http://www.gospelcity.com/dynamic/articles/ministry/103When Desires Turn To Lust
Whose control are your desires under, yours or GodÂ’s? There are many desires we have as human beings. A desire for sex, a desire to eat, a desire to drink, a desire to be loved, a desire for spiritual fulfillment and many more. The problem isnÂ’t in the desire, but in how the desire is fulfilled. When we satisfy our desires in our timing and in our way, we lust and have to suffer the consequences of the actions we have taken.
We are all familiar with sexual desire, but remember God is also familiar with our sexual desire; after all He gave it to us. One thing we tend to forget and/or override is when this desire is to be satisfied.
God saved something sacred for that special person but we have lost the meaning and sacredness of sex or we never “chose” to learn it in the first place. The command God gave to man and woman to be fruitful and multiply was to a married man and woman; not an unmarried man and woman or two women or two men. When a desire turns obsessively selfish, it then becomes lust. Lust is selfish which is contrary to the selflessness the Bible promotes. The Bible lets us know sin is the byproduct of the conception of lust and then from sin there is death. (“Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15 KJV). So in essence, we are actually killing something when we satisfy our natural sexual desire outside of the will of God. There is a part of your soul that is killed every time your desire turns into lust.
Someone reading this article may be thinking, “I feel fine after my sexual desire has been fulfilled.” Well, just because you feel fine doesn’t mean you are doing fine. People with AIDS, depending on the stage they’re in, can feel fine and look fine, but internally they are dying. Read the aforementioned scripture in the book of James. Death is brought forth “when it is finished”. When what is finished? When sin is finished. Sin is a process working in you with the finale of death. One way or another we will feel or see the result of sin, BUT we thank Jesus Christ for His resurrecting power. The power to produce life where there was once death. This comes from confessing and repenting (turning away) of our sins.
The devil is a master at keeping us ignorant to spiritual life, while keeping us in a state of spiritual destruction because of our lack of knowledge ( “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.....” Hosea 4:6 KJV) . Someone who has been doing wrong, and was never taught right, will continue to do wrong thinking it is right and not feeling, or knowing, the difference. If you are doing your job a certain way and someone educates you on a faster and easier way you are then liberated from the slower and harder way. There is a burden lifted off you. The same applies to being educated on not falling into sexual lust. When you have truly tapped into the liberation of not satisfying your sexual desires, there is a freedom in your soul and spirit. You feel it!! Even more once you have tasted freedom you are keener to what bondage feels like. It seems right to lust because it derives from a natural desire and we have never been taught how to operate with our sexual desire under the control of the Holy Spirit.
The children of Israel were in Egypt under bondage. God freed them, but while on the journey of freedom they grumbled because their desires to eat and drink were not being satisfied and they wished to be back in Egypt (Exodus 17:3, 16:3). Certain desires werenÂ’t being met at a given time so they longed to satisfy those desires back in a place of bondage. IsnÂ’t that just like us at times? When we want something and we canÂ’t have it our way or in our timing things outside of what we would normally want is what we go after.
While weÂ’re fasting, food we donÂ’t even like starts to look and smell good. When we were single and waiting for that spouse, women or men that werenÂ’t even our type started to look good to us. LetÂ’s tell the truth and shame the devil. The reason why a place of bondage seemed better to the children of Israel or food we donÂ’t like seems good or that woman or man is attractive now is because a God given desire has turned to lust. God no longer has control, but you do. This story relates to our sexual desire.
We, the children of Israel, can be free but when the trials (sexual temptation) come we are drawn away by our own lust (“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” , (James 1:14 KJV) In other words we are drawn to satisfy our desires our way (lust), rather than stay in the will of God and have our desires fulfilled God’s way. The children of Israel wouldn’t have wanted to go back to Egypt if it wasn’t of their own lust to do so. It surely wasn’t in God’s desire, because God, through Moses wanted them free (Exodus 3:7-10) . God didn’t bring them out of Egypt to starve them or to have them die of thirst, but that is how it seemed to them. This is how it seems to us.
When we were young and hadn’t eaten, we would say to our mom or dad, “I’m starving, when are we going to eat?” No, we were just straight up “hungry”. Issues are always magnified beyond what they really are when we want what we want - when we want it. Just remember God knows and he won’t put more on you than you can bear (“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV).
To the married and engaged, it’s been such a false perception that when you are married it’s okay to lust after your spouse. Not so! Remember lust is a selfish desire. If you are lusting then basically you are not thinking about your spouse and their satisfaction. The entire focal point of pleasure is on you. This diminishes the sacredness and the beauty of sex. Someone is going to be lacking physically and most importantly “spiritually”. There is a duty to be fulfilled to one another (“Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:3 KJV).
Through the inspiration of God the Apostle Paul also gives insight to avoiding lust outside of marriage in the book of 1 Corinthians (“So do not deprive each other of sexual relations. The only exception to this rule would be the agreement of both husband and wife to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time, so they can give themselves more completely to prayer. Afterward they should come together again so that Satan won't be able to tempt them because of their lack of self-control.” 1 Corinthians 7:5 KJV) .
There is an exception to not giving yourself unto your spouse based on spiritual reasons, but after those reasons are satisfied, the intimacy presses on. Using abstinence as a weapon against your spouse other than the reasons Paul has outlaid is witchcraft (“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,......” 1 Samuel 15:23) .
Lust is not restricted to sex, yet it is mostly associated with sex; it could be an obsessive selfish desire for money, power, etc. Lust in any form brings forth death. God wants us to live for Him, but first we must deny ourselves.
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24)
God Bless You All and Glory To Our Heavenly Father
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