Bible Studies
HEALING THE FLESH
THIS IS E-BOOK WAS CONCEIVED OUT OF NOTHING, IT IS ACTUALLY A BOOK ORIGINAL WRITTEN FOR AN ESSAY BUT WHICH WAS LATER TURNED AROUND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. AS THE SPIRIT WAS MUCH TROUBLE TO LET PEOPLE HAVE THIS INSTEAD OF RESTRICTING IT TO A CLASSROOM WHERE IT WILL EVENTUALLY END UP IN THE DUSTBIN.
THE FLESH HAS BEEN THE WORRY OF MAN SINCE CREATION, WHATEVER WAY YOU WANT TO LOOK AT THE FLESH, IT HAS ALWAYS STOOD TO BRING MAN LOW AND DEBASE HIM. MANY HAVE PREFERRED TO LOOK AT THE HEALING OF THE FLESH AS SOME OF THE MORE AILMENTS THAT WE SEE LIKE LEPROSY, ETC, BUT WE AIM TO TAKE THE FLESH BEYOND THAT TO WHAT REALLY IS THE FLESH FROM ANOTHER ANGLE AND POINT OF VIEW.
MY MANY THANKS GOES TO MY FRIEND IN THE VINEYARD OF GOD, WHO READ THE FOOTNOTES AND THE HEADING AND GAVE ME THE GREENLIGHT TO GO AHEAD WITH THIS WORK, EVANGELIST ELIJAH PETERMY GENERAL OVERSEER IN THE MINISTRY, MY WIFE AND TWO WONDERFUL KIDS, I SAY THANK YOU ALL AND MAY THE FLESH NEVER WIN THE WAR AGAINST US.
©FREDERICK MORKA. 2009
HEALING THE FLESH
DEFINATION OF HEALING
BIBLICAL DEFINATION OF FLESH
WHAT IS THE FLESH?
HOW CAN ONE FIGHT AGAINST THE FLESH?
THE FLESH AS SIN
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLESH
HEALING OF THE FLESH
KILLING THE FLESH
WARRING AGAINST THE FLESH
REFERRENCE
DEFINATION OF HEALING
Before we start this write up, let us first and foremost get a clear definition of what healing is all about. One is tempted to ask questions as to what healing or how the act of healing takes place?
Healing can be viewed as the act of curing someone or somebody of an ailment, disease, sickness or any other type of pain that the person is suffering from, which has so caused that person much discomfort and distress.
The bible is filled with cases of healing perfected by God and his Prophets in the Old ands New Testament times and many more abound after the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and till date healing still continues. Healing comes in different shapes and in diverse ways. We will try to focus on the three main areas that healing takes effect in the life of man. But first what are these three areas of healing?
We have thus, these three areas of healing that affects the life of man
1. Physical healing
This involves healing the physical body and things of the physical. The human body is prone to sickness and diseases which will result in its improper functioning, but with the help of certain drugs or medicament the body function is restore to normal.
2. Spiritual healing.
When the spiritual side of man is sick, the healing of the spiritual takes place, this is often perfected by prayers and counseling from anointed men/women of God, which may take effect through the laying on of hands or fasting even as far as deliverance.
3. Material healing.
When the things needed for the well being of man is lacking and the person concerned is confused and without direction, we talk of prosperity and good health, all these combine to make for material healing.
So having all these in mind healing comes in various shapes ands which ever of the three one finds him/herself the flesh is the predominate battle to fight against during the course of healing the flesh, for the flesh will always resist healing.
BIBLICAL DEFINATION OF FLESH
The flesh as defined by the Bible is everything that embodies Man, his attitude, actions, character, everything about Man is tied down to the flesh. That is the reason why man finds it very hard to fight the flesh and get rid of it easily for it is Man’s second nature and man must suffer a while for the flesh to be rid before victory comes which is not easy to attain.
The flesh leads man to commit various degrees of sin, most often times the man has little or know control over such sins, which are called the sins of the flesh and such sins include fornication, lying, adultery and every other sin that may arise out of the physical body.
