginning.

This interaction between God and human beings through the Holy Spirit is very different from even the best of what religion or philosophy offers. Self-help is useless because it cannot provide the energy to effect anything but frustration and disappointment, or self-satisfaction if you think you’ve arrived!

Jesus explained to Nicodemus that the best that flesh can do is reproduce itself. What is “flesh”? It’s the nature we were born with — self-centred, selfish and self-seeking. I am the centre of my universe and everything revolves around me and is about me and for me. This attitude is the antithesis of everything that God is. It blocks my fellowship with Him and my understanding of Him and His ways. 

I am caught up and locked into a way of thinking and a way of living that shuts me out of His felt presence and keeps me a prisoner to a life of greed, selfishness and self-destruction, and doomed to face God’s justice as a firstborn son “in Adam”. ‘If you want to be free of that mind-set,’ said Jesus, ‘you need a power outside of yourself to release you and give you a new nature so that you can begin again.’

To be made new takes something far greater that “Seven Easy Steps to a New Life”. You can change your ways for a few days, or even weeks, but you will inevitably slip back into who you really are because you still have your unchanged, inborn, selfish nature that holds you in a vice-grip.

It was God’s original intention for human beings to live in union with Him so that they would experience the love, joy and peace that are the essence of who He is. Adam lost that when he chose to go his own way, and dragged all his offspring into lives of misery and chaos. As long as the flesh rules, this can never change.

Nicodemus recognized that there was something so radically different about Jesus that he had to find out what it was. ‘It’s the Holy Spirit,’ Jesus told him. When the Holy Spirit is welcomed by handing the reins back to God, He becomes fused to our spirit, bringing God into the picture once again. The old nature is still there but it is overshadowed by a new disposition, the very nature of God.

Change happens, not self-help change that lasts for a little while, but real, radical change because God, by His Spirit, is now in residence. ‘It’s as mysterious as the wind,’ Jesus said. ‘You can’t see the Holy Spirit, but you can see what He does.’ He changes the heart, the attitude, the disposition, and the outcome is evident by the way we think and the way we treat people.

It happened wherever people responded to Jesus. Zaccheus is a good example. From a self-seeking and greedy tax-collector, he became an honest and generous believer who put his money where his mouth was — literally! Jesus’ response was, ‘Today salvation has come to this house. Zaccheus has begun his journey to wholeness.’

Now that’s real change! Have you started your journey? 

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

PERFECTLY GOD!

PERFECTLY GOD!

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me’).”

“Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is the closest in relationship with the Father, has made Him known.” John 1:14-18 (NIV).

Don’t you love John’s positive declaration? No beating about the bush! In the most magnificent poetic language he could think of, he declared, no kidding, that Jesus is God! He didn’t even tell us how it happened. It happened — God, in the person of His Son, came to us — a man, yet so much more than a man, the God-man, God in human flesh.

God the Father clothed His living Word, the Son, in a human body and sent Him to earth to live among His people in order to show them, through the life of a flesh-and-blood person, exactly what He is like because, ever since He met Moses at the burning bush in Arabia and called His people into covenant with Him at Mount Sinai, they just didn’t get it. 

His people wanted a god they could see and touch, so they made their own and worshipped what they had created out of their own imagination. And the gods they made were pretty awful!

And so, God said, ‘If you want a God you can see, I’ll send you one — just like me — so that you can get a feel of the real thing!’ And when Jesus came, they were so out of touch with the real God that they didn’t recognise Him. They were so used to their distorted, out-of-shape god who was a stickler for keeping impossible and unrealistic laws, and was thirsty for blood and punished people who sinned, that they were uncomfortable with the One He came to reveal. He was too nice, too kind and too full of mercy — so they killed Him!

How can you be comfortable with someone who is full of grace and truth when you are full of laws and rituals and sacrifices and being so “holy” that you despise everyone who isn’t, especially despicable people like tax collectors and prostitutes? But, in spite of all that, He just kept on being kind to everyone and telling them the truth whether they believed it or not.

Moses…Jesus…the Law…grace and truth? Are they really opposites? How can they be when the instructions given at Mount Sinai on the best way to live, came from God. It’s just that the people didn’t really understand what it was all about. They were introduced to a life that would show all the nations around them what their God was really like based on the fact that there was a Lamb, already slain from before the foundation of the world, who had taken away their sin and healed the breach between them and their God.

The lambs they had to slaughter were supposed to be just a reminder to them that all was well between them and God and that they were free to love one another…and the people who were not part of them because God loved them. They were spiritual babies and needed a daily reminder of God’s mercy, but they thought that their God wanted blood — a blood-thirsty God. They didn’t realise that the shedding of blood was for their benefit so that they would know they were forgiven.

When Jesus came, He showed them the real God, a God who wanted mercy, not sacrifice; a God who wanted them to be kind to one another, not judge and criticise one another for doing something good on the Sabbath or reaping a little bit of grain to eat when they were hungry. He showed them a God who forgave and didn’t hold grudges and most of all, a God who was real, through and through, and didn’t pretend to be one thing and do something else.

Jesus is qualified to show us the Father because He has always been with the Father and has the same nature as the Father. He is a “chip off the old block” as the saying goes. He is a perfect mirror image of the Father. When we look at Him, we see the Father because He is like God and He is God.

That’s what John wanted us to know. We can trust the Father because we can see Him in everything that Jesus said and everything He did.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

FLESH OR SPIRIT

FLESH OR SPIRIT

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on death, life and peace, what the flesh desires but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:5-8.

But, for Paul, it’s not all good news!

The bad news is that all have sinned. The good news is that Christ died for all. The bad news is that not all people are saved. The good news is that all who believe in Jesus Christ are no longer under condemnation. The bad news is that those who are still following the desires of their fleshly nature are under the sentence of death. The good news is that those whose minds are focussed on the Holy Spirit are alive and at peace with God.

