Nature Archives - Spartan Christianity

Rebellion – Manipulate Your Mind To Your Will

Our rebellious nature forces us to become men, take our own paths and grow in our own ways. However, this rebellious steak can lead us directly away from Christianity.

“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
1 Samuel 5:23

“An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.”
Proverbs 17:11

No man wants to stay on the path outlined by his parents, he wants his own path. He wants to forge his own way through the darkness using his own strength of will. Following the path of others is for the weak, so we think. This trail blazing mentality is a good thing.

Our rebellious nature forces us to become men, take our own paths and grow in our own ways. However, this rebellious streak can lead us directly away from Christianity. God imposes a vast number of rules and regulations on the behavior of man, and many days the man detests this in his heart, though he may never say it aloud. Many men do verbalize their rebelliousness and even boast about it, saying “I’m a rebel”. No one is impressed by the person who uses this phrase.

Rebellion is needed for the growth of the individual, but is not useful when it leads us to make decisions purely out of a desire to be independent.

Such decisions tend to lead us directly towards evil. It is one thing to go your own way in life and reject traditions passed down by your parents because you think you have better ways to act, it is another thing to reject tradition and the law of God just for the sake of rejecting it. This is what the nature of man is capable of, he does not want to be tied down and commanded. This is the nature of man that must be wrestled against.

Rebellion is brought on by a desire for something better. Israel repeatedly rebelled against God because they thought the other gods were better, or, more likely, they thought the cult prostitutes were more fun than having only one woman. Man the animal is bored to death by laws and commands, while man the spirit is willing to worship God.

The desire to rebel is build into our nature, just as the oppressive need for sex it a part of our DNA.

We must fight against this whenever it is unprofitable, and learn how to manipulate our natural rebelliousness when its effects could be beneficial.

To rebel against the world is profitable.

To rebel against God is unprofitable.

Mantra

Rebellion is an excuse for weak behavior.

Application

Manipulate your rebellious nature to your will. If you have to rebel against something, let it be the enemy. Rebel against the idea that you have to have sex with multiple women to be happy. If most people are doing something, then by not doing it you are rebelling, except in this case you are rebelling against the enemy. Identify what the masses are doing and then go the other way. Sheep will follow each other off a mountain, so you should go your own way.

Rebel against the weak who eat nothing but garbage and have no desire to change.

Rebel against the corpulent culture and be fit.

Rage against ignorance and be wise.

Your rebellious nature is to be used to gain advantage in life.

For the instances when you want to rebel against God, you must wrestle against yourself and your own nature. Yes, you want to rebel, but it will not profit you. You have to convince your mind that there are more total benefits to obeying the Word than there are in rebelling and enjoying sin.

Sometimes this nature will have to be defeated by pure strength of mind alone, and the maneuvering of forces of the mind. By focusing on the negative effects of doing what is wrong, and the positive effects of doing what is right, you can flank your mind and convince it that rebellion brings no advantage to you. Flank your mind into avoiding immediate gratification.

Strengthen the mind.

Hold the line.

Be disciplined.

Be a Man.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Flesh Versus Spirit

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26:41

There is an idea propagated by some individuals that is fundamentally absurd. It is this: “You should want to do what is right”.

This idea is foolish and sets individuals up for failure. Even if you were to play along with this thought, you have to answer the question: “what do you mean by ‘You’? Consciousness? Bodily? Spiritually? What part of you should want to do what is right?” I guarantee you that the flesh does not want what is right. The flesh wants what is most likely to perpetuate survival (Food and sex). The conscious mind does not always want what is right, because when infiltrated by the physical need to survive, the conscious mind must make whatever decision is most likely to promote survival. It would be more convenient and conducive to survival for me to steal my neighbors food than for me to go hunt my own.This is the natural law of man.

The moral law of Christ commands that we wrestle against this nature and make decisions that may not benefit our survival.

In essence this means we are not always going to want to do what is right. In fact, it may be very rare for us to actually want to do the right thing, if we fully acknowledge our evil nature. This is a truth as old as the book of Genesis. In the time period before the flood, God examined His creation and saw that all the desires of their hearts were evil continually (Gen 6:5). This is the natural state of man if human nature is allowed to take its course. This is the nature we fight against using our spirit, because flesh and spirit are at war with each other, and that is how it is supposed to be.

The creation of man was two parts. First, God made man from the dust. He made the man of flesh to be temporal, and the body to be carnal and bound by biological drives. Secondly, God breathed life into man. With this breath came consciousness, rational thought and the soul. This is the first and primary distinction between animals who are completely fleshly, temporal and carnal and man who is all those things but additionally has a soul.

