Bible Study Every Man's Battle: Putting An End to the Battle.

[Tenchi]

Galatians 5:16-18
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of
the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to
each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.​

As happens very often around various human problems, an industry has developed around the problem of porn addiction. Especially within the sphere of Christendom, merchandising "cures" for sin is common - and lucrative. Books, video series and podcasts are produced constantly, ostensibly to help Christians conquer their many problems (lust, bad marriages, spiritual apathy, various neuroses, gluttony, bitterness, etc.), but actually to generate profit and notoriety for those who write the books and star in the video series. Certainly, concerning the matter of addiction to porn, the "sin-cure" industry has thrived.

But God, in His word, the Bible, offers a "way of escape" from all sin to any who want to take it. And He has laid out this way to victory over all sin very plainly in Scripture, though it has been well-obscured by the porn-addiction industry that wants to make merchandise of those bound in this sin (and inevitably in many other sins, too). Like the industry that's grown up around psychological distresses, the goal of the porn-addiction industry isn't really freedom, total and enduring, but mere "management" of this sin. The porn-addict who's freed of his sinful addiction ceases to be a source of revenue, so it's just bad business to relieve him fully of his addiction. No, he must see himself as permanently "ill," his brain chemistry powerfully disordered, his thinking severely twisted, so that he can't ever hope to be genuinely free of his addiction.

But God has no interest in keeping His children in perennial bondage to any sin, nor in making money off of them. If they are to enjoy Him fully, as He made them to do, and live in the protection, peace and blessing of holiness, they must be made increasingly free of sin. And so, God offers to His children a "way of escape" - not just from porn addiction - but from any and all sin. What is this "way of escape," exactly? Paul the apostle has described it in detail in his various letters to the Early Church, but in a "nutshell," here it is:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
​

Before explanation is made of what Paul wrote, here, it should be clarified that sin is just a symptom of something else, an effect called "sin," rather than the cause of itself. Sins are like sparks rising from a bonfire; they are the result of the bonfire, produced by it, they are not the bonfire itself. Too often, though, approaches to dealing with sin are occupied with the "sparks" rather than with the underlying "bonfire" that is producing them. Christian teachers will talk of "controlling one's eyes," and installing a supervisor over one's net activities, and thinking of the porn star as someone's daughter or sister, and using various distractions to occupy oneself. They'll orient upon these ways of stamping out a "spark" of sin, but never do anything about the "bonfire" of wickedness that's showering their life with such "sparks." There is no effective remedy from sin, however, no real liberty from it, without dealing with the Source of All Sin.

In the verse above, did the apostle Paul write of walking in the Spirit and thus not gratifying the will of the devil? No. He doesn't indicate that it's the devil who is the problem, but the "desires of the flesh." Many Christians, though, assign their sin-problem entirely to the devil, making him the ultimate cause of their wickedness. He tempted Eve, did he not? She would not have sinned, if he'd not enticed her to do so. It's the devil, then, who's at fault for our sin. Well, hang on. Did Satan force Eve to sin? Did he hold her down and stuff the Forbidden Fruit into her mouth? No. Instead, he appealed to something inside of Eve, to something in her very nature that was powerful enough to deny and defy the command of God Himself, whom Eve knew personally and directly. What was that something? Well, it was the same thing, at bottom, that had prompted the devil to rebel against his Maker: Self-will.

We have a problem with the desires of the flesh, these desires produce sin in us, only because we are living according to our own will and way rather than God's. It is from this selfish person, this self-centered, self-willed person, that we all require salvation; for it is this rebellious, self-oriented person who will take us straight into eternal hell, if God doesn't rescue us from his/her control. This self-willed person is irremediable, s/he cannot be improved, even by God, and is incorrigibly fixed upon itself and satisfying inordinately and destructively the impulses of the flesh.

Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the sexual impulse, or the impulse to eat and drink, or the impulse to rest and to be entertained, or to delight in the many good things God has made. But when a person is not "walking in the Spirit," they are "living according to the flesh" and this always leads to an excessive and destructive - a sinful - pursuit of fleshly impulses. The obese pastor standing in the pulpit telling you how to live as a Christian is not walking in the Spirit; the Christian addicted to gambling, or porn, or drugs is not walking in the Spirit; the Christian eagerly filling their days with the World, binging on Netflix, or Amazon Prime t.v., or spending hours reading Twitter posts, or watching Tik Tok and YouTube videos, or playing the narcissist, posting a near-constant stream of video and pics of themselves to the 'net is not walking in the Spirit. Most of them have no idea what "walking the Spirit" is, or that it is basic and essential to the Christian life!

The consequence of so few believers knowing of, and understanding, what it is to "walk in the Spirit" is that the Church in the West, the Body of Believers in North America, is filled with the "leaven" of sin that only a little of which, the apostle Paul warned, would "leaven the whole lump" and make the entire community of believers spiritually corrupt and impotent, as the church at Corinth was (1 Corinthians 3, 5, 6, 11). But this "leavened" condition has been the case for so long now within the western Church, many believers so deeply-steeped in a carnal, self-centered version of Christian living and thinking, that they snarl and snap at any who point out the deeply unbiblical nature of their living.

In such circumstances, it's no surprise that various sinful addictions plague the Church. And it's no surprise that those desirous of making merchandise of the "flock of God" have crowded around the Church, offering myriad approaches, and methods, and systems to deal with these addictions. God's "way of escape," however, has not altered since it was delivered to the Church two millennia ago. And it remains as powerfully-effective now as when it was first described in the New Testament.

So, then, what is it, exactly, to "walk in the Spirit"? If, as Paul wrote, doing so prevents fulfilling the desires of the flesh in a sinful manner, it must be a vital aspect of Christian living! Well, Paul left a clue:

"But if you are led by the Spirit,"

​

"Led by the Spirit"? What's this mean? Does the Spirit direct everything I do, indicating to me what socks to wear, what toothpaste to use, how many peas to put on my dinner plate, what direction to take on my daily constitutional? Is this the leading of the Spirit? Well, before this question is addressed, it's necessary to consider what "being led" implies and requires.

Continued below.

​

 

[Hopeful 2]

Galatians 5:16-18
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of
the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to
each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.​

As happens very often around various human problems, an industry has developed around the problem of porn addiction. Especially within the sphere of Christendom, merchandising "cures" for sin is common - and lucrative. Books, video series and podcasts are produced constantly, ostensibly to help Christians conquer their many problems (lust, bad marriages, spiritual apathy, various neuroses, gluttony, bitterness, etc.), but actually to generate profit and notoriety for those who write the books and star in the video series. Certainly, concerning the matter of addiction to porn, the "sin-cure" industry has thrived.

But God, in His word, the Bible, offers a "way of escape" from all sin to any who want to take it. And He has laid out this way to victory over all sin very plainly in Scripture, though it has been well-obscured by the porn-addiction industry that wants to make merchandise of those bound in this sin (and inevitably in many other sins, too). Like the industry that's grown up around psychological distresses, the goal of the porn-addiction industry isn't really freedom, total and enduring, but mere "management" of this sin. The porn-addict who's freed of his sinful addiction ceases to be a source of revenue, so it's just bad business to relieve him fully of his addiction. No, he must see himself as permanently "ill," his brain chemistry powerfully disordered, his thinking severely twisted, so that he can't ever hope to be genuinely free of his addiction.

