Flesh

 When we filter everything through the prism of the flesh, a flesh that is tethered to this plain of existence, withering and closer to corruption with each passing day, it’s easy to wonder aloud why God would do or allow such and such a thing.

If, however, we filter everything through a spiritual prism, with the spiritual man and eternity as our touchstones, the things the Bible says we will witness and endure not only make sense but are welcomed.

We reject what Jesus said about being hated and persecuted because we have placed the flesh and this present time at the pinnacle of purpose, with everything else, including our relationship with God, revolving around it and flowing out from it. Nobody likes to hurt, nobody relishes pain, and nobody wants to be marginalized and hated and ostracized by those around them, but Jesus said we would be.

If the metric by which you perceive life is the comfort and ease of the flesh, you would naturally bristle at the words of Jesus because He implies that you will experience the opposite of that. Picking up your cross and following after Him is no day at the beach as far as the flesh is concerned, so the flesh sets out to avoid it at every turn.

Because comfort is the principal desire of the flesh, it will seek out places and individuals that will validate the desire and encourage it vociferously. The flesh says, “I want to be rich,” the guy on television confirms and validates the desire by insisting that God also wants you to be rich, and you have an infinity loop of the flesh getting everything it wants due to the voices undergirding its desires.

It’s an insidious sort of sleight of hand when you think about it. The smiling faces insist upon the idea that God wants you to be happy, but they never explain which you. If they are insinuating that God wants your flesh to be happy, that’s a lie from the pit of hell. If they are saying God wants your spiritual man to be happy, then the spiritual man with a renewed mind is delighted in Him.

The flesh is the fulcrum the enemy uses to distract believers from the spiritual. He doesn’t fear possessions, positions, or prosperity; he fears power, and as long as he can keep believers from desiring power, he’s more than willing to glut you with baubles.

The moment your perspective shifts from flesh to spirit, from you to Him, from your glory to His glory, you become dangerous to the devil. You become an unstoppable force that cannot be sidelined, silenced, distracted, or carried away by the lust of the flesh or the pride of life. All for Him. All through Him. All by Him.

The enemy always tries to corrupt the corruptible. The most corruptible part of man is the flesh in which his spirit temporarily resides, and as such, it’s through the flesh that the enemy attempts to starve and weaken the spiritual man.

You become proficient in that which you devote your time to. It is a fundamental principle that has withstood the test of time. If you practice piano every day, you will get better at playing the piano. If you feed your spiritual man every day, your spiritual man will inevitably grow more robust. If, however, you indulge your flesh at every turn, it is the flesh that becomes the dominant force in your life, and you will become a slave to it anew at some point.

If the Son has set you free, don’t volunteer to go back into bondage because your flesh misses the excitement, the pleasure, the buzz, or the world. Don’t be the person that returns to the sin carousel with the consistency of an atomic clock, then wonders why they’re still stuck in the same place, spinning their wheels, growing comfortable with things they found repulsive just a year or two ago.

Some people take half a lifetime to climb the mountain and feel the exaltation of reaching the mountaintop, only to freefall down its face in a handful of minutes and find themselves at the bottom once again. All the hard work, sweat, breath, aches, and exertions made null by one foolish, ill-conceived decision.

It’s not just sinning I’m referring to either, at least not sin in how we usually catalog it. Sometimes, we have our defenses in place when it comes to temptation via external sources, but we allow the heart to fuel the desire for more than God has in store for us at present and so make efforts toward that end.

To tamp down the feeling of unease, we tell ourselves we are doing it for God and the Kingdom, you know, giving Him a hand and moving up the timetable because we feel like we’re ready for more.

You may feel or think you’re ready for more; God knows when you are ready. He is the one that determines your level of readiness, and He is the one that knows where you are needed, even though it may not be where you think you are needed.

It’s a snare as old as time and one into which men have fallen time and again, just as the angels of old who did not keep their proper domain and left their own abode.

But I’m not satisfied in my office, my position, or my status, you say. Those aren’t the things that are supposed to satisfy you. Christ is. If you are looking to be fulfilled and satisfied by a title or an office, I fear you are still in need of learning the elementary principles of Christ.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.