LUST

Lust is the untamed desire of the soul, which fuels temptation, desire to sin, and affinity to the Cosmic System.  It stimulates the imagination, attracts arrogance, and revels in opposition to the Plan of God.  It rejects the love of God for a mess of pottage, breeds irrationality and temporary insanity, and falls victim to slavery.

LUST OF THE SOUL

Lust

Lust is the natural, animalistic desire of the soul to sin and cater to basal urges.  Lust comes from the Old Sin Nature, which resides in the cell structure of the human body.  The Old Sin Nature is acquired at the point of birth due to the imputation of Adam's Original Sin and subsequent judgment of God of real spiritual death.  Everyone in the human race is born with an Old Sin Nature with its lust pattern and affinity to sin.  The human soul at the point of birth is spiritually dead.  Left alone the spiritually dead soul will succumb to the basal urges of the Old Sin Nature.  The soul is helpless to resist the influence of the Old Sin Nature.  Granted the soul has a volition, but the only choices are between the lesser of two evils.  The soul does not naturally know right from wrong.  It must learn this.

The soul at birth is in a state of spiritual death.  It lacks a human spirit.  Without the spirit, it is impossible to have fellowship with God, Who is a Spirit.  It is, therefore, the soul that needs to be saved.  At the point of salvation, God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit and God the Father imputes to it His Righteousness (+R) and Eternal Life.  Salvation is the divine solution to spiritual death.  At salvation, the Holy Spirit indwells the body and fills the soul.  Although the filling of the Holy Spirit will be lost when the believer sins, it can be regained by following the recovery procedure, which is Rebound (1 John 1:9).

Edification Complex of the Soul

At salvation, the believer receives a seed, which, if nurtured, will grow into a mature Edification Complex of the Soul.  At first the ECS is very small and very weak, like a plant that has just sprouted, or a newborn baby.  Although the believer has salvation and can never loose it, his ECS is at first very small and very weak.

SoulThe soul of the believer contains the seed that will grow into the ECS.  The ECS is constructed from the metabolization of Bible Doctrine just as the body grows by metabolizing food.  The ECS in the midst of the soul is shown in the illustration of the soul.  Surrounding the ECS is the unconquered wilderness of the soul in its depraved state.  Only the ECS has God's Righteousness.  The power, or strength, of the soul to perform divine good is measured by the maturity of the ECS.  When the ECS is small and weak, the rest of the soul in its original, depraved state will threaten it.  Only after the ECS becomes strong and powerful through the advance to Spiritual Maturity will it have the power under the control of the Holy Spirit to dominate the soul.  Spiritual growth is the process of erecting the ECS through the metabolization of Bible Doctrine.

Power of Spiritual Growth

The illustration shows the growth of the ECS during the stages of Spiritual Growth from salvation to maturity.  The ECS is shown in relation to the unconquered wilderness of the rest of the soul.  The ECS resides in the human spirit.  In order to utilize the power of the ECS, the believer must have the Filling of the Holy Spirit.  Under the Filling of the Holy Spirit, the soul is controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  This is comparable to running a Personal Computer in Disk Operating System (DOS) mode.  Whereas, the computer under DOS is functional, it lacks the power of a robust operating system.  The Filling of the Spirit utilizes the power of the ECS.  This is the spiritual life.  In the absence of the Filling of the Spirit, in contrast, the soul reverts to its original depraved state, which is subject to the power of the Old Sin Nature and is motivated by lust.  Thus, the ECS represents spiritual capacity, and the soul without it is at the mercy of the Old Sin Nature with its lust.

Lust Motivation

Lust is the desire, or motivation, to sin.  Lust is enticement to sin.  Lust is temptation.  The process is as follows: The believer chooses to sin.  That choice is made from a position of strength within the Filling of the Holy Spirit.  The soul has volition, which is freedom to choose.  Since it is impossible to sin under the Filling of the Spirit, the believer must use his volition to reject the authority of God in order to choose to sin.  The sequence is:
  1. Operating under the Filling of the Holy Spirit
  2. Lust produces temptation
  3. Volition - Rejection of the divine authority
  4. Volition - The choice to sin.
  5. Resulting real spiritual death in the soul.
VolitionLust motivates the individual to sin, but sin requires a conscientious decision from the volition of the soul.  Lust may come from many sources.  Among these are bad values, false beliefs, illusions, and the outside influence of the world and demons.  However, the believer must use the Volition of the soul to choose to sin.  The soul that sins is delivered into a state of spiritual death just as it was before salvation.  This doesn't mean that salvation is lost.  It just means that the Spiritual Life has been set aside and the Old Sin Nature with its lust pattern is back in control.  The soul in a state of real spiritual death is separated from God and at the mercy of the Cosmic System.  The lust of the soul has an affinity to the Cosmic System.  The believer who is out of fellowship will follow the road of Reversionism.

