Flesh Wounds: The Watch Letter

In medicine, a flesh wound is considered an injury that only damages the skin or underlying tissue and isn’t deep enough to harm internal organs.

But when it comes to our spiritual walk with God, the things of the flesh can do more damage to the soul than we realize.

1 Peter 2:11 (KJV) Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly (carnal) lusts, which war against the soul.

A while back, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn told us that our souls can be wounded and need to be healed. We know that it’s not the things of the spirit or heavenly things that harm us—so those wounds must be coming from fleshly and earthly things, just as Peter describes.

It’s easy for us as Christians, who may have the power to abstain from such things as alcohol or fornication, to think we are not driven by fleshly lusts. But it's about more than what we put into or do with our bodies.

Lust is anything that draws us away from God and, as a result, produces sin. For example, Chief Apostle Gunn has taught us that prayerlessness often stems from the things we allow to take our focus and attention off God. Anything that captures more of our attention than God is something we are lusting after. In fact, he said recently on the FORREAL broadcast that whatever keeps God from being No. 1 in our lives is an idol.

James 1:14–15 (KJV)14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust (things inordinately desired and desired more than God), and enticed.15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (separation from God).

Last week, Chief Apostle Gunn asked something so powerful—I hope it’s a question neither of us forgets. If we keep asking it, it will keep us sober.

In a nutshell, he asked: Our flesh goes back into the ground—it came from dirt—so why do we let it govern us and decide our eternity?

During service today, he gave a perfect example of how we can be drawn away from God by lust. We can become so focused on performance, climbing the ladder of success, or pleasing our boss that we give all our energy and virtue to our jobs. He said, "You can’t give everything to your job and give God crumbs." Caring more about the time we put into our careers than we give to God is living after the flesh.

Oftentimes, in trying to meet goals, make extra money, or leave a good impression, we overwork ourselves to the point of burnout—going beyond our duty without making the effort to stay in fellowship with God.

As I write this, I’m reflecting on how many times I could have taken a moment to talk to or listen to God, or where I failed to pray over meetings and projects to invite Him into them. After spending the day, God often gets the tired, distracted version of me—when I gave all my alert, focused energy to my work.

We can use what Chief Apostle Gunn said as a fill-in-the-blank statement to help us clean up the mess of our flesh:"I am giving everything to ________ but giving God crumbs."

When we desire everything but God, we are creating flesh wounds. The decisions we make when we follow the flesh instead of following God not only damage our souls—they damage our families, homes, communities, and the people we are assigned to witness to.

When we are driven by fleshly lusts, we are no longer under the influence of God. And we know that when we live under the wrong influence, we can’t keep our commitments. Think of a drug addict, gaming addict or gambling addict. How reliable, consistent, or faithful are they?

Today, Chief Apostle Gunn said we need to return to God regarding the commitments we’ve made to Him but have not kept. The Lord told him to tell us to come to Him and pray:"Lord, help my yes [to you]."

The message tied to the song Yes by Shekinah Glory. If you go over the lyrics, you’ll notice that the singer never says the flesh says yes to God. That’s because the flesh—our fallen nature—will never say yes to God. Just as the song declares, our yes must come from a willing soul, heart, and mind.