Discipline Your Body: Zac Poonen (Transcript) 

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Do you think, do you do things to damage the real temple of the Holy Spirit? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, therefore, verse 20, this body was bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. You know, the value of an item is not determined by its size or shape or anything. A small bit of gold is worth much more than this table.

Valuing Our Bodies as God’s Creation

Size doesn’t make a difference. What was the price paid for your body? It says it was bought, verse 20, bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ. How do you evaluate that? Peter says it’s worth more than all the silver and gold in the world. Therefore, because such a price has been paid for your body, glorify God in your body.

Like I said, the Old Testament burnt offering the bull to be cut up, present your body as a living sacrifice, glorify God with your eyes, glorify God with your tongue, glorify God with your hands and every part of your body. You know, the Apostle James says, well, James the Elder says in chapter 1, the letter of James, and this is the brother of Jesus Christ, the younger brother of Christ who wrote this.

Verse 26, James 1:26, “If anyone, and applies this to yourself, considers himself what we would call spiritual, and he cannot control his tongue, he’s deceiving his own heart, his religion is worthless.” A man who cannot control his tongue, his Christianity is worth zero. That’s what he’s saying. All your Christianity is worth zero if you cannot control your tongue when you speak to your wife, when you speak in your office, if you join the road rage on the roads when the traffic is heavy, your Christianity is worth zero.

The Creation of Man and the Role of Conscience

The tongue is the test, one test of our Christianity. So the body is very, very important. Turn now to Genesis chapter 1, where we read of what was created, who was created on the sixth day, everybody says Adam and Eve. Before that, on the sixth day, the animals, it says on the fifth day, at the end of the fifth day, verse 23, the sixth day begins in verse 24.

On the sixth day, verse 24, the Lord said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures and all the beasts of the earth and the creeping cattle”… and everything was in the first part of the sixth day. And the second part of the sixth day, God said, “Let Us make man.” And how did He make man? Now it says in Genesis chapter 2, that verse 7, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground.

Our body is made of mud and water, a lot of it is water in this body, this mud and water is clay. And the Lord God made, mixed water with the mud and shaped this man, mud and water, with the same mud and water with which animals are made. Even though God didn’t actually make them, He created them, but their body is also mud and water. And when an animal’s body disintegrates and a man’s body disintegrates, it’s the same dust it becomes finally.

The only thing that made a difference is in verse 7, it says, “God breathed into man His breath.” That’s not the breathing through the nose, which the animals also have. This is breathing God’s spirit, which created a spirit within us. Animals don’t have a spirit within them. They have a body, they don’t have a spirit, we have a spirit, and the primary part of that spirit is conscience. That came into man when God breathed into him. Animals don’t have that, because God didn’t breathe into them.

So when God breathed into man, he got a conscience, which alerted him to the voice of God within, the spark of God’s life saying, “That’s wrong.” That when even a little child, when it does something wrong, it’s aware in his conscience. That’s why it hides, or, you know, a little child can never tell a lie with a straight face. Why is that? Because the conscience speaks up. So there’s a difference.

The Importance of Conscience and Our Earthly Nature

But what we learn from that, the first part of the sixth day with mud and water, God made the animals. The second part of the sixth day with mud and water and a conscience, he made man. So what we learn from that is, when a man does not listen to his conscience, he becomes like mud and water, he becomes exactly like the animals. That’s what we must realize. When you don’t listen to your conscience, there’s no difference between you and an animal.

So in us there is, you know, the dust of the earth pulls us down. And we read in Genesis 3 and verse 14, that the Lord told the serpent, which is the devil, and the serpent physically, “Dust will be your food,” Genesis 3:14. So the dust of the earth is the food of the devil, the food of the serpent, and that is the dust we are made of. There’s a curse on this. The Lord told Adam, “Cursed is the ground,” verse 17, 3:17, Genesis 3:17.

The ground is cursed, and that is the dust from which our body is made. And that’s why we get weak, we perspire. Our bodily functions get weaker as we grow older. Paul says the outer man decays, even while we are living. And not only weakens, we get sick, and then we die. Because there’s a curse on the earth, that’s why we die, otherwise we wouldn’t die.

What about Jesus’ death? The Bible says in Galatians 3:13, “He became a curse for us.” He could not have died if His body was different from ours. His body was made of the same dust. He came from Mary’s womb with the same dust, and with a conscience. And that’s why that body died.

Jesus’ Identification with Human Suffering

And there’s a verse in Isaiah 53, verse 4, which says, “Jesus was acquainted with sickness.” You read the margin of the Bible, it says “griefs,” but the margin says “sickness.” I believe Jesus experienced sickness in His body. That’s the only way He could identify with us when we’re sick.

When you’re sick, you can sympathize with someone else who’s sick, and Jesus had to go through that, like He had to go through temptation. So there’s no sin in dying, everybody dies, godly people die. And it’s not a sin to be sick. And it’s not a sin to be weak as we grow older.

