True Christians are disciples of Jesus.
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
True Christians are disciples of Jesus.
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Saved.Church
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2 Corinthians 12:7-8.
From Websters 1828 dictionary,
Thus, weakness of our mind and body (flesh) is an infirmity (defect).
Yes. Our will of the flesh is the "spokesman" of our iniquities. Our iniquities make us infirm, and our propensity to sin results from our infirmities.
Before we are born again, we must know we are separated from God because of our iniquities (and sin), but the Lord wants to save us from both.
From Webster's 1828 Dictionary,
As babies, we were pure before God. As we grow in this world, whatever we like that is contrary to complete reliance on God and His ways can become iniquitous. Whatever satisfaction we seek from the world as a friend of it proves we are infirm, sinful humans.
Stated another way, our flesh knows what flavors of sin we like most (iniquity). The will of our flesh is our connectivity to the world and the god of the world, the enemy (the devil). Our will of the flesh is like a barb (thorn) the enemy tries to snare us by with our favorite flavors of sin because we are infirm, sinful humans, hence the thorn.
Yes! Whoever is born of the Spirit receives the cleansing of the Word of God and the renewing (quickening) of the Holy Ghost and is sinless as part of the body of Christ. That's why we have power over all the power of the enemy, and have no excuse for not doing the Father's will.
When we are born of the Spirit (born again, the saved), God does not see us as sinful or iniquitous, even if the devil may. The Father and the devil both see us as part of Jesus (see John 17).
The born again of the Spirit are as if we died with Jesus on the cross.
When we resist the devil, we find the strength in our weak flesh is the Spirit.
Remember, as the born of the Spirit the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, including the strongholds of iniquity in us and the defiant will of our flesh, see 2 Corinthians 10:4. Until we go to heaven, our sinful flesh in this world remains a corruptible sack of iniquity, and the enemy tempts us through our sinful flesh no matter how glorious we think we are or make it with exercise, adornment, pretense, or profession.
In fact, the born again die daily to the deeds of the flesh and get stronger every day.
We are cleansed by Jesus the Word and renewed by the Holy Ghost through repentance from our iniquities that cause future sin, thereby sealing us until the day of redemption according to His holy Spirit of promise.
As the born-again children of God, eternally alive by the Spirit, the Father does not remember our iniquities or see our sins because of what Jesus did, and set in motion, from the cross.
We must remain penitent because our infirmities are still in our flesh and remain visible by the will of our flesh like a thorn we cannot remove. Our thorn in the flesh seeks to live in satisfaction of our iniquities and prove our infirmities, causing us to sin (make mistakes) in the flesh. THIS IS YOUR BATTLEFIELD! It is within you.
If we sin, we repent. If we sin again, we repent again,...
Saved.Church
The "thorn in the flesh" is the will of the flesh. It is a thing, not a who.
There is a will of the flesh (a thorn) in every person, but how is it a "messenger of Satan"? From Websters 1828 dictionary,
The will of the flesh is a rebellious desire inside the flesh of all humans, including Jesus, and God knows all about it.
God uses our weakness (infirmities) to propel us to Him through our reliance on the Spirit as the inner strength living in us as we live "inside out" by the Spirit.
The apostle Paul (also called Saul from Tarsus before his ministry) was chosen by the Lord Jesus to spread the Word of God. (See, Acts 9:11-16.). Paul wrote about 2/3 of the New Testament. He spoke of our "thorn in the flesh" this way:
That's why we glory in our infirmities and take pleasure in them for Christ's sake because we know when we are weak, the Spirit of God makes us strong!
Let's be clear; we do not continue in sin for grace to abound. God forbid!
We can't. It is the spur of our iniquities that are stuck in us making us sinful by nature. Nobody can control the desires of their iniquities, see Romans 7:14-20. The born again children of God turn to the Spirit (the Word and the Holy Ghost as the "comforters" or helpers) to help us control our flesh, but here again, we must listen and obey to mortify the sinful iniquities of the flesh.
By contrast, whoever is not born again of the Spirit of God is left to control their own flesh as a child of the world, and they shall fail because of their infirmities stemming from their iniquities. The Word says so.
As we said earlier, the will of man associated with the soul of every person has one most important choice: live by the will of the Spirit or live by the will of the flesh. When we choose the Spirit, the Spirit is the warrior in us. Whenever we choose the flesh, the flesh is the warrior, and sin is the result because that's what the flesh is, sinful.
For the born again, we find our strength, the Spirit, inside our weakness (inside our flesh) and live "inside-out" by the Spirit. Whoever isn't born again of the Spirit (saved) is condemned already and shall continue in sin living "outside-in" as friend of the world and enemy of God. The Word says that too.
Our iniquities generate our fleshly infirmities (weaknesses) and the devil knows it. Whenever we think the Spirit, or God's sovereign will, is insufficient to satisfy us, we demonstrate our infirmities and desire a fleshly alternative to God or His ways because our body and mind lust to satisfy the iniquitous natural man, and we find a place of temptation from the enemy.
The resultant behavior of our flesh is a form of temptation (a signaler of our iniquities), but it lacks the opportunity to sin.
The devil provides the enticing opportunity as the temptation to sin. The devil's temptations (enticements) to sin are designed to satisfy our iniquities, prey on our infirmities (our flesh), because the will of our flesh signals our favorite flavors of sin as weaknesses to the enemy.
Broad is the way for the unsaved who befriend the world for satisfaction of their iniquities, for they seek the bogus religions to make place for their infirmities and appease them in avoidance of repentance therefrom.
Saved.Church
Albany, Oregon
You may use, copy, link to, and distribute anything on this site provided you give attribution naming where you got it. You may not create derivative works from the content provided here. People did that to the King James Bible, and in doing so, they caused a lot of confusion and led people astray. Jesus said, I give you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing by any means shall hurt you!
©2008-2024 Saved.Church. All rights reserved.