This
I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye
would (Galatians 5v 16-17)
After
looking at the spirit of lust, let us now look at how to do away with it. There
are Bible based truths that can help us get rid of lust. We need to resist it
and it will flee from us (James 4:7). The Apostle Paul says to Timothy, ”flee
also youthful lusts“(2Timothy2:22). The key word there is the word flee. It simply means to run away. In
our case it also means to turn your attention away from. If it is a
pornographic video or magazine that causes you to lust, turn your attention
away from it, put it away, burn it, get rid of it. If it is television that
causes you to lust after riches, turn it off or switch to another channel. If
you have a problem of lusting after women,
every time a girl passes you by, do not turn your eyes towards her or her body, look elsewhere. It does take practice.
every time a girl passes you by, do not turn your eyes towards her or her body, look elsewhere. It does take practice.
I hear many
Christians accusing girls of wearing mini-skirts and other flesh-exposing
clothes saying that these girls tempt Pastors and men away from Christianity
and marriages respectively. I choose to slightly differ.
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Many
Christians struggle with looking at women’s bodies and with watching
pornography. I vividly remember a Church I visited and one of the gentlemen in
the praise and worship team could not take his eyes off
the back of a female lead singer. Jesus said if you look at a woman to lust
after her you have committed adultery with her in your heart (Matthew5v28).
Lust takes place in your mind. It is not merely looking at a person but
generating that picture in your mind that matters.Lust enters into your mind
through your eyes. That is how it operates. Like we said in The Spirit Of Lust,
the eye is the gateway of lust. In Genesis 3, Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat.Lust entered through the gateway of the eye. So,bit by bit, slowly but surely,
learn by practice to put your eyes away from things that may cause you to lust.
I know
a certain boy who used to work in a certain house. One day the mother of the
house, the employer’s wife, took the boy into her bedroom and asked him to
sleep with her. To many people today, some Christians included, this was a
golden opportunity not worthy to be blown. A beautiful and rich woman alone
with a boy in a bedroom where no one was nearby watching or listening, only the
two of them, boy! this boy was about to enjoy himself. However, the boy did
exactly what nobody expected him to do. The boy ran away. He fled youthful
lusts.
The boy
later benefitted from this brave (perhaps to some a foolish) decision as he
became one of the most powerful people in the country. This boy was called
Joseph and we find his story in Genesis 39.
The Bible
calls lust deceitful (Ephesians 4v22). Lust deceives; it comes as a wolf in
sheep’s clothing. It is the reason why some ministries closed down, it is the
reason why many Christians have backslidden, the reason why many men of God are
no longer on the pulpit and in parsonages. Lust is deceitful!! In 1Corinthians 10v8, we are told of 23000
people who fell in one day due to fornication, an end-product of lust. Adam and
Eve fell because of lust, King Abimelech fell due to lust, King David had many
wives, King Solomon, the wisest in his day, had 700wives and 300concubines/girlfriends/ small houses
(1Kings11v3) due to lust. Joseph knew the effects of lust and therefore he fled
from the helm of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12). The devil tempted Jesus with
the lust for food and then with the lust for riches, but Jesus refused. Lust is
our enemy because it does not come from God but from the world and the prince
of this world is the devil.For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2v16)
Now
remember that in The Power Of Prayer 1, we talked of how perfecting closet
prayer will help you succeed in battlefield prayer. Sometimes you need to
conquer things alone before you go to confront them. You can choose to develop
yourself in the background to prepare to face situations on the outside. You
need to develop your inner man to such an extent that such things as lust
cannot overpower you. In our opening scripture, Pauls tells us to walk in the
spirit and by so doing you will turn away from fulfilling the lusts of the
flesh. I want you to learn a very powerful secret that is very important in
your life. Instead of focussing on what you should not do, learn to focus on
what you should do. Do what you must do and do not worry about doing what you
must not do because if you do what you must do you will not get time to do what
you must not do.We can put it this way, like my brother says, Do the dos and
don’t worry about doing the don’ts; because if you do the dos you will not do
the don’ts.
Instead
of looking at sinning, look at how you can live to holiness and purity, and by
doing so you will not be able to continue in sin. The Bible says to walk in the
Spirit and you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. The best way to starve
the flesh is to feed the spirit man. What really is walking in the Spirit? Now
look at what Jesus says:
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life. (John 6v63)
Notice
he says the Word is spirit. That means what it literally means: the Word is
Spirit. Walking in the spirit is walking in the Word, according to the dictates
of the Word of God. The more you delight yourself in the Word of God, the less
you desire the things of the flesh. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest
and top of the list is adultery and fornication (Galatians 5v19) which also are
the pure first fruit of lust. However we have an excellent solution; and that
is why he says if we walk in the spirit- according to the dictates of the Word-
we will not participate in these sinful activities. A brother from college once
said the reason why Christians sin is because there is an entity which is
lacking within them, and that entity is called the Word of God. The more of the Word we have, the more we
walk in the spirit and we cease to delight in lust because as the Word comes
in, it washes away every mentality that is contrary to God. That is why we need
a large dosage of God’s Word in our lives to stay away from lust. In Romans 8,
Paul says ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you(vs9). If the Holy Spirit lives in you, He will enable
you to live free of lust.
Another
step towards getting rid of lust is prayer. As you know very well, lust is the
mother of temptation. We are told in James 1v14: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and
enticed. I hear many Christians accusing girls of wearing mini-skirts and
other flesh-exposing clothes saying that these girls tempt Pastors and men away
from Christianity and marriages respectively.I choose to slightly differ. The
problem is not always with the girl that wears the mini-skirt, but with that
Pastor. The Bible shows that the only thing licensed to tempt anyone is lust,
not another person’s clothing, appearance or speech. A person will only be
tempted by the thing he lusts after. If you see an empty bottle on the ground,
you may not want it because it will not be of any value to you. However if you
see a one hundred dollar note on the ground, your head will spin, and every
thought will be telling you to pick it up and shut up. The reason you are
tempted by the money and not the bottle is because you lust after money and not
the bottle. That’s where the assertion comes from, that says a man is tempted
when drawn away and tempted of his own lusts. What you lust after has the
highest ability to tempt you. In the case of Pastors and mini-skirt girls, the
reason why the Pastors are tempted by the girls is because they lust after
those girls, and so they are drawn away by that lust and enticed to fornicate
and do evil.
Now
back to the issue of prayer, Jesus said, pray
that ye enter not into temptation (Luke 22v40). Prayer keeps you away from
temptation, keeps you away from lust. Even from personal experience I can tell
you that through prayer your appetite for sin deteriorates. To all Christians
who would like to survive fornication in their relationships, keep your prayer
levels high and consistent and you will not have big appetite for fornication.
Maintain your relationship with God strong. The Bible endorses this principle
saying: but if ye through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8v13, see also Colossians
3v5). We know brethren that if we pray in tongues, our spirits pray (1
Corinthians 14v14). By praying in tongues-praying in the Spirit-you mortify the
deeds of the flesh, and these include lust. To mortify is to kill, to put to
death. The flesh is a mindset that contradicts the Word of God and if there is
anything that you believe that is not in line with the Word of God then it is
of the flesh. The flesh is not physical, the body is. The flesh is spiritual,
it is a mentality that opposes the truth of God’s Word and it functions using
the body by
JESUS
IS LORD!!! TLG
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