Who is in the drivers seat?
This is our weekly post here at deposition of our faith. Thank you for joining us. This is Week 9.
(Although you can start from anywhere, we encourage you to read up on previous posts as well as some articles lead into the next one).
Scripture Reading: Galatians 6:7–8
The story of salvation is simple: the human race was on a highway to hell. God sending Jesus was our excuse to come down from that damned bus.
Today’s charge is simple: Don’t put your flesh in the drivers seat of your life.
Anytime we act the way the world wants us to act, and anytime we sin because it felt right, we are putting our flesh in the drivers seat.
Myles Munroe said, “the flesh is a follower, not a leader”.
The flesh is not supposed to be in the drivers seat. We consistently put it in the drivers seat when the flesh doesn’t even know how to drive. It doesn’t even know or care about your destination. It stops at every gas station, turns everywhere it sees a neon sign, has poor endurance, has poor discipline, always asks to rest and continue the journey in the morning…the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
The flesh doesn’t know what’s good for it. The flesh will wants to do things that are even harmful, and then suffer the consequences of it. Human emotions and reasoning can make you to lie, and steal (and even kill) and then you have to live with the guilt of lying and stealing and killing…
The flesh is not supposed to drive. But we keep letting the flesh drive when we make statements like:
If it’s bad, then why does it feel so good?
If it’s wrong, then why does it feel so right?
If it’s convenient, then why shouldn’t you help people?
If it’s not convenient, then why should you go out of your way to do it?
If it makes you tired, then it’s toxic and maybe we shouldn’t be doing it
If it stops you from having fun then why are you doing it?
It’s boring, why should we have to do it?!
If we get punished for it then maybe we shouldn’t be doing it…but what if we don’t get punished?
If we hide it from other people then it’s not wrong, is it?
If it’s not hurting other people then it’s not wrong, is it?
Don’t believe in your flesh. Any time people have ever fallen to fleshly desires, the excuse is almost always, “I couldn’t help it”. Is that the same flesh that you want to trust? The same flesh that will disappoint you and tell you, “🤷🏽♀️” when you leave it in the drivers seat for 5 minutes?
The world system will have you believe that hedonism is not a sin. Indulgence is not a sin. If I feel this way, and God says it’s wrong to feel this way, then God must be a phoney because He made me this way in the first place.
What I think is funny is, there might be evolutionary reasons why men and women should have multiple sexual partners, and why people lie, and even why people are prejudiced. There are psychological and physiological reasons why people are promiscuous and lustful. There are many good social reasons to be sexually active. There are reasons why your brain rationalises the way it does. Why would God set up the world in this way and then tell us to do the opposite of what comes naturally to us?
However, remember what Paul said: “Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is expedient” (1 Corinthians 10:23). This simply means that it is not every time that who we are (as spirit beings) coincides with what we want. It is not every time that what we should do coincides with what is convenient for us to do. It is not every time that what comes naturally is actually the right thing to do.
The God that created us ordained monogamy as the best practice of marriage (Genesis 2:24). The God that created us expects us to not be lustful (2 Timothy 2:22), even not to divorce (Matthew 5:32), to not be deceptive (1 Peter 3:10). The God that created us expects us to not lie or steal or kill, or be angry or afraid (Ephesians 4:26, Isaiah 41:10, Romans 13:8–10).
Yet, all these are very human desires. It is very human to do these things, and yet we are admonished to do the opposite.
That is why living after the flesh can never make you holy. You cannot stumble your way into the pearly gates because the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light are two different places entirely.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light — Ephesians 5:8
I and a friend were talking about this recently so I had to include it:
We are to be ruled by instructions and God’s commandment, not what the constitution or man’s mind says is right.
I always say that everything that is a sin remains a sin even though it stops being a crime, and everything that isn’t a sin remains so even if it becomes a crime. Daniel praying to God was a criminal offence, but it wasn’t sin (Daniel 6:13). Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego refusing to bow to the king’s graven image was a criminal offence, but it was counted as righteousness for them (Daniel 3).
Legislation cannot tell you how to be holy. It is intended to keep people in line. Man’s laws won’t always get things right, and man’s laws are not the final authority over believers.
Wickedness was a sin even when slavery was the norm. The flesh found it appropriate to run societies based on this wicked trade until one day when the same mankind deemed it a crime. Mankind is fickle.
It is also important to not think that just because the skies didn’t open and rain lightning down on you means that you have not sinned against your own soul.
