Mental Desires

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy.

Hey yo, what's up? So this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I'm your host of the Student of Life Podcast. And I do have a just some bonus content for you that I just believe through prayer and the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit, I was meant to just get on here and share. So I haven't really— I don't have my bulletin points in front of me or anything like that. Sometimes I just have my Bible with my notes, and I've chose to kind of, you know, do a deep dive study, a personal study on the book of James. It's kind of what I'm really focusing on this month of May, or just however long I uh, how long it takes. Um, so that being said, uh, I do have a direction that I want to go through the power of God. But what I want to say first is that I just— hear my heart, uh, please don't take this episode as me downplaying, uh, mental health or, uh, mental awareness and things like that. I believe God works through therapists, counselors, uh, even coaches, life coaches, or whatever you want to call them. I believe that he works, of course, through pastoral counseling, you know, the elders, other people within the body, just life-on-life discipleship, someone that you can talk to that's seasoned and mature and, you know, just have that godly wisdom, although leading from the leading of the Holy Spirit, but also, like I said, that godly wisdom and experience, man, and things like that. So please don't take this as like, oh, he's saying you know, I— because I'm carrying this, I feel like I do have some mental illness, that, um, I'm not saved, I don't know God because I'm getting therapy. You know, that's not— that's not what I'll be saying in this episode by any means. But at the same time, if you just listen to it with an open heart, a conducive heart, not a hardened heart, not a rocky heart, or not a crowded heart— like, in other words, a distracted heart— um, posture, I should say. I truly believe that the Spirit of the Lord, you know, the Holy Spirit, man, he will work through you. And, you know, he will convict us and, and, and set our minds and our, uh, our minds and our thoughts right. And, you know, fixated on Jesus Christ and Christ alone. But at the same time, we know that God's— God works horizontal just as much as he works vertical. Now, all of that's out there. Still don't have a title. It's definitely gonna come later. And like I said, I'll throw something up here um, and in the mean— uh, later on, probably after I, you know, do low light editing and get this published. Uh, but I do want to read a few verses to you from the NIV, and I'm going to start in James 1:13. Yeah, James 1:13, we're going to read down to 15, I believe. So James 1, starting 13 through 15. And like I said, this is the NIV, and I'm gonna read slow because if you're walking if you're working out, you know, in the car, in the commute or whatever, I want you to really ponder and meditate on these words, man, because, you know, sometimes we get into a habit of just rushing through God's word, or we hear a sermon and we don't go back and just ponder deeply on what, what, what do these words mean? Why did they arrange them that way? Why did they say them that way? Why did they use that word? And so on. Um, so let's get into it. Uh, so James 1:13 reads, when tempted, no one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived It gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. I want to get into this real quick with James and just jump straight into it. Um, in the context of this scripture, you know, James is talking about— and then when— and I know we see the term he or his, but this is mankind, so this applies to all men and women. Um, when it out the gate talks about an evil desire, you know, desires can be good. Some of us might say, well, I don't have evil desires like killing someone, committing adultery, fornicating, uh, stealing from someone, beating my wife, beating my girlfriend, beating my kid, you know, like, you know, we, we jump to like a lot of the extremes and say, well, I don't have evil desires like that. But an evil desire truthfully is as simple as letting a thought penetrate for too long, a basic thought. An evil desire truthfully is anything that elevates us to act in the flesh versus being subjective and being Spirit-led. So anything that exalts itself above God, even if it's just our will over his, is truthfully an evil desire. So why— I believe that's why James clarified it and just, just didn't leave it at this. I believe that he wanted to double down on putting evil in front of it, letting you know that this is not neutral. This is no longer neutral. This is evil. We are driven away by