So remember that, because some people think if you’re sick, something is wrong with you. No, not necessarily. Weakness, sickness, death are all because of the curse on the earth. But what I want to say is, there’s a double pull in our body. Animals have only one pull.

The Dual Nature of Humans

They’re made of the dust and they’re pulled to the dust. That’s why you see every animal is looking down. You never see a dog or a cow looking up, never. They’re always looking down. They’re made of the dust and they look down to the dust all the time. It’s only man that looks up.

You know why? Because he’s got a conscience that tells us that we are answerable to someone up there. And the moment we stop listening to our conscience, we become like the animals looking down at the things of earth. So that’s where we have to be careful, that we keep our body listening to our conscience.

If you don’t allow your body to listen to your conscience, you’ll become like an animal. You’ll be like those animals that were created in the first part of the day without a conscience. Just body, mud and dust, with all types of passions. And dogs don’t have any idea of sexual purity.

The Consequences of Ignoring Our Conscience

They have no desire to conquer gluttony or the love of food. No. They just eat and they can have sex with any female dog. They don’t get married or any such thing. And when man descends to that level where he can have sex with anyone, he’s become like mud and dust. That’s it.

He’s become like the animals whether he knows it or not. I mean, he may look very polished with a tie and a suit and all, but he’s like an animal in God’s eyes. Very important to remember that. Our body must be subject to our conscience if we are to live as children of God.

So when we find this upward pull of the breath of God pulling us upward and the downward pull of our body pulling us down to the animal level of the earth, we stand in between these and make a choice. To which of these pulls am I going to respond? My conscience is always pulling me upward and my body is pulling me downward.

The lusts in my body pull me downwards. And it was that pull of the body that brought sin into the world. The first sin came through pride, rebellion against God, and discontentment in Lucifer. Those are the three things Lucifer had, pride of his beauty and intelligence, and rebellion against authority, wanting to be like God, wanting no subjection to authority.

The Origin of Sin in Humankind

And the other was discontent with being just the head of the angels. “I want to exalt my throne above the throne of God,” he says in Isaiah 14. But sin in man came through yielding to the lusts of the body. He says in Genesis 3, “The woman saw the tree was good for food.”

Genesis 3:6, a delight to the eyes, stomach, eyes, and she took with her hand and ate. It was entirely body. Conscience kept saying to her, “God has said, don’t eat it, don’t eat of it.” But she ignored the voice of conscience, said “my body, my mouth is watering, my eyes are longing for it, I like it, and my hand will take it.”

This is how sin came, when the desires of the body took over and suppressed the voice of conscience and Eve descended to the level of an animal. She had the choice to go to the tree of life and receive the life of God, but she didn’t choose that. And that is the choice that all humanity is making around the world today and sorry to say that many Christians are making also.

The Role of the Body in Temptation

And that’s why the Bible speaks a lot about the body. The temptation that came to Eve was through the body and Jesus who came like us and was tempted like us, His first temptation was also through the body. “Turn the stones into bread,” Satan said, it’s very interesting, Satan started with the body, and Eve was hale and hearty in a beautiful garden and tempted, Jesus had fasted for 40 days, desperately hungry in the wilderness, exact opposite of the garden of Eden.

There He was tempted in difficult circumstances and Jesus said “No, I will not respond to the pull of My body if I have not heard from My Father in heaven. Man shall not live just on food, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And I have not heard a word from My Father’s mouth telling Me to turn the stones into bread, so I won’t do it.”

See how Jesus, you know, He wouldn’t have harmed anybody, He wasn’t stealing bread. Stealing bread I can understand is wrong, but if you have power for something, like you say, let’s apply it to today, I’ve got money to buy something, why do I need to pray about it? I’ve got the money, let me go and buy it.

Living According to God’s Will

That would be like Jesus saying, “I’ve got the power, it’s My own power, I’m not harming anybody, I’m going to buy it and I’m buying it for a need in my body.” Jesus lived at a much higher level. To apply it to ourselves it is, “I’ve got money, it’s my money, I’m not harming anybody else, I’m going to buy what I like, but a spiritual man will say no, have I heard from my Father?”

Man shall not live by bread alone or by all the luxuries around us. There’s nothing wrong with that, there’s nothing wrong with food, but have you heard from your Father? You see, there you see the tremendous difference in standard at which Jesus lived compared to the average Christian who thinks he’s very spiritual today.

Jesus lived moment by moment saying, “Father, if You tell Me to do it, I’ll do it.” But how can we keep on listening? Well, I’ll tell you, if you walk with God for 30 years like Jesus did, it’ll be pretty automatic. You’ll sense it without having to wait. We have to wait a long time to know the Father’s will because we hardly listen to Him most of the time.

But imagine someone who walked from childhood listening, listening, listening, listening to Him, he would know immediately whether the Father is permitting him to eat that bread or not. And that is the place to which God wants to bring us, where we listen to conscience so much that in a sense we don’t even have to ask. Without our asking, we know what the Lord wants us to do.