The flesh is viewed by the Bible as every act which the mortal body commits knowingly or unknowingly, the result been that most of the time, the act committed by the mortal body are sinful in nature, but the flesh has other agendas up its sleeves as it goes beyond sending wrong signals to the body.
The flesh is identified by the Bible as that part of man that is weakest and easily misguided. When the woman fell in the garden, the eyes opening was the perfect avenue the flesh was waiting to emerge. Before the emergence of the flesh man was able to keep her under control but eating the fruit opened the doors to a new dimension called the flesh and it has been with man till date. (Galatians 5:19-21)
WHAT IS THE FLESH?
The flesh is known as our outer body, our physical self, the nature to do of our own self will and not listening to the still small voice that always try to stop us from taking or acting out some actions contrary to the good dictates of the Bible.
The flesh, when in full control takes absoluteness of all the senses of man. It controls the emotions, and any other type of feelings that man has. That is why you find many people doing things they otherwise will not want to do, because the flesh is in control of there lives.
Apostle Paul has given us enough hope and ways of fighting the flesh by a simple statement that “in all things I have learnt to be abased”( ) in times of plenty fret not and when there is nothing fret not otherwise you will give room for the manifestation of things you don’t want around you. Be satisfied with what you have and never complain, and the only way is to kill the flesh and bring it under your full control, subject to your own authority.
Many overlook the fact that our little desires give rise to the flesh coming into full manifestation. A good case to study is the desire of sex and the issues of rape. Ask any rapist why the act was committed in the first place and they tell you, “I don’t know what came over me” the book of Romans 6: 12-13 and Romans 13:14 sums up this issue for us.
Aside sexual gratification which is the most common of the work of the flesh, stealing, covetousness as in the case of Ananias and his wife Sapphira (5:1-10), lying even to the highest of authorities also as the case of the aforementioned couple are all good examples of what the flesh is.
HOW CAN ONE FIGHT AGAINST THE FLESH?
The flesh when fully developed in many is a very difficult thing to tackle, that is why in most deliverance sessions you still find the same brethren coming back for the same issues over and over again. Such are suffering under the syndrome of the flesh, which is not allowing them to have the ability to maintain and keep there deliverance.
But how can one fight this sickness that is the very nature of man himself. From the Garden of Eden when Adam fell to sin, the flesh has taken over the life of man, since God handed out the punishment to man. The flesh made man to commit the first murder, when Cain killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:3-16) due to the spirit of envy and strife, this was further compounded when God again laid a mark on the forehead of Cain which stood him out amongst the crowd as an angry man ( a mark of the flesh)
The flesh is also noticeable in action during the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. A journey that was meant to last forty days now extending to forty years, a year for a day, till all those involved in the rebellious act where wiped off the face of the earth, some even died in an earthquake ( ), even Moses the giver of the law was not speared, as he died before the journey ended, but glimpsed the promised land.
Lust, envy, strife, disobedience, a spirit of wanting to be free all contributed to the Israelites asking Samuel for a King to rule over them, and Samuel had know choice in the matter than to concede to there request after duly consulting with God on the issue (1Samuel 8:4-9) they so envied the people around them, that they wanted to be like them, subjects to an earthly King, one they can see and talk with without any one acting as forerunner.
The flesh can also be seen during the time of Abram, when God visited the city of Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy it. It was due to the lust of the flesh that the wife of Lot looked back and became a pillar of salt, because she remembered all the fleshy things she was enjoying, the wine, the jewelry, the music, name it, she remembered it all, and therefore made a final attempt to see the city for the last time, that is the power of the flesh over Man, it can make you loose what you have labored for a long time to attain, and within the twinkle of an eye it’s gone.
All said and done, how then can one fight this powerful instrument that destroys nations, even bring down and dividing them for it was the flesh, yes the spirit of wanting to please (by worshipping other gods brought by the new queens from other lands, the Kings married into Israel) that divided the Kingdom of Israel into two nations
The book of Ephesians 6:11 tell us and gave a very clear way to fight the flesh in our daily walk as Christians. Brother Paul wants us to do something and that thing is to “Put on” notice the word “Put on” we are to wear the armour of God, like our clothes, never pulling it off for any reason, lest we contact something else. What is this armour of God we are to put on? The word of God is new to the hearer everyday and a verse in the Bible can be linked to one thousand sermons if well researched that is why as good Christians one must not relent in studying the word of God daily so as to be able to stand the wiles of the devil and his cohorts. If there is anything the Devil and his workers are afraid of it is the blood of Jesus Christ and if anything more confusing to the Devil is the language of the Holy Ghost which he is yet to come to terms with. So one needs to put on the word of God and the language of the Holy Spirit to win this battle against the flesh while covering ourselves constantly with the blood of Jesus Christ. See also the book of Ephesians 3:16-17. with the deep rooted scripture in him Jesus was able to defeat the Devil when he was tempted thrice after his fasting to properly start his Ministry, he was able to quote SPECIFIC scriptures that countered all the Devil threw at him, that is putting on the whole armour of God.
Above all, a man that wants to win this war must hand over everything to God in completeness of purpose, which is the hard part, for Lot’s wife found it too difficult to let go of the rudiments of the world that she just had to look back, so it is with many these days.
The next process is to be able to recognize the voice of the shepherd (John0:27) and to listen to the voice of the shepherd. Note also that the way to defeat the flesh and fight it to the ground is to continually ask God to lighten your candle (Psalm18:28) which is to keep your prayer life burning hot for the moment it gets cold, the Devil will strike with one form of enticing word or object that will lure you into committing an act of the flesh, thereby making the flesh to manifest in your life, and this will be the result as told by Jesus in the book of Luke 11:24-26, the flesh will come fortified and fully prepared to repossess what they lost first.
Prayers and a deep rooted nature in the word God will see us through fighting this battle of the flesh.
THE FLESH AS SIN
The flesh stands out as a distinctive form of sin. The first rape in the Bible that was committed by man was as a result of the sin of the flesh, when lust and desire took over the life of Shechem on seeing Dinah, took advantage of her (Genesis 34:1-2) and the same flesh incited the spirit of anger in Simeon and Levi to kill Hamor, the father and Shechem the son for the conduct on Dinah (Genesis 34:25-26)
Even the Bible warns in the book of 1st Corinthians 6:18 for us to run from everything that encompasses the flesh, for our whole action is been taken note of.
In the book of Acts of the Apostles we see how the flesh came into the lives of a couple, that decided to covert what was willfully there’s without any form of force. They were simply trying to impress those around that they also belong to the fold, and they paid dearly for it with there lives. See Acts 5:1-10.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLESH
As with all things the flesh has its on distinctive nature. The flesh is responsible for our bits and odds in behavior. It is the flesh that makes a Whiteman hates a Blackman. In other words the flesh breeds hate and when hate comes into the picture the tendency is there for the person to want to do things out of the ordinary to hurt the other person.
The flesh is responsible for greed in the life of man, it also stands out in slavery of man to things of the world like Sex, alcoholism, smoking etc. but what are the characteristics of this torn in the life of man and how can it be identified. Like we mentioned above the flesh is largely responsible for all of Man’s shortcomings and it has its main characteristics, an attitude of “I don’t care” when you see someone with this nature of attitude know that the flesh is in control.
Pride is another of the outstanding nature of the flesh, for pride can lead a man down the road of destruction as the scriptures aptly put it in Proverbs 16:18, which shows us what the eventual result of pride is death! See also Proverbs 28:25.