this. So this is what it did. In other words, this is where it starts. This is what drags us. In other words, man, he was tracking the lion to the den. That metaphor, think about like, I'm tracking whatever, I'm tracking the animal back to from where where it was going— where it came from, I mean. I'm tracking it back from where it came from. It just, it just, it just didn't show up here. So he's tracing it all back, that it really starts in the desires of our heart. And so first question we have to ask ourselves is, what, what are we entertaining? Look, I, I like— I used to like a lot of TV, to be truthful with you. Now it's just, it's just too much on it. I mean, I still have some of my favorite shows that I watch. But even now, man, the more I dig in, it's getting harder and harder to watch them. And I'm not trying to become legalistic or put my personal convictions on anyone, but like, even with music and just certain things I see, I'm just like, man, for me, um, based on like the them trying to desensitize me and be okay with it versus standing on the word of God, I mean, this is putting something evil in me because it's contradicted to the word of God. It's— I'm allowing it to come within me and it's, it's giving me a desire that's not of God. So if I, if I see something and like, I'm like, man, that's their life, that's cool, and that's true in context, but what it end up happening is I just put blinders onto it. I put blinders onto it. I'll be like, man, start, you know, like I say, justifying it in the context of like, man, you know, well, it has nothing to do with me, but that's a soul. At the end of the day, that, that's a soul that stays. So at least I should have a posture to still be praying for that person, interceding for that person, versus just having a desire saying, forget them, that's their life. I can still intercede for them even if I can't talk to them. So, um, just stay with me. So this is what I mean by like evil desires in the context like I don't want anything that will have me acting in my flesh versus what God has called and commanded me to do. So just think about that in the context of your life. Like, what are you entertaining? Whether it's friendships, like I say, work relationships, TV shows, uh, what are you listening to when you're in the car? Uh, what, what, what is penetrating your, your, uh, your mind and, you know, allowing those thoughts to take root and, and think on them deeper and deeper and deeper? Because that's what's creating the appetite. That's what I was looking for. That's what's creating the appetite That's what's creating a desire. But just because I have an appetite for something don't mean I have to eat it. I get an appetite— listen, I like cookies. Like, like, that's, that's my weakness. I mean, I'm not a real big candy eater, ice cream eater, like, but I like cookies, man, like soft cookies. And so, um, but just because I have an appetite for them doesn't necessarily mean I have to yield to it. It's a strong desire because that's something that I like, uh, Somebody bring me something, like right now my wife like, hey, you want me to stop at, you know, uh, the store in Casey's in Conway? Like, hey, I'm probably just gonna have a hard— I'm gonna have to really, really be like, man, although I have a desire for those cookies, uh, I don't need them. I don't need them. I don't need any more this week. So although, like I say, the appetite is there because, uh, we live in the flesh, man, we live in this sin nature, and so it will never want to please God. But we have to bring it under subjection. But if we let it run rapid and let our desires and our appetite control us and dictate to us, then we would end up being dragged away because now it becomes more enticing. So now when I see the cookies, I've had a desire for it, I didn't deal with it, I didn't, I didn't speak to that appetite. So now I start to be, um, enticed by it. So it's more enticing to me. I mean, think about it like this. Um, it's hard to have authority over something that we're entertained by. It's hard to have authority over something that we find very, very enticing. This is like when things happen to us and we have a desire to get back or whatever, a desire to do something, uh, to someone, a desire to— I mean, uh, yeah, I just said they give it— like, we have a desire to say, okay, I want you to feel what I feel. In other words, if you, um, cut me off, I need to I'm gonna lash out at you. If you think you're gonna check me, I need to check you too. And sometimes we even take it a step further because we, we want— we, we have that desire to say, okay, no, you're going to feel what I felt, if not more. And so this leads to like a situation that we just had a little appetite