LUST PROBLEMS

Types of Lust

The major types of lust are lust for money, sex, and power.  These lusts oppose the primary axes of the Integrity Envelope.  Monetary Lust opposes the Faith (X) Axis (1 Timothy 6:10).  Sex Lust is rejection of Right Man - Right Woman and is a problem with the Love (Y) Axis.  Power Lust is a problem with the Authority (Z) Axis.  Inordinate Ambition is another form of lust that overruns the Time Axis.  There are many types of lust. The types of lust include:

Monetary Lust

Money is the coin of the realm in the devil's world, but virtue-love is the prize possession of the spiritual life. When life is over, everyone departs this life without their worldly possessions.  Those who seek worldly riches are lusting after false values.  These things will not go to heaven. The lust attraction for money and worldly riches is based upon a false value. The desire to be rich is a bad value that leaves a person vulnerable to temptation.  A multitude of sins may result, such as greed, avarice, penuriousness, miserliness.  Such temptations are a trap of Cosmos Diabolicus that is waiting to enslave the one who takes the bait.  When the trap closes, Satan has the victim.  Those who are enslaved to the Cosmic System due to the money trap are casualties in the Angelic Conflict.  They have forfeited their spiritual lives and are headed "into ruin and destruction."  Ruin may not be loss of money but loss of the spiritual life and the accompanying Intensified Discipline.  The end will be destruction - i.e. the sin that terminates in death, which is the maximum discipline in this life. VolitionThe love of money is a bad value, a false standard, that is described as a root of all sorts of evil.  How can this be "root of all sorts of evil"?  The answer is:  Because monetary lust links the Old Sin Nature with Satan through his evil policy.  When a person falls into the trap of Satan, he may be subject to all sorts of evil.  Evil is the sum total of the policy of Satan.  Those who strive for money go astray from Bible Doctrine, which is an X-Axis failure.  They no longer are subject to the will of God.  The consequence will be Intensified Discipline that is described as being "pierced."  Horn judgment, e.g. a tornado, is an example of piercing judgment.

Sex Lust

Sex LustSex lust is caused by a problem in the Right Man - Right Woman relationship.  Before identification of Right Man or Right Woman, the other Problem Solving Devices must be used to take up the slack.  However, after the identification of Right Man or Right Woman, sex lust is a sign that the Love (Y) Axis of the soul is out of alignment.  As shown in the illustration, lust for a paramour indicates that the Love (Y) Axis is pointing at the paramour instead of toward the soul's Right Man or Right Woman.  In order to lust for a paramour, the Right Man or Right Woman must first be rejected.  This is what our Lord Jesus Christ taught: Committing adultery in the heart is the mental attitude sin of adultery, which occurs after Right Man or Right Woman has been rejected.  Rejection of Right Man or Right Woman is a sin which sets the chain of events into motion.  Next comes mental attitude adultery, such as fantasizing.  Mental attitude adultery is followed by sex lust for the paramour.  However, sex lust is only the symptom of the real problem, which is rejection of the love of Right Man or Right Woman.

When the Love (Y) Axis fails, the ECS also fails and the soul is enslaved to the Old Sin Nature and the Cosmic System.  The Right Man or Right Woman has a home in the Intimacy Room of the ECS.  Only the Right Man or Right Woman can occupy that room.  God's gift of Intimacy for Marriage is highly sensitive and failure to protect it leaves the soul vulnerable to the passions of lust. God's gift of Intimacy for Marriage cannot be shared with anyone else.  Attempts to share cause sex lust, sensuality, and other problems of reversionism.  Reverse Process Reversionism is one of the phases of reversionism.  In it the Right Man or Right Woman is rejected and there is strong phallic attraction to a paramour.  The paramour is a fraud, an actor or actress substitute.  Reverse Process Reversionism is fueled not by love but by sex lust.

