Point 1. Definition and Description. Lust is the overwhelming desire for something; a passionate desire; an illicit, uncontrolled, overwhelming desire which originates from the old sin nature.
Point 2. Inferiority and Insecurity as it is related to Lust.
Point 3. The difference between the legitimate desires that God places with mankind and the illegitimate desires called the lust of the flesh.
Many believers do not understand is the fact that God has placed certain desires and needs within the soul of man.
ECC 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity [the desires for a heavenly experience] in their heart,
GEN 2:18 "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
There is a desire in man for him to find and experience that type of relationship.
When a relationship is from God then a godly desire within man is fulfilled, but when it is not from God, then the lust of the flesh takes over.
Epithumia is sometimes translated "a desire being fulfilled" and other times it is translated a "lust, or an illegitimate desire" which is found in the manifestation of the flesh that we call "lust".
The kingdom of darkness with its tremendous organized plan appeals to the needs of people to get them away from the PPOG for their life by distorting the desires that are within man and turning them into the guilt becoming lust.
We have certain desires but how we fulfill those desires.
It is true that lust can mean lasciviousness or an illicit, uncontrolled, overwhelming desire which originates from the old sin nature.
The dictionary defines lust also as a pleasure or delight and it can also mean an intense longing or craving for something!
The overmastering and overpowering desires of most people are evil.
There is a difference between the legitimate desires and needs that a person has and the different lusts that are destroying many individuals inwardly.
Col 3:5 Render impotent [or consider it a form of your personal weakness] therefore the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality [sexual activity outside of marriage] impurity [abnormal sexual activity], passion [abnormal sex lust],
evil desire [an illicit, uncontrolled, overwhelming desire for sex], and greed [an insatiable appetite or craving for sexual activity],
which keeps on amounting to idolatry or the worship of idols or demons.
One of the main reasons why Paul said that involvement in these different forms of sexual sins was a form of worship toward idols or demons is simply because Satan knows the human race better than we do.
- The worship of a physical object or objects as God.
- Inordinate attachment or extreme devotion to something.
An idol is actually defined as an object of extreme devotion, hence, it could be almost anything in a person's life.
Satan's plan is based upon appealing to the needs and desires of the members of the human race.
The phallic cult was a very vital part of the worship of the "sons of the gods" because it was the basis for sexual activity and the perversion of true humanity.
The phallic cult is a religion which is based upon the worship of the male phallus or penis.
The phallic cult is the promotion of all kinds of sexual activity as stated in 2Co 12:21; Eph 4:19, 5:5, Rev 2:14‑23.
The apostle John had to deal with the phallic cult in the early church of Pergamum and also Thyatira.
To the church at Pergamum John wrote, in Rev 2:14 'But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.
To the church in Thyatira he writes: REV 2:20 'But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond‑servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
The phallic cult is related to demonism, therefore, it was forbidden by God to Israel in Exo 20:3,23, 23:24; Deu 4:28, 5:7, 6:14, 7:16, 8:19.
Idolatry is related to the phallic cult in the following passages Eze 22:3‑18, 23:37‑39.
- Immorality of all kinds, Lev 18:3‑25, e.g., fornication, cultic prostitution, homosexuality, etc.
- Idolatry is also related to the phallic cult which includes human sacrifice, Lev 20:1‑5.
Ecstatics were always used in the ancient world, and the phallic cult reached its climax with human sacrifice.
- The phallic cult also included frenzied group sex, Lev 20:1-5.
- Demonism, Lev 20:6.
- Rejection of authority, Lev 20:9.
- Spiritual, social, and cultural degeneracy, Lev 20:10‑23.
- Bestiality and incest, Lev 20:14-21.
- Masturbation, Deu 12:29-31.
- Merchandising feminine beauty, Eze 16:15, which refers to revealing certain parts of the female body to what Eze 16:15 calls "every passer-by who might be willing"
- Excessive use of alcohol and the promotion of nudity among the sexes, Hab 2:15-16.
A cult means a devoted attachment to, or extravagant admiration for a person, principle, or thing etc.
The Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary says that a cult is a great devotion to a person, idea, or thing, (especially), such devotion regarded as literary or intellectual fad or mania.
One of the most basic needs in the human race is the need to be loved, appreciated and wanted.
One of the main reasons why the phallic cult is still around today, although it is not titled the phallic cult, is because most individuals do not understand the difference between natural desires and lusts.
lust is the noun epithumia, the word itself actually means a strong or an overpowering desire.
The natural instincts in all of us, such as hunger, sex, survival, self-defense are not wrong in themselves.
All the instincts that belong to our human nature are of themselves, not only "not" bad, but good.
It is God who has put these natural instincts into man....including the instinct for sex and a need to be loved.
GEN 2:18 "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
Throughout human history he has taken that which God has designed for pleasure and distorted and perverted it.
His various instincts and powers and propensities were put in such an order and peculiar arrangement in man, that they are all meant to minister to his good and to his enjoyment of life.
These instincts which are mainly in man's body, were meant to be under the "control" of his mind.
God's will was that man should have dominion and control over his "natural instincts".
There is nothing wrong with sexual desires = they have been implanted within man by God.