I’ve been writing this post for a couple weeks now, and as I put pen to paper, I was getting hit over and over again with tempation. Tempation that I firmly believe was meant to discourage me from finishing and publishing this post. It seemed as though the more I would write, the more tempations would come my way.   But it’s here. It’s finished. And I know it’s going to help someone out there.

So, when temptation comes knocking, how do you deal with it?

As I’d mentioned in part 1, The Struggle is Real: Spirit vs Flesh, you may have noticed that your temptation usually goes into overdrive right after you’ve had a major breakthrough, or when you’re right on the cusp of something great that God has been moving you towards. The enemy’s goal is to do whatever he can to make sure we’re as far away as possible from the purpose that God has for us. And because he knows what we’ve struggled with before, he knows what stands a chance of working. So he sends one tempting situation after another hoping that we’ll eventually take the bait and go off course.

But no matter how hard or how many times the enemy tries us, we need to always remember that we have the ultimate weapon on our side– the Holy Spirit. In those moments, He’s the best temptation-fighting weapon that we have at our disposal.

The fact of the matter is, this war between your flesh and your spirit (what you want to do and what you know you should do) is spiritual. Nothing you do in your own strength can work against the enemy’s schemes.

Ephesians 6:10–13 “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord, and by His vast strength. Put on the full armour of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the devil.  For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. This is why you must take up the full armour of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day…”

Because this is a battle in the spirit, one of the ways you can fight the enemy off is by keeping your spirit well-fed – regularly spending time in God’s presence and immersing yourself in the Word. As an essential part of the armour of God, His Word is vital to keeping you afloat when things get rocky. If you feel yourself beginning to drown, it’s usually a sign that you’re not spending enough time soaking in His presence and in His Word.

Just as a side-note, being tempted in and of itself is not a sin; yielding to the temptation is. Even Jesus was tempted after His 40-day fast. If you find yourself being tempted over and over again (especially with the same things), pray and ask God to strengthen your inner man to resist. Then indulge in things that will feed your spirit (thereby starving your flesh).

Whatever we feed will grow.

So what are you feeding? Your spirit or your flesh?

It’s important to pay attention to how we’re spending our spare time. Free time can very quickly turn into idle time, and we all know that an idle mind becomes the devil’s playground. As you spend your free time doing things that feed your spirit, you’ll begin to desire things of the spirit more and more, and you’ll begin to lose interest in things of the flesh. Eventually, as your old fleshly sinful desires are being starved, your inner man will become stronger, and resisting sin will become easier.

I’ve noticed that whenever my flesh is rearing its ugly head and things of the flesh start to become more attractive again, these 2 things are usually true:

1. I’m spending less time with God
2. I’m not reading the Word as much anymore

So I’m becoming spiritually dry.

Whenever I find myself going through a period where I am more vulnerable to sin for whatever reason, God will lead me to multiple scriptures in the Bible that talk about sin, temptation, feeding my spirit etc. Sometimes He’ll also give me recurring warnings through dreams.

In one of those dreams, I went to visit an old friend in a different city. When I got to her city, I realized that all the residents were living life freely yet being held captive. Everyone there including her had to give most of their paychecks over to their “masters” and no one could leave town. When I realized the way they were living (in captivity masked by a false sense of freedom), I tried to leave town and the “authorities” were chasing me to keep me from getting out. I tried to get my friend to leave with me but she didn’t see anything wrong with their life there and she wanted to stay. I ended up leaving her behind, and had to run far while hiding periodically to avoid capture. And in order to get out of the “enslaved city” I had to run through forests and up mountains to get to my freedom. What was supposed to be a simple visit (back to the enslaved city) had almost cost me my true freedom.

The dream reminded me of how easy it is to get tangled back up in sin simply because you decided to go back and visit just once. It’s a very slippery slope… and once you’re back in it it’s hard to get out.

When I woke up the morning after this particular dream, God led me to:

Galatians 5:1 “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Galatians 5:16 & 17 “… walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want”.

A wise man once told me that God doesn’t speak to merely give us information. There’s always purpose when He speaks, and one of the reasons God speaks is to warn us of how the devil works, and to show us how we can resist and defeat him.

What if I fail?

