BY:
Alero Nanna
Before we look at these four dimensions of the flesh, let us first refresh our memories on the word the Lord gave us by prophecy when He announced His visitation to us for this month.
“For this reason, call on the Church to clean up for I am about to visit my people. I want to visit them to raise them so they shall be raised. Tell them that my visitation has the result of a double edged sword. I judge sin and unrighteousness and unfaithfulness. I reward purity, righteousness and faithfulness. I bring answers to prayers (especially long standing ones), increase and fruitfulness. I shall be rewarding my laborers who have been laboring faithfully in my vineyard even when they did not have any physical reason to do so. I am the Lord, I change not. I do not share my glory with graven images. Therefore, tell my Church to clean up. I am coming for a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle.”
From this prophecy, we gather that the visitation of the Lord bears a double edged sword that would see the people He visits on either of two sides. In the instance when God visited His people in Egypt
The relevance of this study of the dimensions of the flesh therefore, is to help us see how we can be enemies of God without knowing it and what to do to change that so that we will not suffer the consequences of being caught on the Egyptian side.
I came across these four dimensions of the flesh through a message taught by Bishop Dag H. Mills and it dawned on me how relevant this is to our divine visitation. He listed these four dimensions as: the sinner’s flesh, the uncontrolled Christian’s flesh, the controlled Christian’s flesh and the incorruptible flesh.
1. The sinner’s flesh or the unbeliever’s flesh: In Eph.2:1-10, we are reminded of our former lifestyles and verses 2-3 of the text reads: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” In other words, we were controlled by the desires of the flesh working in perfect agreement with the soul and the devil. In 1Thess.5:23, we are told that we are spirits and have a soul and live in a body. The spirit is the real man and it is the part of man that gets born again. Before this born again experience however, the spirit of man or his heart (not the physical blood pump, but the inner man), is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. See Jer.17:9. This scripture describes the state of an unbeliever or all of us before we came to know Christ. At this level, people fulfill the lust of the flesh with a mind and spirit in total agreement with the flesh or human nature. In Romans 1:18-32, we see the potential of every unbeliever, no matter how nice they may seem to be. They are capable of manifesting any of the traits listed in the text. Let me quote the text below for our perusal:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
An examination of the above traits of the sinner’s flesh or nature tells us the extent of depravity to which the devil has brought mankind. The prince of the power of the air is another name for Satan. He carries out many of his nefarious activities through the air waves. This is why he tries to resist us from using the mass media because he knows the potential we have of touching more lives through that medium. He not only encourages the doing of these things by working on people directly, but goes the extra mile of giving it widespread publicity to encourage those who were hiding to do these things to give it open admission. For instance, the issue of homosexuality is so base that even animals don’t do it. The worse of these all is bestiality which is sexual intercourse between man and beast. Anyone reading this now that is not born again may feel irritated by some of these things if you do not do them, but it won’t be long before you will start to do them if you do not accept Jesus Christ because the devil is working hard against you through the airwaves. It is my heart felt prayer that you will make a decision for Christ so that when God visits you this month, he can help you overcome the war the flesh will continue to wage on you even after you are saved. This explains why there should be no reason under the sun why the Christian should seek counsel from the unbeliever or worse still, marry an unbeliever. See Ps.1:1-3 & 2Cor.6:14-17. The believer is described as light, Christ, temple of the living God and righteousness. On the other hand, the unbeliever or sinner is described as darkness, infidel, son of Belial, temple of idols etc. This is a terrible state to be in and a very good reason why you must make thanksgiving to God on a daily basis for the salvation of your soul a life style.
2. The second dimension of the flesh is the uncontrolled Christian flesh or the canal man: When we are born again, we are made new creations. God takes away that heart of man that is deceitful and desperately wicked and gives us a new heart that is good and godly. As we saw earlier in 1Thessalonians , man is first spirit and has a soul and lives in a body. The spirit is what is changed at new birth. God takes away the old deceitful and desperately wicked heart and gives you a new heart in which He puts His Spirit and writes His laws – Eze.36:24-26. This new heart is incapable of sinning – 1Jn.3:9. At new birth, the conscience of the believer comes alive and as a result of the seed of the word of God sown in the believer’s heart, each time he sins, his spirit does not cooperate with the soul and body which agreed to sin. This is what leads to the guilt crisis and I believe this was the experience of Paul when he wrote in Romans 7:18-25 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
From this scripture, we gather that even though we are saved, our bodies and souls are not saved at new birth. That is why the bible tells us to renew our minds so that we can walk in the ways of God. The soul only gets saved on a daily basis when we meekly receive the engrafted word of God – see Jas.1:21. If the mind refuses to cooperate with the body, the flesh will loose its influence over you. God’s original intention was for us to live from the spirit, but that changed with the sin of Adam and the flesh began to rule. Time and experience has however shown us that the flesh is a very poor leader.
