Romans 5:5, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

“God so loved the world.” Knowing what you do about the world, dwell on the thought that God loves the world, and you will be overwhelmed. We have all seen more than our share of wickedness, and yet He loved the world! Now, if God loves the wicked world, would it make sense that He would not love His own children? Not that we are comparing our righteousness to that of the world’s and coming out looking more deserving. We are just examining His love. The following are soul killers for a Christian: to believe that God hates him, is disappointed with him, has decreed that he has not measured up, or has had it with him. When we believe that God hates us, we shut down, withdraw, move into regret, wither, move into guilt, and become resigned. Messages that tell us God is upset with us bombard us through sermons that compare, accuse, spread guilt, condemn, and judge. We hear, “Will God know you? Will God say, ‘Depart from Me, for I never knew you’? Will you put your hand to the plow and look back?” Legalists work so hard to get a person in the faith, and then go into overdrive to kick him out. Simply put, we just will not approach a God we think is mad at us, but by avoiding Him, we avoid LIFE and the solutions to all our failures. See how important it is that we know that God does really love us and is not angry with us? That God entered into our humanity, lived in a fleshly body, and is not surprised by what we have done?

Let me warn you to believe that God loves you, or you will have to prove it through nightmarish experiences. He will withdraw His grace until you cry, “Uncle!” and admit that you make no contribution or have any hope of being loved. In that spiritual fetal position you will then hear Him say, “I never stopped loving you.”

I must know that He loves me. I must be able to get up after a failure and not believe that I need to work my way back to acceptance. I must have a God whose love is that big. I remember a blown day. (Actually, there are too many to remember.) I blew the meeting, I blew the message, I blew my temper, I blew my judgments; it was a completely blown day. I went to sleep with those two haunting fears I have when I am feeling at my worst: first, that I would wake up, and second, that I would make it through another day. However, in the morning I felt beautiful. I did not have a care. I did not have a hint of condemnation. I kept thinking how strange it was. Then I did the unthinkable and rationalized to myself that why, when I was having such a beautiful day, was I going to mention to God all of my failures from the previous day? Well, I did, and He said, “I do not want to talk about that. I love you. Let’s move on.” Yes!!! From the world we get the idea that if we fail, we are abandoned, cut off. This carnal trait of reacting is not to be transferred to the Father in heaven.

Matthew 23:2-10, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is Christ.”

India is mocked because of its caste system. Though illegal since 1947, I have found that in practice it is alive and well. The flesh of man enjoys the caste system. It is like bigotry in that it seems to be abhorred only by those who cannot practice it! Well, amen! As my Indian teacher says, “The world continues to be the world!” However, what about the Church? Should it be riddled with bigotry and a caste system of its own? It is, and you need have no doubt about it. The messages may not be overt (it would nearly be more palatable if they were), but the covert message is quite clear. Many in the “churches” have convinced those who join that they will never, in this life, arrive to a stature and standing that allows access into the deepest revelations of Christ. I do not just preach; I listen to heaps of preaching, and this is what I hear. Those who are single, those who have experienced a divorce, those who do not have children, those who have not been in “fulltime” ministry, and those who have rebellious children will never arrive as successful Christians. Blah, Blah, and more Blah! Many believe the deception, which simply put is that life with a small “l” translates into life with a capital “L.” There is a perceived disparity in life; for instance, that there is such a huge difference between those married to unbelievers and those married to believers, that those lacking marriage to believers are to take their rightful place in the sub-Christian caste. When it comes to life (with a lower case “l,” as in the world), there is a minimal difference between living with an unbeliever or a believer; however, when it comes to the thing of Life (with a capital “L,” the Life of Jesus within us), there is no difference. People who are successful in the world’s eyes–educated or having millions of dollars and prestige–are far more likely to commit suicide than those who have little. Jesus is using all of life—indeed, He holds all of life together–to teach us the things of the kingdom within us and the kingdom to come. He is not fighting divorce, singleness, and failure but using those to bring man to the revelation of Himself. If you fit into any of the above categories and have been led by man to feel inferior in your walk with God, please, please, do not let a Pharisee define your spiritual condition. God is using everything in your life to bring you to Life. Phil. 3:7-11, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” If you have had struggles, failures, and calamity in the things of “life,” do not let anyone tell you that it translates into a failure in “Life.” You have come to Him; you do not dwell in a lower level of the Christian life; you are blessed. Is the world living according to His standards? No! Not to worry: He is not fighting the world but using it. He has used it in your life to bring you to Him. Rejoice!