Balaam's Lust

Balaam was full of lust.  He had problems with monetary, sexual, and power lust.  When Balak, the King of Moab, hired him to curse Israel, his lust skyrocketed from his opportunity for fame and fortune.  Balaam loved money and was given an opportunity from Balak to earn a handsome fee (Numbers 22:17) for divination.  His lust lured him into the trap of Baal and anti-Semitism.  Balaam's problem, however, did not end with himself.  The Church at Pergammon in the Roman Empire had the same problem in 96 AD.  The Lord Jesus Christ warned the apostle John about it. Balaam was hired by Balak to curse Israel because Balak feared an invasion from the Army of Israel.  However, the Lord would not permit Balaam, who was a Gentile prophet (Numbers 22:5) to curse Israel.  This was in keeping with the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:3).  Balak did not know that the Lord had forbad the conquest of Moab by Israel (Deuteronomy 2:4-19) because they were descendants of Lot through incest with his elder daughter (Genesis 19:37).  After Balaam failed to curse Israel, he soon went to live with the Midianites and counseled the Midianites to worship Baal Peor (Numbers 31:8, 16).  This is how Balaam earned his fee.  Balaam was killed in the invasion of Midian by the Jewish Army of  Moses.

The "baited trap" that Balaam counseled Balak to use was Midianite girls who were sent into the camp of Israel to lure the men into the adulterous worship of Baal.  These young girls were different from the Jewish women.  The Midianite and Moabite girls were initiated into the Phallic Cult of Baal at the time of puberty.  At perhaps the age of 13, young virgins were initiated.  The initiation ceremony in Moab is not known precisely, but the one used in similar cults was for the father to take his virgin daughter to the heathen temple of the goddess of love (Baal, Aphrodite, etc.).  He left her there, and she waited for a man to come up and throw money before the altar.  He would then take the girl and fornicate with her.  The young girl stayed in the temple for a while and men would pay to fornicate with her.  This was temple prostitution and is why the women in the cult were called harlots or whores, which implies prostitutes.  The young girls could not leave the temple until they had fornicated and been initiated into the cult.

The girls that the Midianites sent into the camp of Israel were these temple prostitutes, though the temples of the day were no more than tents.  They were either virgins or those who had been recently initiated.  Their ages were probably 13-14 years old.  The Midianite girls were probably also chubby or fat since the culture of Baal worship involved ritual eating.  They sacrificed cattle to Baal and ate grilled beef steak and other choice cuts during the worship ritual.  The culture of fornication and ritual eating likely produced obese girls.  Many cultures involved in idolatry revered the obese female as the goddess of fertility.

The Jewish men left their wives behind and ran away with the young Midianite and Moabite girls.  The girls lured them into the cult of Baal, which involved fornication, ritual eating and worship of Baal.  All of this activity was forbidden by the Mosaic Law.  Both idolatry and adultery were forbidden, and the penalty for violation was capital punishment.  Thus, the Jewish men were lured into the Cosmic System.  The bait of the trap was the Midianite and Moabite girls.  This was a violation of the authority of God under the Mosaic Law and was a counterattack of demonism from the Cosmic System (Z-Axis).  The Jewish men fornicated with the girls, which was the Political Babylon counterattack of the Love (Y) Axis.  They also ate "meat sacrificed to Baal" (Ecumenical (X) Axis counterattack.

When the Jewish men took the bait, the trap was sprung.  The men were enslaved in the Cosmic System under the power of Baal, and God sent a plague to destroy them.  Twenty-four thousand died in the plague (Numbers 25:9) - 23,000 of those in one day (1 Corinthians 10:8).  The Baal attack on Israel was an attack of Marriage Culture.  It was not a military attack.  It was a failure of the peace.  The Jewish men rejected Marriage and went into Phallic Reversionism with its sex lust.  The attack upon marriage struck the very foundation of the culture of Client Nation Israel.

Satan opposes marriage because marriage is a divine institution.  Baal is still active today in opposition to marriage.  The bear is the symbol of Baal.  It has a dual nature:  Lust for sweets like honey coupled with a ravenous, murderous bad side.  When lust and murder come together, it is a sign of Satan who appears as the goddess of love and the god of war.  When Satan inspires war, evil troops kill the men and then rape and murder the women and children.  In time of peace, Satan seeks to undermine nations through Baal, who opposes marriage.  Baal is still actively engaged in attacking Marriage and the family.  Baal is also the enemy of children.  The Jews of Jeremiah's day not only engaged in the Phallic Cult of Baal worship (Jeremiah 3:6) but also sacrificed their children to Baal (Jeremiah 7:31).

