“A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15) – Possessions don’t give us spiritual nourishment. Simply passing the time by meditating on our Father’s ways and wisdom in quietness does, as well as working those ways by day: in our loving and righteous fellowship with others, and benefiting others to ease their burden and bring them joy and peace, in turn bringing us joy and peace.
*For the ways of God, see note (opens in a new window): The Ways of God: The Truth, The Will of God, Fully Pleasing Him, Walking Worthy of Him
That’s the truth – the way it really is – what really brings a man true peace and joy – how we were programmed to find peace and joy.
The lie is peace and joy through: selfishness, greed, possessions, fame, fortune, beauty and power.
The body needs physical food for nourishment, and that brings our body peace and joy. It’s stressed and depressed when starving, and when it gets tasty food, it’s at peace and joyful (for a fleeting moment, and then it craves more and more endlessly).
The inner man (us as a spiritual soul) needs spiritual food for nourishment, which is: love, serving others, holiness, purity, righteousness, which nourishes our spirit (us as our inner man) with: true peace and joy.
John says in 1 John 2:16 – “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world (Satan’s ways).” Once you understand this concept of nourishing the inward man with spiritual food vs nourishing the outward man with physical food, where nourishment is peace and joy, then you can understand what John means by: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, which are all worldly, fleshly things that are fleshly nourishment but not spiritual nourishment (Jesus was also tempted with these three things by Satan in the wilderness to begin His ministry):
- The lust of the flesh: sex, stimulants like alcohol and drugs, food and drink. They bring fleeting joy and peace to your outward man (your fleshly body), not you as a spiritual soul – your inward man. The spirit (you as your inner man) doesn’t care about these things, nor needs them.
- The lust of the eyes: possessions (“toys”), and the money to buy those possessions. Acquiring many useless possessions which truly don’t bring any spiritual nourishment (peace and joy) to the inward man, vs the spiritual food of contentment with what you have, and loving others by giving away your excess money in order to help those in need. The spirit (you as your inner man) doesn’t care about possessions, nor needs them.
- The pride of life: pride/ego/the feeling of being better than others for the beauty, popularity, wealth, power, career success and possessions you possess. The truth is, according to the ways of God, is that we’re not better than anyone for these things (the lie of the ways of the world is that we’re valued for these things – the state of the outward man (that brings no peace and joy either our inner spirit man or to others) vs the state of the inward man (which brings peace and joy – or misery – to us as our inner spirit man and others)). The true way to be exalted (thought of and spoken highly of) by God and others is to:
- Be humble (knowing all good things you have come from God, and knowing you’re not better than anyone despite all that beauty, popularity, wealth, power and career success you were given by God).
- Love God and His character and His holiness and His ways (following them yourself).
- Loving all people (especially strangers) by serving them (being useful and profitable to them, benefiting them by bringing them peace and joy through kindness and easing their burdens by helping them).
So, nourishment is peace and joy. It’s all about seeking spiritual nourishment (for us as our inward man) with spiritual food, vs seeking bodily nourishment (other than what’s necessary to function).
Spiritual food: loving relationships with God and others; bringing peace and joy to others by being kind to them and helping them; purity, holiness, righteousness; and producing the literal “fruits” (food) of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: Galatians 5:22-23 — “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” What is “love”? 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not boast, is not proud; does not behave rudely, does not self seeking, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity (evil), but rejoices in the truth (the good ways of God); bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Doing all these things is what brings true nourishment to your inward man – the soul, and brings lasting peace and joy to you.
Fleshly “food”: actual food and drink, stimulants like alcohol and drugs, sex, pride, beauty, wealth, power, popularity, career success, possessions. The lust of the eyes (acquiring many possessions) gives you pride, making you feel better than others with no possessions. Seeking peace and joy in these things is a dead end. At the end of the day, after lots of meditation on this, you realize that none of this stuff is profitable to your overall peace and joy. Rather, they only generally bring: misery, chaos, depression, anxiety, fear, worry, panic, stress, anger, bitterness, etc. The only things of these that are truly necessary in this life to keep your body alive are basic food and water. The spirit truly doesn’t desire or need any of these things. It desires the literal “fruits” (food) of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (touched on in the paragraph right above).
