All scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.
Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
The Lord ordains it for man to draw his pleasures from within. But the devil wants man to find his pleasures from without. True pleasures are found only in the presence of God. Any pleasure found outside the presence of God will be injurious to man because he was not designed to find compatibility with external delight.
The psalmist says to the Lord in Psalms 16:11;
“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
There are enjoyments that lead to death. There are pleasures that bring destructions. These so called enjoyments and pleasures are the ones outside of God’s presence. No matter how innocent they look, they will always end up piercing those who give themselves to them through with many sorrows. But there are true enjoyments and pleasures, which lead to life. They are only found in God’s presence. They are actually not apprehended either by the physical senses or found in the faculties of the soul. Since they are found in God’s presence, they are received through the spirit of a man.
Jesus, giving the description of the essence of God, says in John 4:24;
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
One of the meanings, which is the primary meaning of the word “worship” in this verse, is to kiss the hand of someone in token of reverence. And in kissing, there must be contact. The act of kissing will not be successful if the parties cannot literally contact each other. But the Bible says God is spirit. By implication, whatever is not spirit cannot contact or apprehend Him. Since God wants man to contact him, He therefore put within man a spirit with which he can use to receive from Him and also receive Him. So true worship is only done by and in the spirit. Anything outside the spirit is not regarded as worship because contact cannot be made.
Since true pleasures lie in God’s presence, the only way therefore to apprehend them is through the spirit. Whatever then comes through any other means is not real.
In the garden of Eden, when the tempter came, he suggested to Eve a kind of pleasure that was to be received not by her spirit. Genesis 3:6 says;
“When the woman saw that the tree was GOOD FOR FOOD, and that it was a DELIGHT TO THE EYES, and that the tree was DESIRABLE TO MAKE ONE WISE, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
(Emphasis added).
The devil ensured the woman neglected the proper means of receiving delight by making her focus on the external means, arousing her soul and flesh only to satisfy her with death. The fruit would only give pleasure to her flesh, her eyes and make her become prideful by an earthly, natural and demonic wisdom (James 3:15).
These were the same things the tempter presented to our Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness during His fasting. He said to Jesus in Luke 4:3, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” He was telling Jesus Christ that the stone was good for food. And in Luke 4:6-7, he said to Jesus again, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Showing Jesus the glory of the world that He might delight in it and lastly in Luke 4:9-11, the tempter led Jesus to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” The tempter was here telling Jesus to boastfully display that He was the Son of God. But unlike the first Adam, the last Adam overcame the devil and sent him away.
Apostle John summed all these up in 1 John 2:16:
“For all that is in the world, the LUST OF THE FLESH and the LUST OF THE EYES and the BOASTFUL PRIDE OF LIFE, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
(Emphasis added).
The devil always wants man to exercise and develop his flesh and soul and neglect his spirit so that his spirit can become sunken, unable to access the Father to get true pleasures that lead to life. He makes man find pleasure in this world where there is none. The world is passing away, and also its lusts and delight, and anyone who gives himself to them will also pass away with the world. But the one who does the will of God lives forever. Cinema is one of the tools the devil is successfully using to deprive man of God’s delight and everlasting pleasures. Cinema is only good to the flesh, a delight to the eyes. It has no spiritual advantage. It rather dampens the spirit. The tempter uses this means to draw man from God to himself. He is not only defiling him but also filling him with death while depriving him of life. He is substituting suffering for true pleasures, replacing true joy with earthy pleasures. The devil deceives man, makes him to gladly fill his stomach with the pods that the swine eat. Meanwhile even his Father’s hired men have enough bread to eat but he continually starves himself with these so called pleasures. Arise and go to your Father, He has a fattened calf for you to feast and you will have true pleasures forever in His presence.
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