Thursday – February 18, 2016
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior. Are we all ready to devour God’s Word? Let us each one purpose that we will take this Word, prove this Word by the Scripture and it will be a burning fire in our belly. Remember to pray for the pillars of society. Today I am featuring the Pillar of Family. The picture is of Patti and me with our daughter and two granddaughters at Thanksgiving.
Proverbs 9:1 (TLB)
1 Wisdom has built a palace supported on seven pillars,
I will now continue our study of Spiritual Warfare with our secondary text from the Book of James. Let’s focus on verse four and the context of this verse.
James 4:1-4 (KJV)
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Our Heavenly Father is telling us via the Apostle James and our primary Teacher, the Holy Spirit, that we fight among ourselves because we are focused on our own flesh and not the spirit, not the building of the Kingdom of God. Let’s see if we can make verse one a little clearer looking at a different Bible translation.
James 4:1 (HCSB)
1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?
Looking at verse two, lust can be envy, covetousness, a longing, a desire that is predominating in our thought life and is contrary to the will of God for our life, for the furtherance of the Kingdom. The word kill can be associated with the physical murder of another but may be character assassination or other treachery that brings death into relationships. James goes on to say that there is a tremendous battle that is ongoing within us yet we never really get to be satisfied by the desired lust. We do not attain the things we need and want because we will not have a conversation with our Heavenly Father, find His will and line up with that. Then going into verse three we find ourselves asking for the wrong things, self-centered things. Remember there is no one that knows us better than our loving Heavenly Father, He knows exactly what will bring us deep and lasting satisfaction.
When we are focused on and pursuing the things our flesh (physical body and unrenewed mind) lusts after we are not focused on and pursuing the Kingdom of God which is adultery. We are the bride of Christ so when we pursue the things of the world (lusts of our flesh) we are in spiritual adultery. Adultery can occur in the spirit, the soul, and the body and frequently it is all three (another man or woman, a job, another pursuit) at once but with God it is spirit and soul (mind, will, emotions). When we are following after the things of the world which are the things our flesh will want us to pursue, this is adultery against God, it is friendship with the world putting us at odds or as an enemy of God. I for one do not consider it wise to be an enemy of God. However, these things are very subtle at first and before you know it, it has swallowed you, you are taken captive of the devil.
This idea of friendship with the world and enmity with God is right out of Genesis two.
Genesis 2:17 (KJV)
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Adam knew the will of God, the Word of God, God’s ideas for his good but along came the serpent and brought another idea, the ideas of the world for he is the god of this world. Adam sinned.
1 John 2:16 (KJV)
16 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.
The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good for food (lust of the flesh), it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and would make one wise (pride of life).
Genesis 3:6 (KJV)
6 And when the woman 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.
By Pastor David R. Wood
