Who is Pulling the Strings Part 5
Influence: the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.
Manipulation: to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage.
Galatians 5:19)Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20)idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21)envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
We have 3 enemies of our souls: the devil, the world, our flesh. In my opinion, I would say that our flesh is probably the most prominent and powerful of the things that war against our walk with God. I don’t know many people who don’t manifest at least some of these things at one point or another. There are some you wouldn’t even know they sin and there are those who take some of these to a whole nutha level! Paul pointed these out on purpose.
He called them works of the flesh. He understood that there was a difference between the works of the devil and works of the flesh.
I John3:8) Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil
Most people don’t run around doing the things that Paul listed on a daily basis. Those times we mess up and we act on one of these things, these are the acts of the flesh. There are some who do live a lifestyle of one or more of these things. The scripture clearly says that those who “practice” these things are acting under the devil’s direct influence. Alcoholism is one example. One drink is not going to lead to a life of drunkenness, but when the enemy of our soul is involved, it has lead alcoholics to places that they never thought they would go. I could go into many more examples but for the brevity of this post I won’t.
The point in these posts is to raise your awareness. Self-examination is beneficial in everyone’s life but for a Christ-Follower it is crucial if we want to live a life that pleases Him.
More to come…..
Kevin
