26th July, 2020
Ministering: Pastor Dele Olubi
In the past two weeks, we have been learning how to combat the flesh in our Tuesday teachings. This morning my message will be on desires because I know we cannot talk about combating the flesh without talking about desires. The word ‘desire’ was used 111 times in the King James Version of the Bible. Everything alive has the ability to desire. Even sin has a desire (Genesis 4:7) and so did Satan (Isaiah 14:13-14).
To desire is a gift from God. God made Adam and Eve, leaving them with the capacity to desire, which was supposed to be advantageous to them but ended up being a snare. There are religions in the world that acclaim that the pinnacle of their spirituality is to stop desiring things. That position is wrong. God made us have desires and we will never be free from it. To have desires is legit and never a sin.
Although it is legit to have desires, we need to understand that through our desires, we can be lured into sin. The capacity of Eve to desire was the root of her problem (Genesis 3:6). She saw the fruit to be one that can make one wise and she traded what God has given them for it. Her desire snared her into lust. Lust is counter-love. It is to love inordinately. We can desire things; cars, houses but it is different from lust. Our desires become harmful when they pull us away from God’s will. Lust is any desire that is against God’s will and will always be counter-productive.
To have desires is permitted, even Jesus taught that we should come to the place of prayer with desires. Though it is legitimate to have desires, there are things we should not desire. Examples of those things are given in Deuteronomy 5:21, 7:25.
Christianity without desires is simply a religion. We only need to desire within God’s will (Mark 11:24). We should desire to have an intimate fellowship with God. We should not relate with God just by routine but we should be deliberate about serving Him.
Your ability to desire is God-given, just ensure it is within God’s will. It is not God’s plan for you to be small. Therefore, you should have the ambition and desire to be better. Only ensure your desires, though legit is not misplaced.