As people focus on the things of the flesh, they move away from the ministry toward others. Instead, they want others to lift them up. We are called to serve mankind yet we want mankind to make it convenient for us to serve them. As we discussed in our online Bible Study yesterday, let patience have her perfect work. If you are impatient, “self” is still an issue. “My way or the highway” is a classic symptom of exalting yourself above others. Instead we should be asking Our Heavenly Father to reveal HIS Way in a greater revelation for each of us to walk accordingly.
As we move toward an epic change in the world, the personal battle will reach a crescendo as well. Do you think your flesh will die without a fight? In Scripture, it is the prostitute who will sell her body for money. The prostitute believes in the law of scarcity and understands the power of “self”. She is in the business of pleasure and personal satisfaction. Your flesh will demand satisfaction and will convince you to manipulate others in order to get. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are the three main categories you will be subjected to. Others may not realize your battle as many will keep it secret:
Isaiah 47:8
“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,
Who dwell securely,
Who say in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Nor shall I know the loss of children’; NKJV
You must be honest with yourself and deal with those hidden desires that subtly take you off course from the righteous path. There will be many who were called but will fail to deal with the last battle of fully dying to the flesh. Metaphorically, “self” or the ego is like a harlot. It will convince you to submit to it for temporary satisfaction but in the end, death results. As you submit to the temptations of the ego, you become “one flesh” with it. This is true in the spiritual sense as well as the physical sense. Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 6:
12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”fn 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
We will serve Our Heavenly Father by serving mankind or we will submit to the harlot and serve “self” by manipulating and deceiving others in order to satisfy our own self-serving agenda, also known as idols of the heart. It is time to end the rebellion and choose Love. Let “self” die.