UnchartedSpirit said:
I've been taking Satan too lightely lately. I know that God is first and foremost and I've not been putting myself in a proper realtionship to him as I should be, but his most powerful creation is no pushover either. One thing I discovered is that he doesn't just stick to those three causes for sin to get at me. Y'know, "I must be God," "I must be worshipped," and "I must hunger and be satisfied." However I found out that isn't the only thing he wants, is for us to stumble. He wants God to hurt, and we obviously are the best mediums for it. So Satan uses any trick in the book to get anyone against or apart from him. I just noticed this while I was struggling with a certain sin, I would turn to God in prayer and scriptures, but it wasn't enough to withstand the temptation. However when I stopped praying and reading from God, the pain of temptation ceased. I see know why Paul taught so much on spiritual "warfare" and refrencing Jesus as a general; because Satan is a mitilarity stragetist too...
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:
