Posted by Elfriede Copple
Today I was reading and studying in the “Believer’s Building Booklets #1 – WINNING THE WAR!” by Randy P. Amos (itinerant Bible teacher). I am posting some passages here because Randy has a great way of explaining the war between our sinful nature and our desire to please our Lord, and how to overcome.
Pages 2 + 3:
THE CHRISTIAN’S THREE ENEMIES
When one becomes a believer and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ he now has sonship status with all its benefits in the family of God. However, the believer also has three major enemies that will fiercely oppose him in his Christian life.
Enemy #1 – THE DEVIL
SATAN: 1 Peter 5:8 declares his is our “adversary” or enemy. The Bible goes on to teach that through his false religions, philosophies and demonic oppression, the devil will try to pull the believer’s mind away from faithfulness to the true Lord.
Enemy #2 – THE WORLD
THE WORLD: James 4:4 declares, “the world is enmity with God.” John 15:19, 20 goes on to teach that the world system (non believers) will hate and persecute the Christian. Because the true Christian faith and lifestyle exposes the world’s sin, the world will be against the Christian. This can range from social exclusion, to mental oppression, to physical death.
Enemy #3 – THE FLESH
THE FLESH: By the word “flesh” we do not mean our body with its skin, but our natural sinful nature that we were born with. The Greek word the Bible uses for our flesh is “sarx” and it often times means the rebellious sin nature every human being inherits from our first parents, Adam and Eve, who sinned against God. Sometimes we refer to our flesh as our Adamic nature or our beastly instincts. The Bible refers to our inherent sinful nature as our “flesh” or “carnal mind” or “old man.”
Pages 4 + 5:
MEET AMALEK (Exodus 17) – A TYPE OF YOUR SINFUL NATURE
Notice carefully in verse 8 of Exodus 17 that as soon as the children of Israel drank of the water we then read “Then came Amalek and fought with Israel.” God’s chosen people now had a fierce battle on their hands.
Israel’s battle tactics were non conventional to say the least. As the Israeli General Joshua fought this enemy Amalek with the edge of the sword, sometimes Amalek would start to win and then Joshua would start to win.
The strategic difference was that Joshua only had power over Amalek when Moses with the rod of God in his hand stood on the hill and held his hand up toward God in heaven. When Moses” hands got tired and began to drop, Joshua began to lose. Therefore Aaron and Hur each helped by holding up Moses” hands and then Amalek was soundly defeated.
Amalek provides a perfect picture type of our sinful fleshly nature. Just as Amalek immediately opposed Israel when they drank of the miracle water, so when the sinner is born again by the Spirit the flesh begins to battle with the Spirit. As Galatians 5:17 states; “the flesh lusteth (warreth) against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do things that ye would.”
Therefore the Christian will have a battle the unsaved won’t have because the unsaved are minus the Holy Spirit. This battle has both a negative and a positive effect in the believer’s life.
Page 7:
THE TWO NATURES IN A BELIEVER – SPIRIT AND FLESH
As we now compare the Bible teaching on Amalek as he pictures the way we are to understand and deal with our flesh, we will discover 6 major truths which are essential to understand and believe. They are as follows:
THE ENEMY – The flesh, like Amalek, is a perpetual enemy of God’s people and will never change and will always fight against you.
THE ENEMY’S STRATEGY – The flesh, like Amalek, specializes on attacking the weak and faithless.
THE BELIEVER’S STRATEGY – In dealing with the flesh you can’t spare any of it, like Israel spared Amalek, if you want to be mightily used of God.
THE VICTORY – The flesh, like Amalek, can be overcome in victory.
THE BLESSINGS OF VICTORY – If you put to death the deeds of the flesh you will enjoy God’s spiritual blessings just as Israel enjoyed the blessings of God when they killed and defeated Amalek.
THE TRAGEDY OF DEFEAT – If you give in to the flesh and let it overcome you, it – like Amalek, will rob you of your rewards.
My sinful nature catches up with me every now and then, but with God’s help I can overcome!
How do you deal with the “flesh”?
Scripture quoted from the King James Version.