The Importance of Discipline and Conscience

That is the place to which the Lord brings us. It’s not always I have to ask and yes or no, yes or no, yes or no. No. It becomes spontaneous because it says, “By the renewing of your mind, you will prove (Romans 12:2) the perfect will of God.” So the body is very important and it’s in this body that we are tempted through food and that’s why the Bible says that we must discipline ourselves.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. Don’t you know, Paul… now remember Paul is telling to this very indisciplined group of believers in Corinth who were so bad that they would even bring food to the Lord’s table and not share it with the poorer brothers. You read that in chapter 11.

The Christian Race: A Call to Discipline

But he tells them, “Don’t you know, 1 Corinthians 9:24, everyone runs in a race but only one person wins.” And listen to this word, 1 Corinthians 9:24, ‘Run in such a way that you will win.’ So he’s saying, the difference in the Christian race is, everybody can come first. In other races, only one person can come first.

But he’s telling this entire Corinthian church, which is a pretty backslidden church, ‘Listen, you fellows can come first, I don’t care how far you’re backslidden, start now. I’ll show you how all of you can come first and win the first prize.’ That’s a wonderful thing. I’m not in competition with you. I’m not trying to make you second, no, I don’t want you to be second. I want to be first and I want you to be first too.

That’s what Paul is saying. Otherwise, they could never have competed with Paul; he got the first prize straight away. He says, “You run in such a way that you can win this prize. Even though in the world only one person wins the prize, verse 24, in this race, you can all win the prize.

Learning from Athletes: The Discipline of Self-Control

But learn something from that guy who wins in the athletics, in the Olympic games. He exercises self-control, he disciplines himself, he’s disciplined in his eating, he doesn’t eat whatever he likes, he doesn’t just sleep as long as he likes, he exercises, he keeps fit in order to win that marathon race or the 100 meters race. They practice for years, day after day after day after day, and then it was a wreath, now they win a medal, and he says they do it just for something perishable, but we are going to get an imperishable award in the final day.

You must discipline yourself, you must discipline your body. Therefore, I run, verse 26, in such a way I box, not beating the air. Now listen to this verse, ‘I discipline my body,’ very important, 1 Corinthians 9:27. ‘I discipline my body and make it my slave, otherwise I, the great apostle Paul, after having preached to others, will be disqualified when I come to the finishing line.

The Risk of Disqualification and the Importance of Discipline

You know there are cases like this in the Olympics, where a person comes to the finishing line, he’s excited that he came first, and the umpire says, ‘Sorry, you’re disqualified, you crossed the track somewhere over there in your second round, around the stadium.’ And he knows it only when he reaches the finishing line, that he’s disqualified. So he says, ‘You can do such a lot, and then come to the end, and the Lord says, disqualified.’

Why Lord? Because you didn’t discipline your body and make it your slave. He says that, ‘If I don’t discipline my body and make it my slave, I can go around the world, preaching to others, and I’ll be disqualified at the end.’ You see how important this body is, to be the type of man God wants you to be?

And the Living Bible paraphrase, sometimes the Living Bible paraphrase is excellent. ‘I make my body do what it should do, and not what it wants to do,’ got it? That’s discipline. My body wants to do certain things, but I don’t allow it to do that. I make my body do what it should do.

The Struggle with Discipline in Christian Life

Many Christians, even those who are filled with the Holy Spirit, never make much progress in their Christian life, because they do not add discipline into their life. Our body must be disciplined. Discipline in eating. See, what are the three needs God has given us? Need for food, and need for sleep, and need for sex.

These are three legitimate desires. You don’t have to be ashamed of any of them. If you’re not hungry, you’re sick. If you don’t have sexual desire, you’re sick. If you never feel sleepy, you’re sick. All three are desires, legitimate desires, but all of those three can be abused.

You can become a glutton, and eat, and eat, and eat, and be indisciplined and destroy your body. Or you can sleep, and sleep, and sleep, and sleep, and be lazy, and be useless to God and to man. Or you can be sexually indisciplined, whether you’re married or unmarried, and you ruin your life.

The Role of Fasting in Spiritual Discipline

You have to be disciplined sexually before marriage and after marriage. So in these three areas, we need to be disciplined. In the matter of food, it’s by, you know, occasional fasting. Jesus fasted. We read in Luke chapter 7, He was not an extremist. When people saw Him eating, they would call Him a gluttonous man, Luke 7:34.

John the Baptist, verse 33, Luke 7:33. John the Baptist came without much eating and drinking. He was very disciplined, like an ascetic. The Pharisees said, ‘He’s got a demon, he doesn’t even eat properly.’ The Son of Man came with plenty of eating and drinking, and they say He’s a gluttonous man and a drunkard. Why did they call Jesus a gluttonous man? Because He was not an ascetic saying, ‘I won’t eat that, I won’t eat this, I won’t eat this.’

