How to Overcome Temptation
Scripture: James 4 v 1- 10.
Revelation 12 v 11: "And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love
their lives to the death."
When we have been born again and baptised we are
completely cleansed and forgiven of every sin. We have started over with a
clean page and we never want to see anything smudge that beautiful clean
feeling. But we have a deadly enemy who will fling every temptation at us, as
he did to Jesus in the Wilderness after His baptism.
Jesus overcame him with the Word of God and in order for
us to successfully resist the devil we first need to know how he cons us. Jesus
called him the father of lies and a master deceiver. His strategy is to entice
us or tempt us in our fleshly or carnal bodies.
Our flesh will always be tempted by seemingly pleasurable
experiences. We get hooked on a feeling. We feel we need to smoke cigarettes as
they calm our nerves. That is a whopping lie. Every cigarette smoked puts a
strain on our heart equivalent to 12 hours hard labour.
Our first drug high gets us hooked and we spend the rest
of our lives trying to find that feeling again. It costs us everything of
value; it beggars us; we have to match it and never can - this is satan
taunting and tormenting us. His aim is to destroy us. We are a thing he can use
to break the heart of Father God.
If you find yourself saying, "I really shouldn't
but...." - you are giving in to a lust that the devil is working on your
soul to enslave it. It could be alcohol,
chocolates, sex, mischief or porn. With
lust of any kind comes self-loathing. Sexual lust also has companions called
"Woman-hating spirit" in men and "Man-hating" spirit in
women.
People say there is a thin line between love and hate.
That is untrue. There is a very thin line between lust and hate. When the lust
is denied eg sexual lust, it can cause an escalation of woman-hating spirits to
rise in that man to the extent of lust becoming rape and murder. This provides
a new more deadly power and feeling that can easily turn a man into a serial
offender. They are demons that drive you mercilessly to steal, kill and
destroy. They take control when you
reject Jesus and live your life without Him.
Putting such people in prison is the world's answer to
containing this evil. The demons never leave. They replay their success over
and over in the person's mind so that the moment he leaves prison he is driven
back to the same evil behaviour. He has a choice. He can submit to God; resist
the Devil. He will flee.
Deny satan the victory over you. You have to block his
access into your mind and flesh. You need to close and lock every open door he
has used to bring you down before. Use scripture on him as Jesus did: through
the Blood of Jesus satan has no place in me and no power over me.
He will flee. You will have outwitted him. He may be back
with new strategy but submit to God, resist the devil, he WILL flee. No matter
where he has entangled you, he has to bow to the name of Jesus spoken by a true
believer in Jesus Christ. Jesus died not
only to remove our sins but also to set us free. The enemy will try to use your
ignorance to keep you in bondage to his evil destructive plans, so become
informed this day, right now, so you can overcome him in every temptation and
help others to do so.
Prayer: Father God we thank You for the power in your
Word. You gave us this method of resisting the enemy and You back it up. Help
us to remember this when the attacks and temptations come. You need us to
overcome satan in this world so that every fear and torment and ruthless
cruelty is removed out of our hearts and minds. It is why we are here. If we do
not overcome these things our names will be blotted out of the Lamb's book of
life. (Rev 3 v 5). In Jesus' name. Amen.