If you can ever get yourself to a place where you value and seek the spiritual nourishment 100% over the bodily, physical nourishment (other than basic necessities to remain alive), having complete contentment for your life, you will be one joyful and peaceful person. Not trying to have “the best of both worlds”. It’s hard to deny the flesh and takes much exercise everyday to silence it and its desires (lusts), and I haven’t perfected myself in it yet either, but I try to meditate on walking in the Spirit rather than in the flesh constantly, and there are times when I get in “the spiritual zone”, having fully put away the flesh, and man it feels good – so light and freeing and peaceful. I haven’t perfected myself, but I strive daily for perfection, because I’ve found that that’s the only true peace and joy I find.
Part of the many layered wisdom of fasting is:
- The goal in life is to seek the spiritual nourishment of peace and joy through spiritual food. If we give up fleshly things, we can focus on spiritual nourishment rather than fleshly nourishment.
- In regard to bodily, fleshly nourishment, Christ gave up His literal fleshly body for us. If Christ gave up His body for us, what bodily, fleshly things can we give up for a brief moment for Him?
So, to do this, you MUST separate your body from you as your inner man (as a spirit).
This world is corrupted (you shouldn’t want corrupted things).
This is Satan’s world. He wants you to get comfortable in it. Make your home here. Stay awhile. Don’t leave. Enjoy all the “wonderful” (corrupted) things Satan has to offer.
All the things Satan has to offer – all the treasure and pleasures of the world – appeal to the flesh. All the many possessions to acquire (the lust of the eyes), all the sensual pleasures (food, alcohol, lust, etc. – the lust of the flesh), and his hierarchical system where everything is ranked and is better or worse for their rank, leading to always wanting what Satan says the best is – leading to the pride of life.
The spirit doesn’t need or desire the things the flesh does. The spirit craves and needs the spiritual things found in Galatians 5:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – love, peace, joy, holiness, goodness, kindness, humility, patience, self-control, gentleness, quietness, faithfulness. The spirit craves: loving and righteous fellowship with other spirits; helping others, being profitable to them; and peace, stillness and quietness.
Titus 2:12 — Teaching us that, denying ungodliness (the opposite of the spiritual food) and worldly lusts (the lust of the eyes/flesh/pride of life), we should live soberly, righteously, and godly (all spiritual food), in this present world;
Nothing good dwells in the flesh – only sin (Romans 7:18). And you cannot tame the flesh and perfect it (James 3:8), it must simply be denied and suppressed daily in order for your inner spirit man to shine forth as bright as the noonday sun. The flesh just gets in the way. You just have to suppress the flesh and its selfishness, and you will naturally shine, as you are spirit, and the spirit’s natural character is to be loving, kind, good, gentle, humble, patient, self-controlled, peaceful, joyful, selfless and faithful, who naturally loves helping others and enjoying righteous and loving fellowship with others.
Again, you MUST separate your body from you as your inner man (as a spirit).
The flesh just “takes and takes for itself” (give me more, more, more!). The spirit “pushes goodness out” from itself, imparting true peace and joy to others, and generating true peace and joy for itself in return by doing that.
When you’re feeling a strong craving or desire for things such as food or alcohol or even good smells like coffee, you’re feeling your flesh’s desire for that stuff – not yours (as the spiritual inner man).
When you feel at peace in a still and quiet environment, you’re feeding yourself as your inward spiritual man. When you feel the joy of helping another or having a positive and friendly conversation with someone, you’re feeding yourself as your inward spiritual man. When you see and hear the joy of another (righteous joy in good things), it’s contagious and feeds you as your inner spirit man with joy.
Start getting into the habit of what you need, rather than what your flesh desires.
The more you can deny and cut out your flesh’s lusts, the more room and headspace you’ll have to focus on your spiritual food, and derive true peace and joy from that. When your flesh is worked up, you can’t focus on anything but that, and the goal is you as your inward spiritual man’s true peace and joy, and the flesh’s desires prevent you from experiencing that.
All you need to do to take care of your flesh to keep it alive and healthy is to:
- Feed it basic food.
- Give it water.
- Clothe it with modest clothing.
- Give it rest.
- Clean it.
