Who do you serve?
It can be 6am where I am in Texas and 3am in the Pacific. If people are awake the battle begins from within. This battle never cares what time it is. It resides from within.
As followers of Christ Jesus as our Lord and savior it appears we share something in common with those that do NOT. There be a constant similarity amongst us all. This is clear because we all have this flesh. So the question for everyone always comes back to how are you handling moments that challenge your flesh?
The flesh is the single thing we all have in common. No-one will dispute that. So when we read what the Bible tells us about this flesh we get a better understanding of what we are truly subjected to while in it.
In Galatians 5:19-22 it says this. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Can this be disputed? Can any of us dispute that one of these ways have been found within us at some point in life? Though being honest with oneself has become openly rejected amongst this generation. It has been hated from the beginning.
The flesh is the single thing we all have in common. In other words SIN. We all have SIN in common. Satan has tried to glorify some sins all while seeking to present others as lesser or not as severe. Take a look at the list above in Galatians 5;19-22 again. Carefully read each sinful nature. Your flesh will pick out the ones you feel truly are not as bad as the others. Interesting how that happens from within us. Society has adopted this model as the standard we should live by. This is why a person can get drunk weekly with friends at a bar and look down on the person that is drunk on the street corner. They have used the model Satan has given them. The model that keeps us feeling more righteous than another.
Its as if our sinful minds knew it could not get away from its conscience, so it created a way of thinking that blinds us from ourselves. Its our evolved way of hiding from God. The most difficult thing to witness in this world is someone convinced they are okay without Christ.
They truly do not understand the degree of danger they are in. There is a belief that their SIN is not seen by God. Mainly because the sins they feel are truly recognized by God are the ones society has deemed heinous. There is no regard for what God says. No regard for who God says we all are. Romans 3:23 says it best For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; There is no regard for this. This is because society and the powers of this world are their god.
What they say is what is believed. Society says you can be good. You can accomplish good through efforts that make you feel good. You can have a good life. Just invest in your future. Prioritize a career that makes good money. Enjoy vacations. Laugh at whatever you want! Engage in whatever you find enjoyment. Please yourself. This is what is believed to be the answer to life. So they prove whom they serve by what is said and what is done. Not knowing they are serving SIN and being led to eternal death.
So back to my original thought. The main similarity amongst us that claim Christ is the same as those that do not. The FLESH. So how are you handling moments that challenge your flesh?
We all have this clash in the flesh to sin when our desire mentally is aware of what God says. Paul did a great job of describing this in Romans 7:14-25
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
What an eye opening thing written here by Paul. This flesh is wretched!! Its desires are against God. So conflicted. So deceiving! Yet we still battle with this understanding of who Satan is. So lets be clear. Satan is a spirit against God. The flesh is his playground. The flesh desires his ways DAILY!! By the second even. If we truly understand this, then being saved , being born again would make more sense to us and not come across as just that Christian thing that we say.
It’s mandatory!!! For we reside in a body in a world that is of Satan.
Read Romans 8:8-10 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
Notice Satan is not mentioned here. Only your flesh. So if you want to know who Satan is, maybe take the blinders off and you will see that wolf!!! Reject what he uses from within you. Take off the blinders and look in the mirror!
This great mystery society has been trying to hide for ages. Let any that can hear. Hear! Until you see yourself as God sees you. Meaning sinful and hateful towards him in all your ways, you will never understand his love.
So again how are we handling moments that challenge our flesh? You will see Satan appear in you. Will Christ appear? Whomever you submit to appear in you proves whom you serve actually. Proves what you believe in. For belief is carried out by how we live. Be not be deceived.
Be in the peace of Christ and choose wisely.
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