You're Pregnant but are You Showing?
/Numbers 33:16
And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah.
Kibroth-hattaavah— the children of Israel weren’t happy with the manna provided from heaven by God. They wanted flesh. God sent quail and they ate flesh until they vomited it out of their nose and then they were struck with a plague and were buried in a place and the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah- the graves of flesh.
Before we transition from this spot, I just want to say that the believer must be spiritually sober to the fact that the flesh remains an ongoing potential problem for Christian growth throughout the entirety of life’s journey.
Galatians 5:17 ESV flesh connected to your soul—your mind animates your flesh
For the desires of the flesh [KJV LUSTS] are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
James 4:5 KJV. Lusts & flesh
-- Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
James 4:5 AMP
Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?
Now, it should be clarified here that the words…to keep you from doing what you want to do
The carnal or fleshly appetites of the lingering old man are trying to affect your spiritual man. It’s your spiritual or new man that wants to do right. You can be born again but your flesh still wants something that God doesn’t want. The Lord is not in that business. Satan will gladly help your flesh to produce those endeavors, but God will not bless the flesh.
Let me say it one more way: if your flesh is blessed it’s a spirit, it’s just not the Holy Spirit.
Now, I just want you to hold that flesh thought until later
You’re pregnant but are you showing
1 Peter 1:23
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Begotten v3
There are multiple references to the word seed in the New Testament. Many of these references are directly related to the gospel. When it is the gospel, it speaks of the seed of the Christ that is planted into the soil of the heart and will result in the harvest of God. We could also say that once Christ is in us, the Kingdom of God is in us:
Luke 17:21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
When Christ is born in us, the Kingdom of God is implanted in us. It is God’s will that the Kingdom grow in us. It is God’s will that Jesus grow in us. So let’s ask ourselves this: we’re born again right? So that means Jesus is in us. Like a woman pregnant with child, we have had the seed of Christ implanted in us, but are we showing yet? Around the 4th month of gestation a woman starts to show that she’s pregnant. At some point in our Christian walk, we should start to show that we’re pregnant with Jesus. That means that we don’t look like, talk like, act like the world and we start desiring the things of the world less and less.
In order for a fetus to grow in the uterus, they depend on their mother for nutrition. Her nutrition is broken down into macro and micro nutrients, the nutrients absorb into the blood stream and through the umbilical cord, the fetus is nourished:
1 Peter 2:2
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
“Huh, I’m not a milk drinker. I’m a meat eater!”
When Paul said that to the Corinthians about milk and meat, it’s not the same negative context here about milk that it is there. It is true that a baby starts on milk, progresses to solids: vegetables, fruits, meats, then table food… and so, at some point an adult believer should be consuming the meat of the word. You can’t be college age and still be eating a 3rd grade lunchables and expect to be growing in Christ. Also if something is wrong with the nutrition of the mom. Or there is a twisting of the umbilical cord, then there will be a lack of nutritional flow to the fetus; therefore, the fetus will not grow and spiritually the Christian will not show, so you can be pregnant with Jesus— born again, but not be showing Jesus. What could cause this?
You’re still eating spiritual lunchables
You’re eating something that looks like the word but isn’t (I’m not even talking about the Bible right now. I’m talking about the Jesus/Christ of the Bible)
Peter is saying that just as a baby craves milk for growth, the child of God must crave the sincere [unmixed, unadulterated, pure] milk of the word…that ye may grow thereby
2 Corinthians 11:2-4 KJV
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
Galatians 4:17, 19. False teaching affects the growth of Christ in believers
17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
The context is that there is false teaching/ teachers whose message is contradicting the message of the Apostle. Most of the time people teach something false on accident [Wyckoff quote]. It’s something that was passed on through the groups of people they were connected with. Church or denominational ideas that filter through the traditions of men and do not come from the word of God.
Here it’s the (Judaizers). Most people that go into ministry love the Lord and want to serve God with their lives. However, a person can be sincere and be wrong. I’ve been sincere and wrong at the same time. Everyone in this room has been sincere and wrong at the same time. The question is this: will you admit that you’re wrong and ask God to help you stop being wrong even if it will make you vulnerable to worldly loss. In other words, if you’re going to upset some people are you willing to do that instead of upsetting the Holy Spirit?
Galatians 3:1-3
1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
The real gospel forms the real Christ in us. The real Jesus is the Jesus of the cross. Real Christians carry their cross, because they learned from their Lord that there is a progressive dying to self that must continue. It is an ongoing process that results in resurrection life.
A cross less message is just as bad as a Christ less message, because you can’t have the real Christ without the cross. The work of the cross is not me knowing it. The work of the cross is me dying on it.
Galatians 6:12-14 ESV
12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, (follow their doctrines and teachings) and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
This doesn’t mean that they don’t say the name Jesus. They contradict the interests of the Lord. One of the main interests of the Lord is that we be transformed into the image of the Lord. He is love.
2 Peter 2:1-3
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying (to contradict or disregard the interests of) the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise (plastos) of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
Kibroth-hattaavah
Numbers 11:18-20
18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. 19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; 20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?
Spiritually we understand from John that this manna that they’re rejecting is the pure nourishment/ sincere truth about the Christ and the quail or flesh represents the desires of the human heart that is not pleased or totally satisfied with what God is offering. The thought of the free will is involved with this. While they consumed this flesh and it was coming out of their nose, before they died, they likely imagined in their hearts that the problem was something else. Instead of looking at their own lustful, covetous heart that refused to do it God’s way and demanded their own way, they probably started coming up with other reasons why everything was falling apart around them.
It could be anything:
I don’t want to live my life this way. I want to live my life that way
I don’t want to go to this church I want to go to that church or I don’t want to go to church
I want to marry this kind of man not that kind of man vice versa woman
I want this kind of job not that kind of job
I want a new house, a new car, a new boat, a new toy
I want to live the American dream
Numbers 11:33-34 KJV
33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. 34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.
They lusted. God was providing manna, but they wanted flesh. An ongoing diet of flesh is spiritual diet of poor nutrition choices. This will result in a slowing of Christ being formed in you. We may be pregnant but are we showing?