He enjoyed His food. And I have a feeling that somebody asked the Lord, ‘Would You like a second helping?’ He said, ‘Sure, thank you.’ He didn’t feel that it’s unspiritual. Some people think it’s unspiritual to ask for a second helping. I mean, but remember the one who said thank you for the second helping was the one who could fast for 40 days.

So if you follow Him, follow Him in both areas of fasting and feasting. Not just one area, I don’t mean 40 days. But I think it’s a very, very good discipline to fast. I did it regularly in my younger days. It says you shouldn’t talk about when you’re fasting, but you can encourage other people to fast by saying you did. I mean, Jesus Himself told others that He had fasted for 40 days.

So I would fast because it helped me in two ways. This is when I was in the Navy, I’d work on a ship and I would go without a meal sometimes for a day, a whole day, just drink some milk or liquids. And the reason was I said, ‘Lord, maybe one day You’ll call me to serve You.’ I thought He may call me. And I may go to places where I don’t get food. I must not be a slave to food. That is the main reason. I wanted to break this slavery to food or slavery to good food.

So one way to overcome that slavery was by fasting. And the second advantage of fasting is when I fasted even for one day, I would really feel so hungry that I would know what a hungry man in the world feels like. You never know what a hungry man in the world feels like unless you’ve gone without food for 24 hours. That gave me compassion for poor people and a lot of them in our country who are hungry and longing for food. And I say, ‘I need to experience that.’

And I’ve never fasted more than three days. And that was at a time when our church, the early days of our church, we were seeking direction for CFC and this other brother and I decided we fast for three days and seek the Lord. In Acts 13 it says those early people fasted and prayed and worshiped God and God spoke to them and we wanted that. So there is a value in fasting and also for casting out demons.

You know, we encountered demons in the villages of India and you can’t really serve the Lord in the villages of India if you don’t know how to cast out a demon because a demon-possessed person doesn’t need counseling, he needs deliverance. There’s a lot of difference between counseling and deliverance.

Understanding Faith and Authority in Spiritual Warfare

So there was, you know, Jesus had given His disciples authority to cast out demons. He said, “Go and cast out demons.” But there was a man who brought his child to the disciples and they couldn’t cast it out. And in Matthew 17 verse 19, they came to Jesus and said, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” And Jesus said, “Because your faith is so small.”

“I told you, you have authority to cast out demons, but you saw that demon and you didn’t have faith that I gave you that authority to cast it out.” And why is your faith so small? Even if your faith is like a mustard seed, you could have told that even a mountain to get out, leave alone a demon. But verse 21, “You need to pray and fast to have that type of faith.”

And the time to do it is not after you encounter the demon, you must pray and fast before. So that when you encounter the demon, you cast out that demon in faith. And I’ll tell you this, I’ll tell you my testimony. I have never till today, and we cast out many demons, I’ve never till today have seen a single demon that did not go with one single command in the name of Jesus, “Get out of him or her, goes.”

The Power of Fasting and Discipline in Spiritual Matters

If you have faith, if you pray and fast, if you keep your body under control, and that’s for anybody, there’s nothing spectacular about casting out a demon, the demons are not afraid of you or me, for the name of Jesus, they’re really scared. So there’s a value in fasting and that’s disciplining the body. I would encourage you young people especially, and then the other thing I would do was, as a discipline, I would just fast once a week, just to keep my body.

So that like Paul says, “I discipline my body and make sure my body doesn’t become a slave to food.” And even when eating, sometimes it’s good not to take a second helping just to discipline your body. And not to, you know, we read about Daniel, that he did a selective fast where he did not eat enjoyable food for three weeks or something.

So that’s another type of fast where you can’t go to a total fast from all food, but say I will not eat anything which is really enjoyable, which I really like, I just eat simple food for two, three weeks because I’m seeking God about something. So there is a place for that type of control of disciplining of the body.

The Role of Fasting in Christian Life and Sexuality

And if you’ve never done it in your life, this is not from scripture, John Wesley said, “If you’ve never fasted, I don’t even know whether you’re born again.” Because Jesus never said, “If you fast.” What did he say in John, Matthew 6:16, “When you fast.” Have you read Matthew 6 verse 16? “When you fast,” verse 17, “when you fast, anoint your head and brush your face,” He never said “if you fast.”

Do you know the difference between “if you fast” and “when you fast”? Simple English. So Jesus expected His disciples to fast, but it’s not compulsory, it was not “thou shalt fast,” like “thou shalt keep the Sabbath day,” no, it was not the spirit of the law. But that is a great help to control our body.

And the other area is control our expenditure with money, which I’ve already spoken about. Now, I want to say a word about sexual passions. I believe God has given us sexual desire in our body, it’s a very good desire. If I were to paraphrase, when God, you know, I ask people this, it’s not just humorous, it’s to help, you know, a lot of people have got a crazy idea about sex, it’s something evil, particularly in India, a lot of people, husbands come and tell me in the villages and all, “Brother, tell my wife that sex is not wrong in marriage, it’s not wrong for a married couple to have sex.”

