“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil ‘the lust of the flesh’” (Gal. 5:16)

 “The Lust of the flesh” - ‘Lust’: In very simple language, ‘lust’ is desire gone wrong. It’s a strong craving or an evil desire, often but not limited to sexual desire.

I should point out that our human desires in themselves are not evil. Many believers make the mistake of thinking that our desires in themselves are evil. Yes, the fallen, sinful, human nature is corrupted by Sin, but aside from sin, God made us to have thoughts, desires, feelings, imagination, and the power to make decisions. These things in themselves aren’t evil. It’s not wrong to desire. David said; Delight thyself also in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart (Ps. 37:4). This verse agrees with Phili. 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) This means the Lord puts it into our hearts to… desire what He desires… NOT to get what we want of and for ourselves.

‘Evil lust’ is of the Sin-nature twisting our 'natural desires’ against us to meet Satan’s purposes in our lives. Satan, the “adversary,” wants to destroy our usefulness toward the Lord’s eternal purposes. There are two key characteristics of evil lust that distinguish it from the natural desires the Lord gives us.

1. The word ‘lust’ in the Bible simply means “strong desire,” just as hunger and thirst are used in the Bible to describe a holy longing and desire for God. But often lust is an ‘evil desire,’ referred to in the scriptures as the precursor to our actual evil doings or evil acts. ^“when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin” (James 1:15).
2. ‘Evil desire’ comes as an overwhelming power that is almost irresistible. This lust comes with a passion that is unequaled and almost impossible to defeat. It ensures you will do what it compels you to do. You’ve known how it feels when your heart is lusting after something; food, drink, clothes, a new car, or sexual. Usually, after we get what we lusted after, then we find that it fails to satisfy us as we had thought it would.

“The Lust of the Flesh” — ‘Flesh’: The second part of “the lust of the flesh” is “the flesh.”  If you’ve ever wondered what the worst enemy of the believer in Christ is, here it is, “the flesh.” You might have thought that Sin or Satan is our worst enemy. Your close, but there is a closer enemy to a life of victory and spiritual prosperity than sin or Satan, because it is part of us, within our flesh bodies… it is Satan’s “Sin [nature] in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3b). The worst enemy is not from outside but from inside. It is “the flesh.”