SUMMARY ON ‘DEALING WITH FLESH AND SELF TOWARD BECOMING

A STRONG GENERATION IN TIMES LIKE THIS.’

In this our strive and pursuit to becoming Strong, in times like this we have found ourselves, it is very
important we understand and embrace the truth that the journey starts first and even continues with , ‘Dealing
with flesh and Self in us.
One may ask, “what is this flesh and Self even?”
FLESH are those sinful natures resulting from the old man that is/were in us and which entangles us and
weighs us down in achieving God’s purpose and running our race. See Gal5:19-20.
SELF on the other Hand are those personal will(s), decisions, ambitions etc, which may not be evil in
themselves to you but, tends not to be in alignment to the will of God for our lives and most times leads to the
manifestation of flesh in us wherein it becomes sin. Most times the evidence of self in us is our LUST towards
the world and it leads to self-gratification and self-glorification. Self can never seek to give all glory to God.
Jesus on this declared towards His death in prayer, “not my will but thy will be done” and he became and
example of dead will unto us swallowed up in His father’s will.
Both exist as a result of the SOFTWARE that runs naturally in us from conception and birth, this SOFTWARE is
the Nature of Sin.
So now you know FLESH and SELF take note of this things about them;
 Self and flesh can be very subtle hiding under the wheels of religious activivities. One may be a church
leader, church worker, be in fellowships, serve in various departments and offices and be living with
them.
 It waits for an action to manifest itself. When triggered or stired up the manifestation is seen and it
obviousness is seen. In turn the Glory of God will be called short.
 One may even be growing or rising in the faith in the Faith perhaps in anointing, with them. This is
very dangerous and risky. You may rise high and it becomes the weapon of your pulling down.
 The more you harbor them, the more they grow and eventually deal with you, most times in a very big
and hurting way.
 If not dealt with NOW! it will deal with you later. Take note.
Store this in your heart concerning FLESH and SELF as emphasized in Romans 8:7-10:
 You are/become an enemy of God when you are in control of them and I know you wouldn’t want to
unless you want to enter his great wrath. See vs7
 You cannot/can never please God with them. Hmmmm, do you see how critical this matter is now. Do
all your good work or services in the body of Christ, God never accepts it. Please dear stop wasting your
sweat and deal with this now!
 The end point or destination of Self and flesh is Death. Spiritual death, financial death, academics death,
marital/relationship death, Destiny death to mention but, a few.
This is the more obvious reason why you need the total dealing on them.
Extract lessons to learn on this issue of ‘Dealing With Flesh and Self’ from Deutronomy
21:18-22:
Study bible translation: (kjv), please read.
Vs 18 began by saying “if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son”, this in the context of our discussion
means, ‘that there is what every MAN on earth is inherently born with and he gives birth to until change
through Christ comes, and which manifests STUBBORNESS & REBELLION. That is the SINFUL NATURE, so
stubborn and rebellious it is indeed. This nature manifest itself either as FLESH or SELF.
VS 18 and 20 further stated the characteristics of this nature which I will love us to further shed more light
into, starting with the ones stated above. We will understand this as we study the qualities of this Son:
Those characteristics include;
 STUBBORNESS (in verse18): this nature causes one to refuse positive or Godly change, it causes one
to be unyielding to God and to the Holy Spirit (if a believer}, it causes one to be inflexible, hardened,
hard, inconvincible, self-optionated and adamant. See Rom.2vs5, Eph4:18, Zech7:11-12, Acts7:51. This
stubborn spirit antagonizes the truth and anti-Christ in nature.
  REBELLIOUS (verse 18): this same nature causes us to be disobedient to all the Truth and all His
truth. It causes us be against all the will of God, His commandments, and His ways for our lives. See
Isa63:10, Heb3:15, Psa107:11, HEB 12:5-6.
 It causes to refuse to hear or even block our hearing the voice of God. Still in verse 18.
 It makes that even when chastened yet, such don’t follow. This nature causes one to be reprobate.
 GLUTTON (see vs 20): the sinful nature is gluttonous, it causes to eat what we should not each and be
obessed with SINS that serves as weights weighing us down. We must get rid of this fats that have
accumulated in us and have limited our speed in the race so much.to understand gluttony, study pigs.
 DRUNKARD (vs20): One thing that defines drunkenness in the negative the inability to recognize
right ways, things or patterns due to the intoxication of what was consumed and this occasionally lead
to falls and wounds. A drunken man can fell into a ditch because his sense have been lost resulting
from hallucination. The sinful nature (flesh & Self) does same in man, it causes one to lose his natural
or spiritual senses and this leads to falls and wounds to such ones life and/or his journey with God. The
devil create false mental pictures that leads to stealing, killing and destruction of such that is his
subject.
NOW, HOW WAS THIS SON (SELF & FLESH) DEALT WITH.
1. Vs 19a, “The parents shall lay hold on him and brought him out”. Is it not amazing to know that sin of
the flesh or self cannot be dealt with if haboured or pampered, you don’t do that to sin. You must be
dissatisfied, specific, deliberate and violent enough to expose them. Be specific with those sin to
mention them in confession to God inorder to receive help through christ. “Adighi emere njo nwa”.
2. Vs19b, “and bring him unto the ELDERs”, the first elder to run to is Christ Jesus, he offers you the right
and lasting salvation. You can as well find by Gods leading an Elder (someone with experience/track
record, knowledgeable and with soundness spiritually, not necessarily of age) in the Body you can
confide in, who will always hold you accountable. To such one you can as well give progress report for
further guidance.
3. Vs 21a, “…………shall stone him with stones death, that he die,” Beloved the only one way to be saved
from the nature of SIN is DEATH! So bring them out and with the stones of daily exposure to the
TRUTHs in His word, the stone of dwelling in his presence always, the stone of prayers and the stone of
consistent walk with the Holy spirit, PUT THEM TO DEATH!!! BEFORE IT KILLS YOU. Don’t expect
this journey to easy because as ‘stone’, they may come hard on you, His word may come hard on you,
his leadings by His spirit may come hard on you yet, you must be ready enough to die. Remember
“stoning” is a process, so you may not die totally at the first throw but be deliberate about it and
determine to die totally.
In summary, practically FLESH and SELF can totally be put to death and this is the way, maybe you don’t
understand the ones up there;
 Run and Return to Jesus in absolute humility. You are so wretched a man to think you can help yourself.
He is Grace and can help you so much.
 Understand that the only solution to them is DEATH. How?
 Expose yourself to the word and sound teachings to always renew your mind.
 Depend on HIS SPIRIT LEADING for & in your life, walk with Him as well.
 WATCH and pray fervently. Seek to dwell always in His presence, this aside the place of prayer
you can practice by playing spirit-filled songs, playing messages, reading Christian literatures.
This can be done even while working or at work, in school, in market etc. feed yourself (your
inner man) with the right foods it need to be sustained.
 Report to an elder, a disciple, a mentor, etc. follow Gods leading here and make sure you find
who you can confide in.
Finally, it is very important we note that the world will sqeeze us as believers, the question is “ if they squeeze
me Nnabuike, what will they press out Christ out of me”? “ will they press out JESUS out of my life or flesh &
self. We must conform to the image of Christ and it takes deliberacy and the help of the Holy Spirit who is the
Spirit of Grace. We conform to His image by death to flesh and self and then alignment to His will and leadings.
Thanks

Your brother,
Samuel Nnabuike.
Maranatha!