So I have to have, believe it or not, I have to have meetings with married couples and tell them it’s not wrong. And that’s because they’ve got these wrong ideas about sex being something evil because their minds have been saturated with what they see in the movies, it’s all evil.

So I asked them this question, when God created man and woman in that perfect earth and heaven, He blessed them and what did He tell them? “Adam and Eve, have sex.”

The Biblical Perspective on Sex and Discipline

It’s a paraphrase, it’s an accurate paraphrase. But please read it in the scriptures, Genesis 1, He blessed them verse 28 and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” What does that mean? Did He say shake hands and have children or something? What did He mean when He said then “be fruitful and multiply”? In plain words, “Have sex and have children.”

And then He said, in verse, “God saw everything He had made,” verse 31, “it is very good.” So that’s what I tell people. Husbands and wives, God said, “God blessed Adam and Eve, He said, have sex, have children,” and He says to you who are married, “have sex and have children,” and it is very good, Genesis 1:31. But if you have outside marriage, it’s not only bad, it’s evil, it’s demonic, it’s of the devil, it’s two extremes, that’s what sex is.

So that’s why before we are married, we have to discipline ourselves in this area. It’s an area where we have to fight as young men, fight and overcome. There’s only one way, we have to battle in it. It begins in our thoughts and it begins in our disciplined way of life and what we read and what we watch and see, and we have to be very, very disciplined with our eyes and our thoughts, and no one gets it perfectly from day one.

All persons who got victory over sin started with a defeated life, but they were determined to get victory because they read in Romans 6:14, “Sin will not be your master.” And there are many people for whom sexual sin is a master. They stimulate themselves to enjoy sexual pleasure before getting married, and that’s why Jesus said, Jesus is very dignified in the way He spoke about it.

But see what He says in Matthew 5 about sexual sin, verse 28, and this applies to married or unmarried women, men rather, especially for men. Matthew 5:28, it’s only for men. “I say to you, every young man, listen to this, who looks at a woman, there’s nothing wrong in that, with lust for her.” That means you lust after her body or her bodily shape and want to see her naked or imagine that you’re stripping off her clothes. I’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart, and there are two ways you can do it.

One is with your eyes, verse 29, and the other is with your hand, verse 30. Jesus is very plain without going into details. “Don’t sin when you lust after a woman with your eyes or your hands.” And that’s where we need to discipline ourselves and say, “Lord, I want to win this battle before I get married.” Second best is to overcome it by getting married, to avoid fornication, I have a wife.

The Example of Jesus and the Apostle Paul in Overcoming Temptation

But think of the example of Jesus who was tempted exactly like you and me in the sexual area. No less. If He was tempted less than us, then He was not tempted like us. He cannot be my forerunner. I want to say to all of you young men, Jesus had the same passions in you that you have and He was 14, 15, 16, all the way to 33 and a half, never sinned once.

And the apostle Paul, who was defeated by lust for years, even as a Jewish person. See what he says in Romans chapter 7.

The Struggle with Sin: Paul’s Testimony

Romans chapter 7, Paul says, “I could obey all the nine commandments without a problem because nine commandments were external, all external. Don’t bow down to idols, honor your father and mother, keep the Sabbath, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, etc.” But when it came to the tenth commandment, Romans chapter 7, verse 7, the law said ‘you shall not covet,’ you shall not, in the margin says, ‘you shall not lust after your neighbor’s wife or your neighbor’s daughter.’ And by the way, every girl who walks down the road is your neighbor’s daughter.

You shall not lust after, basically you shall not lust after any woman or desire. Sin, verse 8, taking opportunity through that commandment produced in me lusting of every imaginable kind. Boy, look at the honesty of this man. I was a young man like you, Saul of Tarsus says. “I just lusted and lusted and lusted and lusted and lusted. I lusted after neighbor’s daughters left, right and center. I could not overcome.”

“And the commandment, ‘thou shall not lust,’ resulted, verse 10, in death in me. And sin, verse 11, deceived me and killed me. Law is good, but I am corrupt. I am of flesh, verse 14, sold into bondage. The flesh is sold into bondage to sin.”

The Victory Over Sin Through the Holy Spirit

“But Romans 8, verse 2, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do, God did. Now because I walk according to the Spirit, Romans 8, verse 4, that command, ‘thou shall not covet,’ is now fulfilled in me. The requirement of the law is fulfilled in us.”

Verse 4, what is the requirement of the law? ‘You shall not lust after your neighbor’s wife or daughter.’ It is fulfilled in us because we walk according to the Holy Spirit. So he is saying the Holy Spirit has enabled me to overcome this lusting habit in me. And he says, ‘Boy, I lusted more than you guys, but the Holy Spirit delivered me.’ What a testimony.