Consequent on the foregoing, the uncontrolled Christian flesh is not different from that of the sinner except for the conscience. If the Christian keeps ignoring his conscience, over time, he will loose it and eventually loose his faith.
The uncontrolled Christian flesh is said to be canal and the bible says to be carnally minded is death. In Rm.8:1-8, we read:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
In summation here, the uncontrolled Christian flesh describes a Christian whose mind is full of fleshly desires and as a result too weak to resist the flesh and allow the Spirit of God to take charge of his or her life. This is a pathetic case and it describes a baby Christian who has refused to grow up because he or she is starving himself or herself of spiritual food which would have helped to reprogram his mind to make him compliant to the new life in Christ.
The bible is very clear on this that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God
3. The Third dimension of the flesh is the Controlled Christian flesh: Until you get your flesh under control, you are no different from an unbeliever. As soon as your flesh comes under control, you start living like a believer. The big question is how do we get our flesh under control?
An examination of the word of God reveals this to us. Apostle Paul said he does his by disciplining his flesh and keeping it under so as to avoid being disgraced. You will find this account in 1Cor.9:27. He also suggests in Galatians 5:16 that if we walk in the Spirit, we would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. To walk in the Spirit means to fill our minds with Spiritual thoughts. The bible says that the spiritual man, minds spiritual things – Rm.8:5. This is made possible by mind renewal. Rm.12:2 says we should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may be able to discern the will of God and of course, the will of God is a spiritual thing because God is Spirit and expects us to worship Him in Spirit and truth. See Jn.4:23-24.
Also, Apostle Paul enjoins us to set our affection on things above. In Col.3:1-10, we read:
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”
From this text of scripture, we discover that as believers, we have a choice as to how we live. God will not expect us to do what He has not equipped us to do. So if He says to “put off” and to “put on”, we can do it. So we can put off the old nature and put on the new man in Christ. This is in consonance with what the Lord tells us in the book of Mat.6:19-21 which in summary is that we should place value on eternal pursuits as opposed to earthly ones.
Finally, the Apostle Peter, gives us a recipe for victorious Christian living in 2Peter 1:4-10, while John the beloved emphasizes in 1Jn.5:4 that we overcome the world (which is powered by human nature or the flesh), by faith. The reason he gives for this is that whatever is born of God has a potential to overcome the world.
In summation here, therefore, we must understand that, whereas the unbeliever has no choice than to be controlled by the flesh, we have a choice as new creation. We can and should make the choice for right living, it has eternal rewards!
4. The fourth kind of flesh is the incorruptible flesh: This is where all believers are going. This is the celestial or heavenly body we shall receive after our physical death. At physical death, we deposit this terrestrial body at the cemetery to be buried and move on to heaven to receive our celestial body. This body is incapable of any of the characteristics of the old man or the unbeliever’s flesh. It is in perfect harmony with the new creation human spirit and the Holy Spirit. In 1Cor.15:35-46 we read:
“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”
This is the state of sinless perfection which was God’s original purpose for us. Every true believer in Christ looks forward to this blessed hope. It is ignorance that makes many Christians cling to this world as though this is all there is. Believe me, there is more beyond the grave than we know. It will make a whole world of difference for us if we can just put spiritual things first and cease being carnal minded. If we do this, the preaching of the gospel will become more effective and we would hasten the day of the Lord’s return and when God visits us this month, there would be no doubt that our exodus from our present spiritual locations would be guaranteed just like that of Israel from Egypt – Ex.3:7-10; 11:1. I want you to understand that as you put this word of God to work this month of our divine visitation, no matter what the Pharaoh of your life is God will see to it that he lets you go. Every Pharaoh of fear, sickness, lack, want, inability, bondage, carnality etc. will surely let you go in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!
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