The soul that sinneth, shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). The flesh may continue to live on in this realm, but in fact, the person is already dead.
My dad uses an analogy that goes, “ Science will tell you that green leaves are alive. However, if you pluck a leaf from a tree, though it may still be green, it is already dead. It is only a matter of time.”
We are admonished to flee the appearances of evil and not to rationalise because rationale will not always side with the truth. It sides with convenience. If it is convenient to do the right thing, you will want to do it. However, when it is inconvenient, it is illogical to do so. Unfortunately for mankind, what is inconvenient and even distasteful is sometimes the right thing to do. Forgiveness is the right thing to do. Doing good to them that do evil against you is the right thing to do.
However, it doesn’t always feel good to forgive, or to treat wicked people with good lovingkindness. As scripture says, the flesh and the spirit are against each other (Galatians 5:17). The flesh sometimes wants to keep malice, and to be envious, and to be egotistic. The flesh wants to do what is convenient.
The brain will also side with the flesh. It will give you every reason to do what is convenient — that is its job.
However, we know that obedience to the commandments of God is not about “feeling”. Feelings are surface level effects of anything. For instance, if you don’t feel healed after a prayer of faith, it doesn’t mean you are not healed. However, the devil uses the facts of our feelings to rob us of the truth of our healing.
A feeling should not trump truth and reality. for instance, If you are my son, you are my son whether you feel like it or not. It’s not your feeling that proves you are my biological son; it’s your biology.
Stop relying on your feelings. Feelings can change because of the weather. Feelings can change because of the time of the year! Feelings change because of hormones. Feelings change because of assumptions and even deception. Feelings are not a determinant of truth.
That is why living in faith and living in fact are always so far apart. Because it is about calling the things that be not as though they are (Romans 4:17). So, you cannot wait to feel like doing good before you do good. You cannot wait to feel like acting right before you act right.
Even human doctors that provide remedies to diseases will tell you that just because you don’t feel the medicine is working doesn’t mean you should stop taking it. That is how cheap a feeling can be.
If you think how you ‘felt’ about your job on the first day is how you’ll feel everyday of your working life, then you might as well not work anymore because that is simply not true. This doesn’t mean you don’t love your job.
Feelings are mere reflections of changing times and seasons. They are not determinants of any truth in the realm of the spirit.
So, how do we leave the realm of feeling and actually put our spirit man in the drivers seat?
Be proactive.
Place the Word and the instructions of God at the first gate.
Isn’t it funny how Joseph said, “how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God”? (Genesis 39:9)
In today’s society, Joseph will be dragged on social media because he needed to believe that adultery was a sin against God in other to convince himself to do the right thing. Today’s world will tell you, “can’t you use your common sense to know that it is wrong to sleep with another man’s wife?”. Unfortunately, it is that same commonsensical thinking that leads to a world that is unholy; people do what makes sense, and not what is commanded by God.
Jesus didn’t start answering the devil’s temptations with “do you know who I am?”
He answered with the Word, showing us that even the Son of God made flesh didn’t trust his flesh over the scriptures (Matthew 4:1–11).
His temptation was tailor made for him; I wouldn’t be tempted to jump down from a high place to prove that God will protect me. However, if I were the Son of God, I may be tempted to do it to prove a point.
That’s what the devil does. Jesus was tempted with Hedonism, Ego, and Materialism. This is the entirety of the struggle of the human condition.
The enemy tempts you with the things that appeal to your humanity, so imagine relying on the human intellect to discern rightly for you.
Temptations work because Man is fickle. If one answers the devil with human logic and not God’s Word, he will fall to the same thing that he could have been delivered from.
Your first inclination when faced with evil should be “how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God”. It shouldn’t be your last resort.
Don’t let your brain and flesh give you more reasons to do evil, and then think that using the “godliness” phrase at last resort will give you your victory.
This proactive approach is what puts your spirit in the drivers seat! (Galatians 5:16–21)
However, you cannot give what you don’t have. You have to be saturated with the word of God in order to make decisions based on it.
Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2).
There is a reason Jesus Christ articulated that the mere lustful thinking is adultery already (Matthew 5:27–28). It is because the only barrier between your thoughts and actions is time.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).
It’s only a matter of time (James 1:13–15).
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
If you are doing this, then your spirit is being quickened by the Word. Now discipline your flesh to take heed by letting your spirit drive (John 6:63). Let your flesh be a follower and not a pilot. It won’t always feel good, until you are more God-conscious than world conscious.
See you next week, and God be with ye till then!
