The new year is a time of repentance letting the old pass away and the new be born. Death and birth are at the center of this tradition and at the center of the rhythm God has prepared for us to experience His grace.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
John 12:24-25 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.12.24-25.NIV
Too often the sin in our lives is tied to a lie our spirit has embraced. The lie leads to powerful emotions that we use to justify our disobedience. The disobedience leads to destruction.
It takes an act of faith and courage to confront these lies. It is far more than an intellectual hurdle, for our very soul has adopted the very darkness we are attempting to illuminate.
While much of pop Christianity looks to blame the devil for the chains that bind us, it is in all reality our broken flesh and its internal death grip on the opaque lies that enslave. The power of the devil is in the lie. But the lie only has power when one believes and embraces its untruth. The twisted genius of the devil is knowing which lies have the greatest appeal to our adolescent spirits. The evil genius is further displayed in knowing the right nuance with which to present the lie. It is in this particular strategy we realize the personal nature of evil customized for the one.
In brother Yun’s book, ‘The Living Water’, he discusses the sin of Esau who traded his birthright for a bowl of lentils.
The story of Esau is tragic. He was the firstborn son, a skillful hunter and the apple of his father’s eye. The most precious thing Esau possessed was his birthright. Being the oldest son, he would be in charge of the household when his father died, and he would assume the role of priest in his family, leading them to worship God. Despite such a wonderful and bright future, the Bible says that Esau “despised his birthright” (Gen. 25: 34, emphasis added). His deceptive brother, Jacob, with his mother acting as an accomplice, was easily able to tempt Esau, who traded in his inheritance for a miserable bowl of lentil stew.”
— Living Water: Powerful Teachings from the International Bestselling Author of The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun
https://a.co/fA4BZ3t
Esau despite being firstborn was pre-disposed because of the weakness of his flesh to a lie. By ‘despising his birthright’ he was already open to the subtle nudge of sin at the right moment. He was lost in his identity prior to the soup incident. He didn’t value that which was most valuable. Whether this is the long work of the devil or a distorted inclination since birth, is irrelevant. For when his flesh was weak, when his body cried out for food, the promise of fulfillment from a single meal was all that was required to entice him to abandon his incredible inheritance. The reality is the devil may not have needed to even push, Esau was already sold out by his flesh.
To Esau, the bowl of stew represented something that could meet the immediate needs of his flesh. The Bible says he was “famished.” Many others have shipwrecked their faith and destroyed their witness for the Lord by giving in to their fleshly needs through sexual impurity, mishandling of finances and a host of other sins.
There may be a bowl of stew in your life as well. If you make a wrong decision and partake of it, it can destroy your life and bring you untold misery and pain. Consider Esau, Adam and Eve, Samson, Solomon, Judas or Ananias and Sapphira, just to name a few. If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you too will know of believers who have turned their backs on God and despised their birthright.
— Living Water: Powerful Teachings from the International Bestselling Author of The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun
https://a.co/iUVpg8L
Today, maybe more than ever, the lie is compounded. First emerges the shortcut to fulfillment of the flesh but then, more devastating, advances one’s justification of the shortcut through the renaming of the very lie which leads to death with a new false name of life. The ultimate destruction is rooted in the original sin of humans defining right and wrong.
The act of repentance is first and foremost a dying to oneself. It is, with Christ, crucifying the flesh on the cross. The insatiable hunger of a decaying body must be put down. It cannot be tolerated or appeased even for a moment, because it serves a master that is uniquely awaiting an opportunity to destroy. But when Christ died, he died once and for all, taking on to his flesh all sin and destroying it so that we might have new life.
Hunger will continue with us until Christ’s return, but the mastery of hunger over one’s life is no longer a foregone conclusion. We have been set free having already died with Christ. And now a new life is emerging. So repent, turn away from the lies that promise quick fleshly appeasement and put to death the lies that redefine darkness by calling it light. And turn toward the true light of Christ who gives new life, and life abundantly.
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:19 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/isa.43.19.NRSV