STOP MAKING CARNAL PROVISIONS

Several years ago, I lived in a student environment off campus. The occupants of the house where I resided and our neighbourhood was full of hard guys on campus. Sexual immorality, heavy alcohol consumption, partying and other vices weren't a big deal. I struggled in that environment as a very young Christian. There was a church brother in our flat who should have been a model of Christian living but one thing he did that raised doubts in the hearts of everyone was that he cohabited with his fiancée. They wake up praying in tongues, go to school and even attend fellowship meetings together just for that but of cohabitation. On one occasion, I got talking with one of the guys in the house who said, "these people can't tell me they are not sleeping with each other". Truly, it would be hard for that brother to convince anyone in that neighbourhood that he wasn't steeped in sexual immorality because he made provision for the flesh to manifest.

You cannot desire to conquer the flesh and still give flesh a room for expression. It does not work that way. Take the sin of sexual immorality as an example, the moment you don't set healthy boundaries between yourself and the opposite sex, falling may become inevitable. No one falls into sexual immorality by accident. There's nothing like "I had sex by mistake". Every act of sexual immorality is carefully planned and prepared for through deliberate actions and inactions. Do you think you can cohabit with the lady you profess to love as a single and not be tempted to explore? Absolutely impossible. May be you have strong attraction towards women with certain types of body features and you now employed a secretary or house help that fits that spec, you're on your way down. You cannot be praying to overcome alcoholism and still have a bar in your house or buy wines with very minute percentage of alcohol saying it means nothing. Whatever you want to conquer, you don't pamper.

In dealing with the flesh, holy brutality is allowed. Paul said, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Rom8:13). The key word in that text is "Mortify". It is the root word from which we got mortician and mortuary. Paul enjoined that we mortify( kill) the flesh. How can we do this? By denying the flesh what it craves for. The moment you provide for the flesh, it finds expression fully. Think about those things you call "weakness" or the things you're struggling with, you'll notice that they have lingered this long because you pampered it by making daily or occasional provision for it. Identify those things that trigger fleshly expressions and cut off.