Examining and Allowing God Redefine Our Desires

In Luke 22:24-30 the disciples are arguing about who is the greatest and Jesus describes to them what it means to be great in the Kingdom of God. It is important to notice that Jesus does not rebuke them for desiring to be great or even to be the greatest. Instead, He simply redefines what it means to attain greatness and then basically tells them that their desire for greatness will be fulfilled. The Father’s inheritance involves authority and prestige. There was nothing wrong with the disciples’ desire for greatness. The problem was that they understood and pursued greatness the way the rest of the world does, according to their own understanding.

Our heart desires and longs for many things, and innately there is no wickedness in our desires. The problem is that our flesh has taken what is good and holy and shaped our understanding of our desires apart from the holy God that placed them into our hearts. It is our sinful flesh that steers us to seek fulfillment everywhere else except with God.

Galatians 5:16-26 say, “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”. What is the difference between desire and lust? The difference between the two is the instigator (the motivator) and the object. The Spirit desires what is good, while the flesh lusts for what is forbidden or distorted.

Consider the works of the flesh vs the fruit of the Spirit.

Our flesh takes the beautiful holy desire for love and intimacy and turns it into adultery, fornication, lewdness, idolatry…Consider a man’s desire for intimacy and love. It is a beautiful holy desire placed in our hearts by the Lord. But our flesh leads us to pursue its fulfillment in the world, the way the world defines it. As a result, man is faced with much disappointment and unsatisfaction. People go from one mate to another. There is a desperate cry of loneliness and heartbreak coming from almost every heart…God created us to be desired and loved. He has defined love for us through the life and death of Christ. He has loved us with an everlasting love, and He wants us to enjoy His love. Fulfillment and satisfaction of this desire can only be met by God and the through the ways that God intended: through communion with Him, through meaningful friendships, and through the holy institution of marriage and family. 

Our flesh takes the holy desire for greatness and turns it into selfish ambition. Consider a man’s desire for riches or power. If boiled down the man basically desires greatness, but the way the world defines it. The world defines greatness as prosperity in possessions, as power and authority over men…Men seek those things but do not find satisfaction. That is because they seek fulfillment apart from God and they seek greatness the way the world defines it. God’s definition of greatness is completely different. Jesus told His disciples: “whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave…” (Matthew 20:26-27). Jesus explains to us what it means to pursue greatness – through serving others in humility. The place of honor and authority in the Kingdom of God is given to the humble servants (Luke 22:29-30). The flesh corrupts our desire for greatness with selfishness (hence “selfish ambition”) while God defines greatness as selflessness.

Our flesh takes the holy desire for beauty an makes it an idol. God never says in scripture that a woman should not care about her appearance, but he does say that we should care more about maintaining our spiritual beauty, which is the life and character of Christ being formed in us (1 Peter 3:3-4). If we make outward beauty a priority over first seeking the beautify of Christ to be formed in us, we are seeking beauty apart from God and are committing idolatry. We will never be satisfied with our outward beauty until we find fulfillment in the true beauty of Christ being formed in us.

Finally, our flesh takes the God-given desire for pleasure and adventure and turns it into drunkenness, revelries, gluttony, adultery, use of pornography... God wants us to enjoy life. He wants us to have fun and enjoy ourselves. We see this to be true from the very beginning, when God made Eden for man to live in, take care of, and enjoy with Him.  We will only find true joy and satisfaction if we enjoy life with and for God.  The pleasures of this world apart from Him are unsatisfying and have the potential of becoming addictions. But when we enjoy different pleasures and benefits of this world as a gift from God and the way God intended it, we will experience fulfilling joy.

The beautiful God-given desires for beauty, pleasure, love, greatness, adventure, and purpose that are implanted in us as image bearers of God have been corrupted by our flesh that lusts against the Spirit. The flesh lusts to be apart from God, to not be under His influence and lordship. The flesh wants to control us, and it steers us into seeking fulfillment apart from God.

“…those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (vs.24-25).

The good news is that those who have placed their trust in Christ have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” for separation from God, for fulfilment apart from Him. Though the flesh and this world can still steer us to seek fulfillment outside of God, they no longer have control over us and over our eternal destiny. Ultimately, as we entrust ourselves and our desires to God, seeking fulfillment in Him we are breaking and demolishing the influence of the flesh and this world.

By faith in Christ we have been brought to life and given the ability to enjoy life with God. Therefore, if you are alive in the Spirit by faith in Jesus, enjoy this life in the Spirit. Explore your desires with the Lord and ask Him for new refined desires. Bring the desires of your heart to the Lord and surrender them to Him. Ask Him to take control of your desires and let the Spirit show you how to pursue fulfillment in and with Him. To “walk in the Spirit” means to let Him lead you in the “way everlasting” (Psalm 139), into a life of fulfillment and contentment in and with God.

Here are some practical steps and questions to ask when examining your heart before the Lord:

Define the core of your desires. What is at the heart of my desire or frustration? What is at the heart of this desire that I am ashamed of? What is the God-given desire that my flesh has twisted into this? When you recognize what that God-given desire is, surrender it to the Lord and begin to seek fulfillment with Him. If you just ask God to remove that desire that you are ashamed of, you will not be dealing with the heart of the problem. God does not want to remove the problem, but He wants to deal with the heart of the problem. He wants to take what is twisted and broken and make it good and holy again.

Examine your motivations. How am I pursuing fulfillment of this desire? Am I seeking fulfillment with or apart from God?

