“This passage from James, written to Christians, also deals with the subject of the works or ‘pleasures’ of the flesh.” JAMES 4:1-3

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from YOUR DESIRES for pleasure that war in YOUR MEMBERS? YOU LUST and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on YOUR PLEASURES.

According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, the term lusts can also be translated as pleasures. Lusts are “pleasures” of the flesh. The pleasures of the flesh are not demons or evil spirits. The Holy Spirit uses the believer, his personality, and his body for acts of righteousness (Philippians 2:13). In the same way, the devil can also use a believer, his carnal nature, and the pleasures of his flesh to influence him and drive him to commit acts of injustice and disobedience.

That is why you cannot label every pleasure of the flesh as an “evil spirit” or a “demon.” Lusts can simply be pleasures of the flesh. When someone gets saved, even though their spirit is recreated, their body still desires to yield to the pleasures of the flesh, just as it did before.

For example, if a young man gets saved and he was used to having sexual relations with women before his conversion, his flesh will still want to continue in that path. There might be a demon behind it—but not necessarily. He simply needs to learn to bring his flesh under subjection to his spirit and walk according to the Word of God, because God does not tolerate sin.

Every new believer needs to dive deep into the Word of God for themselves in order to renew their mind and learn to present their body to God as a living sacrifice.

As a born-again creature, he must learn to let his inner being dominate his flesh. Not every bad action is directly the work of a demon. Sometimes you’ll hear preachers trying to cast out demons when no demon is actually involved. It’s just the work of unregenerated flesh.

I’ve heard preachers casting out a “gluttony demon” from someone who eats too much. I believe the devil can get involved in overeating and encourage people to do wrong, just like he does in every extreme. However, overeating is a lust or a pleasure of the flesh. Eating is a pleasure. But when taken to the extreme, it becomes gluttony, and that’s wrong. So we need to discern—overeating is not necessarily the work of a demon, but rather the absence of the fruit of the Spirit, which is temperance or self-control (Galatians 5:23; Philippians 4:5).

Even if the devil sometimes has a part in overeating, the truth is that eating is enjoyable. Fasting, on the other hand, is not. The flesh doesn’t like to be denied or crucified. But the Word of God exhorts us to bring the flesh into subjection, and fasting helps us do that.

Extremes and Excesses

Today, we see the same extreme practices and excesses regarding demons as we did during the days of The Voice of Healing, a magazine published by Gordon Lindsay. It was also an organization made up of evangelists and pastors. In those days, some pastors were always trying to cast demons out of believers.

For example, when Christians came forward for prayer to be delivered from the grip of smoking or some other addiction, certain pastors would always try to cast out a “nicotine demon” or an “alcohol demon.”

As far as I know, nicotine is not a spirit. It’s a substance that causes damage to the human body. Of course, the devil can take advantage of substance abuse just like he can take advantage of anything extreme or harmful to the body. But here’s the point: the carnal desires or “pleasures” of the flesh—including physical addictions—will always try to dominate you if you don’t deal with them.

“Knowing this, that OUR OLD MAN was CRUCIFIED with Him, that the BODY OF SIN might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been FREED FROM SIN… Likewise you also, RECKON YOURSELVES to be DEAD INDEED TO SIN, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore DO NOT LET SIN REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY, that you should obey IT IN ITS LUSTS. And do not present YOUR MEMBERS as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that TO WHOM YOU PRESENT YOURSELVES AS SLAVES TO OBEY, YOU ARE THAT ONE’S SLAVES WHOM YOU OBEY—whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

The Bible clearly states that we do not have to yield the members of our bodies to commit unrighteousness (verse 13). We are not to serve sin, and sin is not supposed to dominate us because Jesus has set us free from its power. However, you must reckon yourself dead to sin in order to keep your members from serving sin, because your body will always want to continue—if you let it.

Your body and its members are not dead. That’s why you must consider them as dead to sin…

This text is an excerpt from the book “The Triumphant Church: Dominion Over All the Powers of Darkness” written by Kenneth Erwin Hagin.

We invite you to read the next article: “Focusing Your Attention in the Wrong Direction Leads to Error.”