Experiencing temptation doesn’t always lead to sin. God will always give you a way out! A chance to stop. A chance to turn around. The choice will be yours whether you want to listen to his warning and jump out the escape window He has opened, or whether you have your mind set on pleasing your flesh and doing what you know is the wrong thing in that moment. So the question is, do you want to not do it?

James 1: 14 & 15 “Each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin…”

James 4: 7& 8 “Therefore submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

The feeling of being tempted will always cease the moment you give it to God and ask Him for help to resist in that moment. The thing that’s tempting you will still be there, but the desire to do it will disappear when you pray and ask God to take it from you. Lean on Him in those moments, He’ll pleasantly surprise you.

If you do succumb to the temptation though (we’ve all been there), all you have to do is have genuine remorse for what you did, ask God for forgiveness, and do your best not to take advantage of His forgiveness by doing the same thing again. And most importantly, believe you’re forgiven and move on, because God has.

This is often where many of us trip over ourselves, thinking God is mad at us for what we did. While God has forgiven us and moved on, we’re still stuck feeling guilty and ashamed (which only serves to keep us feeling down even longer and therefore increases our likelihood of sinning again).

The enemy wants you to think that by accepting God’s forgiveness, you’re minimizing the gravity of your sin. DON’T FALL FOR IT! That’s a lie the enemy plants, and it’s the furthest thing from the truth. In your moments of guilt and shame, you MUST ignore your negative thoughts and emotions, and instead repeat the truth over and over again to yourself until you’ve snapped out of it.

So what’s the truth?

The truth is, God loves you so much. His love for you is UNCONDITIONAL – aka He won’t love you any less just because you sinned. He hates your sin, but He will always love you no matter how bad you feel you messed up.

Once you’re saved, all your past present and FUTURE sins are forgiven. That’s the very reason Jesus died for you (John 3:16). If your sins were not forgiven then God sending His only Son to die on the cross would have been in vain. Jesus died SO THAT you can be forgiven for your sins. God doesn’t desert you because of your failures. He’s a GOOD God. He’s a FAITHFUL God. And best of all, He’s a FATHER. You are His son/daughter. He sees your effort in getting back up again and trying your best not to do it again. He knows your struggle, and He’s here to help you through it. But guess what, if you do mess up, His love, grace, and forgiveness is waiting for you. You just need to ask for it, receive it, and believe it.

We’re freed from sin! This however, doesn’t mean we are free TO sin.

Galatians 5:1 “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

We should strive to develop our God-like character. That’s the least we can do after everything Christ has done and continues to do for us. Lucky for us, the more time we spend with God the easier it becomes to resist sin as He changes us from the inside out.

Ephesians 4:22–24 reminds us that “You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

So how can I guard against the traps?

Guard against the tricks of the devil by being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit and the flesh are like 2 sides of a see-saw. The more you have of one, the less you’ll see of the other. The more you feed your spirit, the less control your flesh will have over you and the stronger you’ll be to resist when temptation comes. However, the more you feed your flesh by giving into your sinful desires, the less you’ll be able to control your flesh.

Galatians 5:16 & 17 “… walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want”.

My pastor often uses this perfect analogy: Think of yourself as a bottle, and the Holy Spirit as the water. When your bottle is empty, that empty space is what the devil occupies.  The more empty space there is, the more your fleshly desires control you. As you pour water into the bottle, there’s less and less empty space left. So as we keep filling ourselves with the Holy Spirit, there is less and less room for the enemy to rule through your flesh.

Feed your spirit as much as you can by spending time in God’s presence and reading your Bible often!

So, how exactly do I  handle temptation in the moment?

Whenever I face a tempting situation and I feel myself getting in over my head, I just say something along the lines of “Jesus help me. I really feel like doing X right now, and I know it goes against your will for me. Take the urge to do X away from me. Remove this fleshly desire because I can’t do it without you. Help me resist the enemy right now. Replace it with something that will feed my spirit. In the mighty name of Jesus.”

See the thing is, anything we ask God for in Jesus’ name will be given to us if it lines up with His will for us. And because part of His will for us is to resist temptation, that is a prayer He will absolutely grant. We just need to have the wisdom to lean on Him whenever we get tempted, and the courage to ask for His help in those moments. Lean on Him, it’ll take the pressure off of you!

Indulge in Him!

Lots of Love,

Val

#Mood

This Hillsong song says it best…”my sin was great but Your love was greater… You have no rival, You have no equal.” Watch the acoustic version here.

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