Power Lust

Power lust is a problem with the Z Axis of the Integrity Envelope.  Power lust is a rejection of legitimate authority.  Power lust started with Satan and characterizes his followers. This is a description of Satan's power lust.  Satan sought to usurp the authority of the Lord.  He wanted to "ascend to heaven" and rule in the Lord's place.  He said, "I will make myself like the Most High," i.e. like the Lord.  Satan wanted to be Lord over all creation.  This is the ultimate example of power lust.

Power lust often creeps in under various disguises, such as the desire to do good.  People may desire power so they can solve the world's problems.  This is the same as Satan, who wanted to be "like the Most High."  Politicians may seek power to alleviate social problems.  Businessmen may seek power to control the market or get rich.  Military leaders may seek power to conquer foreign powers.  These are examples of power lust, which is a problem with the Z-Axis alignment of the Integrity Envelope.  All of these things violate humility.  Under true authority, God promotes.  Under power lust, man seeks to gain power to play God, to be "like the Most High."

The interesting thing is that most people cannot handle power.  When they get power, they are dupes for the devil's lie and become the pawns of Satan.  Power corrupts, especially the weak.  Those who lack integrity are easy prey and quickly become slaves of Cosmos Diabolicus.  Where do politicians get their public lies?  They get them from the Cosmic System (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

The Two Roads of Life

Roads of LifeThere are only two roads in life.  One road leads to spiritual maturity and dying grace while the other road leads to reversionism and the sin that ends with death.  The former is the road of blessing, while the latter is the road of cursing.  There are no other choices according to the Bible.  There is no way to be lukewarm.  Everyone is either cold or hot, and those who are lukewarm will be classified as cold before they die and will die the sin that ends in death.  For those who reject Bible Doctrine and live in lust, the result will be a horrible death. The road to blessing requires love for God, which motivates obedience to Bible Doctrine.  Experiential sanctification is accomplished through the daily perception and application of Bible Doctrine.  This requires rejecting the lust pattern and residing in the Integrity Envelope.

The road of cursing includes rejection of the love of God and subsequent reversionism.  The reversionist follows the desires of his lust pattern.  Lust motivates behavior that opposes the will of God.  The reversionist is lured by lust down the steps to the sin that ends in death.  Lust lures to further cursing and death because lust motivates to sin.  Lust also leaves the soul exposed to the Cosmic System where the person is no match for the demons of darkness.

THE DIVINE SOLUTION

General Principles

Lust is not a sin.  It is desire to sin.  It is the temptation to sin.  Temptation may be due to spiritual testing, but sin is optional.  A person must choose to sin.  Temptation, therefore, is not an excuse for sinning. However, should the believer sin, the recovery procedure of Rebound (1 John 1:9) is required.

Neither the lust nor the sins of the unbeliever are an issue.  The sins were paid for on the cross.  Therefore, the solution for the unbeliever is always the same, namely, salvation.  The unbeliever needs to be saved.  His lust and sins are not an issue.

The Solution of Spiritual Growth

The baby believer can be just as spiritual as the adult.  The Filling of the Holy Spirit is available to both.  This does not mean, however, that the baby believer and the adult believer have the same spiritual strength.  Strength is measured by Capacity for Life and Love.  The completed Edification Complex of the Soul of the adult believer has maximum strength; whereas the incomplete ECS of the baby believer is weak by comparison.

The baby believer, therefore, is easily lured into the Cosmic System.  His soul is mostly untamed wilderness.  His ECS may have little more than a foundation.  He will, therefore, be unable to withstand strong lust temptation and will be weak in the face of temptation.  The adult believer, in contrast, has a disciplined soul that operates in the power of the ECS under the Filling of the Spirit.  The adult believer has the spiritual strength to resist temptation because of the competed ECS.  This does not mean the adult cannot be tempted.  It simply means that his power to resist temptation is great compared to the baby believer.

Through spiritual growth, the problem of lust is literally outgrown.  The Integrity Envelope clothes the soul and protects it from lust.