And it’s always good to listen to the testimony of a man who was just like us, tempted like us, failed like us. Of course, Jesus never failed, but Paul did. Paul honestly says he failed in many ways, but he overcame. I said, ‘Paul, thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your ruthless honesty. It encourages me that a defeated person like me can also overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit and determine to walk according to the Spirit.’

The Process of Overcoming Lust

But it’s a daily matter. And as you go along, it will become easier and easier and easier and easier. I sometimes use the example of lust like a snake inside my flesh, putting its head up through this hole in the box, the box full of snakes. That’s my lust in my flesh. And one of these things called sex lifts its head through the hole in the box. And all the past years I was feeding it milk. ‘Aha, some more milk. Here you are. Some more milk. Here you are.’ And the snake is getting stronger and stronger.

And then I get born again and I’m still not completely free from giving milk to that snake. And then one day I just said, ‘I’m going to get victory over sin.’ Then I get a big club and I bang that snake on the head when it puts his head out and the snake gets a surprise. ‘Hey, what happened?’ ‘I’ve changed. I’m following the Lord now.’ It doesn’t die. It just becomes a little weaker because I fed it for so many years.

The next time it puts its head, it gets another whack and it gets weaker and weaker and weaker. This actually happens, brother. You determine that you’re going to seek the power of the Holy Spirit and you’re going to overcome your thoughts. You’re going to overcome your desires, passions, and God will help you. And one day that snake, not dead, paralyzed.

The Lifelong Battle Against Temptation

The lust is still there, but it’s not so strong now. Weak. I’m not saying you cannot be tempted. Like someone said, ‘Temptation is like a fire. Even if you’re a hundred years old, it can burn you.’ So always be careful. So there’s no time when you say, ‘Oh, I won’t be tempted anymore.’ But it becomes so much easier as time goes on if you determine to be, you know, like I tell people, when you’re sitting at your computer all by yourself and nobody’s around and you’re tempted to click on some pornographic site, there’s only one thing you can do.

Do what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18. ‘Flee from immorality.’ 1 Corinthians 6:18. ‘Run away from immorality.’ Don’t walk away. Run away. Close the computer and run. Go for a drive. Go and meet a friend or go out somewhere. But don’t open that. If you follow that rule of fleeing, you’re acknowledging before God, ‘Lord, this is too strong for me,’ otherwise why should I flee? I don’t stand there and say, I believe in Romans 6:14, you can’t conquer me. No, no, no, no. It says, resist the devil, he’ll flee from you, but when immorality comes, you better flee.

Understanding the Nature of Sexual Sin

So who is stronger? Tell me who’s stronger, Goliath or Bathsheba? Who do you think is stronger? Bathsheba. Knocked down David in a moment. Immorality is stronger than the devil because the devil is defeated on the cross. You can resist him. It says in James 4:7, he will flee, but when the temptation to immorality comes, you have to flee. It’s not only written here. Paul told Timothy, see that in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 22, great verse, Timothy 2:22, ‘flee from youthful lusts.’

Timothy is a 45-year-old man or 50-year-old man, he says, ‘I don’t care if you’re 50-year-old, those youthful lusts can enslave you. Timothy, there’s only one advice I can give you, don’t resist it, run away from it. When you’re tempted, run. You don’t have to run from other temptations, the other temptations you face and you overcome, but immorality, there’s only one solution, run.’ And then pursue righteousness with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, seek fellowship with godly people.

Another verse I can show you in relation to sexual sin is Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16 and verse, it’s talking about Sodom, and we all know that Sodom was known for not just sexual sin, but a lot of perverted sexual sin. It says that in Genesis chapter 18, and why was Sodom, how did Sodom fall into this terrible situation of being full of perverted, immoral people?”

The Root Causes of Sexual Sin

Ezekiel 16 verse 48 talks about Sodom and your sister, Sodom, he’s referring to Israel like Sodom. Verse 49, Ezekiel 16:49, ‘This was the guilt of your sister Sodom, not sexual sin, first of all, it ended up in perverted sexual sin, but where did it begin, arrogance.” You know how sexual sin begins with pride and arrogance, and you don’t judge that, pride and arrogance that you see in yourself.

Second, abundant food, you know, gluttony, we call it gluttony today, eating and eating and eating and eating, way beyond what you need to eat, and always wanting to eat and eat and eat and eat, never pass, never discipline yourself.

And third, sleeping and sleeping and sleeping and sleeping, an easy lifestyle, not working hard in whatever you’re supposed to do, careless is third and fourth, not considerate of poor people, selfish is your money. What is the final result? Sexual sin.

Overcoming Sexual Sin: Steps to Follow

So if you want to overcome sexual sin, try and follow these steps: humble yourself, it’s the opposite of arrogance; discipline yourself in the area of food; discipline yourself in the area of sleep; and be considerate of people who are needy around you. That’s why the sins of Sodom are mentioned, that these are the sins that led to the sin of Sodom.

