“Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:2-4

The sin nature is the “sin” spoken of in Romans chapter 6.  In the original Greek, sin (in Romans chapter 6) is a noun and not a verb.  What we think of as sin (the verb) is the manifestation of the sin nature’s (the noun) dominion in our life.   Until we are born again, the sin nature is the reigning monarch in our life, whether we care to admit such or not.  If we could have victory over our sin nature as an unbeliever, there would be no reason for the Cross of Jesus.  Upon our Salvation and we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, the Holy Spirit comes and dethrones the reigning monarch (the sin nature) in our life.  We are now dead to the sin nature but it is not dead.  It is the sin nature that the enemy tries to tempt but as long as our faith is in Jesus and what He did on the Cross to break the power of our sin nature, the Holy Spirit remains on the throne in our heart and will deliver us from that temptation.  As soon as we begin to engage the enemy, instead of Jesus  for victory over sin, our dominion over sin begins to diminish.  The Holy Spirit can only empower our victory over our sin nature when our faith is based solely on Jesus Christ and Him crucified and not any part of our self efforts.  “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2.

The symptom or the manifestation of the dominion of our sin nature is sin, the verb.  Far too many Believers can only see the sin of the flesh without ever realizing their own sin of self righteousness and pride.  Pride in piety is not humility but pride.  The world will tell us that we are inherently good on the inside and it is our environment which affects our condition.  While the Word of God tells us we are inherently evil because of the seed of the sin nature given to us from Adam’s fall that affects our condition.

The “adulterers and adulteresses” in James 2:4, refers to Believers who resort to psychology or other methods of man for victory over their sin nature instead of faith in Jesus and His finished work.  The church today is chock full of adulterers and adulteresses who leave the Cross of Christ after Salvation for 12 steps, 40 days, 100 days or 21 days of “sanctification” to help them over come the symptom of the dominion of their sin nature – sin.  Their self efforts frustrate the Grace of God and their sin nature begins to reign again.  Religion is the worst bondage of all and will quickly lead the Believer down the path of defeat and destruction of their faith.

We ask and we receive not because we ask amiss.  We pray and seek God for our will and not His will.  We declare and decree things that God has no part of but is mere presumption on our part.

“Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?  But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” James 4:5-6. 

The Holy Spirit WANTS to do what He was sent to do in our lives, give us dominion over our sin nature (Romans 8:2) but He cannot do so unless our faith remains in Jesus’ finished work.  If you are a Believer and remain in bondage to the sin nature, quit fighting the fight the Lord has already won.  The only fight we are commissioned to fight is the good fight of faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, not faith that “we” can overcome.  Not faith that “greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4), even so we believe and know such is true to the highest degree possible, He (the Holy Spirit) is not commissioned to do His mighty work in our lives with our faith placed in Him but only in Jesus.  When we look to the Holy Spirit, He is going to point us to the Cross of Jesus and what He did there… He will guide us into all Truths and He shall not speak of Himself (John 16:13).    The Holy Spirit is jealous over the adulterers and adulteresses faith in methods of man to overcome sin and He will not and cannot  empower our self will but only God’s will with faith in Jesus.  Don’t be too proud to return to the faith in the Cross of Jesus instead of methods of man for victory over our sin nature.  We all still have a sin nature, it is just a matter of who has dominion.  Does the sin nature have dominion over us or does God’s Divine Nature in us have dominion over it (the sin nature)?   It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian 5 days or 50 years, without faith maintained in Jesus and His finished work, you aren’t fighting the good fight but a losing battle.  – Donna Clark Warren