Untangle Your Flesh From God's Good Ideas!

The trap Satan sets for man is self-leadership.

Self-leadership is very slippery. Our self, because of the virus of sin introduced to the way we think, what we feel, and what we plan to do (mostly do about evil)... Our self is constantly trying to control life. It just wants to be God. Mostly we want to make good (our idea of good depends on our world view) things happen.

Consider this idea with the Lord: resisting what is evil and agreeing with what is good is not the same as being led by God.

From Satan's perspective, God's way isn't good, it is evil. Satan wants to be good. Same goes for us. Because of man's rebellion, our way, including our way of understanding what God wants, isn't good.

We want to be God.... Mankind does. All people want control. It's inherited from the fall of man. Because we have so many different ideas of what is good, this sin, called lawlessness is hard to detect when we agree about what is "good."

There is only one way out of this sin: the death of self and the regeneration of our being in the Holy Spirit. That happens choice by choice to lay down our will (our way of getting good done) and let God's will be done in our lives.

God's idea of good is only seen as our own lawless ideas of what God calls good die. Remember Adam and Eve thought rebellion looked good and wise.

We can't "do" good, or even understand how God accomplishes good on our own.

Isaiah 55:6-9 NKJV — Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

We have to follow Jesus in saying, "not my will but yours" when God's ways conflict with the good we want Him to do!

Because the machinery of our heart is malfunctioning.

If we truly want a good God to save us from ourselves, we can only recognize we cannot do, or even understand how to do, "good" and ask God to lead us in HIS ways.

The whole Bible teaches this. It's why Israel couldn't successfully keep the law. Knowing what is good doesn't equal doing good. In fact, knowing what is good is the door lawlessness walks through.

Romans 7:18-24 NKJV — For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

You see, PRIDE holds the door of lawlessness open to my soul.

Taking all the things God says are good, and all the things God says are evil and combining them with all the things we think are good and all the things we think are evil... This is the corruption Jesus was sent to help us ESCAPE. If we claim the name of Jesus but never intend to escape the trap of self-leadership and the ideas of self-righteousness (trusting in our own evaluation of how to accomplish God's will) self will produces, then we are not helpful to Jesus' redemptive kingdom, we are unintentionally fighting it. That is what this passage means:

Galatians 5:16-18 NKJV — I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Stay with me for a second here...

If you see/hear someone saying all the good things are good, and all the evil things are evil... Your flesh gets excited (idolatrous). In these moments, pay real close attention to HOW good is agreed with in the vessel claiming to want "good." Satan comes as an angel of light. It isn't the doctrine, it's the FRUIT that matters.

Is it patience?
Is it humble?
Is it peaceable?
Is it honoring?
Is it kind?
Is it self controlled?
Is it building a ministry/business/organization... Or is it is a cross... A loss of all things for Jesus?

God's ways aren't our ways. We have to look for people that are dying to self, leading others to DIE to self, not save this life, world, kingdom, country...

See the difference?

Many are being deceived by a flesh-counterfiet of the cross right now. Satan is tricky. Over and over Jesus warned, "do not be deceived." You cannot discern this by political alliance. You cannot discern this by denomination. You cannot discern this by right doctrine. You can't discern this by people that "pray in Jesus name" or take Jesus' words and say they are good. You can only discern God's kingdom from man's flesh by FRUIT. Fruit isn't works, numbers of agreement (or disagreement), wealth, information, knowledge, power, influence....

Fruit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. If you want to know what good fruit looks like, look at the way Jesus handled people in sin, conflict, attacks on His authority, slander, accusation, money, building a ministry/organization, and even His own death.

Jesus is always like this:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NKJV — Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If it isn't all of this ^, it isn't all of Yeshua. If it isn't all of Yeshua, it's a compromise. If it is only His Father's good ideas joined to the will of man, it is a flesh counterfeit designed to appeal to your flesh, not kill it. Beware.