The soul is the command center for morality.

The flesh is filled with natural drives for food and sex, and these are taken to excess by human beings. This is interesting, that most animals do not take any pleasures to excess. They have sex in their predetermined times. They eat only what they need. The natural drives of an animal lead them to perfectly satiate themselves only with what is necessary. Man needs to experience more and more pleasure, and pleasure simply for pleasure’s sake, likely as a way to soothe away the sorrow of life.

Man is both flesh and spirit, and each wars with the other.

When someone tells you that you should want to do what is right, they stand in opposition to logic and biology. It would be too easy if we were pre-programmed to want to do what is right. No, God wants us to wage war and fight our natural tendencies tooth and nail and come out on top. He wants us to choose Him over the pleasures of the world. This was not meant to be easy. Choosing God was not supposed to be the most desirable choice from an earthly, fleshly perspective. Our flesh leads us towards sin, because sin is enjoyable and obedience is generally not. Anyone in the church who tells you that obedience is fun or easy is disobedient, endures no real temptation or is a liar.

Mantra

The flesh is evil yet the Spirit endures.

Application

Don’t guilt trip yourself when you desire evil, those days will come, and guilt is useless. All you need to do is successfully obey the Word. You don’t have to feel like it, you do not have to want to do it, you only need to obey.

Reject every individual who pushes some brand of emotionalism on you. You are rarely going to want to do the right thing naturally. You have to program your mind to win and prepare it to take the uncomfortable, undesirable action for the sake of righteousness.

Redirect your natural inclinations towards other disciplines.

Accept the evil of the flesh.

Embolden the righteousness of the soul.

Strengthen your mind to bring the body under subjection.

Discipline yourself.

Be a Man.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Keep Reading! Next : “Challenge“.

The Nature of Man

The physical nature of man is pure evil. The Church doesn’t like to hear this. “Man is good”, they say – Wrong. “How can man be bad with a divine soul in his body?”, is the classic question they ask. The answer is because the moral soul is still bound up in the biological, physical body.

“…among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others”.
Ephesians 2:3

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”.
Genesis 6:5

The physical nature of man is evil. The Church doesn’t like to hear this. “Man is good”, they say – Wrong.

“How can man be bad with a divine soul in his body?”, is the classic question they ask. The answer is because the moral soul is still bound up in the biological, physical body.

Man exists is in a constant state of conflict between the evil desire of his flesh and his moral soul. Polygamy is biologically natural to man, while monogamy is unnatural, and only accomplished with great effort. The physical nature of man is to do what is wrong, this is a fundamental axiom of the world, because our physical bodies crave many things that the Lord has placed restrictions on.

To reject the evil nature of man is to reject reality itself. To pretend that the thoughts of a man’s heart are not evil continually is to deny an observable scientific fact. To test this, simply think back on all the times you wanted to take a certain action simply because you were told not to. Rebellion is in our earthly nature and we have to wage war against it.

From an earthly perspective, man must do whatever he must to survive, this naturally pulls him towards evil. Why? Because it’s easier to steal your neighbors food than to find your own, therefore the Lord says “thou shalt not steal” (Ex. 20:15). It is simpler to envy your neighbors property, wife or career than it is to be content with your own, therefore the Lord commands “Thou shalt not covet”(Ex 20:17). The commands of the Lord oppose our earthly nature, and mentally we must oppose our fleshly nature as well.

We must resist, escape and redirect our tremendously evil nature in the pursuit of a greater good. Man loves progress and achievement, therefore the Lord has placed within us a very nature that itself must be conquered; and it’s conquering will serve as one of our greatest achievements, for it represents mastery over the Self.

Begin the demolition of your evil nature today.

Mantra

My evil must be contained. My evil must be controlled. My nature is controlled by the power of my thoughts. With my thoughts I shape the reality of who I am.

Application

Today, simply observe yourself. Observe your natural inclinations and see what it is that you wish to do. Take inventory of every desire you have for one day and then try to convince yourself that you aren’t pulled towards evil and that you are naturally good. How many women do you see each day that you want to have sex with? You don’t even know them. The nature of your genitalia and internal chemistry causes natural desire that is evil, especially if acted on.

How many times have you been tempted to murder someone in your life? Why would you desire to do such a thing unless your physical body pulls you towards evil?

Take inventory of yourself, come to grips with the reality of your evil nature, then get to work on fixing it.

Conduct yourselves like Men.