Advancements in medical technology have greatly improved the everyday lives of humans. We live longer, healthier and suffer less from disease than we once did. One astounding discovery was the medical care of vaccination. The idea of placing a virus in your body to prevent further disease seems absurd. Yet, this practice as we now know, prepares your body for the oncoming attack. Your white blood cells multiply while your antibodies gather data and information on this newly introduced threat, so as to better defeat and defend against this threat if it should ever return. Now, there is a certain disease that has spread and corrupted every human who as walked this Earth and has yet to walk this Earth. Even with all of the medical advances and new discoveries about the human body, there is no medicine, white blood cell, or antibody that can defeat and prevent this disease from spreading and corrupting the body and Spirit. The awful disease that brings death to every household and immense amounts of pain is known as sin.
With no human cure for such an awful disease, one must ask, “Is there anything I can do to rid myself of this pain? This death?” There is a way, but by no human hands. This disease is like no other, it does not show external signs of illness or even cause your internal organs to fail. What it does do, which is far worse than any other illness, is corrupt and plague your soul. The body is not it’s target, it remains hidden from your bodily defenses, so how is it defeated? How can one defend themselves? Defense of the soul through spiritual warfare is the answer. Does this mean fighting off demons? Not exactly, it’s rather defense against your worldly spirit. This spirit seeks to fill itself with the things of this world, forever hungry it feeds off of this disease, this sin, growing stronger day by day. It will never cease until the day it ruins you, kills you. If this spirit seeks to be filled, then what will fill it? There is another spirit, one that brings life and eternal satisfaction. Never again shall your spirit thirst, never again shall it hunger. Fully completed, fully whole, you are one. This spirit is the cure, once it enters your soul it will wage war against your worldly spirit and utterly destroy it. Never again shall it control you, a new desire fills your soul, fulfillment has been achieved, but now you know, you no longer seek the cure. With it found, your new spirit will guide you and grant you knowledge needed to cure and save others from their sin.
Guidance by this new spirit, the Holy spirit, will instruct you on your journey through the remainder of this life. However, the worldly spirit is still there, it lingers nearby, whispering past pleasures, seeking to be fed it continues to tempt you to take a bite so it may not hunger for a short time. The Holy spirit will warn you and stir within you when temptation is present. Yet, you do not want to allow such attacks to invade the Holy spirit guarding your soul. For if forever on the defense, your spirit will weaken, never defeated, but weakened. How can growth of the spirit and of your soul happen, if it is continually building what was destroyed. For this reason, you must fight back. Attacking what is hidden is indeed difficult. However, like the antibody, knowledge of what the disease looks like is known to us. With it known, how is it attacked and destroyed? Offensive measures against sin is found in the Bible, the Holy Word of God the Father. The Holy spirit is fully knowledgeable in both attack and defense tactics found in the Bible, it will guide you and show you what the scripture means and how to utilize it, you simply must read it.
A sure fire way to prevent any disease, is to stop it at it’s source. Before it even starts to spread and corrupt your spirit crush it relentlessly with the Holy Word as you sword. 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (ESV) No battle is too hard to be won, the only way to be defeated and your growth with the spirit damaged is by letting your defenses down. To fight off any disease knowing its symptoms will warn you of it’s oncoming attack and gives you a chance to stop the invasion before it begins. Scripture found in the Book of James clues us into the symptoms of sin. Chapter one verse 14 reads “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.“ (NASB) When looking at this passage we see four outcomes of sin stirring. Three of these are pre-sin effects and one is the effects post-sin brings.
- Prior to these verses James is addressing the fact that God is wholly pure and is incapable of temptation. Thus, it is not by God that you are tempted, rather it is your own fleshly desires, your worldly spirit. Carried away, The first symptom of sin is a desire, a desire to feed the flesh the things of this world. The things of this world being sexual immorality, greed, wickedness, envy, strife, deceit and a multitude of other acts of unrighteousness. A desire to do such things is just the beginning. This symptom is first noticed in your heart, your soul, then it progresses to the next phase.
- Enticement, to be enticed is being lured or drawn into something perceived as pleasant. A fisherman entices fish with his lure and bait, likewise our desire entices us by moving out of our soul into our minds. We begin to rationalize our desire to our own lust. Think of pornography, a common rationalization is every guy does it and people comfort their evil desire with such thought. The outcome has severe consequences. For a bit more serious lust on worldly terms, think of an unfaithful man or women. The marriage isn’t going well, they aren’t as happy as they once were, so perhaps I’ll find my pleasure I believe myself to lack with someone else, so they think. “His own lust” stated in James, indicates that each desire is individual, such as this. Eve did not place lust in Adam’s heart, nor did the serpent place it in Eve’s. It’s an individual desire to sin, caused by your own rationalization, prompted by others or not. The mind plays tricks and unless it’s stopped it will take control and sin starts the third phase.
- Lust is conceived, this phase is hard to battle back, once this phase takes place, one has already desired evil and rationalized such evil. The conceiving of lust is the design of how to carry out the sin. By your will you are now designing/planning/conniving on when and how to complete this desire and feed your flesh. This is clearly not of God’s will nor His design, for nothing evil dwells within Him. Thus, by this it is even more evident that God is not to blame for the heartaches brought on by sin.
- Lastly, after completion of design, you build on it. “when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” The greek word for accomplished literally means brought to completion. After completing this evil the whole process is brought together and as a whole you think back with the steps. Many think, “If only I didn’t dwell on it, if only I didn’t stay home alone, if only I came to my senses!” Even if regret is there, the sin has been brought to completion, it has given birth to death. This last act is in direct disobedience to God the father and allows your walk with the Holy spirit to be damaged. Which resurges the question, how is death to be defeated?
There is hope yet, for all. There is one and only one cure for sin, a man named Jesus. Jesus is the key for defeating this disease, he can’t prevent sin from corrupting us to begin with, but he can cover our sins with the father’s grace and the blood that he shed for us on calvary. Death of our physical bodies is the punishment God has given to those who believe in His son and have accepted the Holy spirit to dwell within them and to guide their way. The punishment is lessened with the mercy and saving grace that Jesus has granted us. The punishment for all, has been covered, yet some think this covering of blood is unnecessary and so they reject the covering (Jesus), refuse to listen to guidance (Holy Spirit) and scoff at their Heavenly Father claiming that their pain and suffering comes from Him. They fail to realize the death they spew with each act of evil, and continue to say, if I just feed this spirit of flesh, I’ll be satisfied.
Works cited
- The Bible, James 1:14-15 and 1 Corinthians 10:13
- Lessons from Pastor David Fell, a man who is wise enough to surround himself with the teachings of other wise men. Proverbs 13:20 – “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
“The problem is not the temper without, but the traitor within” – Pastor David Fell
