What is debauchery? It can include excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, unbridled lust or sensuality.
What does it feel like? Bondage. It is a lust of the flesh and entraps us as we seek to satisfy our fleshly desires apart from God’s way and timing, even though the desires may be real, strong, or feel natural in our body.
The enemy’s great lie that has ensnared so many for so long is that partaking of such fleshly delights will lead to satisfaction and a quenching of the endless desire that haunts and distracts. Oh dear soul, the more we partake the more empty we feel. The more we partake of these lusts of the flesh, the more it takes to satisfy even temporarily. The fleeting feeling of fulfillment lasts only but a moment and is gone once the desire is obtained. The feeling of satisfaction is elusive, thought the lust of the thing burns and throbs within.
Alas, there is freedom, there is hope, there is a place where all is silence in our mind and that unending compelling desire for more is at last quenched. Even those who believe in Jesus may still struggle with such treacherous bondage. This is only a symptom of not being completely uplifted to the One who created us – Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, the one to whom all nations will bow and all creation sings. In Him our fleshly desires can at last cease for in Him we are made whole.
Does it seem foreign or as a fantasy that we could live without lusts of the flesh strangling our taste for our true Beloved? Does it seem as a tale from distant shores that we can dance around in freedom from such chains that bind us to only think of what we want and contrive moment by moment of how to satisfy? Does it seem as though to be free we would feel empty without our dear frenemy (friend+enemy) who destroys us from within – Debauchery? That lusty companion filling our time and fantasy and taste with the promise of worldly pleasures. Do know, there is more to life than this.
We do not have to sedate ourselves from reality, oh no, we can be free in Jesus. We can be the overcomers He has called us to be here in the land of the living. Ours is only to offer to God what in our own flesh we are powerless to let go of. He will move upon us as we offer ourselves to Him and act according to His good pleasure. He will move upon us in diverse ways to refine and purify us from those things which held us captive and drained so much of ourselves. Offer up to the Lord and continue to offer up to Him. Let us lay our hearts bare before Him, for He knows the deep inner workings already. Let us fill our hearts with His word through sound teachings, preaching, scriptures, and songs of praise grounded in the Holy Bible. Whatever is of God, fill yourself with these things (Philippians 4).
For some the deliverance may come all at once and for others it may be a slow and grinding process to mold us into vessels useful and pure and holy in the Master’s hands. Oh, let Him have His way. Do not give up, for He is faithful to bring us before Himself as pure, spotless, vessels.
Oh, when at last we have allowed Him to have His perfect work in us and removed the deep roots of debauchery which can surface in so many lustful ways – food, drink, sensuality, drugs, and any other addiction or compulsion. We can breath the fresh air, look up on the bright sunlight, lift our head up to the One who has set us free.
We are raised above the muck and more of debauchery and find that as we have let go we are filled with so much more than what we had – we are not empty after all, but filled with His Spirit and overcome by the sweet presence of God in His holiness, tenderness, beauty. We at last find the reason we were created – to experience Him. We find our purpose – whatever He would have us do and be. We are no longer tossed here and there with every wave and desire that surfaces, we are no longer running here and there to find meaning and satisfaction, but can find contentment and an incomparable joy right where He has us.
We discover our true passion – to love and be loved by God and out of this communion the rivers of living water flow freely from us without hindrance or taint but pure, refreshing, clean water to refresh our souls and all those around us. Our worship is that offered to Him in spirit and in truth. Our minds are clear and hearts are refreshed. Here we find the meaning of “ask anything in My name it will be done for you” (John 14), for we find that we are one with Him, we desire as He does, and all of our energy and enthusiasm for life aligns with the purposes for which God made us.
Oh dear friend, there is life beyond the stranglehold of debauchery, come and drink deep of Jesus and find your life everlasting.
John 14:12-14
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
Philippians 4:8-9
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”