for, we didn't deal with it accordingly, so now it's more enticing because now we're blinded. We're blinded. And then the scripture says, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So this is truly just a sexual metaphor, man. Like, when you think about, uh, a woman or a man, they, they find— let's just say the man finds the woman attractive, he has an appetite for that, and he knows he shouldn't be sleeping with that woman. And so he doesn't deal with— he doesn't cast that down. He's like, man, this is, this is my desire. This is, uh, kind of like the type of woman that I like. And now he, he's presented with that, so he doesn't— he's like, Lord, no, your words, like, I shouldn't be fornicating, I shouldn't be having these thoughts, I shouldn't be seeing her in this sexual manner. But he doesn't deal with it. So now his appetite starts to speak up louder. That desire gets stronger and stronger and stronger. Then he starts asking, well, Lord, why did you make me this way? Why did you make it where You know, uh, I'm very— I find women very attractive now because man wants to blame God. We, we always— now it's God's fault because he's not a perfect God in the context of our mind, the flesh. That's what the flesh is trying to tell us. And so now he sees this woman and it's like, I want that, and now I'm very enticed. So now, yes, she's beautiful, but she becomes— it becomes more of a seductive thing now. Like, he's really undressing her with his eyes. Uh, so now he's past desire or appetite to a full-blown enticement. Like, man, I, I want it and I want it now. But he still hasn't done the act yet, so it's still time to speak, like, and take authority through the power of God and say, okay, I want to take these thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. In other words, make them obedient to Christ's word, to God's word. But no. So now he— they have sex, they have intercourse. And truthfully, the sin originated— this goes back to tracking the line back to his name. This is what Jesus was talking about, you know, basically looking upon a woman and committing the act in adultery, act in the heart. In other words, he was— Jesus was saying like, the act just didn't happen. It, it just didn't happen. Nothing just happens. This was something that started in our heart posture. It started in a desire, and now we're seeing the manifestation of it. That's why he say it's still sin in that angle. Now, no, like, let me back up. Just because you have a desire and you commit an act in your heart doesn't mean you have to do it physically. But what Jesus was saying, that if you think on something long enough, you, you commit that act in your heart and you don't deal with it, the manifestation is coming. You think on something long enough, you think on something unclean, you think on something unholy, you think on something fleshly long enough and don't deal with that thing, if you don't have like people that you can go talk to and say, hey, uh, man, I'm struggling with this, this is what I want to do, like in my heart I want to do this, man, I need help, I don't want this to manifest into the physical part of it. Spiritually, yes, man, I know, but I don't want this, I don't want this to manifest into the actions. So I want to deal with this while it's still just a desire, appetite underneath um, right now. So now as we progress and go back to the, uh, the scriptures, it says then after, um, desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So now, man, it's just full-blown. And sin, when it is full-grown— yeah, full-grown, full-blown, full-grown sin. So now what happens is, okay, it might be conviction there, man, we did it. And I feel bad, but it's only momentarily because we just made a decision in the flesh. And if we don't deal with it, or we don't feel that conviction, that overwhelming conviction, and truly go into repentance, now we just did something that has hardened our heart just a little bit, even if it's a spot. So now we're wrestling with it, we keep it a secret. Now the desire is getting more and more enticing And so now we're able to do it more and more and more to the point where it's full grown. In other words, we have become— now it's not like an infant or a toddler stage, it's like, man, you are a full-grown adult in the scene that you're doing. I'm not talking like, oh, you know, 25 to 30. I know I'm saying that in the context of this, this, this metaphor or whatever, how James is putting it. He's saying that It is a full-grown, um, full-grown gives birth to, to death. It's full-grown and gives birth to death because, um, in other words, it's like the act that I have done, it is matured, it is, it has aged. And now we're talking spiritual. Like I said, it doesn't mean that