The lusts of the flesh and soul. The human flesh and soul are filled with wickedness of every sort. None of these can enter the Kingdom of God.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Rage, murder, every form of lust, perversion, sorcery, drunkenness, lying, dwell in the adamic personality. The Holy Spirit helps us put these compulsions to death.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:24)

None of these unclean elements of the human personality is part of the Character of the Lord Jesus. If we cling to any of them we will come short of the Glory of God. They never will be permitted to become part of the Body of Christ. They absolutely must be crucified and driven from us completely if we would attain the promised-land rest of God.

Perhaps we are in an era now, just before the return of the Lord, when the Holy Spirit is ready to help us drive the evil from our personality. It seems that in the present hour there is special strength for overcoming the lusts of our personality. It may be that we have come to Jordan, so to speak, and are preparing to invade and conquer our land of promise.

No believer can successfully arrive at the rest of God until he is ready to work with the Spirit in driving from his personality the enemies of the Lord that dwell in his flesh and soul.

The ambition to seek our own glory. The record of Christian Church history has been largely that of ambitious people seeking their own glory. Cathedrals and other large structures and institutions do not reflect the lowly Jesus but the desire of human beings to exalt themselves.

The years of the Christian era have witnessed the lust for power of various individuals and groups as they have sought—sometimes by torturing and killing people—to force their will. Treachery, murder, intrigue, covetousness, a willingness to take any action that will accomplish their own ends has characterized many "apostles of Christ." All of this "in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God."

Even today the existence of competing denominations reveals that self, not Christ, is driving the "work of God."

How many leaders of denominations would be willing to call their entire work to a halt and wait on God until they were certain they knew the voice and will of the Lord? "Financially impossible!" they would protest. No doubt this is true. Nevertheless the plans and programs grind on without anyone being certain this is what the Lord desires, like the blind Samson at the mill of the Philistines.

To be continued.