DECEITFUL LUSTS
Friday – January 13, 2017
Our Father, our Savior, and our Blessing are so good, beyond compare. Welcome to the Friday edition of The Three Minute Word publication. Friday is the day on which I call people to prayer concerning the body of Christ in America therefore the picture of the Church. We must pray for the purity of the Truth and for the discovery of all evil deceptions in our life, in our mind. It is always a grave mistake to believe we are as pure as the driven snow and the problem is with those other people. We are not to condemn ourselves but we must do routine self-examination and ask God to search us and expose to us all impurity that we may choose to change our mind (repent), our thinking, our talking, and do things God’s way.
Ephesians 4:18-24 (KJV)
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The Apostle Paul has been explaining the importance of our individual maturity for ourselves and for the body of Christ. He has gone on to explain that to do otherwise results in a hardening of the heart and an insensitivity to the gentle correction and calling of the Holy Spirit (conviction). I believe it would be a mistake for us to think that this warning only applies to persons in the world involved in wonton sin. There are people who sit in Church every week, perhaps several times a week and are unchanged week to week and year to year. It is because they have given themselves over to uncleanliness, something in their life that they have chosen over God. Perhaps it is as simple as being lazy. Perhaps pride is what takes and keeps them in Church but they are no more committed to God in their day to day life than the man in the moon. Paul tells these saints and faithful in Christ Jesus at Ephesus that they have not learned to be ignorant, blind spiritually, indifferent to the Word of God, lascivious, unclean, or greedy of him when they learned of Christ. They and we learned that the ways of the world were not part of the good news concerning salvation, concerning our walk with God, or the working of the Holy Spirit (Blessing) in and through us.
Notice in Ephesians 4:21 that the truth is in Jesus. We must be in Jesus to taste of the Truth. Remember that the Truth is Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit, it is the Word of God, and the Truth is love (doing the Word concerning God and our neighbor). In Jesus, that is to say when we make Him Lord, the whole vista of Truth is opened to us but we acquire it with diligence. The Apostle Paul goes on to tell us to stop the behavior of the old man which is corrupt due to deceitful lusts (longing and yearning). These lusts are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Now there are two other lusts I want to mention and they are choosing judging and unforgiveness.
Lust is deceitful because it does not disclose the whole story associated with partaking. The pursuing and partaking in any particular lust (something that we pursue instead of God and against God’s will) results in our being alienated from the life of God. I don’t believe that any Christian starts out with the intent of being separated from the life of God but through the repetitive choices to violate our light the heart slowly hardens and choosing the darkness and death becomes easier and they who were a living soul are now a dead soul. I had one person tell me who was dying that they were certain they were not saved and that they were going to Hell and that is what they wanted to do. That sounds just crazy but that is the end result of the deceitfulness of lusts. The easiest time to beat lust of any kind is at its onset when there are no roots in our mind. Always remember the following two verses.
Romans 6:23 (KJV)
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 10:10 (KJV)
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
