We are very ignorant of God's abhorrence of anything FLESH.
He will not accept it, praise it
or associate Himself with it - not in any way.
Not even slightly. 

To live IN it, BY it, is to experience
shame, rejection, isolation.
And flesh will leave you in the bitter argument that
your good intentions and best efforts
have been misunderstood and rejected.
"Poor noble me."

Whenever I go to the flesh,
I will go to those things that are peculiar to my flesh,
to my excesses of the past.
Those excesses are always present, ever possible.

What sin I ever touched has caught me.
It has become the identity of my flesh
and I will always bear its imprint,
not as a memory but as an identity.
I am what I have done.

The thief is not one who stole. He/she IS a thief now by nature.
And that propensity is branded in the flesh as an indelible mark.
There is no hope to recover from it, to change, to get better.
To try harder. To determine, to strive . . .
all that is hopeless against the
impressive power of the flesh to
awaken me to its appetites. 

No. The flesh has its own mind and
it speaks its self indulgent whispers to my ear. 

The flesh always argues for the right of its excesses,
in the name of comfort, and for the purpose of ease
and the hidden motive of building me - little by little -
in pride . . . .

Flesh issues from the mind, not the body.
So its physical manifestations begin in thoughts,
pictures of tempting self indulgences.
And flesh claiming to befriend, vindicates you.
Exalts you. Reasons with you in brilliant logic.
Calls you right.

Should you accept the pleasant reasonings of the flesh,
blindness and deafness will envelop you

You will follow that cruel dictator, Flesh, into
a grave, the death of your true self,
and the loss of God by loving His enemy.

There is no transforming the flesh.
No revelation can convince it.
No determination, master it.
No noble work can silence it.

It is hopeless.

The only remedy for the flesh is death.
Yours by . . . Christ's. 

He conquered your flesh by bearing the death it deserves.
By letting God's blazing abhorrence of flesh
fall on Him in the fullness of wrath.
The terrible fullness of wrath!

"Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh
and as an offering for sin,
(God) condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame,
deprived it of its power over all who accept
that sacrifice) . . ."
Romans 8:3 Amplified Bible

Understand this: we love the flesh. We have faith in its selfish ideas.
We believe in its power to get us to our destination,
we esteem its advice to protect, advise, comfort.
We harbor in secret the indulgence of its vain lusts
and selfish wishes.

The flesh presents itself as right and all others wrong.
Flesh invites darkness in and only the hatred of flesh
drives it out.

The day of its final overthrow is the day flesh is
seen by its real light:
as the hostile murderer of God.
As the deceiver and
enemy of my very life, my eternity.

Only when the flesh is unmasked and then despised
is it destroyed. Flesh is not my friend.
Flesh is my dictator and then my executioner.
I must kill it or it will kill me.
That is certain and unchangeable.

There can be no shred of flesh left. No secret pact with it.
It isn't dead if there remains any minute remnant.
There is no sparing the flesh.
Where you have even a small sympathy with it,
it will take you over. 

Where you believe in its rights,
it will claim the right to your all.
When you trust its power, it will shame you
by the failure of its grand claims. 

"For we are the circumcision,
who worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh"
Philippians 3:3

Flesh is not merely immoral. It can turn religious.
The most monstrous flesh is "good" flesh,
working, doing, spouting the imagination
of that self-exalting flesh,
insulting Him by
calling it God,
when He is innocent of any participation. 

Sin is merely the child of flesh. Sin is conceived in flesh
before it is born in the light of day. 

That Christ Jesus paid for sins (plural) we know.
That He died for sin (singular) we comprehend.
But that He died to conquer flesh NOW, today!
This we cannot see. 

The flesh of mankind has been crucified.
Flesh is dead . . . therefore flesh is solved, for
the only solution is its absolute death.
"It is finished."

"God condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame,
deprived it of its power) over all who accept that sacrifice."

It is possible to live without the help of the flesh.
It is possible to be free of its cruel torture.
"The glorious liberty of the children of God"
is a liberation from the flesh.

And it comes by faith and ONLY by faith
in Jesus' gift of victory.

Hallelujah! We are more than conquerors!

Copyright © 1999 Martha Kilpatrick