The Enemy Within

Although Satan is a potent enemy, he has nothing left but the lie. He can't touch us, but he can lie to us about God, ourselves and our circumstances, but we only need to resist him and he will flee. We resist him because Christ is living in us and we live in Him. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; and that new creation lives in a sin cursed body in a sin cursed world. It is this sin cursed body that hides the real enemy--what the Bible calls the flesh. 17For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (gal.5) The Saint of God must learn to cope with this conflict on a daily basis if they are to know the abundant life Jesus promised. The flesh is totally self centered, self protecting and self absorbed. The impulse to act independantly of God relying on our own strength is constantly with us. The bad news is that it does not change--the good news of the gospel is that this is not who we are. The spiritual realities of the New Creation is our true identity; in other words, we are not our flesh. And it is separating ourselves from our flesh that is absolutely essential to true victory and spiritual growth. If we do not make a separation from our flesh and the true person that we are in Christ, we will try to live the Christian life in our own strength--and the results are disastrous. Forget all this stuff about being a good Chrstian--there was and is only one good Chrsitian that ever lived, The Lord Jesus Christ. And He lives in you today and wants to express His good Christian life through you, but it is all Him and none of you. The Christian life is an impossibility! It is supernatural. We are to rest from our works and allow Christ to work through us. Galatians chapter 5 lists the obvious works of the flesh: hate, sexual immorality, envy, etc. Most would agree that these are destructive; however, Paul provides another list of works of the flesh in Phillipians 3 -- This list is a list of Paul's religious activity, and he considered it rubbish that he may gain Christ. The flesh loves to dress up and go to church--did you hear that? The flesh loves to dress up and go to church! However, just like the obvious evil deeds, these works of the flesh will lead to death also. The flesh will flip flop from legalism to doing whatever it takes to feel good. The reason why it is more destructive and a more potent enemy than satan is we think that is who we are; and when we think that is who we are, we try to change it, and when we delude ourselves into thinking we changed ourselves, we become self righteous; and the self righteous flesh is very toxic. Paul cried out, "Who will save me from this body of death!" The body of death is the flesh, and the answer to Paul's cry was "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He will rescue you. There is no four point plan for how God will rescue from your flesh! It is different in everyone's life. Usually, it is coming to an end of our own self effort and learning to walk in God's Spirit, Strength and Provison. Be of good cheer, God is at war with your flesh right now and will finish the work he began in you.