But God has no interest in keeping His children in perennial bondage to any sin, nor in making money off of them. If they are to enjoy Him fully, as He made them to do, and live in the protection, peace and blessing of holiness, they must be made increasingly free of sin. And so, God offers to His children a "way of escape" - not just from porn addiction - but from any and all sin. What is this "way of escape," exactly? Paul the apostle has described it in detail in his various letters to the Early Church, but in a "nutshell," here it is:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
​

Before explanation is made of what Paul wrote, here, it should be clarified that sin is just a symptom of something else, an effect called "sin," rather than the cause of itself. Sins are like sparks rising from a bonfire; they are the result of the bonfire, produced by it, they are not the bonfire itself. Too often, though, approaches to dealing with sin are occupied with the "sparks" rather than with the underlying "bonfire" that is producing them. Christian teachers will talk of "controlling one's eyes," and installing a supervisor over one's net activities, and thinking of the porn star as someone's daughter or sister, and using various distractions to occupy oneself. They'll orient upon these ways of stamping out a "spark" of sin, but never do anything about the "bonfire" of wickedness that's showering their life with such "sparks." There is no effective remedy from sin, however, no real liberty from it, without dealing with the Source of All Sin.

In the verse above, did the apostle Paul write of walking in the Spirit and thus not gratifying the will of the devil? No. He doesn't indicate that it's the devil who is the problem, but the "desires of the flesh." Many Christians, though, assign their sin-problem entirely to the devil, making him the ultimate cause of their wickedness. He tempted Eve, did he not? She would not have sinned, if he'd not enticed her to do so. It's the devil, then, who's at fault for our sin. Well, hang on. Did Satan force Eve to sin? Did he hold her down and stuff the Forbidden Fruit into her mouth? No. Instead, he appealed to something inside of Eve, to something in her very nature that was powerful enough to deny and defy the command of God Himself, whom Eve knew personally and directly. What was that something? Well, it was the same thing, at bottom, that had prompted the devil to rebel against his Maker: Self-will.

We have a problem with the desires of the flesh, these desires produce sin in us, only because we are living according to our own will and way rather than God's. It is from this selfish person, this self-centered, self-willed person, that we all require salvation; for it is this rebellious, self-oriented person who will take us straight into eternal hell, if God doesn't rescue us from his/her control. This self-willed person is irremediable, s/he cannot be improved, even by God, and is incorrigibly fixed upon itself and satisfying inordinately and destructively the impulses of the flesh.

Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the sexual impulse, or the impulse to eat and drink, or the impulse to rest and to be entertained, or to delight in the many good things God has made. But when a person is not "walking in the Spirit," they are "living according to the flesh" and this always leads to an excessive and destructive - a sinful - pursuit of fleshly impulses. The obese pastor standing in the pulpit telling you how to live as a Christian is not walking in the Spirit; the Christian addicted to gambling, or porn, or drugs is not walking in the Spirit; the Christian eagerly filling their days with the World, binging on Netflix, or Amazon Prime t.v., or spending hours reading Twitter posts, or watching Tik Tok and YouTube videos, or playing the narcissist, posting a near-constant stream of video and pics of themselves to the 'net is not walking in the Spirit. Most of them have no idea what "walking the Spirit" is, or that it is basic and essential to the Christian life!

The consequence of so few believers knowing of, and understanding, what it is to "walk in the Spirit" is that the Church in the West, the Body of Believers in North America, is filled with the "leaven" of sin that only a little of which, the apostle Paul warned, would "leaven the whole lump" and make the entire community of believers spiritually corrupt and impotent, as the church at Corinth was (1 Corinthians 3, 5, 6, 11). But this "leavened" condition has been the case for so long now within the western Church, many believers so deeply-steeped in a carnal, self-centered version of Christian living and thinking, that they snarl and snap at any who point out the deeply unbiblical nature of their living.

In such circumstances, it's no surprise that various sinful addictions plague the Church. And it's no surprise that those desirous of making merchandise of the "flock of God" have crowded around the Church, offering myriad approaches, and methods, and systems to deal with these addictions. God's "way of escape," however, has not altered since it was delivered to the Church two millennia ago. And it remains as powerfully-effective now as when it was first described in the New Testament.

So, then, what is it, exactly, to "walk in the Spirit"? If, as Paul wrote, doing so prevents fulfilling the desires of the flesh in a sinful manner, it must be a vital aspect of Christian living! Well, Paul left a clue:

"But if you are led by the Spirit,"

​

"Led by the Spirit"? What's this mean? Does the Spirit direct everything I do, indicating to me what socks to wear, what toothpaste to use, how many peas to put on my dinner plate, what direction to take on my daily constitutional? Is this the leading of the Spirit? Well, before this question is addressed, it's necessary to consider what "being led" implies and requires. ontinued below.

​

I am glad you beleive we can live without sin.

 

[Tenchi]

Romans 8:14
14 For all who are being led by the
Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Galatians 5:18
18 But if you are led by the Spirit...

Matthew 4:1
1 Then Jesus was led up by
the Spirit into the wilderness...
​

What is necessary to my being "led of the Spirit"? Can I have my own plans, my own agenda, my own will and be led of the Spirit? How can he lead me when I'm pursuing my own will and way? Well, of course, he can't. Imagine being led by a wilderness guide through a forest. If you decide you want to make your own way through the vast expanse of trees and underbrush all around you and head off down an animal trail that you think is interesting, are you being led by the guide?

Being led of the Spirit, then, requires following his way rather than your own. But how does the person led of the Spirit know what the Spirit's way is? Well, the answer is that such knowledge is obtained from God's word, the Bible.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Deuteronomy 8:6
6 "Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

1 Kings 2:3
3 "Keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn,

Psalm 119:105
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Psalm 119:130
130 The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.

There is no being led of the Spirit apart from a thorough knowledge of the will and way of God revealed in His word. Scripture is absolutely vital to knowing and following the leading of God, the Holy Spirit, which is always in accord with God's Truth laid out to us in the Bible. If the word of God is a light to one's path, it's absence will mean one's path will grow dark and difficult - if not impossible - to see.

Being led of the Spirit, then, requires knowing and then submitting to his will and way revealed in Scripture. Only in this circumstance is it possible to "walk in the Spirit" and so, not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Thus it is that, in the New Testament, the Christian is repeatedly commanded to put themselves under God's authority and control:

Romans 6:12-13
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 6:19
19 ...For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Romans 12:1
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

James 4:7-10
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

1 Peter 5:5-6
5 ...Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

Submission to God, then, is the essence, the core, of "walking in/by the Spirit," or "being led of the Spirit"; it is being always under the control of the Holy Spirit.

What happens, though, with many Christians is that they only give partial control to the Holy Spirit. For example, they find their porn addiction embarrassing, and destructive to relationships; it provokes in them much shame and shows them to be very weak; it deadens everything spiritually, making God seem a great way off. And so, they go to God for relief of their addiction, praying that He will take away their desire for porn. Of course, nothing happens. God is entirely unresponsive to their prayers.

Why? Because, as someone has said, "If God is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all." There are no half-measures with God, no partial control of His child; He will never be merely one's "co-pilot"; He will be only Lord of all in one's life. If a Christian person thinks, then, that they can negotiate with God, that they can determine the regions of control God will have over them, they badly misunderstand with whom they are dealing. God will only be who He is in their life: God Almighty, Ruler of Heaven and Earth. He dictates to His creatures when, and what, and how much He will alter in their lives, never the reverse.

And so, when a Christian chooses what area of their life they want God to transform, trying to dictate to Him when and what He should go to work on, yielding only bits and pieces of their life to Him as they see fit, they find God entirely unwilling to respond. They plead strenuously with God to help them with their porn addiction while they have no intention of giving over to Him control of their choice of entertainments, or relationships, or other addictions to, say, food, or gaming, or their cell phones. But God will only be who He is - Lord and Master - never sharing His authority with anyone or anything else.

