I woke up this morning with this paragraph in my mind: My allegiance is to the living Jesus who captured my heart and filled me with love for Him and for all people. He now lives inside me to lead, guide, and empower me from within so that I can no longer obey my own desires, feelings, and opinions, but follow, obey, and adore Him instead.

People in Western society are openly proclaiming their commitment to the dominance of their human desires and declaring them to be proper and righteous. They’re telling us that our desires are our reality and our identity and that they should be obeyed without guilt or shame. Human feelings, opinions, and desires are being exalted above the obvious reality of common sense and physiology. People are being encouraged to follow their desires instead of reason and logic, and to even demand that other people call them by pronouns that they have chosen to match their desires. Western society is even beginning to label Bible verses like 1 Peter 4:1-3 as “hate speech.”

No matter what feelings, opinions, or desires you personally are obeying instead of obeying the risen Jesus, you’re “living in sin.” You may say that He is your Lord, but if you are not obeying Him from your heart in both words and actions, your claim to be a disciple is skewed. Jesus calls us to self-denial–to resist and to die to our desires and to follow His instead. Any desire that leads you to disobey the will of God and put your will above His is sin. Christians are called to ignore the world (Western society and all other human based cultures) and be led by the Spirit, not by our feelings, desires, or opinions.

It’s easy to point out other people’s rebellion against God, while ignoring our own rebellion. “If My people who are called by My name will . . . turn from their wicked ways . . .” Anything that we think, believe, say, or do that is disobedient to God’s will is a “wicked way” and “an evil human desire.” “Search my heart, O God . . .”