Putting to Death the Deeds of the Flesh # 2 ~ blog

Now let me be clear right from the start. Normally if you put something that is living to death it is no longer living…right? If you see a spider in your house and step on it perhaps hearing a tiny sadistic crunch as its frame becomes as flat as a pancake you can put that spider out of your mind. It is over and done with and you will never ever have to deal with him again.

First, let me point out that we are not putting to death our flesh. Our flesh will die when our body dies, and we will be done with it forever. Until then we are told to put to death the deeds of the flesh. That is the work we have to do. Our flesh has been working in our lives our entire lives and it has developed certain sinful activities that have become habitual sins that are seriously messing with our lives and the lives of those around us.

Now, today I am talking about this problem as it exists as a spiritual issue. However, it is more than a spiritual issue…it is a physiological issue. We have developed a drug addiction that has nothing to do with our spiritual life but with our physical drug addiction that is going on inside of our brain. So, it is a physical addiction as well as a spiritual problem.

Add to that the reality that it is also an emotional issue. Acting out with porn and masturbation is not the root of the problem. It is a fruit of a deeper issue and may or may not be related to an emotional wound in your life. Some of these wounds were caused by a traumatic or series of traumatic events that you had to suffer through. There is a wound there and porn and sex have become your medications to ease the pain.

Lastly, in addition to the spiritual, physical, and emotional pieces of this problem there is the relational part of it. If you are married or engaged to be married you can be doing the good work of your recovery and yet be unable to control what your wife, your friends, or your parents feel and how they react.

All of that to say developing a sexual addiction or experiencing sexual brokenness is a much bigger problem than most people realize. It is not going to go away easily especially if it has been years in the making. Neurological pathways have become firmly established in your brain and when the smallest of sexual bait is dangled in front of you like a starving bass hitting its favorite bug…but is really just a lure…we strike and get reeled in once again.

So, dealing with our flesh is a big problem. It is going to take consistent effort over a long stretch of time in order to bring our flesh under the control of the Spirit. I know, everyone wants the quick fix…full deliverance and that moment will happen the instant you die and go to heaven.

So, how do we put to death the deeds of the flesh if we cannot kill our flesh? We need something more than what we have been using because what we have been doing is probably not working so well. Let me give you an illustration.

I am creating and sending you this email or podcast…by means of my computer and the internet. And today this email/podcast will go off to over 2600 people in 70 different nations by means of the internet. It is something I am doing by means of a tool that actually makes it all happen. When we do something “by means of” something else it is that something else that makes the action actually happen. Confused?  Ok, look at it this way.

I want to stop looking at porn and masturbating. If I am really serious that means I will want to stop doing it every day. There is work I need to be doing for this to be happening and this work needs to be being done consistently. That seems to daunt our enthusiasm. We tend to be inconsistent in doing the things we need to be doing in order to be growing spiritually.

I believe that will come in time but first, we need to get you out of the quicksand you have become stuck in by teaching you how to put to death the deeds of the flesh things that we have allowed to become part of your life.

How do we do that? We have tried a thousand times trying to use every trick in the book. We have bounded our eyes so many times it is hard to keep them still and looking forward. We have snapped our wrists for so long that we needed a Band-Aid to stop the bleeding. Books, seminars, videos, and podcasts give us glimmers of hope. However, our next fall back into sexual sin is like an ocean wave putting out your little Kumbaya candle.

Our big problem needs a big solution…and fortunately for us that Big Solution is actually inside of us. We are told to put to death the misdeeds of the body…

BY MEANS OF THE SPIRIT!!!

In other words, the Holy Spirit is the tool we need to be using against our flesh. Our problem is we want to stay in isolation hoping that if we can just ignore our flesh for long enough it will magically disappear. Has not and will not happen. We have to be the ones doing the action for ourselves but we need to be doing the action by means of the Holy Spirit.

And guess what…we have been promised that God will provide a way of escape when we are being tempted. When we even sniff the faint aroma of sin in the air our immediate action is to call out to the Spirit and ask Him to show you the escape at that moment…and then take it.

After that moment of temptation then we need to go to work. You can wait around for temptation to come back…and we all know it will. But it is at this time we, by means of the Spirit needs to be putting to death the deeds of the flesh. What were the things that led up to the temptation? What was the pattern the temptation followed and that you have given into countless times?

Whatever it is you need to put it to death…or to put it another way…you need to get rid of it. Do not let the things that are sources of temptation remain in your life. If social media is the way you get enticed and lured away into then looking at porn take a social media vacation. Get rid of your quick-porn-smartphone.

Go with a flip phone for a while. Who are the people that cause you to slip and stumble? Find new friends. Do whatever you can to get rid of whatever you are struggling with asking the Spirit to enable you to do whatever it takes to be putting to death the misdeeds of the flesh.

If you want to learn more about the Holy Spirit and how He works to help us put to death the deeds of the flesh and transforms us into more Christ-like men I recommend you purchase my devotional – Unconditional Surrender to the Spirit. Just click the image below. And as always if you cannot afford the $2.99 just tell me and I will send you the pdf file for free.

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