Creflo Dollar - The War Against the Soul - Part 2

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If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11, 1 Peter 2 and 11. We’re gonna start in the NLT, and then that same Scripture in the Mirror. We’re talking about the war against the soul, the war against the soul. These teachings, I believe, are designed to prepare you for what is coming up. This is not a teaching to bring about condemnation, or to make you feel condemned or feel shameful, or any of those things. It’s a message and a teaching to prepare you for what has already happened, but what’s gonna increase a little bit. There is a battle against the soul. There is a war against the soul. What is that? What does that mean? How does that work? What does that look like?

Well, 1 Peter chapter 2 and 11. He says, «Dear friends, I warn you as 'temporary residents and foreigners.'» He says, «I am talking to you as you really are. You are a temporary resident and you are a foreigner here,» okay? «You are a sojourner here». Another translation says, «You’re aliens here,» okay? In other words, «This earth is not your home, you’re just passing through». He says, «Dear friends, I warn you as a 'temporary residents and foreigners' to keep away from worldly desires that will wage war against your very souls». So, there’s the warning there, «Keep away from worldly desires,» why? Because they’re gonna start a war against your very soul.

Now, we said last week, we talked about the anatomy of a human being. You are a spirit, you possess a soul, and you live in a physical body. Now, I know over the years, we have used spirit and soul interchangeably as if they’re the same. «Oh, their soul has gone home to be with the Lord». Well, that’s partly true, but one of the things you got to understand is that you are a spirit. You have a soul. Your spirit and soul is not the same. You are a spirit being. You possess a soul. You live in a physical body, an earth suit, so you can have comprehension of the physical matter that’s here on this earth. You have a spirit. You are a spirit. You have a soul. Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. Your soul is comprised with your thinker, your feeler, your chooser. That’s your soul.

So when you go to heaven, when your spirit leaves your body, your soul, your mind, your will, and emotions, they go with you. Why? So you’ll know one another when you get to heaven. Okay, so you’re gonna, we’re gonna know one another when we get to heaven because your soul’s gonna go with you, okay? So, you are a spirit being. You possess a soul. You live in a physical body. Death is literally a separation of your spirit and soul from your physical body. If I had a hanger to hang my coat up, then the coat would just lay on that hanger. But right now, I’m wearing a coat. I’m in this coat, so now I’m giving it life and I’m giving it movement.

So, likewise, you’re in a physical body. You’re giving your body life. You’re giving it movement, but there come a time where you will separate from your physical body, and your body doesn’t move anymore because you’re not in it. You know, the Bible uses phrases like «home in your body,» okay? But your spirit, your spirit is eternal. You cannot kill a spirit. Somebody says, «How would you say that»? Because your spirit came from God, remember? You cannot kill a spirit. So, that spirit’s gonna have to exist in another realm. You cannot kill a spirit, but that spirit will separate from the physical body, and you’re no longer in need of that physical body because you’re no longer in the earth realm, where there’s a need of a physical body.

But now, you can exist in your spiritual body because you’re gonna be in a spiritual world, where there is spiritual matter. And it’s gonna be so similar to this physical world, where there was physical matter, and you can feel it, and touch it, and so forth and so on. This tremendous warning about keep away from worldly desires because they’re gonna start a war with your soul.

Now, the day you got born again, your spirit man was a part of you that got born again. The only part of you that got born again and the only part of you that is perfect is your spirit man. You are one-third perfect, but your soul is kinda like the software that assisted your old man, your old spirit. Your soul, now you have a new creation, is that part of your mind, that part of your emotions, and all of that is in the software compartment. And so, that’s why the Bible says «renew your mind,» because the greatest thing you can do as a Christian is renew your mind. 'Cause the day you got born again, you didn’t get rid of all of the stuff that was in the software.

That’s gotta be renewed, and that’s gotta be dealt with. Because if you don’t deal with that part, there’ll be a battle now going on between your soul and your spirit because your soul did not keep away from worldly desires and has some programs about worldly desires. And then your physical body is just waiting on instructions, impulses, waiting on a thought to tell it what to do. And so, you have to understand this to understand your design. And this is what we’re gonna look at today. Who you are, the greatest way you can overcome temptation is not to forget about who you are, so Satan is attacking your identity all of the time, all right?

Now, let’s look at this in the in the Mirror translation, 1 Peter chapter 2, 11, and I’m gonna get going. I don’t want to get stuck there, but he says, «It does not matter how appealing the system of the flesh-glory seems». The flesh-glory, the things that you can get in the world that are apart from God. «No matter how appealing the system of the flesh-glory seems, it can never define or fulfill you». So, remember that. «Worldly desires will never define or fulfill you; do not allow yourself to be lured into its strategies and be swayed by it. Don’t allow yourself to be lured by strategies or be swayed by it. You are dearly loved». Wow, he wanted us to know that. «You are dearly loved. I urge you from within this place of our joint oneness,» this place of our joint oneness where your spirit is, where that new man is, «to remain like a pilgrim and strangers to the subtleties of the world-system,» the world’s way of doing things, the world’s way of thinking, «and to be a stranger, remain a stranger to the subtleties of the world-system that is foreign, it is foreign to your design».