My second point is in regard to the “Christian Club,” which is how I have come to regard a building which houses the gathering of believers, as opposed to speaking of the corporate Church, the Body of Christ. Actually, the club reminds me of a cruise ship, where there is an activity for everyone, and the talk of the day may be how big the ship is compared to the bigger one with even more amenities soon to be sailing. There is so much going on that is not Biblical in the club, and it is interesting watching people get around that fact. They remind me of researchers at the university slowly starting to build a teaching based upon nothing. Next, something is added to the nothing, and inevitably there are additions to the additions of the nothing. The whole purpose is to distance themselves from the nothingness at the base and to appear to be logical and Biblical. The desired end result is a very “firm” teaching with strict “Biblical” rules for how “spiritual dancing,” “falling down in the Spirit,” “worship,” “inner healing prayers,” and “casting out demons” is to be done, still with no Biblical foundation. Then brother Mike comes along and asks the obvious question, “Where is this in the Bible?” Of course, in their minds every question was laid to rest long ago, and the “fact” that they are in the truth is proven by a multitude of experiences. The goal is to have enough positive irrefutable experiences to outweigh the dearth of evidence for those “manifestations” in the Bible. Again I ask for Biblical evidence. This is followed by blank stares, lengthy examples of “their experiences,” and, finally, sympathy for one like me who has not had the revelation. However, I kept asking, “But where is it in the Bible? Would Paul cheat us by giving no instructions?” Finally, we shift to a different topic, and they go on building the system with their experiences.

