How can we avoid sin?

An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him.

Proverbs 5:22

We are told that an evil man is held captive by his own sins, his sins are ropes that catch and hold him. Sometimes, we think it is Satan or his evil spirits that are holding us captive; but this scripture tells us that it is our own sins that are like ropes that catch and hold us. So the question is, how can we avoid sin since it leads to bondage?

1. Surrender our lives to Jesus

You see, human beings are born with a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5). The only way we can overcome evil in this life is to accept the free gift of salvation by surrendering our lives to Jesus, because He is the only One Who can save us from our sins:

And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:21 (NLT)

2. Be transformed in our thinking

Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour and we become born again, we should no longer conform to this world, but we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We renew our mind and develop a new way of thinking by reading and meditating on the Word of God:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Romans 12:2 (NLT)

3. Cultivate the fruit of the Spirit

Once we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and begin to read His Word on a daily basis to transform our mind, we will then begin to develop the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us on our journey, He begins to transform our thinking so that we are convicted anytime we get a temptation to do the evil things we used to do. He produces in us the desire to do good instead:

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Galatians 5:22-23

Prayer

Dear Lord, please help me to overcome every sin in my life so that it will not become a snare unto me in Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Events

Finding Your Purpose and Overcoming Limiting Mindset and Book Launch, Friday 27 October 2017

Breaking Free Deliverance Service every Tuesday

Breakthrough to Your Purpose Retreat 2017 from 1-3 December 2017

New Books for 2017

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