My worst enemy (Part 3)

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3:9)

Whilst Satan may be our worst enemy in our march to obey God`s commandments, it is time to uncover our true enemy – who is none other than ourselves. Believe it or not, we are our own worst ‘shadow’ enemy. Indeed, Satan is enraged, he realises he is running out of time (Revelations 12:12) and is all out to destroy all and anything that is on his path. We have become his punch-bag unfortunately. It should not be so. In our previous articles we have shown that God has empowered us to put up a fight and not be willing victims.  

Human beings are made up of three parts; we are spirit (made in the image and likeness of God), we have a soul that lives in a body. Therefore we are spirit, soul and body. Our spirit should direct all that we do if our spiritual antenna is operational. Besides, God has provided us with his Word to feed our spirit being with, in order to direct us the way we should go. Ever since our great ancestors-Adam and Eve-were created, God has not only revealed himself to us but he has been our guide.

Our rebellious nature however has pushed us to flirt with Satan who is not a worthy bed-felow. By listening to Satan, we have ceased to operate in God`s Word; have developed our own intelligence, sidestepping the instructions given by God our Maker. It is no wonder therefore that God has taken a back seat as an Observer, whilst we are seated in the driver’s seat groping to find our way.  In spite of all God’s efforts to teach and guide us, we have stubbornly held to the steering wheel of our lives only to be tossed and turned by the devil. It hurt Elijah so bad that he summoned the so-called prophets of his day to take a decision. “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21) Matters came to a crunch and God’s own people were called upon to make a choice. They had let God down and had followed their own misleading desires that only satisfied the flesh.

In this three-fold union, the flesh (understand our bodies) is ranked third. Under normal circumstances, the flesh should be subjected to the soul which plays a significant coordinating role between the Spirit and the body. The soul compartment controls our feelings, the way we think, our emotions (whether we cry or laugh, are sad), our speech and our perceptions (the way we see things; some may see black and call it white). In general terms, we refer to it as our minds. It is the entry point to anything that should influence both our spirit and flesh.

The more we feed our spirit with the Word of God, the more it becomes alert to the things of God. Our faith in God is built up particularly when we do what the Bible says. Obviously, this takes us to another level where our relationship with God becomes one-on-one, like Moses who spoke to God face to face. “The Lord will speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” (Exodus 33:11) Constantly fed, our spirit looks up to God, hears from God and lives by God’s precepts. Anything else is counterfeit. In fact, such a spirit it is in tune with God.

The contrary happens when we let our bodies rule our souls (minds) – we are in great trouble then. Actually, the body, if we allow it, can never be satisfied. It knows no limits. Its desire for food (eat until you become sick), alcohol (until we get drunk), sex (until we graduate into adultery, fornication and prostitution; we desire to sleep with any woman, man or beast), stealing (in all its forms – armed robbery, forging, corruption), lying and smoking gets to a point that it becomes uncontrollable. Then we live a life of falsehood; we sink deep into wrong doing and it becomes a second nature with us. It gets to a point where we become callous and insensitive - doing ourselves great harm. We get drawn to these things, just the things God in his Word says we should refrain and abstain from. We become slaves to our passions and are unable to break loose. These cravings control us when we should be controlling them. It is not God’s will for us to get to this stage. Paul admonishes “…. those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:21)

When push comes to shove, God’s divine power can demolish these strongholds in our lives. “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Galatians 5:16) What hitherto was impossible can become possible. 

We are not our own. “Do you not know that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honour God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19)

God has not left us orphans; he has given us a way out over all temptations - Jesus, his Word. Our wrong intentions will be righted when our spirit being rules our flesh.