So I want to say also a word about healing, because that also concerns our body. In 1 Corinthians 6, we read these words. First of all, something I said in the previous session also, you know, I said in the previous session, there are three levels you can live: unrighteous, righteous, and faithful. So here we read about the three levels in verse 12. In money, you can be unrighteous, or you can be righteous, or you can be faithful. I told you that in relation to money, faithful is more than righteous.

The Three Levels of Living: Unlawful, Lawful, Profitable

The same way here in relation to the body, verse 12, “All things are lawful, but all things are not profitable.” So there are three levels you can live: unlawful, lawful, profitable. Unlawful is so many things which are forbidden by God. Lawful is the bare minimum. I just about scraped, in India, pass marks in an examination is 40%, I got 40%. But profitable is go way beyond that, you get 100%, that’s pursuing out to perfection.

And we must never be satisfied with 40%, we must have a passion for 100%, and we must grieve when we come short, every time we come short. I sometimes ask this question, in the final examination, one student gets 40%, another gets 99%, and I ask, which student will come home rejoicing? Yes, the one who got 40%, because he thought he was going to fail. He comes excited, “Mom, I passed, great, let’s celebrate.” And the other guy who got 99%, “Oh, I missed 100% by one mark.”

Seeking Perfection and Disciplining the Body

That’s the type of difference between the person who says, “I’m going to heaven, my sins are all forgiven, Christ is in my heart, I’m okay.” And the other guy says, “Oh, Lord, I slipped up there, just that small slip in my thought, I should have got 100% today, got 99%,” are you like that? That’s a test of how you press on to perfection, you live at the, just the lawful level, “Oh, there’s nothing wrong in that.” I’d say, “I want to live at the profitable level.”

There are 100 lawful things, but out of that only 10 are profitable, those are the only ones I take. “I will not be mastered by anything,” that’s what he says. “Food is for the stomach, the stomach is for food, God will destroy all of them.” So here it says, “The body is for the Lord, last part of verse 13. The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body,” this is a great verse.

Prayer and Faith in Healing

I have often used it for myself, you know, I believe in praying to the Lord for healing every time I’m sick. I don’t believe that every sickness will be healed. I’m not one of these Pentecostal healers, preaching such things, unrealistic things that torment people, many people who have sicknesses and sometimes incurable sicknesses. I say that’s because I told you in the beginning, our body is under the curse, there will be sickness, there will be death.

But I believe that every time I’m sick, I should pray. Paul had a thorn in the flesh and he prayed. He didn’t just leave it and say, “Oh, well, sickness is part of life,” no. He prayed, it says in second Corinthians 12, when it didn’t get healed, he prayed a second time, and he prayed a third time, and if he didn’t get an answer the third time, he’d have prayed a fourth time, he’d have prayed a three hundredth time.

Balancing Healing with God’s Will

The point is not that he prayed thrice, he prayed until he got an answer, where God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, I’m not going to heal you.” So basically, this is how I pray whenever I’m sick, whether it’s a fever or a cough and a cold or any such thing, and by God’s grace, and God’s preserved me amazingly all these nearly eighty years, that might say, “Lord, my body is for the Lord.” That’s the first part of that sentence, and therefore, I believe You are for my body.

In my body, I have absolutely, I can honestly say, I have zero desire to do anything but the will of God with this body. I have no desire to do anything outside the will of God with this body, I have no desire to go to any place which is not the will of God for this body, I have no desire to decorate this body with fancy clothes which God doesn’t want, I have no desire to indulge this body in any way which God doesn’t want, the body is for the Lord.

The Importance of Disciplining the Body

I’m not using this body just to become a famous man or a rich man or any such thing. I want to earn my living and take care of my children, that’s another thing. The body is for the Lord, and therefore, I say the Lord is for my body. That’s number one. And secondly, I say, verse 19, “This body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Lord, first of all, this body is for You, so You are for my body, so You must heal me.

And this body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so keep Your temple in good shape. I keep my earthly buildings in good shape. Lord, keep Your building in good shape. And at the end of that, if I’m not healed, I say, “Lord, tell me why.” He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you,” okay, maybe this sickness, You’re not going to heal me, then give me grace. But I will not leave You without either, You either give me grace or give me healing.

Seeking Fullness in the Spirit-filled Walk

And I leave it to you to decide which of the two is better for me. That’s my position on healing. And I found it has helped me tremendously, sometimes He heals and sometimes I need a thorn in the flesh to keep me humble and broken before the Lord. And so I leave that in God’s hands. But the way we use our body is very, very important, to discipline our body.

Let me show you one more verse, Philippians 3. The reason I say that is many people are filled with the Holy Spirit. They don’t cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disciplining their body, and that’s why they never come into the fullness of a Spirit-filled walk with the Lord. They have an experience of being filled with the Spirit, but never walk with the Lord like that.

Philippians 3 says, “Brethren, verse 17, follow my example and observe those of us who are walking in the same pattern, that is, verse 13, those who want to press on to perfection.”