it has to take 5 or 10 years. I mean, you can do something repetitive over and over and over in a few months and it'd be full-grown. Because it's a posture. It's, it's a posture that is saying, okay, now like, this is, um, this is what I want to do. I don't hear the Lord's voice. This is right to me. Now I have defined something that's bad that God has said bad is good to me, so it's fine for me to do it. And a lot of times I believe, man, this is where we struggle with, uh, in our mental health. I, I truly do. Uh, because like I say, our desires, um, our desires and enticement, it comes from within us. Like, it really does. Because think about it, if I don't regenerate the nature that I live in, an ungenerated nature— in other words, this flesh— if it's unregenerated, then that means that it's doing everything that it wants to do. So I have to get in the word of God, I have to commune with God, I have to be around community to help me keep this flesh under subjection, to keep these desires under subjection. I can't stop the thought from coming in, but I can stop it from building up a stronghold. I can stop it from dictating what I need to do. So my mental health and a lot of capacities and things like that when I go through, when, when I'm dealing with thoughts that are trying to produce anxiety? What am I looking at? Do I have my own timeline when I need to be successful versus just trusting in God? Say, God, I'm gonna do everything I can and trust in you. Am I looking at other people that are accomplished? Am I looking at other people get promoted? Am I looking at, um, how other people respond to say, bro, I don't take nothing, I'm a Christian, but I still cuss? Am I looking at all of that? And is this causing like all these different desires, good and bad. Part of me have good desires to handle it the right way, and then part of me have bad. So now I'm like a double-minded man, unstable in all my ways. And then it's like I say, well, now I'm dealing with mental health issues. And that could be very true, but I would just want to submit to you is that, is it because you're truly not in the word of God? Have you truly given Jesus Christ an opportunity to save you and be Lord of your life and help wash those things away through the finished work of what he done on the cross? It was in him. Cross was a tool. But have you truly allowed him to do that work of sanctification through the power of the Holy Spirit? Because it takes work. There's some habits, man, in us that we have acted so much in our flesh, things that have been downloaded into us. Like, there's desires that I'm not even aware of that I've had. And like, where— now, but I can identify because I'm like, where did that come from? Where— like, why am I feeling like— like, why do I even want to do that? And it— and if I wasn't in the faith, if I wasn't in the intimacy with the Lord and have like the Holy Spirit then truthfully, I would be more open to the mental health secular, uh, movement. Now, like, like I say, there are some things that have— some people that went through some very, very dark things, we got to get help. But that help can come through a partnership, a tender relationship with therapy. Yes, but true deliverance is going to come from Christ alone. Truly, in my understanding, a therapist, a counselor, all they can do is just help condition your mind, cultivate the environment to accept what they are saying and presenting. But if they put you on medication, just secular ways of working, all it is is willpower. It's just a strong dose of willpower. But if you take that same framework and you work with them and they open, but then now your heart becomes conducive to getting the word of God and, and get help and get deliverance I'm not saying you're not going to have the desire sometimes, but I, I believe that you will appropriately understand. Like, you get into the spiritual warfare and things like that, you will start to understand, like, man, this is really spiritual. At the end of the day, Jesus spoke to all of this type of stuff, but technology has magnified it in a way. Like, the advancements of technology and social media— it's not that these things are bad, they're neutral. But the people that have access to them. And so we're always being discipled by these things more than we're being discipled by the word of God and other believers. And so the world says you have mental health issues, but then the word of— the world, the world says you have mental health issues, but the word of God saying, uh, that's a spirit, man. You are, you are oppressed. That's something that's trying to possess you. And that's why you think you're going crazy. That's why you're overthinking and overanalyzing things, because you're— this—

