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.

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Are You Prepared for War?

The men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh obeyed Moses. These men crossed the river in front of the other people. These men were prepared for war. They were going to help the rest of the Israelites take the land God had promised to give them. About 40,000 soldiers, prepared for war, passed before the Lord. They were marching toward the plains of Jericho.

Joshua 4:12-13

In this story we are told that the children of Israel were about to cross the river Jordan to go into Jericho, to take the first city that God had promised them.

Even though the men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh had already secured their land on the other side of the river, they did not just sit and wait for their brothers to capture their promised land alone. Instead these men were prepared for war.

As Christians, we also have a promised land ahead of us that we have to reach. Our promised land is not made by human hands, for its architect and builder is God Himself (Hebrews 11:10); it is the New Jerusalem which is coming from heaven down to earth:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared. Now there was no sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throne. It said, “Now God’s home is with people. He will live with them. They will be his people. God Himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain. All the old ways are gone.”

Revelation 21:1-4

This New Jerusalem, just like the promised land of old, is not easy to attain, we also must be prepared for war in order to reach it. Just like the children of Israel had to destroy the inhabitants of the land before they could possess their land, we too have spiritual giants that we must destroy in order to possess our promised land.

However unlike the Children of Israel who fought a physical fight using natural weapons with their enemies, the Bible tells us that our fight is not against human beings but spiritual forces:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places

Ephesians 6:12

What Does It Mean To Be Prepared?

To be prepared is to be ready “standing by,” ready to meet the opportunity (challenge) at hand; ready because the necessary preparations are done (or are sure to happen as needed).

What Is The War About?

War is a conflict between opposing forces.

You will see from the scripture we are about to read that the war is between God and Satan, and the war started in heaven however it has moved down to earth and we human beings are caught in it, whether we like it or not:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,

but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

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.

Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

Revelation 12:7-12

So, the forces involved in this war are:

1. Two Kingdoms – the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ as its King and the kingdom of darkness with the great dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan as its king.
2. Two opposing Angels – Michael, the Archangel and his angels and Satan and his angels.
3. The battlefield – the war started in heaven however the battlefield is now the earth and people in the earth.
4. Battle strategy – Satan is out to deceive as many human beings as he can so that he can drag them down to hell. He continually accuses the children of God day and night. Satan’s strategy is to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus has come that we may have life in its fullness:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly

John 10:10

God in His love has provided salvation, strength, Kingdom of God and the power of His Christ to all humanity who choose to believe in Jesus Christ His Son:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

How Do We Overcome Satan?

We overcome him by:

1. The Blood of The Lamb – we apply the blood of Jesus Christ when we accept that we are sinners and ask Him to forgive us and wash us clean with His blood. When we accept Him He becomes our sacrificial lamb (Hebrews 10:10).
2. The Word of our testimony – we testify when we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Romans 10:9).
3. We do not love our lives to the death – this means that we will be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are also encouraged to die daily to our flesh or natural desires (1 Corinthians 15:31).

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25

Next week we’ll be looking at how you can prepare for war.

Prayer:

Dear Lord please help me to be prepared for war as the men from the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. Please help me to always be ready to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, in Jesus name.

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