Enthrone the savior and he will dethrone the flesh.

"Now Adonijah...exalted himself, saying, "I will be king." And he prepared for himself chariots...and fifty men to run before him. His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, "Why have you done thus and so?" (1 Kings 1:5-6).

Although Solomon was the rightful heir to the throne of David, Adonijah, David's other son exalted himself, saying, "I will be king." Adonijah was a rival to the throne of David. The author of first Kings gives the following insight for why this usurping of the throne went as far as it did. He wrote, "His father (David) had never at any time displeased him by asking, "Why have you done thus and so?" David did nothing to try to correct his son at anytime. In other words, Adonijah was a rich, spoiled prince who all his life did whatever he wanted and his father never disciplined him. Adonijah didn't know what no meant. In doing so David created a little monster who grew up to become a big monster. And one day he decided that he wanted to be king. After being encouraged to do so, David finally did something to deal with his son. Notice, in first Kings chapter one that the way he stopped the rebellion was not by killing or imprisoning Adonijah, but by enthroning the rightful King. And David was the only one who had the power to do so. When David was made aware of the rebellion of Adonijah, he enthrone Solomon, the rightful King, and the rebellion was thwarted by him. The rightful king took care of the rivalry to the throne. Later Adonijah would be put to death by the Kings order. (1 Kings 2:24-25).

Adonijah's rebellion is a picture of the rivalry that is taking place in our hearts. There's a battle going on in the heart of every believer between the Spirit of God and the flesh for the throne of our hearts. Paul wrote, "This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:16-17).

Like Adonijah (who was totally given to his flesh) our flesh (who we are apart from God) wants to rule our lives and the more we give in to it--the more that we allow the flesh to go unchecked, the stronger it becomes. The flesh will never be satisfied. The more you feed the flesh the more it wants. When our flesh goes unchecked and is unrestrained it will take us deeper into sin, farther away from God and into the bodage of it's insatiable lust.

Let me tell you something about our flesh. It cannot be rehabilitated, reformed or restored. It must not be fed, cuddled or pampered. Rather than accommodated it must be assassinated. The Rebellion must be put down immediately or before you know it the little baby will grow up and want to call the shots. There is only one way to deal with the rivalry for the throne of our hearts and that is to put the flesh to death. And there is only was person who can do that in us and that person is none other then the Lord Jesus. And there is only one place in our lives that Jesus, through the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the flesh and that place is the throne of our hearts. In you want the flesh to be dethrone, Jesus must be enthrone. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 2:20).

Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). We must daily depend on the power and yield to the control of the Spirit. Do you realize that much of the unhappiness and misery in the lives of people and in the world is a failure to exalt God to His proper place? Enthrone the savior and he will dethrone the flesh.