Logistical Grace Solution

Lust is motivated by bad values in the soul.  The Lord Jesus Christ taught the spiritual solution. The motivation for the Christian life must be to erect the Edification Complex of the Soul and produce divine good.  Thieves may break in an steal earthly treasures, which are the object of lust attraction.  The person who longs for treasures for his home has bad values.  Those treasures on earth will be destroyed eventually and certainly will not be taken to heaven with the believer.

Shelter is one of the necessities of life.  God provides the necessities of life under Logistical Grace.  The believer, however, is free to accept or reject God's offer.  If the believer is too immature to know whether his shelter is from Logistical Grace or not, he needs to get Bible Doctrine so that he will have the discernment to know the answer.  The believer who accepts the Logistical Grace solution for his home and the details of life required to operate it will avoid the lust for worldly possessions that will lure him into the Cosmic System.

Here, the Lord Jesus Christ gives instruction about two more necessities of life, food and clothing.  Since people are anxious for their life and think the necessities of life can be lost and cause them to die, the reminder is:  "Do not be anxious for your life."  Death is a sovereign decision of God, Who determines the time, place, and manner of death.  People should not be anxious about their life.  Two necessities, food and clothing, cause additional anxiety.  The command from the Lord is to not be anxious about them either.

Anxiety is a sin.  But to be anxious about the necessities of life is tantamount to rejecting Logistical Grace.  God provides the necessities, and the believer should let Him.  The beginner believer must learn to identify Logistical Grace provision.  Those who reject Logistical Grace will be the victims of the Cosmic System.  If God's grace is rejected, then the only alternative is the Cosmic System.  Those with bad values regarding food and clothing will be easy prey for lusts associated with these things.

The three necessities of life are associated with the X, Y, and Z axes of the Space-Time Coordinate System.  Shelter is having a roof overhead, which is the Authority (Z) axis.  Eating is the symbol of perception and metabolization of Bible Doctrine, which is the Faith (X) axis.  And clothing is related to relationships in life.  The first clothes of Adam and 'Ishah only covered the genitals.  Clothes are related to the Love (Y) axis.  So, the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching the importance of good values that motivate erection of the Edification Complex of the Soul.

Only those who love the Lord will keep His commandments.  Only those who obey Bible Doctrine will have the power to withstand the lust of the soul.  Only those who love the Lord will obey Him and erect the Edification Complex of the Soul, which clothes the soul and protects against lust.  Only those who love the Lord will use Rebound and operate in the Filling of the Spirit.  The Filling of the Holy Spirit provides the power to avoid lust. In order to walk, which means executing the Plan of God, the X, Y, Z and Time axes must be aligned with the will of God.  Otherwise, the believer will be a casualty and the victim of the Old Sin Nature with its lust.  Only those who love the Lord will obey Him and be able to withstand the lust of the soul.  The obedience to the commandments associated with Logistical Grace are the beginning of the Christian life.  Those who will not trust God for the necessities of life are doomed to the power of the Old Sin Nature with its lust.

Separation from the World

The world is the Cosmic System of Satan.  Those who never separate from the world are doomed to live under the power of the lust of the Old Sin Nature. The only way to execute the Christian life successfully is to separate from the world.  In this passage the worldly counterattacks are mentioned.  The "lust of the flesh" covers the Old Sin Nature and the body - i.e. a relationship with self.  This is often the counterattack of Ecumenical Babylon on the X axis.  "The lust of the eyes" is the counterattack of Political Babylon on the Y axis when a relationship with another person is desired.  The adulterous heart is an example.  This may also include lust for the details of life or money and represent a counterattack of the X axis.  "The arrogant pattern of life" is an authority problem due to a counterattack of Cosmic Babylon on the Z axis.  Thus, these verses cover counterattacks of Cosmic, Political, and Ecumenical Babylon.  These counterattacks are upon the X, Y, and Z axes of the ECS.

Spiritual Rapport

Spiritual rapport, which is harmonious relationship with God, is the real solution to lust.  The ten Problem Solving Devices will solve the problem of lust.  Maximum power over lust is achieved when the mature believer has deployed all ten of them and is in harmonious relationship with God. The solution for lust is not accomplished by studying the problem.  It is accomplished by concentrating on the solution.  Lust isn't really the problem, anyway.  It is only a symptom.  The problems of lust that plague the immature believer will fall by the wayside naturally through spiritual growth.  However, only by harmonious relationship with God will there be maximum power over lust.

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Last Revision: Dec. 4, 2016

Author: Larry Wood

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