“bring every thought (desire, longing, frustration, fear…) into captivity to the obedience of Christ”  

(2 Corinthians 10:5).

The Tree of Life

 

John 3:16 must be the most quoted verse in Bible. You are probably automatically reciting it in your head right now: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. For some reason, we like to use it as a tongue twister. This verse seems simple enough, but, unfortunately, many Christians don’t know how to explain it in its entirety in their own words. The explanation that you hear the most is that Jesus who is the Son of God died on the cross to pay for our sins that we might be saved from the consequences of those sins, which is death. The problem with this explanation is that it is incomplete. It doesn’t say anything about what the gift of salvation entails – everlasting life. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus payed the price to give sinful spiritually dead people the gift of everlasting life. When asked about what it means to receive eternal life, the predominate Christian will say: well, life that has no end. Which is technically a correct, but a very bland and limited definition. Jesus defines everlasting life for us in His prayer to the Father before His crucifixion:

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

Our limited human minds upon hearing the phrase “everlasting life” immediately focus on the first word. From the physical standpoint, life is not eternal, it has an end, and one usually concludes that means that Jesus came to prolong our life and make it eternal. Yet, the Son of God did not come to extend something that we had, but to give us something that we didn’t. This is God’s definition of life – to be with Him and know Him forever. Whoever doesn’t know the Father and the Son, is dead, in the eyes of God.

In the beginning, when God created man, man was with God and he knew Him. God planted a beautiful garden for man, where He walked and talked with him, and in the midst of that garden was the tree of life (Genesis 2:9). This tree marked the presence of the knowledge of God in that place. Of this tree God told man that he could freely eat, but there was also in that garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and God told man that if he ate of that tree that he would surely die. When man was with God and knew God, He was his source of truth and understanding. Man was dependent on God to know what truth is, what is good and evil. When man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he claimed independence from God. The serpent made man question the authority of God’s word and suggested that it was possible for man to be his own source of truth (Genesis 3:1-5). That idea enticed man to partake of the forbidden fruit but eating it did not make man all-knowing like God. Instead, man was separated from the all-knowing One to make up his own mind according to his limited knowledge. In claiming his independence from God, man claimed death. He became as a lamp unplugged from the electrical socket, as a tree that has been pulled out of the ground. Though independent to discern what is true for himself, man’s understanding remains infinitely limited compared to God’s. This limited knowledge cannot sustain the spiritual life, instead, it leads to self-destruction.

Hence, God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever… – therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-23). Like God man became independent to make up his own mind and define truth. Man doubted the authority of God and the truth of His word and sinned against God in the process. Man’s sin separated him from God, who is the source of life and truth, making him spiritually eternally dead. His sin also separated him from the tree of life, which God gave to sustain the physical eternal life, making his physical body finite. The way back to God and to the tree of life is heavily guarded.

The good news of the Gospel is that God never stopped loving man, even though he claimed independence from Him and sinned against the Holy All-knowing God. As soon as man was cast out of the presence of God, He began to prepare the scene for the Son of God to enter this world and make the way back to God available for man. God created us for life, to be with Him and to know Him, and despite our sin He longs to bring us back to life, back to Himself. When Jesus Christ the Son of God came to this earth, He said of Himself:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Jesus Christ is the way back to God. He is truth, and whoever partakes of Him as of the tree of life, will have everlasting life. He told the hungry crowd that they should labor for the food which endures to everlasting life: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life…I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world…Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the last day…He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:26-58). Re-read this text a couple times!

Given up to his own understanding and deprived of the tree of life, man roams the world hungry. The problem is that we try to fill and sustain ourselves with things that do not last. The food and the pleasures of this world can not endure to everlasting life, it cannot even enduringly sustain the physical life. The food that comes from heaven can satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst forever. Jesus addressed the true hunger and thirst of a man’s soul – man longs for what he lost in Eden – everlasting life. Jesus tells us that for our hunger and thirst to be met and satisfied, we need to believe in Him and be sustained by Him.

By faith in the Son of God we receive the Spirit of the Son of God into our hearts (Galatians 4:6). This is the new birth when we are spiritually brought from death to life. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ the tree of our life is planted back into the ground, and the dry branches are brought back to life by the waters of the Spirit of God that flood us from the soil of God’s restored presence. By faith in Jesus Christ everlasting life is restored to man, he is restored to the presence of God and to the knowledge of God. This life is matured and sustained through being with and knowing the Father and the Son. To feed on Christ requires us to be with Him and to know Him, to abide in Him. As we abide in Him and His word, His Spirit will produce the fruit of His character in us (John 15:1-17).

Jesus Christ made the way back to the tree of life, back to Eden, back to life in the presence of God available to us by faith in Him. Spiritually, He is our tree of life. By faith in Him we are brought back to life spiritually, and on the last day, the day of His revelation, He will raise us back to life physically. He will give us a new eternal body (2 Corinthians 5:1-10). That body will be sustained by the fruit of the tree of life that will stand in the middle of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Revelations 21-22).

This is the good and compelling news of the Gospel. We need to take care that the Gospel that we received and preach to the lost and dead people is complete. We need to know God’s definition of life.

The man that is alienated from the life of God is as an uprooted dead tree tossed to and fro by the winds of his lusts, he isn’t secure because of his ignorance and the blindness of his heart, he lives in the futility of his mind (Ephesians 4:14, 17-19). Yet, blessed is the man that knows God and abides with Him, that delights in His word and is dependent upon the guidance of His Spirit:

“He shall be like a tree planted by the rives of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalm 1:3)