Will of the flesh

“The will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell.” Okay, what is he talking about? Well, when we talk about the plan of salvation, how have we been taught to describe mortality? We say there were two reasons to come to earth, to get a body and to be tested. Well, I think we should rephrase that. I really do. Forgive me, I’m going to offer this. I mean, you can say it that way if you want to, and it’s not, it’s accurate, but I think it would be more thought provoking for us to say that we came for two reasons, to get a body and the body is the test.

And now what does that mean? Because we are not people who think that the body is bad. Of course, we know God has a body and he is perfected being and without a body we can’t have a fullness of joy. So there’s a great gift in having a physical body. We don’t hate the flesh, but what is Lehi saying? It’s the appetites.

So what happens? A little baby comes and cries when they’re hungry or tired or bored or, you know, messy, they cry because their appetites need to be filled. Their needs need to be filled. And of course, we take care of babies. But as they get older, sometimes they just become bigger babies. And they throw tantrums if they don’t get their way, if their appetites are not fulfilled, if they don’t have all the toys they want or all the attention they want or whatever, I’m not saying you don’t give appropriate attention. I’m saying we sometimes just create these little natural men and women who then become bigger natural men and women and they’re still used to having their appetites fulfilled. I’ve said this so many times, I probably said it last time, but you know, it’s kind of like whose side are we on? We bring treats constantly and we don’t stop with primary. We bring in young mens and young women’s, whatever. Feed them, feed them, feed them, candy, whatever.

My thought is like, these kids who can’t go two hours on Sunday without food in their mouths and then we think they’re going to handle hormones. Are we preparing them to master the flesh? Because the flesh is the test. Who’s going to win the spirit or the flesh? Like it’s like the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. And there is a tug of war. Now God isn’t in a tug of war because he is a perfected being who has mastered his flesh. His flesh and his spirit are in perfect harmony completely together in pursuit of good truth. The immortality and eternal life of men. He is completely harmonized to all the good. But we aren’t. That’s the path. Are we going to go up that learning curve to like harness the flesh?

— [[Lili Anderson]]