THE LUST OF THE FLESH, THE LUST OF THE EYES, THE PRIDE OF LIFE

[Prophetess Rudelle Stewart]

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I am so honored to share a word that God has given me with you all. Recently, I've been thinking about how so many of our youth, and even many of us adults and "seasoned" saints are getting caught up with things that are causing us to stumble in our walk with the Lord. The Lord spoke to me and said that the devil is using the lust of the flesh and the the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to entice people.

(1 John 2:15-17) (All scripture references are from the Amplified Bible)

15 Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]--these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].

17 And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever.

James 1:14-16 says, 14 “But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions). 15 “Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death. 16 “Do not be misled, my beloved brethren.” Satan tempts us only with the things that we desire and his goal is the same with each attempt, to “bring forth death.” This means that the devil will bring before us the things that we lust after and desire. When that desire has connected to your heart where it takes root and becomes alive, it causes you to sin. When that sin is accomplished, it causes death. It may be a spiritual death, death of peace, death of joy, death in your relationship with Jesus Christ, but if your sins go unrepented, they will lead to an eternal death in hell.

The good thing is that the temptation does not have to lead to death. Satan tried to tempt Jesus 2000 years ago, the same way he tries to tempt us today. But Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also proved the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.” Saints of God, we DO NOT have to succumb to temptation! What good news! Hallelujah!

Now, let’s dig into the Word of God and find out what He says about the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. The Lust Of The Flesh

In Romans 7:18 Paul says, “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…” This tells us that anything the flesh lusts after is not good for us. It is a waste of time to try and find a way around that. There is no compromise, the verse clearly stats no good thing. Romans 13:14 tells us to put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature to gratify its desires. That is why there must be a renewing of the mind. Colossians 3:1 says, “Set your mind on things above not on things on the earth.” Philippians 4:8 says, "For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. If you allow your mind to stay on anything else, it will surely lead to your destruction.

Colossians 2:11 says, “In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).”

The Word of God has no good thing to say about our flesh. How then do we as Christians succeed in not allowing our flesh to lead us into sin? Galatians 5:16 answers that question, “But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).”

The Lust Of The Eyes

Proverbs 27:20 says, “…so [the lust of] the eyes of man is never satisfied.” That means that you will always see something that you desire, so you must be able to prevent that desire from becoming sin, which we know will lead to death.

There are not a lot of scriptures that directly talk about the lust of the eyes, but King David is a perfect example of how the lust of the eyes can lead to temptation, sin, and death. 2 Samuel 11 tells the story of how David saw Bathsheba bathing and the Bible says that she was very beautiful to look upon. Instead of him turning away, he asked around to find out who she was. He found out she was married and still didn’t stop there. By this time he is “drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire.” He decided that he had to have her. That evil desire conceived when he decided to have sex with her and it brought forth sin when he actually lay with her. Bathsheba became pregnant and David devised a plan to have her husband killed to keep him from finding out. Though the people around David may not have found out, God knew and He sent Nathan to tell him that He knew and He was not pleased. At this point, David repented, God forgave him, and his life was spared. But even if we repent, sin still brings forth death, and Nathan told David that the child of him and Bathsheba would surely die.

I’m sure if David had known when he laid eyes on Bathsheba that it would affect his family, his life course, turn him into a murderer, and cause the death of his child, he would have turned away from her immediately. God gave us this example to show us what the lust of they eyes can lead to so that we don’t have to be snared by the temptations the devil brings before us.

The Pride Of Life

Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” This tells us that pride will lead to destruction. Proverbs 29:23 tells us, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but he who is of a humble spirit will obtain honor.”

In speaking of those who desire the office of a bishop, 1Timothy 3:6 says, “He must not be a new convert, or he may [develop a beclouded and stupid state of mind] as the result of pride [be blinded by conceit, and] fall into the condemnation that the devil [once] did.” Pride will cloud our minds and cause us to do unwise things. We may become conceited as a result, and find ourselves falling under the same judgment as the devil. We must do all that we can to stay humble and not lift ourselves up, but allow the Lord to lift us up.

In my prayers and intercession for our youth, I asked God to show us a way to convey these things to them, because they are surely being enticed and deceived. He responded to me with the following scripture, “But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. (1 Cor. 2:14)

This was so profound to me. I now understand that the reason our youth are not “getting it.” It is because what we are trying to teach them is nonsense to them. They are unable, helpless, and powerless of understanding what we say, because the Word of God is spiritually discerned. A large number of our youth are not saved; therefore they do not have the spirit of God in them. Those that are saved don’t know Him. The Bible clearly tells us “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:11) They are interested in things of the flesh, or the world. Romans 8:5 says, “For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh…”

Their minds are set on satisfying their flesh. We want their minds to be on Jesus Christ, and holiness and righteousness. We are trying to save them from Hell, but only God can do that. I believe that our focus should not be on trying to get them to live right because they can’t without Christ. We are trying to make them do something they are unable to do. We are fighting a losing battle. We can have youth who respect their parents and obey them, are not having sex, who are not drinking or smoking or cursing, etc., but if they are not saved they are still going to Hell.

I believe the first step is to teach them who God really is. We tell them He is a provider, comforter, redeemer, doctor, lawyer, friend, and so many other things, but those are just words to them because they’ve never experienced Him for themselves. Many Christians put more emphasis on our sins and failures than we do on the One who can forgive us, the One who died for those sins so that we don’t have to.

When I gave my life to Christ, my sins were not emphasized. They were only mentioned to say that God can forgive me of them if I acknowledge them and repent of them. The focus was on this Jesus who died just for my sins, and who could not only save me from a burning Hell but save me to a glorious Heaven. I was told about this Jesus who could love me like no other, who could wipe away my tears, who could take away my pain. I was told that God could take away my desire to sin, that he could wash me and cleanse me and make me whole again. I was told that the more time I spent in His word getting to know Him and what I could do to please Him, the more I would fall in love with Him and want to live the way He wants me to. The more personal time I spent with Him, the more he began to speak to me and love on me and I did begin to fall in love with Him. That is how I came into relationship with Him and it is the only way our youth are going to come into relationship with Him. We can’t beat it into them, we can’t yell it into them, and we can’t force it into them. God didn’t force us, and we can’t force them. We have to make them want Him and once they do, He will do His part. We then just need to be there to answer their questions and help them grow and mature in God.

I have been looking for materials to aid us in our effort to save our youth. There are some great Youth Bibles and Youth Studies that introduce Jesus in a way that they can understand. There are countless helps out there, and if we begin to utilize them, I believe we will begin to see great success in our Youth. They are the future of the Church and no investment into their lives is too great. Saints let’s continue to pray for them together as one Body and continue to seek God for ways to reach them. Until next time…

Blessings,

Min. Rudelle Thomas-Stewart