All the works of the flesh are driven by selfish ambitions, the goal of the fruit of the Spirit which emanates from God’s love for us, is to deliver us from our bondage to the selfish desires of our flesh, so that we can walk under the fruit of self-control.

 

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (meekness), self-control. Against such there is no law.”

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If you have already accepted the forgiveness of sins that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross purchased for your salvation, then the Spirit of God is already within you, and you have been qualified to produce spiritual fruit, and you can be delivered from the strongholds in your life that are keeping you from walking under the fruit of self-control.

 

Proverbs 11:9 “The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.”

 

Once we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we became born again, born of the Spirit of the Living God, what that means is that we were made righteous before God, but now we need to seek the goal of our faith, 1 Peter 1:9, which is to be delivered from the selfish ambitions/desires of our soul and learn how to walk after the Spirit of God by producing within us the fruit of self-control.

 

Proverbs tells us that it is through knowledge that we are able to obtain deliverance once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

 

What kind of knowledge is there that we need to know in order to be delivered from our earthly desires that keep our souls bound?

 

We need to know and understand how the spirit of Selfish Ambition and the spirit of Self-Control operate, and how they influence our behavior.

 

In our opening text, where the works of the flesh were enumerated, we see that there were a total of seventeen works that were mentioned, one of them, which I highlighted, is selfish ambitions.

 

In order for us to best understand how our flesh operates, I took the liberty to classify the works of the flesh by their function when I wrote about them in my book The Liberation of the Human Soul, which you can find in the book’s section of the houseoffatihministries.org.

 

I classified four of the works of the flesh as perversion, for that is what they aim to accomplish.

 

I classified another four of the works of the flesh as division, since that is what they aim to accomplish as well.

 

Another four I found to be part of what I called false religion, for their aim is to bind us into legalism and away from true faith.

 

And the last four I defined as malfunction, for that is the aim of all of the works of the flesh, to get humanity to falter to the point where it becomes worthless and useless to God.

 

So that through the manipulation of our selfish desires and ambitions the devil tries to hinder the believers from implementing God’s will and purpose in the earth.

 

That is why our opening text says that: those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

 

The kingdom of God is about producing spiritual fruit, and when we believe in a perversion of the truth, we open the door of our self or soul to the enemy to tempt us, who will then try to keep us from inheriting the kingdom of God by stifling our ability to produce spiritual fruit.

 

 

                                         PERVERSION

                                                   4

 

 

FALSE RELIGION        SELFISH AMBITION          DIVISION

               4                                  1                                  4   

 

 

                                       MALFUNCTION

                                                    4

 

 

If you follow the chart above starting with perversion, you can see the progression of how the works of the flesh operate within us.

 

The very first thing that the devil does is to try to pervert what we believe to be true by bringing the truth that we believe into question: did God really say? was the very first thing that the devil said that is recoded in the Bible.

 

Once what we thought to be true comes into question, immediately we become inwardly divided, we do not like uncertainty so we look for a way out, what we naturally end up doing is trying to reestablish our sense of the truth through natural means instead of faith, that always leads to religious rituals; if we do certain things or pray in a different way, then what we believed to be truth will be realized once again, we think; but remember that reliance on religion is a false way to go about searching for the truth, for it is written that without faith it is impossible to please God. So that we end up malfunctioning until the issue is settled.

 

John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

 

Here is how it works; Let’s say that you are a young adult and have your mother and father in your life, but out of nowhere the thought comes into your mind that they are not your real parents, at first you think of that thought as nonsense, but then memories come to mind that give some credence to the idea that maybe you were indeed adopted.

 

You see, it does not matter whether you were really adopted or not, once you entertained that possibility, immediately your heart became divided, the equation of your relationship with your parents is forever altered.

 

The first question that usually pops up is, If they are not my real parents, then who are my real parents? And then other questions follow, like, Where are they? Are they alive or dead? Why did they give me up?

 

So that without a scintilla of facts our lives can be turned upside down in an instant, that is how the power of perversion works, and it works with the same power and in the same manner against anything that we believe to be true.

 

So how do we deal with all of these new feelings and emotions? We try to reason our way out of them; we might say, if they are not my real parents at least they cared enough to adopt me. But the thought that they lied to you, or at least concealed the truth from you will not let you rest.

 

So that the next time that you go and visit with your parents you will feel like your innocence was violated by them by not telling you the truth, and is now affecting your relationship with them to the point that is malfunctioning, for what else is there that they have hidden from you?

 

What if your aunt, your mother’s sister, whom you have not seen in years, comes to visit and while you are all there, she begins to reminisce and starts telling you about when her sister, your mom, first told her that she was pregnant with you, and you can see them reliving that excitement of what they were going to name you is you were a boy, and just keep on talking about all those minute details of her pregnancy.

 

The truth would immediately engulf you in such a liberating manner that you would feel so foolish that you even thought to doubt the truth that you had embraced for all your life.

 

I used that long illustration to reveal to you how the truth of the Word of God can make you free.

 

Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, and we are told that he accuses us before God day and night.

 

Jesus is our advocate in God’s presence who is continuously covering us with His shed blood before God day and night as well. It is told of the saints in heaven that they overcame all the devil’s accusations with the blood of the Lamb and with the words of their testimonies.

 

Revelation 12:10-11 “Then I hear a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.’”

 

What is the root of all the accusations that the devil is continuously hurling against us? Did God really say that He loves you?

 

God speaks truth, the devil tries to cast doubts on our minds about God’s spoken truth, but ultimately, we decide what it is that we are going to believe.

 

It is not until we embrace the truth that God loves us no matter what, and that He will never leave us nor forsake us no matter what, that we will be made free indeed, for whomever the Son makes free is free indeed.

 

We can do better than just barely getting by in our walk of faith, we need not fear failure, and we need not embrace mediocrity of faith.

 

I dare you to find somewhere in the Bible where it says that God does not love us, or that He does not care for us, so why entertain the lies of the devil any longer?

 

Let us receive the truth today that we are accepted in the beloved, who gave His life as ransom for us, who is our shield and our deliverer. Pray according to our next Scripture.

 

Psalm 86:11 “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.”

 

The truth of the Word of God will unite your heart in such a manner that you will have no need of rituals or dead religions to rely upon, for the foundation of God’s truth is an unmovable foundation that will carry you out of whatever hell the devil throws your way.

 

What is the word of your testimony today friend?