Is it possible that a club can transition to the expression of a Church? For a church is to be an expression of Life. It will make that transition when it no longer goes about the activity of creating Christians, but recognizes them. When it is no longer consumed with having every stick in place without a spark, but it is old wood drenched in water, yet ablaze. It will make that transition when the goal is lifting up Jesus, not just in word but in fact. This will be revealed by certain attitudes. It won’t have the attitude that another group is “doing” something that brings in more people, or the accompanying attitude that “we lost one.” It will not imitate anther branch but participate in the Life of its own branch. It won’t send out surveys to see what the people need, but will stand in the conviction that it already knows the need, and the need is Jesus. It won’t view itself as the machine that is the mechanism for coming to Christ. Pentecost killed religion; Church is any place and any time that the Lord comes “where two or more are gathered.” I remember in South Africa when He came in response to prayer and a slave girl’s reading. Jesus is silent about the strategy of making a “successful church,” because the plan of action was always to be connected with His Life. A machine takes strategy, but the Vine is Life, producing not plastic fruit but living grapes. Do I have a strategy? Yes! Go where the people are, lift up Jesus, and see what it is to which He witnesses. It has worked, if “worked” is the word people want to hear. It works in “dead” churches, “live” churches; it works over a coffee table or at a bus stop. I have never been limited by environment. If Christ were to be limited by the environment, then the environment is greater than He. The church today is full of formulas: sit, sing, sit, sing, pray. It is enough. Something could look like a club and not be. Something could look like a bus station and be a Church. Something could be invisible and be a Church. We must throw out our definitions, for we hear “Church life” and think “program in a big building,” we do not think “invisible.” Is the purpose of the program to touch the inner man’s needs, or is it calculated to touch the needs of the outer man and move the flesh? Could the program operate without Christ? Was Pentecost an expression of Christ, or did it create His coming? Is the Holy Spirit waiting for a program to act? Is the Holy Spirit waiting for me to act, or is the Holy Spirit waiting for me to receive Life and move and breathe, and then He will move me to where I need to be? It is interesting to look at Christian Companies; have they created a “Christian environment”? What is a Christian environment? What about the Church Company, the Christian Club? How does building an entertainment center for the youth balance with needs of the unemployed? Generally speaking, new curtains will never give way to someone’s cancer treatment payments; the bricks will be more important than the unemployed. How could the Church in China grow without any of the externals? Where do you see the early Church joking around in order to have something relevant? The Life they expressed was relevant. If, for argument’s sake, it is possible to move out of the Spirit and into the flesh, what would a fleshly program look like, and what would a spiritual program look like? How do statistics help? Are the statistics that we get relevant to the needs of the inner man? What avenues into a man’s heart are legitimate? Is what makes a strategy good or bad the goal? Which is easier to follow, the strategy or the Spirit? If we install a program, can we be creative, or does a program by its very nature kill creativity? If creativity is copied, is it still creativity? Why are there people who really do love God–and the Spirit witnesses to it—and yet are sick and tired of the club? We cannot say they are just trying to cause strife. If they could hear something about Jesus and how He works outside the box of religion, then even in the worst setting they would come alive. Where is there such a thing as a minister of music in the Bible? Why does a Church hire outside the congregation for its staff? Is there something wrong with making the statement that “We are the Church” instead of asking, “How are we to be the Church”? Are there more believers this year and last year because of the new programs? Amen, a Christian carpenter will hammer a nail pretty much the same way a non-Christian does. When we are looking at the club, we should go easy, for we do not know how God has led, worked, or brought people to this vision. Still, somehow the building has come to be the place of a seeker service for unbelievers, a fellowship of unbelievers, so that cannot be the Church. It can be a valid form of outreach; hundreds of places are valid forms of outreach. However, Jesus did not bring people in, but He sent the disciples out, and Church was the gathering of believers. What we call “church” is a transvestite, a method of outreach dressed up in clothes and called the “church.” It is confusing because the clothes do not fit what is underneath. A believer will often have trouble in this dating relationship.

I am seeing it clearly. How can I be bound and then required to do something? The moment I believe in Him for life in heaven, He binds me, so I must not be able to live the life on earth. Do you remember the Head, the man in the Amazon region without any limbs? He is the full image of Jesus. What can He do but rest? This is our inner life. We cannot perform; we cannot do it. I am sick and tired of beating myself up over requirements that I have made for myself; He did not make them for me, because He bound me. No more waking up full of self-hatred, regrets, and guilt; He never required those things out of a dead man. His death was for sin, and my death was for Life. The purpose of my crucifixion is so I will be forced to live on the earth the same way He did, in full dependence on the Father, doing nothing on His own, like the Head.

Romans 9:14-23, What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.

What a topic to weigh in on! I still stand on the side of the train of thought expressed like this: “The way that leads to Life is narrow, and there is a wall on both sides to bump into as you move along making forward progress. One wall is predestination and the other is free will.” I believe that both are needed. Beyond that, the topic can quickly degenerate into man’s wisdom and speculation, for systematizing God is dodgy business, as is thinking that one can know all there is to know about God. Where did God come from, anyway? Does a simple “I AM” not suffice? Does it not have to suffice? However, some things are worth a cursory look. A dilemma for many is that if God predestines, then what is the point? If it is all choice, then who ultimately gets the glory? Besides, we have found ourselves too weak to make the right choices. To be more succinct, what is it that man must do that God refuses to do for him? Also, what is it that only God can do and man cannot? I believe that God has a responsibility, and so does man. We are made in His image, and we see every family operating on that same principal: the parents have responsibilities, and so do the children. There are things only the parent can do, but there are also things that only the children can do. Understanding our earthly relationship will take us a long way toward comprehending our heavenly one.

Romans 9:16 is an amazing passage and contains enough dynamite to blow to pieces 95% of all of those discipleship and church programs that proclaim what the Christian must do to be pleasing to God. The Amplified Bible says this: So then [God’s gift] is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God’s mercy. [It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God’s having mercy on him.] This passage and more make it abundantly clear that God is in charge of gift giving, yet there is hardly a chapter in the Bible that does not deal, at least on some level, with man’s free will or choice. Joshua 24:15, If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Then, there is the foreknowledge of God. I Peter 1:1b & 2, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.

First, definitions must be addressed, for we stand and fall by our definitions. Mine are as follows:

Predestination: pre-determined, planned beforehand

Foreknowledge: omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience

Free will: the ability to choose

There are two categories within the concept of predestination. There are those in Christ predestined for heaven, and there are those outside of Christ predestined for hell. This cannot be argued, for there are no other classifications. Those who are in Christ will receive mercy, and those outside of Christ will receive wrath, so it cannot be disputed that God did, in fact, make vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. The question that arises is whether a person can choose which predestined group he is going to be in. First, lesser truths must be seen in the light of greater truths. “God so loved the world” and desires “that none should perish”; “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” If we know the heart of God, we can understand, in part, how He is acting.

Imagine two rooms adjoined by one door. In one room are those predestined to heaven, and in the other, those predestined to hell. The door is Jesus. God wishes that “all” men be saved. As those in the room for the damned attempt to escape through every window, God is gently latching those windows, not wanting any to escape except through the one Mediator, Jesus. He will not make the choice for anyone, but He will do all He can to make Jesus the only choice. In this, another greater truth is revealed, which is that God does not show partiality. In the room for the damned, God both hardens hearts and softens hearts of people that go through the same event. I know two fellows who broke their necks and are now confined to wheelchairs. Assuming that God permitted what He could have prevented, God permitted both accidents. Why? God, knowing every intimate detail about the men, understood that this particular type of accident for these particular men was the best that could be done for them to move them into the room for those predestined in Christ. One man was broken, his heart softened and revealed, and he gave his life to Jesus. The other man was hardened, his unyielding heart revealed, and he is strongly anti-Christ. Did God harden one heart and soften the other? Yes, for He permitted the accident. God’s actions in permitting did not create the hard heart or the soft heart; His actions brought them to the light. So some might ask, “Who, then, made the heart that would be broken and the heart that is hardened?” Man, in the image of God, is also an “i am” (but in all lower-case letters!). This does not mean that man is God, or even a god. But there are things about the creation of man that no man knows. Some might ask, “Why does that man have a hard heart?” My reply is, “That man is an ‘i am,’ period.” There is no answer beyond that to be given, since no man knows everything about his creation.

Here is another greater truth: God is love, and His love compels Him to continue to work and give everyone in the room for the damned the best chance possible to make the choice to move into the other room. This He does, even knowing those that will not respond. Who among us can grasp that kind of love? In His foreknowledge, He knows who will be hardened, and yet He will not give up on them until the very end. Beautiful love! Now, in my life, I came to the place where there was only one option other than Jesus, and that was suicide. God had been breaking me and softening my heart. My pride had been dealt a deathblow, and I was ready to move over and let someone else take over. I chose to believe in Jesus. Do I now have something to boast in? No! First, He did the work of bringing me to the doorway. Second, man is not born again through effort inwardly or outwardly, but only from above. Even if I chose to believe in Jesus, God had to choose to give me a new birth, graft me into the Vine, and give me the Holy Spirit. James 1:18, And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself]. To be locked up in jail and to choose to be free does no good; someone amenable to that choice must come along with the key. Here is where we need to see the limits of free will. I can choose to go to the airport, but only the plane can take me away. Once we have passed from death to life, God will permit those in the room of the damned to throw bricks into the room of those that have received mercy. However, he will only permit those bricks that will work for Him in furthering the revelation of His Son. A wicked man may take our job so God can reveal His provision, and so on. Romans 8:29-30, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Back to the family, as parents, we do all we can to see that our children make the right choices. Parents who have put themselves in the place of making all the right choices for their offspring are slowly going mad, and their children are not far behind them. Even when a parent sees his child making a wrong choice, the parent will not give up, even with foreknowledge of what is going to happen. I have seen parents outwardly give up on a rebellious child that is addicted to drugs, and yet all the parents’ lives they will secretly hope beyond hope that the child will turn around. They will covertly work toward that conversion experience. Take a parent’s love, multiply it by untold billions, and see why God is constantly at work in the room of the damned!

Romans 8: 8, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

To me, acknowledging the flesh is a cornerstone in understanding how the Christian life is lived in a practical way. The old man, the Adam life, the old nature is dead. Something was crucified with Christ and that “something” is the old man, or the Adam life, or the old nature. A Christian does not have two natures; that teaching merely reflects a type of Christian “Buddhism.” Dual-nature teaching is nothing more than the teaching of yin and yang. There is no battle between good and evil, which come from the same tree. If you know good, you will know evil. Christ’s life in me (good) is not battling the old nature (bad). The old nature has no power; it is dead.

It does cause frustration as we trust in or try to improve something that is dead, but be assured it is dead. Victory doesn’t come from our helping the Jesus inside us win over the old nature. If this were true, when we introduce someone to the option of Christ’s coming in them, we are introducing them to a nightmarish lifetime of struggle, something the Bible does not teach. Your old nature, Adam life, old man is dead. You have only one life in you, the life of Christ.

So how does that explain the struggle? You do have flesh. Man comprises spirit, soul, and body. When the spirit is disconnected from the body and soul (mind, will, emotions), whether through the death Adam introduced or by the choice of a believer, that person (believer or unbeliever) will live in the flesh. Flesh, then, is the being under the direction or influence of something other than the Holy Spirit from God. An animal has a mind, will, emotions, a body, and a world environment; his life’s expression is determined by how he moves in those without any influence from the spirit. Hence man, without the control of the spirit (an unbeliever dead in the spirit or a believer blocking the spirit), is called carnal or animal. Flesh is unique in every animal and in every individual. By nature we are born cut off from God. Through nurture the flesh is shaped into something unique. This is accomplished by the events that come to mind, will, emotions, and body through both the inner circumstances (a mind, will, and emotions not controlled) and outer circumstances (a world and the body, mind, will, and emotions of others out of control). Once the flesh is shaped, it is fixed in concrete, and this is the most important point.

Don’t get discouraged if you find yourself exactly as you were, or worse than you were, before becoming a believer.

Once developed, the flesh will not change. However, it can receive additions. An example might be a boy who looks to the father for security, and the father abandons the boy. The boy’s flesh is now developed into something insecure. Then one day the boy receives a new life that replaces the old nature, the Adam life, or the old life. He receives the life of Jesus. He is attached to the Vine. Christ’s life is secure, and the boy recognizes a security that is in him, Christ’s security. It is a mistake to think that this newfound security is the boy’s; it is Christ’s security flowing in him, and he is a partaker. However, his insecure flesh has not changed. Any moment, as a branch on a vine, the boy can simply, in a prayer of recognition, say, “Jesus, Your security is welcome here. Thank you that I can partake of it.” If he will do this, he need never experience the insecurity of his flesh. However, if the boy takes his eyes off of Jesus, stops abiding in the moment, and blocks the Holy Spirit of Jesus by choice, he will discover that the flesh, the nurturing of his being when he didn’t have Jesus, has not changed one bit. He will feel insecure, because the flesh is flesh. At this point, he can even add to his flesh by letting the chaos that is without and within rule over him.

Many, after accepting Christ and walking moment by moment with Him, have closed the door–through choice–to Him and added to their flesh. Twenty years ago I never talked to a Christian who was struggling with internet pornography. Now it is common. It is a new addition, but the root is the same; the flesh was blocking the spirit and looking to something else to feed the mind, emotions, and body. The remedy is easy. Put your eyes back on Jesus. The life of the Vine that is free from pornography will flow into the branch, and you will experience a freedom that isn’t yours but is now yours. However, close the door to the Vine (it closes when pride says, “I can”; it opens in humility by saying, “I can’t”), and you will discover that not only is the flesh feeling insecure, but it is also craving pornography.

The flesh can be added to but never subtracted from. This is so important, and I can’t emphasize it enough. It is deception to believe that the flesh will change. The enemy uses this deception in many ways. First, he has believers following one program after the other to change the flesh, when they could simply abide.

Second, the enemy uses carnal believers with strong flesh to make comparisons and put the sincere believers’ minds on the flesh.

Third, the enemy has the believers trying to undo what they see as bad flesh by doing good. This is an incredible deception. If you people-please all day long, you will hate people at night. If you jam your head with positive thoughts all day, you will be overwhelmed with negative thoughts at night. If you control your appetite all day, you will gorge at night. Good feeds evil. Remember the illustration of the horses? I had a white horse and I had a black horse. The black horse never wanted to be ridden and stayed far from the gate; the white one liked me and came close to the gate. However, when the gate was opened for the white horse, the black one would race like mad, seizing the opportunity to escape past the white horse and me. The black used the white. I call them “Christian Buddhists” who make the good and bad lists, who constantly tell what is good and what is bad, and who make comparisons. They make people worse. Always.

Fourth, there is no room for failure. You, your flesh, never changes. In becoming a Christian, your flesh never improved. It can be a depressing revelation (if you are self-righteous) or the most freeing thing in the world if you will abide, if Jesus is your focus. The most famous Christian that you have ever read about had ugly flesh until the day he died. How could the Apostle Paul say with such conviction, “In my flesh dwells nothing good”? That is something he would have said until the day he died. In some ways I would like to ban books about the “great” Christians. Well, ban the books that subtly draw comparisons between any person and us on the grounds of his strong, well-adjusted, demanding, and risk-taking flesh. It is just wrong.

There are no great men of God; there are weak men with a big God. Remember, when you are listening or looking to a Christian and being ministered to, it is Jesus that you are seeing. That person, not abiding, is not any better than a drunk or the worst person you know. He has not brought himself to a place of improvement through years of “Christian” discipline. Now, this revelation is one of the most beautiful that I have ever had. It keeps me handcuffed, moment by moment, to Jesus. It is the awareness of weakness that keeps me near. Some would complain and call it a thorn in the flesh, but if the awareness that apart from Him I can do nothing keeps me near to perfect love and participation in perfect victory, why complain?

Don’t get discouraged if you find yourself exactly as you were, or worse than you were, before becoming a believer. It is the flesh, and it has not changed; it is not going to change. God gave it to you so you would be miserable without Him in the moment. He knew we would have flesh, and He is not fighting it but using it.

Give yourself and those around you some grace. Don’t be so shocked when the pastor is seen cursing, the evangelist is angry, the Christian co-worker got drunk, or you found yourself seeing internet pornography. It is the flesh, and because the old man is dead, you can choose to move (as can they) back into the abiding relationship of the Vine. Do it, and in that moment, His victory is yours. But remember, self will be subdued with your flesh. It is God’s stronghold to keep you near

Being shocked at what you become is a revelation of just how blind you were to your true condition without Him.

Daniel 4:33, Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

Man is flesh, flesh is animal, so what do you expect from yourself when you are in the flesh? What do you believe that God expects out of you? Do you really think that the depths to which you have sunk have surprised Him? He knows you. The problem is that you don’t know yourself, and until you do know yourself, you will trust in, cling to, and rely on yourself. Let God lift His hand even for a moment, let Him subdue the Holy Spirit within, and you will see what, without Him, you really are. It is amazing the things we boast in. In an attempt to be like God we are constantly looking for that one thing that makes us a standout. Intellect is one of the most comical. There really isn’t much of a spread between the IQ of the learning disabled and a “genius,” but so much is made out of it. Around the world, the man with money is about as close to being a god as one can come. We are fed the positives by the manipulators to make us believe we are something other than flesh. Then there is great shock at what man can do to one another. “The flesh is flesh is hostile to God.” This is an absolute. In the grace of God He may, as I mentioned, lift His hand and allow you this revelation. Being shocked at what you become is a revelation of just how blind you were to your true condition without Him. So many say to me, “I can’t believe I did that!” I can believe that they did it, and I know they are capable of doing far worse. Once we see what we are, we can see what He is, turn to, trust in, cling to, and rely on Him and come to our senses.

Daniel 34“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever;
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
35 All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
But He does according to His will in the host of heaven
And among the inhabitants of earth;
And no one can ward off His hand
Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’
36“At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. 37Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

Its purpose is actually the drive for intimacy.

II Chronicles 16: 9, “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
Does God have a sex drive? Maybe a better question would be, “Why does God give man a sex drive?” There are few things within man as dangerous as the sex drive. It has been the cause of untold misery and suffering. Why, then, knowing the misuse that would come about, did God give man such a desire? Man is made in the image of God, and therefore we can look to man to understand God and, conversely, look to God to understand man. As we look at man the legitimate question can be asked, “Does God have a sex drive?” The answer is an astounding, “Yes!” However, we must define the sex drive properly. Its purpose is actually the drive for intimacy. This is why those addicted to sex never find satisfaction, for they are attempting to fulfill the craving for intimacy by repeating a physical act. Sex without intimacy is nothing more than feeding the flesh a snack, which brings only a very temporary physical satisfaction. The question, then, becomes, “Does God have an intimacy drive?” Yes! I was joking with some of the young men in a Bible school. I told them I knew that as they entered the lecture hall, their eyes were moving to and fro in hopes of making eye contact with one of the young women. If they did, they would get encouraged and next pass by the girl on a frequent basis in hopes that the fleeting glance was something more. If that effort was rewarded, they would have the confidence to talk to the girl, ask her out, and begin to woo her. One day they would be quite excited if the young woman tells them that she has chosen them! It is the drive for intimacy that causes all such behavior. Now multiply the sex drive times 100, call it the drive for intimacy, and you will begin to get a picture of the drive for intimacy that exists within the love of God. His eyes search to and fro for the one who will meet His glance. If our eyes meet His, he begins to woo us, and one day we choose Him! God’s drive for intimacy is so great and yet restrained by our choice. He does not practice spiritual rape. We must choose Him. We must desire Him. In short, we must respond to His initiation. And you thought that God didn’t love you! That is foolishness! God’s drive is a drive for intimacy. He wants to conceive something in your spirit, not your mind, your will, or your emotions. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” We stand enthralled at a virgin birth where Christ was formed in Mary. However, He has been birthed in you, also. A conception, in the love of God, has taken place in every child of God. When the sex drive is defined properly as the drive for intimacy, we understand God’s heart and we understand man’s need for intimacy. Satan does not have a creative bone in his body. He must watch to see what God is doing and then make something that’s off. We see this clearly with Moses and the magicians. They could only attempt to duplicate what God did first. Therefore, God creates the drive for intimacy, Satan sees the one-off, excludes intimacy, and offers man the opportunities for physical activity in its place. However, there is a problem. A physical act alone cannot bring the desired intimacy, and the expressive act of intimacy becomes a drive for sex, quite animal-like and unsatisfactory. There is no need to discuss where it goes from there. Sex in the world is simply a one-off!