how well did I know our enemy?

UncharteredSpirit, first I will be praying for you that God will show you the path to victory, and give you the strength to resist the enemy. I agree that our disobedience is pain to our Heavenly Father and grieves the Holy Spirit: When we find ourselves in this position......... we're also in pain, missing fellowship with God.

Get in the Word and find those scriptures that apply to your battle and use them to defend yourself against temptation or to encourage yourself to take hold of God's strength and fight the accuser.

When we want to stop a sin or habit that has become a fault in our character developement and/or is disobediant to God, the very effort to change seems to intensify the opportunity to repeat the sin. Accept that intensity of temptation and intensity in pain to resist is a normal part of overcoming, but do not let this become a stage of repeated warfare, which prevents you from moving on. The law brings awareness of sin. Your self-willed attempts (hey....don't beat up on yourself.....most of us try changing ourselves before we submit to the one who can permanently change us) increases the intensity of the battle as it creates a priority or preoccupation with that sin. Repent and prayerfully seek God and rely on him for strength. Familiarize yourself with scripture to battle in resisting and refusing the temptation. Use this step also as an opportunity to identify which circumstances 'set you up' for failure. That way you become sensitive to those things which provoke even the appearance of evil so that you can flee or avoid. When you can't flee or avoid cause the enemy has you cornered, you must take a stand: familarizing yourself with all scripture gives you ammunition to repell the enemy, putting on the mind of Christ. Fill your heart with God's word and make it a practice throughout your day to call it forth to replace unwanted thoughts. All scripture is of benefit here, not just the ones you identify with your weakness. When a suggestive thought crosses one's mind, it cannot occupy if replaced or distracted by another...... Whatsoever things are good.....Phillippians 4:8

Yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit who cautions, and instructs you, and gives you strength and comfort. If you have/or shoulc resist His leading, confess, repent and keep striving. Keep yourself consciously accountable to God, that he is present and knows all things, even your thoughts as well as action, and he knows if your desire to resist or not is sincere: He will not fail you to the extent that you trust him but will prepare a way for you to escape and overcome the tempter. Should you fail (we all do in somethings so you are not alone, though you feel your battle is peculiar to you), don't give in to the failure but seek the LORD and renewal through confession and repentance and prepare yourself for the battle by seeing what you might have learned from that episode.

Seek other Godly believers (most often times it is best if these are of the same gender, or elders) and have them pray for you and engage you to a relationship which makes you accountable to them, and submit to their inquiry and reproof. If you have a godly spouse, and the temptation is not something which revealing would cause them pain, then engage her/him as a prayer warrior, and reveal to them what opportunities 'set you up' and get them to be actively sensitive in trying to help your avoid, or recognize and intercept the temptation: I'm thinking if it is something like anger management issues..... (not saying that it is....but using this as an example), sometimes it is helpful to engage the persons closest to you to identify and turn off the switch by some cue which you both understand and agree to. In such case it is important that the issues causing the anger do get identified, and begin resolving by mutual agreement.

With sins against God, make your desire to please, glorify and serve him your priority in the fight. With sins against others, make your priority to love them as God loves them, your priority against repeative behaviors. With sins against your body, seek God's help in cleasning your 'temple' and seek his help in exposing to you those weakness which lead you to dishonor your body, and replace those weakness with His grace an His Word.

Prayerfully put on the armor of God, daily. Ephesians 6:13-18. The armor is not much good if you forget to fasten it........ So remember the fastners which secure the armor is Prayer. (This was in my SS lesson today......thank God for good instructors and leaders.):godisgood: :jesus: :thumbs: raying:

 

Those strongholds can hang on for years. Just about the time you're relaxed, here one comes again. I learned some years ago to call on Jesus BEFORE I rebuke satan. I've heard folks praying and right in the middle of the prayer start talking to satan. Yuk!

There have been times when I have been nearly paralyzed by guilt over sin. Other times, deeply grieved. There is a difference! Hallelujah, there is a difference!

The song goes "Guilt was a voice with no promise of hope, the walls of my prison lay claim on my soul, when out of my bondage His Voice Spoke to me, 'No prison can hold you! I've got the key!'"

I don't mention satan first. It goes something like this:

"Father, in the Name above all Names, Jesus, rebuke satan."

"Father, in the Name above all Names, Jesus, rebuke the evil one."

It's not a formula. It's just something when temptation and sinful thoughts come my way.

1 John 1:9 is for us. O! How He loves you and me!

:jesus:

 

Excellant, imo, DQ!

Who was it started the 'comedy' line " The devil made me do it!".
Well, it isn't funny if that is what really happens (implies possession, ownership, control), and too often we give place (or credit?) to the enemy when we should allow God the place of power and LORDship in our life. We can answer temptation with scripture, or as DQ, ask the LORD to rebuke the enemy for us. (I try not to use the enemies' title anymore than I can help. I think he already gets too much credit for the power behind the bad choices people make.) I don't believe it is scripturely correct to directly rebuke the devil like some tele-evangelist do.

I was hoping to lookup Scripture for this info (but the technology on my computer isn't working right now for my search):
The devil is a liar, a deceiver, is crafty, the father of all lies, a 'secret agent provacature' to the plans of man.
He challenges the will of God, and makes warfare in the heavens and spiritual warfare on earth.
The archangel Michael, when warring against him, did not address him directly (or in his own power) but said 'the Lord rebuke thee' which is a model for us.

Jesus used the Scripture to rebuke the devil: Notice he did not give the 'address' though He had all knowledge and could have said something llike 'on the such and such scrolls, on the such and such collumn, on such and such line down, beginning with the (1st, 3rd of 5th or whatever) word across 'It is written." Our LORD made a direct rebuke to Peter when He knew Peter was giving ear to Satan; but then Jesus was God incarnate!

raying:

 

Hey Uncharted,

There's good help in 2Cor 7:9 -- "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, (1) what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, (2) what clearing of yourselves, yea, (3) what indignation, yea, (4) what fear, yea, (5) what vehement desire, yea, (6) what zeal, yea, (7) what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter."

(1) staying busy when temptation comes

(2) staying away from where the sin lurks for you

(3) being indignant about having fallen for it (like the Miami CSI song -- "Don't Get Fooled Again.")

(4) fear of God's chastisement of your health, relatinships, finances.

(5) always have in front of you the ideal - where you want to "be" after you conquor the sin

(6) zeal for the Lord (CONFESSION, Bible reading and prayer) will help you stay "pure." Confession helps your mind get onto God's side. Confession is agreeing with Him. The more you agree, the more you will want to be free of sin.

(7) revenge is when you finally get the victory and you can help extricate others from that sin. This is the part that I think the devil hates.

skypair