Grumblings, an area many falls short of the magnitude of God’s wonder working power, is an area of the flesh that we will but briefly preview. Many don’t take grumbling as sin, rather they see it as a way to pouring out there grievances and how they feel God is not doing anything in there lives. Take a good look around such and you will find the blessings of God around them too numerous to mention, yet they grumble. A further study of grumbling will show you its true nature as a form of the flesh, see 1st Corinthians 10:11, Numbers 11:1, 20, Philippians 4:6, 19.
Sex oh yes the most powerful of the nature of the flesh is online now, and what better way to talk about it then here and now. A lot of people are under this syndrome without knowing it. The only good thing to be gained out of sex (for the unmarried and wayward married) is a life long achievement of a pot-pourri of sickness, diseases that will ultimately result in death, or a life long terminal sickness, except the spirit of god comes in to completely save that person, lust brings about rape and if convicted which is most often the case by a court of law yields long term imprisonment, cutting years away from the life of the man involved.
Loose talking is another manifestation of the flesh. When you see people talking loosely and without control, most are often times the flesh at work. They speak without thinking and for the fun of it, they don’t mind to be rude, yet will laugh over matters that are very serious, which they take as a common issue, this is the flesh working in them. (Proverbs26:28)
Proverbs 20:1 sounds a very serious warning, yet you find many not minding the state of that warning to do there own thing. They have found a way out of this problem by most times referring to Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy concerning the taking of a little wine to help alleviate his stomach Ulcer (1st Timothy 5:23), you then begin to wonder how powerful the flesh is? Many now use this as an excuse to getting drunk even in the church and misbehave, you find Ministers drinking there heads out and mounting the pulpit the next day to talk about Morals while they do worst behind the scenes.
Nicotine, so addictive has taken over the life of many as they see, little reason in not smoking despite all the warning been issued by the Surgeon General to the dangers of smoking, you still find a lot of people getting involved in this business that slowly but steadily shortens the life span of man. A smoker will rather not go with food for a day than miss out on his cigarettes, that is how powerful nicotine is to the human body, with long term usage causing various ailments and diseases which are most often fatal to man.
The characteristics of the flesh are well spelt out for those with a keen eye to see it, for it glues itself to the senses making man to view certain of his actions as normal and irrelevant without any form of impact, whereas it causes a greater damage than can be imagined.
HEALING OF THE FLESH
We begin this chapter with the book of Galatians 5:17, 19 -21. As awesome as the flesh sounds it can be put in check, but a lot of sacrifice needs to be carried out on the part of the person concerned so as to curtail any further lapses that may occur.
The tongue as small as it is, is the smallest member of the human body yet carries so much venom than a bagful of cobra’s in heat. Even the Bible acknowledges the power of the tongue (Proverbs 15:4).
If one can tame the tongue, the other parts of the flesh will be easily tamed as the tongue is the fore-runner to most of the things and actions been carried out by the flesh? The tongue gives rise to actions that the flesh will be prompted to perform and voice out. Most of these actions are a result of direct stimuli from the excesses of the tongue. Even the lust for sex, if the tongue is put in check can be controlled.
Touch not, taste not, see not, hear not, and speak not all these are direct avenues for flesh healing.
Touch not: Right from the garden of Eden the instruction has been handed down to man, that there are some things to be touched and some that man must not even lay hands upon (Gen 2:16-17). Today as a result of the breaking of the law in the garden man has gone under and as a matter of necessity touch has taken a larger percentage of what man otherwise feels, for he has to touch to be at tune with the environment he finds himself.
Taste not: Another of the laws given in the garden. It was a simple law yet man fell to the law of wanting to taste, which is why today we have man and women that are gluttons always wanting to taste and never getting satisfaction from tasting. They taste even areas that many find disgusting and want to know the taste of everything under the earth. The book of Proverbs warns us about tasting everything we see.
Jesus in one of his teachings talked about any part of the body causing one to sin and what should be done about that part of the body (Matthew 5:29-30). Speaking metaphorically, Jesus does not want us to cut off the eye, hand, leg that caused us to sin , but to put it under subjection ad flee from the lust of that thing(1st Corinthians 6:18-20) for we become slaves to the things that we so get attached to. A man or woman that spends so much time at the mirror will ultimately be so involved in starring at the mirror to gaze upon his/her beauty that it will be so difficult to take away such a thing from them. The result is that the person comes in contact with powers that possess the mirror and will like wise get into him/her.
