Conquest of the Flesh

"For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." (2 Peter 2:21)

Peter was an experienced man. He had been with Jesus. He was a family man. He knew the intricacies of family life. He knew what was transient and what was permanent. He gives us words rich with meaning. We came to Christ by humbling ourselves. Satan tries to put back pride into our hearts, for only then he can blind us and take us back to sin.

As we pray and enter into the spirit, we do not have the temptations of the flesh. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). The lusts of the flesh tempt those who do not pray. When you pray, you forget yourself. Whatever company you are in, the fleshly lustful thoughts do not come to you. That is real Christian life. It is a beautiful life where sinful and worldly thoughts do not come to you. There will be no covetousness or no envy. When you are full of prayer, you live on a plane where no kind of impure thoughts or thoughts of envy or covetousness come to you. People who are filled with the Spirit may forget all else for a time. But that will be only for a time. The Spirit will guide him. Sometimes we are tempted to spend all our time in prayer, but God wants us to take responsibilities in the world.