How can we avoid being seduced by sin this year?

How can we avoid being seduced by sin this year?

So she seduced him with her pretty speech and enticed him with her flattery. He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter. He was like a stag caught in a trap, awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life.

Proverbs 7: 21-23 (NLT)

Happy New Year!

A new year provides an opportunity for us to start afresh and, it’s a time when we take stock of the lessons we learned from last year and think about what we would like to achieve in the year ahead.

Just as God has good plans for our lives, we can be certain that the enemy of our souls also has bad plans for us. These plans will come in the form of temptations and sinful traps, which can be deadly, as we can see in the scripture above. Since we are not ignorant of Satan’ devises, how can we avoid the sin that would try to seduce us this year?

1. Listen to the Words of God

Firstly, we must be good listeners of God’s Word, and not listeners only, but doers of His Word. When we do this, we will avoid falling into the traps of sin:

So listen to me, my sons,and pay attention to my words.

Proverbs 7:24 (NLT)

2. Don’t let your heart follow in sin

Sin begins in the heart as a thought before it is actually committed therefore, we are encouraged not to let our heart stray towards sin.

Remember Jesus said that if a man looks at a woman in the wrong way, he has already sinned in his heart. Therefore, we must guard our heart from anything that will lead us towards the path of sin. The way we do that is to capture the thought as soon as it comes and make it bow down to the obedience of Christ:

Don’t let your hearts stray away toward her.

Don’t wander down her wayward path.

Proverbs 7:25 (NLT)

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

3. Simply say no to sin

When we feel so tempted to sin, we must simply say no, and declare we are in the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus and thereby take authority over the sin, so that it does not control us. God told Cain that sin was eager to control him, but he must overcome it and be its master, and you and I can do the same thing:

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

Genesis 4:7 (NLT)

Prayer:

Dear Lord, please help me to listen to Your Words and live a life of righteousness in 2018 in Jesus΄ name.

Books

My Purpose Journal 

Why I Changed My Name

How to Stop the Negative Voices in your Head

How Jesus Healed

 

God bless,

Blessing Theophilus-Israel

Spiritual Life Coach

 

 

How do you overcome carnality?

All the kings on the west side of the Jordan heard about this, including those in the highlands, the lowlands, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea toward Lebanon. They were Hittites and Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They formed an alliance to fight Joshua and Israel.

Joshua 9:1-2 (CEB)

For the past few weeks, we have been looking at how to overcome fear and pride. Today we will look at carnality or the works of the flesh and how we can overcome them.

Canaanite – spirits of carnality

“Canaanite” means, “lowlands people”. Since the word “land” is related to the concept of “earth” or “ground”, the “lowlands” refer to low earthly passions, or what the Bible calls carnality. Canaanite spirits are the spirits behind addictions and sexual perversions.

The Bible tells us that when we follow the desires of our sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. It goes on to tell us that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

How then do we overcome carnality? 

The Bible tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to destroy strongholds. Below is a list of some of those weapons we can use to overcome carnality:

1. Present your body to God daily as a living sacrifice

We are exhorted by Paul to present ourselves to The Lord as a living sacrifice; holy, acceptable to God (Romans 12:1-2). This means that we must daily surrender our lives to Jesus and deny ourselves to our own desires and take up our cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24);

2. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

The Word of God has the power to transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. This will happen when you read and meditate on the Word of God so that you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2);

3. Walk in the Spirit so you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh

Ephesians 5:18 tells us to stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit. It is important that once we come to Jesus Christ that we let the Holy Spirit guide our lives so that we won’t be doing what our sinful nature craves (Galatians 5:16);

4. Let the Blood of Jesus cleanse your conscience from dead works

The Blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness therefore we can pray and ask The Lord to cleanse our conscience from dead works of the flesh so that we can serve the living God (Hebrews 9:11-15);

5. Be crucified with Christ

The Bible says that we must die to self. To die to self is to put to death our sinful nature and desires and deny ourselves of what we want so that we can live by faith through Jesus Christ:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

6. Avoid sexual immorality

1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us to flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who lives in us and we are not our own therefore we must keep our bodies pure and holy (1 Corinthians 6:19);

7. Pray and ask God to help you

The works of the flesh are many and we cannot avoid or overcome them without the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit therefore we must simply pray to God and ask Him to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13).

Prayer

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

For more information about the Canaanite spirit and how to overcome them, please visit here.

Listen to the Message

You can also listen to this message on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO_ynEZZhV4

How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose Through Dreams

Do you know God’s purpose for your life? If not, please listen to the audio version of: How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose Through Dreams

God bless,

Blessing