It doesn’t need anything more than that, and you as your inward spirit man is not affected negatively if the flesh doesn’t get 5 star meals to eat, the finest wine to drink, the most expensive clothes to wear, etc – the spirit truly doesn’t care or desire these things. A cool thing about the way God designed the true needs of our flesh and for us to take care of it in His manifold (many layered) wisdom is to parallel the flesh’s needs to stay alive with the soul’s needs to stay alive:
- Feed it basic food: Christ is the “bread” of life. “Eat of Him” (believe in Him) to stay alive for eternity.
- Give it water: Water in the bible is a symbol of the Holy Spirit that comes into you and gives eternal life the nanosecond you believe in Christ for salvation.
- Clothe it with modest clothing: White robes in the bible are a symbol of righteousness, and we only get the imputed righteousness that’s required to enter into eternal life from believing in Christ.
- Give it rest: We’re to “rest from our works” for salvation, meaning, salvation is by faith alone and not by works, lest any man should boast – Ephesians 2:8-9.
- Clean it: After salvation and reaping eternal life through faith in Christ alone, we’re still in this sinful world and should be keeping ourselves clean from the sins of the world.
The flesh craves anything that can stimulate it through touch and taste and smell and handle. The spirit wants things that only other life can give it. Dead, lifeless possessions can’t provide its needs. The flesh craves other flesh. The spirit craves other spirits. The flesh craves possessions it can handle and interact with. The spirit craves other life that it can interact with, and the life of a being is its spirit, as the body without the spirit is dead.
Separating enjoying the sights and sounds of nature vs. the lust of the eyes and the flesh:
Again, you MUST separate your body from you as your inner man (as a spirit).
There is the sense of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The sense of sight and sound belong to the spirit (the inward man), whereas the sense of smell, taste and touch belong to the outward man (the body/flesh).
The spirit’s joy comes from interacting with other spirits: observing them and their behavior (sight), as well as hearing what they have to say (sound). The spirit also learns by what it observes and hears. If you take in goodness (light as Jesus would call it) through sight and sound, you will be full of goodness (light). If you take in evil (darkness as Jesus would call it) through sight and sound, you will be full of darkness.
The flesh’s joy comes from stimulation through smell, taste and touch. Touch – whether it be stimulation such as sex, or handling and playing with possessions. This is critical to remember going forward: the spirit has no desire for these fleshly things, as its joy and peace comes from the fruits of the Spirit that are taken in by sight and sound, and are exuded by behavior. The spirit doesn’t need food, the spirit doesn’t need sex, the spirit doesn’t need to be massaged, the spirit doesn’t need to smell coffee.
The lust (strong desires) of the flesh is anything that we (the spirit) don’t care about that stimulates the flesh: the tastiest foods and drinks, alcohol, massages, sex, etc. We are spirit, and the spirit doesn’t care about these things.
The lust (strong desires) of the eyes is anything that we (the spirit) don’t need that the flesh desires to possess and handle (because possessing things and playing with them stimulates the flesh): beautiful homes, cars, clothing, electronics, etc.
Why is the lust of the flesh and eyes bad? First, these lusts (strong desires) overwhelm us as a spirit and prevent us from realizing the spiritual peace and joy we need. Second, it breeds all sorts of selfishness, greed, covetousness, envy and sadness. How?: The flesh is never satisfied. It always wants more, more, more for itself! Which would be good if the things it desired profited others, but the things the flesh desires only profits itself. Example: when your flesh sees someone else’s beautiful home and desires one for itself (or to remodel your own), it makes you envious of that person’s property and you covet it. Then if you can’t ever acquire something similar, it brings you sadness. And if you can work to acquire it, you spend excess money on something that won’t bring your spirit any joy and peace (remember, the spirit doesn’t need these things – it needs the fruit of the Spirit) that could have rather gone to help someone who has no home at all, making you selfish. And after you do acquire the new home, shortly after you see another beautiful home, then you become discontent with your home, leading to more envy and covetousness. It’s a vicious cycle that never leads to anything good. And at the end of the day, you as a spirit don’t even care about those things in the first place – only your flesh does. When you have the lust of the eyes (the lust for possessions), your career is never good enough. You covet certain costly possessions, and you work harder and faster and longer to earn more money. And you stress out and get anxiety and burn out trying to get those things. You get envious of others who make more money and covet their possessions, and get depressed and angry when you yourself can’t afford them. Then you get depressed at the thought of having to go to work for such little money where you can’t afford all of your worldly possessions. Instead, walk in the Spirit and you won’t care about possessions. Then you’ll see how little you really need.