Attaining Godliness: Humility and Discipline

Let’s have this attitude, “who are perfect.” And many walk not like us. Verse 18, “they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” And I tell you that even weeping. Who are these enemies of the cross of Christ? You think they are people who are attacking Christians? No. Their God is their stomach. That’s what it says here in the margin. “The God is their belly.” Their God is their stomach.

They worship their stomach, their belly. Their belly says, “I want this food, I want that food, I want this.” And it keeps on feeding the belly. Now, I’ll just point out in a moment that we are not ascetics. We are not to go to that extreme of asceticism. But this is one extreme of worshipping food and worshipping our stomach. Whatever the stomach wants, “I want, I want, I want, I want.” And the stomach will never stop. And their God is their belly.

Avoiding Extremes: Gluttony and Asceticism

And their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. One day, verse 21, God will transform this body of our humble state into the body of His glory. Until then, I’m not going to yield to every demand of my stomach. He’s talking about people whose God is their belly, who are idol worshippers. Which idol do they worship? Their stomach. It says, “be careful that you don’t be like that.”

Then a word about asceticism, you know, which says, “don’t eat this, don’t eat that, don’t touch ice cream, things like that.” It says, “don’t listen to such people.” Colossians chapter 2. If you have died with Christ, verse 20, to the elementary principles of the world, why if you’re living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as, “don’t handle this, don’t taste that, don’t touch this.” It’s a form of external discipline.

Finding Balance in Godliness and Discipline

There’s a place for discipline, I already mentioned that. But don’t make that your religion. Your religion is, there are people like that, who have become some ascetics, that they won’t this, they won’t eat this, they won’t do that. You know, it’s easy for us to make a law for ourselves like that, and we become legalists, and sometimes I just break the law to show that I’m not a legalist. I don’t want to be a legalist, in anything, in any area.

So, there are things which are not sinful. But they say, “don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do that.” I think, it all deals with commandments of men, teachings of men. These have an appearance of wisdom, of self-made religion, and self-abasement, and severe treatment of the body. You know, there are people like that, who speak about a severe discipline of the body to be holy, but it is no value against the flesh. The flesh still makes you sin.

Embracing a Balanced Lifestyle

So, that’s the opposite of, you know, gluttony, and then the false asceticism. And I’ll tell you something more about it. In 1 Timothy 4, it says, in the last days, the Holy Spirit says, some people will become crazy after this type of religion, of asceticism. Listen to this. The real secret of godliness, 1 Timothy 3:16, is that Christ came in the flesh. It says there. “Mystery or secret of godliness is to see that Christ came in the flesh, but kept His spirit pure.”

And you can go in that way and keep your spirit pure. But, chapter 4, verse 1, forget the chapter division, it’s all the same paragraph. The Holy Spirit says, “In the last days, some people will fall away from this faith.” Which faith? That the secret of godliness is Christ came in the flesh, was tempted like us, and you see plenty of people like that, fallen away. And they will pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, and hypocrisy of liars.

Recognizing and Avoiding Extremes in Faith

What is this doctrine of a demon? Asceticism. Verse 3, “don’t get married, don’t eat this food, don’t eat non-vegetarian, you must be vegetarian.” So many rules to be holy. All of which God has created to be gratefully shared. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing to be rejected, if it is sanctified by the means of word of God and prayer.” We pray over that food, we can eat it. I’m not saying we foolishly eat things which we know medically are not good for us. I don’t mean that.

But it says here there’s an asceticism, which some crazy Christians have, thinking that holiness comes by disciplining ourselves in these external ways. Now that’s the opposite extreme. So gluttony and laziness and all that. The narrow way is always between these extremes. There’s a big cliff this side, there’s a big cliff that side, and if you listen to the Holy Spirit, you’ll walk like Jesus walked.

Following Jesus’ Example: Balance in Life

He could fast for 40 days, and He could ask for a second helping so much that people called Him a gluttonous man. That’s a balance. And that’s how we can discipline our body in the matter of food, the matter of sleep. Jesus could pray all night. At the same time, in a boat, when He was going to sleep, He said, “Hey, give me a pillow, I want a comfortable sleep.” Have you read that? He asked for a pillow. “Say, Lord, can’t You be rugged and sleep on the wooden board of that boat?” No, “I like a pillow. I like to have a little comfort when I sleep.” I like that.

This is the Jesus I follow, who’s not an extremist in all these areas. So whether it’s food or sleep, and for married people, do you know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 7, that even in marriage, there is a place to restrain yourself for a period from having sex with your wife for the sake of prayer. It says that in 1 Corinthians 7, about restraining yourself for a certain period for the sake of prayer, in 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 5.

Conclusion: The Importance of the Body in God’s Plan

So, there’s a lot more to be said, but I trust we have understood something of the importance of the body to be the man God wants you to be. May God help us all. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that You will make these truths become life in us and reality in our daily walk. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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