BEWARE OF THE ‘NOW” There are times we are brought to moment of decision where we come under intense internal pressure to do things that our flesh desire but in our heart of hearts we know that it is wrong. To illustrate this further, a pastor narrated how a woman came into his office and bared it all by undressing right in front of him. According to the cleric, he said he liked what he saw but he had to run because inside him he knew that he needed not to gratify the desires of his flesh. This situation does not just arise when we are faced with sexual passions and desires, it also arises when we are passionate about taking revenge or doing things that look immediately rewarding but they do not conform to Biblical standards and the power of the Holy Spirit. Looking at the case of David, when he had the opportunity to avenge himself against his worst foe Saul, he also came to a moment of sweet revenge propelled by the “now” demand:
“After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi. So Saul chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats. At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave! “Now’s your opportunity!”David’s men whispered to him. “Today the Lord is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.’” So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul’s robe. But then David’s conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul’s robe. “The Lord knows I shouldn’t have done that to my lord the king,” he said to his men. “The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king and attack the Lord’s anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him.” So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.” 1 Sam 24:1-7. NLT
Sigmund Freud an eminent psychologist proposed that every human being is born with an overpowering sexual drive, which is called libido. Freud idea was that human personality made up of three major systems, namely Id, ego and superego. Freud explained, id consists of everything that is inherited, including instinctual drives, hunger and thirst, sex and aggression. The Id is characteristically referred to as the pleasure principle. It is always seeking immediate satisfaction, to derive pleasure from the environment. Everybody has the Id component of personality. Hence psychologists claim that every human being is relatively ‘mad.’ Just as psychologists believe that there comes a point when a man is controlled by the “pleasure moments” or “tickling moment.” Some call this the “mad moment.” In this moment your passion or drive or hunger seeks immediate satisfaction and every telegram sent by the Holy Spirit to bring you to your super ego where control is affected is switched off. At this moment the man is reduced to a child. At this moment, the passion seems to becloud all other voices of reasoning. All you hear like David is, “Now’s your opportunity!”
You know that if a baby is hungry or thirsty, all her passion or desire at that moment is immediate satisfaction. A baby does not care if it will cost life to fetch water or food, all it wants is the demand of the now, the demand of the moment and nothing else. The devil reduced David to a piece of bread by bringing him so low in his consciousness that he satisfied his immediate craving to have a taste of Bathsheba. David laid aside the consequence because the power of what his eyes saw had saturated and overpowered him. Some people rush to make decision and support their rush with a saying: “After that race we count the miles. The drive to satisfy an immediate desire of the flesh is what A C. Chukwuocha in his book, “The War Within” calls “clash” or “conflict” It is hard to deny the fact that before a crime or sin is committed, there is a raging battle of “to do or not to do.” Can you remember the war that raged within you when you tried to steal a meat from your mother’s soup pot? One mind told you not to try it because you will be caught. The other mind encouraged you to go ahead because your senses have been saturated with the aroma and the sight of the delicious meat. Everything in you wants to eat the meat but your heart also pounds in fear of what the scenario will look like if you are caught. If you are able to imagine this then use it to understand why some men and women engaged in criminal sex die in the act. Imagine how your heart pounds and you feel weak and crunchy in your belly as you are caught as a child breaking the rule. What eclipses the fear of being caught nevertheless is the sight of the mind-blowing fruit to be devoured. When one however is obsessed with the passion to gratify an inordinate desire, these precautions can be helpful especially if you are a Christian. First of all report yourself honestly to God. Tell Him of the overpowering drive within you and how you are obsessed to gratify it -if He does not help you. It takes two to tangle. Tell the Lord to make the other partner unyielding. Passionately ask God to frustrate the burning desire within you and create means of discouraging you. A particular young man who made this prayer while a lady undressed before him suddenly had visitors knocking at his door as he was about to yield to the temptation. Some people think prayer is an act that takes you away from reality. It is rather an act that brings you before the most powerful place anybody can be. It is a place that brings one out of the mundane, out of the cosmetic into the very real and