At the rapture/resurrection, we will all receive a new, glorified spiritual body that will never die. It won’t need to eat, it won’t need to relieve itself, it won’t need to clean itself, it won’t need to sleep. If we don’t need to eat, we don’t need a kitchen, dining room or any dishware. If we don’t need to relieve ourselves or clean ourselves, then we don’t need a bathroom or toiletries. If we don’t need to sleep, we don’t need bedrooms. If we don’t need to eat, we don’t need grocery stores or restaurants. If we don’t need homes, we don’t need stores. If we don’t need stores, we don’t need cars to transport goods. You can keep going down the rabbit hole, but the point I’m trying to make is that after you strip everything out that the spirit doesn’t need (the lust of the eyes – possessions – and the lust of the flesh – things like food [that also require the possessions to make it]), you realize we need no possessions – not even a house. If anything, perhaps a chair, but not even a table, as there will be nothing to put on it. At the end of the day, we have a peaceful, quiet, simple life focused solely on our spiritual food (love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self-control, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness), where we will rest amongst the beauty of a restored creation, bringing joy to each other through righteous and loving fellowship, and traveling with each other to admire the beauty of creation.
Now, for enjoying the sights and sounds of nature:
Does the lust of the flesh and eyes mean that we can’t enjoy anything that is beautiful? No. Remember to separate us a soul from our body/flesh. It all goes back to nourishing us as our soul to bring us true joy and peace. Our Lord is a beautiful and creative being, and part of His glory (His greatness/amazingness) is the creative ability to make beautiful things. He created a beautiful world for us to live in, with lakes and oceans and mountains and rivers and forests and the like to take in. He created the wind and the rain and the creeks and all the animals (such as birds) that each make their own peaceful sounds. There’s also the lack of noise in a remote area where you can just listen to the stillness and quietness. (And remember: this world is under a curse and behold its beauty – imagine the glorified state!) Remember: the sense of sight and sound is for the inward man (the spirit), and to be able to take in the beauty of nature through sight and sound brings much peace to the soul.
Coming full circle:
Separating the lust of the flesh and eyes from enjoying the sights and sounds of nature – we are spirits (not flesh), and life is all about feeding our spirit spiritual food to produce true peace and joy in our lives. Out of the five senses, sight and sound belong to the spirit/soul, whereas taste/smell/touch/handle stimulate the flesh. Taking in the natural beauty of creation via sight and sound is peace for the soul. Beautiful possessions stimulate the flesh, as it desires to possess and play with beautiful things, but the spirit doesn’t care about or need these things, as that’s not what the spirit craves (in which the spirit’s food is: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control, goodness and faithfulness; peace that comes via knowing your saved; holiness and purity; loving and righteous (sinless) fellowship with others; humility; contentment; stillness and quietness; thankfulness and forgiveness, vs. the flesh’s food of: actual food and drink, alcohol, sex, etc. See the difference).
The lust of the flesh isn’t saying if you think food tastes good, or if you think humans are attractive, then the love of God isn’t in you. It’s saying if you as your inner spirit man (who literally doesn’t desire those things) decide to let your flesh rule over you and take you over with its lusts for good food and beautiful people, then that’s the problem. The inner spirit man should be ruling over the flesh with its desires for the spiritual things of the fruit of the Spirit – not the other way around.
So, walking in the flesh and pursuing the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes breeds all sorts of pride, greed, selfishness, envy, covetousness, sadness and anger, which make life not worth living. And the flesh can easily overwhelm and take over the spirit, suffocating the spirit and its natural character and ability to be selfless, loving, helpful, friendly, cooperative, peaceful, joyful, patient, self-controlled, good, gentle, kind and faithful – all excellent things bringing true peace and joy, making life worth living. The flesh takes and takes and takes, and ends up causing those it takes from time, money and effort. The spirit gives and gives and gives selflessly, and reaps its peace and joy from that.
Exercise yourself and grow strong in walking in the Spirit by silencing the flesh and its desires. Learn to silence the flesh in order to experience the fullness of joy and peace. As with all exercise: it’s hard at first, and can be painful mentally. But over time you get stronger and it becomes easier, and it yields nothing but true peace and joy for the inward spirit man.