This is a long article by an unknown author, but it is worth the read!
I. WALKING IN THE SPIRIT
It
is God Himself who sanctifies us as we walk in the Spirit moment by moment. But He has given us instruction in His word
as to how that process takes place. The
following principles are guidelines for walking in the Spirit in problem areas.
A.
Willingness – not Will-power
It
is in areas of recurring sin that we are the most tempted to implement self-improvement
programs – with a subtle “we
try harder” approach to conquering the problem. God does not
ask us to “try
harder”, which implies struggle. He only
asks that we admit that it is sin,
confess it and surrender complete control of
the problem to Him.
Surrender, according to Webster’s
Dictionary, means to “yield or hand over to the power of
another; to resign; to
cease resistance”. We are to surrender our natural desire to have our
own way and to think our own thoughts, which is rebellion, and surrender to
God’s authority
in our lives.
Avoid repression:
Repression of wrong thoughts or
actions by sheer will-power simply leads to an explosion
of the problem when
our resistance is down. Earl Radmacher gives
an excellent illustration
of this principle.
Visualize a pot boiling over a fire and steam coming out of the pot.
Racmacher says that the steam of behavior is visible proof that the fire of
thought is boiling
the pot of emotion. If we are dissatisfied with the behavior, our
tendency is to slam a heavy
lid on the pot.
But that merely results in a big explosion when the lid blows off. God’s
solution is to cool the fires of
thought.
B.
You have a new mind in Christ.
Ultimately our life is an expression
of what we think about. “As a man thinks in his heart,
so is he.” Prov.23:7
In Romans 7 Paul talks about his
struggle with the flesh. Then in Romans 8 he breathes a
sigh of relief to know
that there is no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus and
who walk in the power of His Spirit. He goes on to
describe how the Spirit-filled Christian
thinks. In verses 5,6 and 7, he says
that those who walk according to His Spirit get their minds
on the things of the Spirit. Just as our lives are an expression of our
thoughts, so the life of
Christ is the expression of His mind. As one writer put it:
His
mind is now ours by endowment. We
have the mind of Christ – but now as we mature, it must become ours by development. Otherwise we will experience a constant
struggle against the promptings of an un-Christ-like mind.
Norman B Harrison
Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold:
Before coming to know Christ, or
learning how to walk in the Spirit, we developed some
deeply ingrained thought
patterns which were conformed to the world system of values;
i.e., if it feels
good, do it; or, if it tastes good, eat it!
Walking in the Spirit is the exact
opposite of being conformed to the world.
Romans 12:1,2
says that we are to not
be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing
of our
minds, that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable
and perfect.
Brainwashed with Scripture:
We need to saturate our minds with
the truth in the areas where we are easily tempted and
easily deceived –
literally, brainwashed by Scripture. Paul
says in Colossians 3, “if we’ve been
raised up with Christ, we need to keep seeking the things above where Christ
is, seated at the
right hand of God. Set
your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth.”
C.
Prayer and praise
In any area we know to be the will
of God we can pray with complete confidence that He
will hear and answer
(1 John 5:14-15). Pray specifically that God will alert you, through
the power of
the Holy Spirit the moment that wrong thinking begins so that you can
immediately say no to wrong thoughts and yes to right ones.
A trap that we can easily fall into
is that of forgetting the countless blessings in our lives
and focusing on the
one restriction. That was satan’s tactic
with Eve in the garden. Praise,
however,
is the great antidote to that malady. Praise turns our attention to all that we are
and have in Christ Jesus and thanks Him in advance for the victory. “Greater
is He that is
in us than he that is in the world!” (1 John 4:4).
D.
Jesus wants to meet your needs
The word “tempt” means to entice, to
do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain.
We are
most vulnerable to temptation when we have some kind of need for
“pleasure or gain”.
We may feel tired,
frustrated, rejected, unappreciated,
angry, overworked or simply that
we “deserve a break today”. Or we may be excited and feel like celebrating,
believing the
subtlety that “you only go around once in life…so grab all the
gusto you can”.
