The Flesh Is A BEAST! Or Is It?

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other." Galatians 5:16-17

A while ago I purchased a t-shirt that said "The Flesh Is A Beast".  At times, I allow my fleshly desires to take over; whether it be wanting to have sex, allowing fear to grip me, and being lazy; not doing the things that I should be doing to help me go forward.  Tonight I wanted to stay home and not go to church for bible study because I was "Too tired". The Holy Spirit spoke to me and told me to cook dinner, rest yourself a bit and then go to church! Listen, I love going to church and hearing a great word and then going home to attempt to apply what I learned but man oh man, sometimes I just want to be home and CHILL. 

I went to church because I was being obedient and I also went because, I was hoping to see my brother there so he can ask our sister if I can come over the house so I can use her charger because I left my charger at work and all three of my electronic devices are dead, so I am left without an alarm system; I really would have to depend of the Holy Spirit to wake me up and wake me up on TIME! By the way, I didn't see my brother....Holy Spirit, BE AN ALARM CLOCK! 

Side Note : I am not rambling, I am setting this up to what I am going to say.  

So, I went to church and it was a special service at the church and so there was a special guest Pastor which was the Bomb.com! He Preached on going deeper and if we want the overflow of God's blessings for us, we have to go deeper in our praise, worship, studying, spending time with God, etc.  All the stuff that I know.  I told you that the flesh is a beast right? We know that a beast is strong and have power but the flesh... What does the flesh do? Better yet, what is the term "Flesh" mean  in Christian Lingo?  I went to www.GotQuestions.org which is a pretty good site to look up questions about the bible and anything else dealing with the Christian religion and I typed in "What is the flesh?" and it gave me this long explanation of what the flesh is (you can read it on your own time) and read the definition of it and here is the part that I want to point out:

"...all parts of the body constitute a totality known as flesh, which is dominated by sin to such a degree that wherever flesh is, all forms of sin are likewise present, and no good thing can live.”

Dominated by sin, all forms of sin, and no good thing comes from the flesh or living in the flesh.  Galatians 5:19 writes out a list of things when living in the flesh: sexual immorality, jealousy, fits of anger, divisions, orgies, idolatry, just to name of few.  So when in Christ,  we live by the fruit of the Spirit that is stated later on in Galatians chapter 5 (22-23): Love, Joy, Peace, Long suffering also known as PATIENCE and there are 5 more.  

I literally grew up in church.  No I am not a PK (Preacher's Kid) nor a Minister's Kid but I do have a Grandmother and Mother who was a single parent for half of my life that LOVES the Lord and took my brother and I to church every time the doors would open. So I knew how to CHURCH: I knew how to close my eyes to pray, lift up my hands, sit down when I was suppose to, stand up when I was suppose to, but over the years that I have been growing closer to God, that my relationship with Him was always on the surface.  Have

you ever been to the beautiful vast ocean where there's the sand, then the area where the water meets the sand and the further you go in the ocean, the deeper it is.  Now I am not saying that my relationship with God is on the sand or where the water meets the sand but a lot times I just enjoy being there instead of being immersed in the water. I know how to swim ( I LOVE THE WATER) and as of now I am slightly overweight and out of shape, so when swimming, I get tired quicker than I normally would. Especially when I am deep in the ocean, when those waves are getting aggressive, and me trying to swim against them is the hardest ever. 

What I have learned about myself is that I can get very lazy and I want to give up quickly AND I don't like pain.  Hence me being overweight and out of shape.  That goes the same for me spiritually: When I don't take the time to exercise my spiritual muscles in worship, prayer, and fasting, I allow my flesh to grow stronger.  So when desiring a man or allowing my insecurities to takeover, I know that I have to get into the Word and get in God's face quick, fast, and a hurry!  

When I am facing obstacles in my life, at times I don't feel strong enough and that might because God is allowing me to go through a test and He is giving me the opportunity to grow in that area. Other times it is the same things that I struggle with and it is all because I am not allowing myself to go deeper where I have to work a little more harder than before; to be on my knees a little longer than before and to turn over my plate without any distractions. 

I don't have to allow my flesh to take over me because I am a Child of God and for that I am a new person (1 Corinthians 5:17)  and the old things are gone...DEAD! So why let myself get caught up into dead things? Dead stuff can't do nothing to me because it's DEAD! But I am human. I am also a Spiritual being that is just living in this body. I am so happy that I was obedient to God to go to church tonight to hear that message because the Lord spoke to me through that message and directly to me:

1.  GO DEEPER JEANINE. God has like a serious calling over my life and me being where I am now, is okay, but I know I have to go even further to where God can take me to the places where He is going to take me and use me the way He wants to use me.

2. ITS NOT YOU THAT'S PUTTING THOSE THOUGHTS IN YOUR HEAD, ITS THE ENEMY.  When I go out to public places (church, hanging out with friends, etc.) my mind tends to wonder of if my husband is actually in the same room with me.  For 99.9 percent of the time, I go to places with good intentions and not think about that, I just have my mind set of that event. Tonight, the Lord spoke to me and told me, it wasn't me but indeed the enemy.  The Devil will twist what God has for you and pervert it and him knowing my desire, he turned it to make me out a weirdo.  Not saying that I don't think about that which I do and have my moments of thinking about him and I and yes I pray for my husband (Dear Future Husband) but on the level of it being the top thought in my mind when I see men and it pressing like someone is pressuring me to do something I don't want to do (BULLY)  is where I know it's the Devil.  

I needed to hear BOTH words tonight! 😄😄😄