The world’s way of doing things, it’s foreign to your design. My God. So, the design you have now as a follower of Christ, the world’s way of doing things is foreign to the design you now carry. He said, «Avoid any influence that does not resonate with your innocence, influences that does not resonate with your innocence». See, something big happened when you got born again. All of the stuff you used to do, the things you used to think, all of the fears, all of the threats of hell, all of that stuff was changed, and you were made innocent. And he said, «So now there are gonna be some influences that’s trying to come against your innocence».

For example, you’re the righteousness of God, and then as soon as you don’t act right, there’s gonna be an influence to say, «You ain’t righteous, you have to respect the design you have now». Does everybody follow what I’m saying? All right, let’s move on into this now. So, we’re gonna be looking at indulgence because the war against the soul is gonna get us to the place where we indulge. Now, we all have, in our lifetime, and have been self-indulgers. To indulge means to allow yourself to enjoy the pleasures of sin, to allow yourself to enjoy the pleasures of the world, to indulge, allowing yourself to enjoy the pleasures of it. Biblical self-indulgence is feeding the sinful passions of the flesh. And remember, the flesh is just simply living life apart from God, okay?

So when you live life apart from God, then, you know, we pretty much can assume that you’re living life apart from God, and you’re feeding the sinful passions of that life that’s lived apart from God. Feeding the passions of a life apart from God or feeding the passions of a life that you have no regard for the things of God. None at all. That’s what it was like before you got born again. You didn’t regard God in anything. If it felt good, if there was an appetite for it, you went for it, and then somehow gave yourself a story that you can believe, and you kept believing the story you were telling yourself. But now, I want to uncover what’s really going on, guys. That we’re not just saying, «Avoid worldly lust because, you know, you’re Christians, and you need to know better than that».

There’s some real consequences that come out of this, and I want you to know about it because the Holy Spirit is accelerating his progress with you and the work that he’s doing in you. That’s accelerating. You’re gonna look at certain weeks that go by and stuff you don’t even want no more, you’re trying to figure out what happened to it. You gonna look at your attitude and the attitude is better than it was. Your mouth is cleaner than it’s been in a long time. Still got two or three more pieces of cussing word in there, but it’s a lot better than what it used to be. You don’t use the compound cussing words no more, praise the Lord. He’s accelerating, he’s accelerating construction of you, glory to God, hallelujah. He’s accelerating that. I want you to begin to notice that there’s an acceleration going on on the inside of… somebody say, «Speed it up, speed it up, speed it up,» amen.

I’m telling you, you’re absolutely, what is God working on? The Bible says that he is working in you to give you desire and power to do what pleases him. You’re gonna have the desire and the power to do what pleases him. And it’s not gonna be of yourself, it’s the spirit of God working in you, ladies and gentlemen. It’s not just you think, you’ve thought all your life, «Well, it’s me. I gotta do this. I got to do that». And then when you fail, you feel even worse because the weight of the failure is compounded with what you’ve been trying not to do. And you don’t understand, God is like, «No, I don’t need, nor am I depending on you for these things to happen. I am working in you. I’m working in you. I am the construction hands that are taking away your old want to and giving you some new want to».

Boy, I’m excited about that, amen. All right, now let’s go over a few scriptures from last week and we’ll pick up. So, let’s look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12 through 18 in the Mirror, and it’s indulging ourselves, when we talk about self-indulgence, it’s indulging ourselves in any pleasure that is harmful to our souls. Indulging yourself in any pleasure that is harmful to your soul, your mind, your will, your emotions. There are things that we engage in that harm or wage a war in our souls. Stuff that was never a battle is now a battle because you engaged in something. It was never a struggle before, but now it’s a struggle because you engaged it, and you started a war in your soul. And that war became an addictive behavior, an addiction. I wonder what was the gateway desire that opened you up to some of the stuff you have to deal with right now.

I want you to know that all of that is Satan’s strategy to get you to finally deny the design of what God gave you. He wants you to deny who Jesus says you are. And the awesome thing about this is, if you’re strong enough to stand up in the midst of all of this stuff that’s going on in your soul, and still say, «I’m the righteousness of God,» woo. See, you keep looking at your behavior, he says, «Now hold on to your identity. No matter how you behave, I’m working on your behavior. Don’t let go of your identity. I need you to keep the identity that I said. I said this about you, I need you to keep it no matter what happens».

So, there are many wars that we’ve created. I really wanna talk to you today. May I please be excused to talk to you today. I can’t do this preacher thing, trying to use all the right vocabulary words and the real word, the one you really understand, I can’t say it because, you know, you might cancel me like I care about that. But you know, may I please talk to you today? Because, you know, we got all kinds of wars in this room today. We got closet wars, and secret wars, and food wars, and sex wars, and all kinds of addictive behavior and drug wars, and woo, and attitude wars. But in all those wars, don’t deny who you are. Do you get that? I just went to the end of the sermon. Don’t deny who you are. No matter what happens, no matter what you feel, no matter what you behave, no matter what preacher tells you you’re gonna go to hell, as I study the Scriptures over again, I’m finding stuff.