Whatever we need or however we feel,
we’re tempted to take the path of least resistance
to comfort and pleasure –
only to discover that the problem simply
multiplies.
The moment wrong thinking begins, we
need to ask, “What do I really need?”
Then turn
to Jesus and ask Him to meet it. Expect that our Father will meet our needs
because He
has promised to do so.
Phil.4:1.
E.
You can have victory over temptation
Temptation is common to man and
temptation itself is not sin. Here it is
important to
remember God’s commitment to
us as found in 1 Cor.10:13:
“No
temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able;
but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be
able to endure it.”
Whereas once we habitually entered into temptation, we can now
habitually take God’s
promised way of escape.
Jesus exemplified what it means to
take the way of escape when He was tempted
in the
wilderness. He was tempted to turn
the stones into bread and thereby meet His own needs
His own way, rather than
trusting the Father to meet them.
His immediate response to temptation
was to submit to the Father’s will by redirecting His
thoughts to what was true
rather than how He felt. He answered the
tempter by saying,
“It is written…”
In the same way, the moment the Holy
Spirit alerts us to wrong thinking, we can choose to
submit our will to God’s
and redirect our thoughts to what is true, rather than how we feel.
Often there will be a momentary resistance to
submit our will to God’s because of man’s
natural tendency to exert his own
will. “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful
but sorrowful. But
afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Heb.12:1). It
is
interesting to note that it was after Jesus submitted to God’s word that the
angels came and
ministered to Him.
“All we do is throw the switch by saying ‘No’ to wrong thoughts
and ‘yes’ to right ones. And the energy from His enormous source of power flows
through us and energizes us to do the very thing we want to do and that He
wants us to do.”
Dr. George
Sanchez
II.
OBSTACLES TO WALKING IN THE SPIRIT IN PROBLEM AREAS
A.
Discouragement
One common problem that arises is in
the area of discouragement. Discouragement is one
of the number one problems in
the Christian life.
If we can recognize discouragement
for what it is, perhaps we can deal with it more
objectively. Hannah Smith tells the allegory of satan
calling together a council on how to
defeat Joe Christian. The most effective idea presented was that of
the imp who said, “I
will discourage his soul.”
“That will do it”, satan said triumphantly. (James 1:13-15)
Discouragement never has its source in God, because
discouragement is the exact opposite if faith – believing God. The problem is not that we face an
unconquerable problem but discouragement causes us to believe that it is
– and we become convinced that victory is not possible.
B. Focusing on the
problem
Obstacles come in many ways, shapes,
and forms – most of them subtle. Another common
one is when we focus
on the problem. This is especially true immediately
after we
experience defeat and are acutely aware of the problem. We need to
remember that
whenever we do sin, “we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”.
(1 John 2:1).
We are not to make resolutions that it will never happen again, but
simply
confess the sin and move on “fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.”
(Heb.12:1-2).
C.
Focusing on ourselves
Another common obstacle is that of
focusing on ourselves and our own inability to deal
with the problem. Looking at our own weaknesses we naturally
become discouraged. But
God wants to
bring us to the point where we can see our own weaknesses revealed and not
be
discouraged, but simply realize that
our adequacy is not in ourselves but in Christ.
Paul
says, “Not that we are
adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves,
but our
adequacy is in Christ” (2 Cor.3:3).
God never encourages people as to their own
ability to handle a task or
deal with a problem. He simply reminds
us of our total sufficiency
in Him. The following
promises are examples:
“Behold,
I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (Jer. 32:27)
“There is no temptation
which has overtaken you that is not common to man. But God is faithful and will, with the temptation
provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor.10:13)
“If we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us and if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the requests which we
have asked of Him.” (1 John
5:14-15)
“For
nothing will be impossible with God.”
(Luke 1:37)
Maturity
in these areas takes time – it is a life-long process. However, a concentrated application of these
principles can help us understand them more clearly and begin a habit of
applying God’s principles for a lifetime.
