When Appetites Become Illnesses

Man’s appetites are fallen and cannot be trusted without the leading of the spirit and the word. These appetites are twisted by the enemy and used to work in our bodies the opposite of its original beneficial functions. When our appetites become recognized by the secular community as extreme and harmful they are called an illness.

These illnesses go by many names and manifest themselves as the various eating disorders or substance addictions that we see. All of these “illnesses” stem from the same root, the twisting of our original appetites by the enemy. The root of these illnesses comes out of the same three pronged attack we have seen in previous lessons.

We should never be foolish enough to think that we are somehow better than those who have fallen into drug addictions, eating disorders etc. because we all carry the exact same failures in us even if it has manifested itself to a lesser degree. When you eat one tablespoon more food that is needed to nourish your body you have failed. When you crave or need any type of stimulant or sedative you have failed. The seed for these illnesses are manifesting in you even if it is to a much lesser degree than some.

Our biology is assaulted every second that we live by the twisting of our appetites. The three pronged attack born in Eden has thousands of manifestations and if our appetites have not been twisted to the point of an illness can we say that about every aspect of our being. What of our emotions or our intellect or any of the thousands of ways the three pronged attack is used to separate us from God and destroy us.

The only help for us is the word of God. The word is a healing and a weapon against every aspect of the three pronged attack. None of us is any freer than any of us outside of the word of God. Even if the world doesn't recognize us as being ill we are in no better shape before God than those counted as ill if we are not trusting completely in the word of God for our life.

P.S. Though most of these lessons I have directed us to the word of God as our only way of defense of this three pronged attack of the enemy. It has occurred to me that we have not sufficiently explained how and why this is done. So next week we will take a slight detour to explore the place of the word of God as the ultimate healer of man.

NEXT WEEK: The Ministry of God’s Word

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