I found the Scripture this morning, I didn’t stumble across, I was reading what I was getting ready to read to you, and I’m like, Wait a minute, «Lord, but doesn’t that mean that»? He said, «It never meant that until 1946, somebody injected that in there». I’m like, I got my Bible out. See, I still got books, sitting here reading. I said, «Sure did, that changed in 1940. The Greek word is clear. It never changed, but somebody came and injected it in the New Translation».

And I noticed a lot of those changes is in the NLT. I watch it when I read that, some of the stuff is just wrong. «But why do you read it»? Because that’s the only way I’m gonna find out what that stuff is. Are you listening? Now, let’s look at this in 12, I’m gonna read 12 through 18. Okay, he says, «I’m free to do what I want, but if what I do is inappropriate,» so I paused then and I thought, «Oh, Lord. We’re living in a society right now». Right here, Paul is saying, «I am free to do what I want, but if what I do is inappropriate,» he says, Paul said, «I’ll refrain from doing it and I will not be trapped or snared by the sudden notions,» he says, «if what I do is inappropriate». But the thing, the problem today is we don’t even know what’s inappropriate. Because, today, what we have seen as being inappropriate is now appropriate.

I see how people treat older people, just no respect. I love it when a 16-year-old come up to me and say, «Hey, Creflo». I’m like, «Little girl, I done went through too much, earned too many degrees, prayed too many hours for you to assume that you have the right to call me by my first name». That’s inappropriate. Oh, you understand what I’m saying? But if Paul is saying what I do is inappropriate, but I am teaching this to a society that they just don’t know what’s appropriate. It’s appropriate that when you go over to somebody’s house, you don’t open the refrigerator. You remember when we were growing up and there was a conversation going on between grown folks, and your mama used to say, «Get on out of here. This is grown folk talk». Y’all remember that? Or when you call somebody, you know, «Yeah»? «It’s yes sir to you». Don’t nobody, «Don’t nobody do that no more,» but that’s inappropriate.

So if you don’t know how, you know, if you don’t know that common manners, the difference between what’s inappropriate and appropriate, how are you gonna know what’s inappropriate and appropriate with things in life? Having sex out of marriage used to be inappropriate. It’s expected now. And if you ain’t doing it, something wrong with you. So, how do we even read the Bible to bring it up to where it needs? This is my sudden change to say I can’t just read the Scripture anymore, I have to dissect it from the language it came, from the languages here, because I gotta be able to explain this. «I’m free to do what I want, but if what I do is inappropriate, I refrain from doing it».

So, we don’t even know how to refrain from doing it because we don’t think nothing wrong with what we’re doing. «I refrain from doing it and I will not be trapped,» notice what it says, there’s a «trapped by the sudden notions». If you don’t know what’s appropriate versus what’s inappropriate, there’s a trap that’s there if you don’t know it. Next verse, «Your appetite for food and sex,» isn’t that something? So, you know that’s gonna be a weapon for the enemy. «How do I get you to deny your identity? I’m gonna use food». He used food twice, one with Adam and one with Jesus. And sex, he used that with David and Solomon. «Your appetite for food and sex,» now, hear what he’s saying.

A lot of times, we look at the other thing, we forget the object of the sentence. He said, «It doesn’t define you. Your appetite for food doesn’t define you. Your appetite for sex doesn’t define you». What is he saying? «Don’t forget my definition of you. I define you, not your appetite, nor your behavior. I define you». «Your life is tailor-made for God; you fit him like a glove». You fit God like a glove, but you don’t want to fit God like a glove. You want to go and try to fit something else that don’t fit you.

You remember, «If it doesn’t fit, you must seek». «Your life is tailor-made for God; you fit him like a glove». You fit him like a glove, and we don’t wanna fit God like a glove. We trying to, «He fulfills your deepest longings,» God does. But somehow, you’re thinking that that craving you have is going to make you happy. Somehow, the indulgence that you’re in, you indulge in the worldly feelings, you indulge in the worldly desires because you believe it’ll make you happy. You believe it’ll make you happy. And God says, «I will fulfill your deepest longings. God reveals in dramatic fashion the value he places on the human body».

So, watch this. This is huge. This is the value that God places on the human body, «by our joint resurrection with Jesus». You remember the Bible says, «When he was raised from the dead, we were raised from the dead»? So, «by our joint resurrection with Jesus from the dead,» he now places what he thinks about our body. He says, «This means that your bodies are co-members of his,» wow, «which makes it absurd». If your body is a co-member with Jesus’s body, he made my physical body a member of his body, and somebody says, «How does that take place»? Well, at one time there weren’t too many humans, and then through DNA spread, we all became one. That’s why racism is so stupid.