The Natural Man And The Natural Spirit
The Lord talks about the natural man and how it is an enemy to God. Part of who we are is a natural man or natural woman. These natural human tendencies drive us to focus on satisfying what we want right now, running away from what we’re afraid of right now, getting angry at what upsets us right now. The natural man or natural woman doesn’t care about tomorrow or eternity. It’s only interested in satisfying the strongest urge immediately. But in addition to being born into mortal bodies, we are also the literal spirit children of Heavenly Parents. What that means is that we have natural tendencies according to the flesh, and a different set of natural tendencies according to the spirit. Our temporal and our spiritual natures are always with us. It is natural to see someone in need and to think about ourselves and how busy we are. It is also natural to see someone in need and to put their needs above our own. It is natural to hit back when we’ve been hit. It is also natural to turn the other cheek. There’s a saying that circulates around social media a lot. It’s something like “Divorce is hard. Marriage is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in Debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communicating is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard.” With every decision we make, we are either going to do what is natural to the flesh, or what is natural to the spirit. Whatever we choose, we will either offend our natural human self, or our natural spiritual self. The good news is that through the gift of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Atonement, we can tilt the balance of this constant fifty fifty tug of war between our flesh and our spirit. Parley P Pratt once said, “The gift of the Holy Ghost adapts itself to all these organs or attributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity.” God never intended for us to have a constant struggle between our natural and spiritual selves, and the closer we draw to the Lord and the more often and more fully we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the more closely will the natural tendencies of the flesh become aligned with the natural tendencies of the Spirit. Following the natural man is hard, following the natural spirit is hard. Choose your hard. And know that it won’t be hard forever.