Once the distinction had been between Jew and Gentile because the Jews thought they were better than the Gentiles. They had the law of God and they didn’t worship idols like the Gentiles did, so they thought, so they were favoured by God and the Gentiles were not.

But now the distinction has shifted from race group to faith group. There are still two kingdoms at work, not Jew and Gentile but the kingdom of God and the dominion of Satan. How do we know to which kingdom we belong? It depends on who controls our minds. With who or what are our thoughts preoccupied? Since what we do and who we are begins in the mind, what we think in the end determines our destiny.

The person who is focussed on self; self-indulgence, self-fulfilment, self-gratification, is clearly still living in the realm of the flesh. Selfishness dominates; the world is very small, consisting only of self and those who can contribute to the pleasure and satisfaction of his selfish desires.

The person who has escaped from the clutches of the flesh through believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and receiving the salvation He bought for us through His death, has a new focus – the Spirit of God who lives in his heart and enables him to set a new direction in his life. Instead of pleasing himself and satisfying every fleshly whim, he now wants to please God and enjoy God’s peace and do His will.

Life and peace – isn’t that what everyone wants to enjoy? However, the pursuit of life and peace takes people down different paths depending on what they believe. The woman Jesus met at the well outside the village of Scar in Samaria believed the life was about being loved by a man. The path she took to fulfil her desire, however, took her into more and more guilt and shame and left her lonely, dissatisfied and despised by her fellow villagers.

Jesus gently revealed to her that the love she thought that a man would give her, would never satisfy her inner need, because only God’s love and a life lived for Him would bring her the love and peace she craved. Jesus called it “living water”. Drinking deeply of God’s love revealed through the gift of His Son would satisfy her thirsty soul forever…but she had to make a choice. She could not carry on with her old life. It was killing her. She had to turn her back on what she believed and embrace a new faith, a faith in the Messiah she had just met, who came to lead her out of her slavery to sin and into the realm of a new Master

We all have to make the same choice if we are to experience the life Jesus made possible for us, and the inward peace that will hold us steady as we navigate all the stresses and demands of this mortal life. It is impossible to have one foot in each kingdom. It’s either God’s kingdom or the devil’s domain. It can never be both…and…

When you choose God’s way and trust the Lord Jesus, you are on the way to everlasting life!

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Asleep On The Battlefield

ASLEEP ON THE BATTLEFIELD

Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ He said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Once more He went away and prayed the same thing.

When He came back, He again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him. Returning the third time, He said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!’ (Mark 14: 37-42).

Agitated! You can feel it in His words and actions. Agonising prayer! Backwards and forwards to the sleeping disciples! Rebuke and warning! All the signs of someone who was restless and agitated, anticipating something and desperately wanting His disciples to be in it with Him.

And the disciples? They were oblivious to the impending tragedy that was about to overtake their Master and them with Him. Despite His rebukes and His warnings, they slept on. Not even the sound of His agonised cries in the silence of the garden could disturb their sleep. They were finished, exhausted beyond caring. O, they had felt His mood alright. They were aware that something was up, but somehow they just could not rouse themselves to be a part of it. They were beyond weary.  

Peter was the one who got the rebuke. He was always out front, leading both by example and by his big mouth. He should have taken the lead in setting up a watch so that Jesus could engage His Father in prayer knowing that His disciples were guardingHis back. He didn’t want Judas sneaking up on them and taking them all prisoner. It was His fight this time, and He had to do it alone.

There is a plaintive note in Jesus’ words to Peter. ‘Couldn’t you keep watch for me for just one hour?’ But Peter didn’t understand what he was to watch for. Had Jesus explained to them that Judas was about to break in on their company and arrest Him? Perhaps He wanted them to alert Him when they caught the first glimpse of the arresting mob in the garden – not that they came quietly, it seems.

Jesus had no intention of escaping into the darkness. He could have, but He didn’t. He could have slipped away long before the mob arrived. He knew what Judas was up to. He knew they would find Him there. Unlike any other villain who was always on the run, Jesus anticipated His arrest and steeled Himself for the moment. That’s what His prayer was all about.

Was He going to cringe and fight, or was He going to submit to the injustice and cruelty He knew was coming, in obedience to His Father? This was the moment for which all of the angelic hosts had waited; the moment towards which all of human history had pointed. He had to decide. Would He go through with it as a true son, or would He flinch and fail? His own destiny and the destiny of the human race hung on the next few hours. And the disciples slept!

All the lessons of His earthly life as a human being and the Son of God, a role He had never played until the moment when He burst in on human history, prepared Him for this moment. Unlike His disciples and as weary as He must have been as well, He could not sleep. He understood how vital it was to be fortified with the awareness of His Father’s presence and approval. Just as He was prepared for the conflict in the wilderness, so now He must be ready for the greatest conflict of all. Would He submit like a son or would He resist like a rebel?

And the disciples? They were asleep and so unprepared! Instead of catching the spirit of their Master and praying for strength to trust the Father in their time of testing, they were asleep on the battlefield. They were not even aware that there was an impending battle, for them as well as for their Master. They drowsed away the moments when they should have been praying.

How often we are also caught unawares because we are unprepared for our moment!  The tests are sprung on us unawares. God gives us opportunity, time after time, to trust Him in the ups and downs of life. Then there comes the storm, the one big, violent upheaval in our lives for which the many small tests should have prepared us. Have we learned our lessons well?

Jesus said, ‘Be alert! Keep watch!’ For what? For the unguarded moments when Satan slips in to trip us up. Don’t ever sleep on the battlefield. The enemy never sleeps!

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . . (1 Peter 5: 8-9a)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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