it was—

T.D. Jakes said something that was so real. He said, a blessing before its time is a curse. Think about this. A blessing before its time is a curse. Now let's look at our kids. They have access to God knows what. If a blessing before its time is a curse, he was speaking in the context because you might not know how to handle that blessing when it gets to you. You haven't been prepared for it. Well, why are we giving our kids access to something that they're not prepared for? They're seeing things that they don't even know how to rationally think about, but they're exposed to it way ahead of its time. It can't be a blessing, so it curses them. It curses their mind. Let me back up. I'm not gonna say curse them, but it starts—

it starts—

yeah, truthfully, I can say that. Because if they don't know Christ, if they're not in the word of God as much as what they're entertaining, it's cursing their thought pattern. It's, it's cursing their desires. It, it's— they're, they're being like flooded with a lot of ungodly stuff. They have more ungodly stuff in them than they do godly. So if we take that in the context of, of us, okay, we have the faith, but what if we're not in the word like we're supposed to? What if we're not in the presence and meditating and communing with God like we're supposed to? And so we're flooded, so we're getting things way before God meant for us to have them. God said, I didn't, I didn't want you taking on all of this. You took it all on because of what you're competing with. And then we might say, well, no, I'm not competing with anybody. No, you're competing with the timeline. You're competing with your timeline versus the timeline I have for you. Goes back to like, it doesn't always have to be, oh, I'm not a fornicator, oh, I don't commit adultery, oh, I'm not a murderer. It doesn't always have to go to that. The evil can— the evil desire can simply be as my will over God's will. Oh, I should be here because I've been putting out content for 5 years, but God still has me somewhere, man. Only 100 people are checking in. What about those 100 souls? That God wants you to focus on. But because everybody say, no, you need to grow your platform, these algorithms and this, this and that, you should be at 10,000 now, you should be at 20, 30,000 now, now we're frustrated. That's the evil desire because it wasn't the will of God to go down that road. The will of God said, I want you to stay here for a season or seasons. So man, I'm just saying, like I say once again, we have to really plug in and make sure that we are renewing our mind, man, with the word of God, flushing out all of this corruption that comes from the world. A lot of good things in it, but it's mixed with so much poison. And I used to say this, like, I remember this thing, you know, we talk, well man, just a little bit of poison won't hurt. But I'm gonna end with this, okay? That could be true in context. Oh, moderation is good. If I can go find the most deadliest poison and I was down there baking, say, because I was a really good baker and I was down there baking a cake for you and the most deadly poison was in my house and I was using it for whatever reason. And as I'm baking your cake, some, just a little bit got on my hands and dripped into just, just a little bit, man. Like, it's not even visible to the eye almost, and it drips into your batter. And I tell you that, and we read this and we talk about this type of poison, man. If this comes in contact with you, like, if you consume it, it will literally shut down your heart within 2 to 3 seconds and you're dead. And I tell you that and I say, what? So I don't know where it's at, man. I was like, it's some— it's somewhere in one of those bites. I, I, but you know, it just a little bit got in there, so don't worry about it. I'm pretty 100% sure that you're gonna reject that entire cake.

Why?

Because of you understand the nuances of how deadly that poison is. So my thing is this: what are you allowing in your life that's just as deadly But because we don't see the, the manifestation of it in that extreme, what if it is or has killed you spiritually, that you have become so secular now? But what if it has desensitized you and killed you spiritually? Thank you, Holy Spirit. To the point where you're alive in your body but you're dead spiritually. I want you just to meditate and, and stay on that and just, man, spend some time with the Lord. And like I say, you know, if you are there, I understand the text about turned over to a reprobated mind, or if you feel like you're on the way there, man, get with a pastor or someone that like, that you know that, that's demonstrating walking in the word of God. Get help, like truly get help. Get connected with another Life on Life disciple, uh not just someone that's famous or saying all the right things, but someone that you have studied and looked— because look, we all look at people and we, we admire people and, um, try to really examine, man, are they really living what they're saying? Like, pray and ask God to lead you to that person. And I, and I know a few, uh, truthfully. Like, if you want to hit me up, you know, I'll, I'll— depending on, you know, the situation, um, because then what I mean by that, yes, I believe in being Spirit-filled, but sometimes I have to direct people that are a lot more mature, stronger in the faith than I am. Doesn't mean that I'm not. I feel like I'm very mature in the faith, but there's still things I haven't went through. So all of that being said, man, I really want you to meditate on that. And you know, if, if you see— if God shows you anything through this searching process, because he already knows, he's just waiting for us. Lord, what are my desires? What am I truly enticed by? Is this leading me on a path to sin, and then full-grown sin readily to death. Lord, help me examine these things and point them out to me. Just pray a simple prayer, man. I'm telling you, if it is truly sincere and the heart posture is right, you don't have to yell, you don't have to scream, and just talk to God and he will direct you. He will give you understanding, but you have to do the work. It's a tandem relationship. So man, I love you all. Like I said, always feel free to reach out. I was just led to just, uh, talk, probably a little bit of rambling, you know. Most time I try to, you know, get a little bit of clear, uh, with just quick bullets and points, uh, you know, stuff like that. But nevertheless, man, I just believe I was led to, to share, you know, what God had put on my heart, uh, and I, and I pray that this blesses you. I pray that it challenges you, but as well as encouraging you to know that, um, it's still hope If you're feeling conviction, there's still hope. If you hear this and you have rejected God and you're numb and like, man, whatever, then, you know, we might have bigger problems. But nevertheless, I just believe as long as there's breath in the body and if you feel conviction or any type of conviction, God desires to still reach you and use you and present you to this world all for his glory. So I love you, man. Always praying for you all. You be blessed. And we'll be back with uh, season 7 or 8. Uh, so it'd be a lot more interviews, but we'll be back probably maybe this summer, early fall. So God bless me, I love you all, see you soon.

Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timprattjr.com. Once again, thanks.