This is an excerpt from “Knowing Jesus as His Bride”

As Americans we have some unique problems that people do not in other countries. We believe we have rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To those we have added the rights of privacy, fairness, prosperity, opportunity, freedom of religion, weapons, fair trials, grand juries, reasonable treatment, and much more.

We expect these things. They are our right! The marketing world would have us believe that we have a right to respect, sex, beauty, fast cars, and on and on. Worldly politicians would have us believe we have the right to fairness, health care, good wages, and the rest of the entitlements. In France they evidently think they have the right to retire at 62 years old.

The flesh loves to tout its rights. In truth, the only things the flesh can do well are feel, think, and sin. All of these are either highly suspect or downright evil. The problem is the flesh’s focus on self. We know that the flesh is desperately evil looking to be the center of our lives.

Feelings

These can be good or bad, but it is extremely difficult to tell as they occur. The main thing is that they are untrustworthy as far as the Kingdom is concerned. “I have the right to my feelings!” This is something I have heard countless times over the years.

It is true you have the right to your feelings. What is not ever said is that you also have the responsibility to discern your feelings to see if they have any basis in reality.

Thoughts

We have covered this thoroughly in the section on the three sources of thoughts in your mind. The mind is an amazing thing. It is the only interface between the spirit and the flesh. For the spirit to direct your life it requires permission from your mind.

But our minds are so limited as far as data input is concerned that they are virtually useless to determine truth, good, or anything that really matters. Left to its own devices, the mind can at best react well to worldly input. It gets no spiritual input from good until you meet Jesus and are born again from God.

Give it up!

The only right the flesh really has is payment for our personal manner of living. And the payment for this is death. That is what we have earned. That is all we deserve.

None of these so-called rights are Biblical. We don’t even have the right to life. Scripture clearly states that the wages of sin are death and that we are all sinners. We have earned death. If you think you haven’t we really need to talk [david@bergsland.org]. All we can do is throw ourselves on the mercy of a loving, kind, generous, gentle, patient king. Thank God we have one. Thank God He is our husband and we can absolutely trust Him.

Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, I ask that you make my union with you a conscious reality in my life.
Amen