Habit some say is second nature, but habit is like the flesh and it works along with the senses which become numb with the sensation of enjoyment and self fulfillment it is feeling.
The flesh can only be healed by what the last chapter hammered on continually, by “Putting on the whole armour of God” and with all the under listed in the book of Galatians 5:22, then one can truly say the battle over the flesh is won. This leads us into the next chapter of our sermon.
KILLING THE FLESH
Some people call the flesh second nature, due to its effect on the senses and some tell you they don’t want to do this but they find themselves doing that thing they so hate, all because they have know control over the flesh.
So how does one kill the flesh? A million dollar question with a million dollar answer.
Romans 6:6 talks about killing our Old man and getting crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ, as Christ died and was nailed to the cross, all our fleshy sins our Old man inclusive was nailed with him and he took them all on the cross, making a show of them in victory.
At the nailing of the Old man to the cross we take on a new dispensation which is the spirit of Newness as spelt out in the following verses 22 -25 of Galatians 5, also see the book of 1st Peter 2:11, Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:3.
WARRING AGAINST THE FLESH (ROMANS 6:23).
The Bible is filled with various verses about the flesh and how to go about defeating the flesh. Once a man is born into this world, sin envelopes him like a cloak that is why even a child at the age of nine begins to feel and act in mischievous ways, which sometimes baffles most parents that don’t understand. Because of sin a male child will not want to be dressed up by a female her age, rather preferring to be dressed by aunties with gorgeous looking chest which they like to lean on and get there heads into. That is why the Bible tells us that the imagination of man is continually evil, always looking and devising ways and means to hurt one another.
For every Christian the major war to fight against is the flesh as it forms a major stronghold that a true Christian faces in life. From the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell to the tempting of the flesh (Gen 3:1-24) to the coming of Jesus Christ and the crucification of our sins on the cross, the Bible has made the way clear for man to kill the flesh. It has shown us that if we give way to the flesh, (Romans 13:14), it will rise up and grow beyond our imagination, thereby making man a weakling.
Jesus during his temptation in the wilderness (4:1-11) gave to man the basic ingredients to fight the devil and his army. The Devil came quoting the word of God, citing examples from the scriptures, showing that even the Devil knows the scriptures, as he also showed in the Garden of Eden to Eve, whom he was able to turn around and eat of the fruit, he tried cunningly to make Jesus fall into sin but at every word he spoke Jesus gave him a backlash and countered all he said with powerful references from the scriptures. A far cry from what is obtainable today from most Christians.
The flesh is defeated by relevant scriptures that matter at the time of the flesh coming to attack, little wonder our brother Paul wants us to put on the whole armour of God to help fortify our life in Christ (Ephesians 6:11) and standing firm in faith.
REFERRENCE
All scriptures are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
1st Corinthians 5:1-5, Leviticus 18:8, 2nd Corinthians 7:12, 6: 14, Romans 6:12-13, 13:14, Genesis 4:3-16, 1st Samuel 8:4-9, Romans 13:12, Ephesians 6:13, 6:11, 3:16-17,John 10:27, Psalm 18:28, Luke11:24-26, Genesis 34:1-2, 34:25-26, 1st Corinthians 6:18, Acts of the Apostles 5:1-10, Galatians 5:19-21, Proverbs 16:18, 28:25, 1st Corinthians 10:10, Numbers 1:1, 20, Philippians 4:6,19, Proverbs 26:28, Galatians 5:7, Genesis 2:16-17, 1st Corinthians 6:18-20, Galatians 5:22, 22-25, 1st Peter 2:11, Galatians 3: 27, Romans 6:3, Genesis 3 :1-24, Romans 13:14, Matthew 4:1-11
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