Exodus 20:3
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

Romans 6:22
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Matthew 4:10
10 ...For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

So, being "led of the Spirit" which is the key to winning free of the grip of the flesh (including porn addiction), requires two things:

1.) A thorough knowledge of the will and way of God revealed in His word, the Bible.

2.) Submission to God's constant, across-the-board control.

What is it like, though, to live in submission to God all the time? How does doing so overcome an addiction to porn, exactly?

Continued below.

 

[LeviR]

Galatians 5:16-18
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of
the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to
each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.​

As happens very often around various human problems, an industry has developed around the problem of porn addiction. Especially within the sphere of Christendom, merchandising "cures" for sin is common - and lucrative. Books, video series and podcasts are produced constantly, ostensibly to help Christians conquer their many problems (lust, bad marriages, spiritual apathy, various neuroses, gluttony, bitterness, etc.), but actually to generate profit and notoriety for those who write the books and star in the video series. Certainly, concerning the matter of addiction to porn, the "sin-cure" industry has thrived.

But God, in His word, the Bible, offers a "way of escape" from all sin to any who want to take it. And He has laid out this way to victory over all sin very plainly in Scripture, though it has been well-obscured by the porn-addiction industry that wants to make merchandise of those bound in this sin (and inevitably in many other sins, too). Like the industry that's grown up around psychological distresses, the goal of the porn-addiction industry isn't really freedom, total and enduring, but mere "management" of this sin. The porn-addict who's freed of his sinful addiction ceases to be a source of revenue, so it's just bad business to relieve him fully of his addiction. No, he must see himself as permanently "ill," his brain chemistry powerfully disordered, his thinking severely twisted, so that he can't ever hope to be genuinely free of his addiction.

But God has no interest in keeping His children in perennial bondage to any sin, nor in making money off of them. If they are to enjoy Him fully, as He made them to do, and live in the protection, peace and blessing of holiness, they must be made increasingly free of sin. And so, God offers to His children a "way of escape" - not just from porn addiction - but from any and all sin. What is this "way of escape," exactly? Paul the apostle has described it in detail in his various letters to the Early Church, but in a "nutshell," here it is:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
​

Before explanation is made of what Paul wrote, here, it should be clarified that sin is just a symptom of something else, an effect called "sin," rather than the cause of itself. Sins are like sparks rising from a bonfire; they are the result of the bonfire, produced by it, they are not the bonfire itself. Too often, though, approaches to dealing with sin are occupied with the "sparks" rather than with the underlying "bonfire" that is producing them. Christian teachers will talk of "controlling one's eyes," and installing a supervisor over one's net activities, and thinking of the porn star as someone's daughter or sister, and using various distractions to occupy oneself. They'll orient upon these ways of stamping out a "spark" of sin, but never do anything about the "bonfire" of wickedness that's showering their life with such "sparks." There is no effective remedy from sin, however, no real liberty from it, without dealing with the Source of All Sin.

In the verse above, did the apostle Paul write of walking in the Spirit and thus not gratifying the will of the devil? No. He doesn't indicate that it's the devil who is the problem, but the "desires of the flesh." Many Christians, though, assign their sin-problem entirely to the devil, making him the ultimate cause of their wickedness. He tempted Eve, did he not? She would not have sinned, if he'd not enticed her to do so. It's the devil, then, who's at fault for our sin. Well, hang on. Did Satan force Eve to sin? Did he hold her down and stuff the Forbidden Fruit into her mouth? No. Instead, he appealed to something inside of Eve, to something in her very nature that was powerful enough to deny and defy the command of God Himself, whom Eve knew personally and directly. What was that something? Well, it was the same thing, at bottom, that had prompted the devil to rebel against his Maker: Self-will.

We have a problem with the desires of the flesh, these desires produce sin in us, only because we are living according to our own will and way rather than God's. It is from this selfish person, this self-centered, self-willed person, that we all require salvation; for it is this rebellious, self-oriented person who will take us straight into eternal hell, if God doesn't rescue us from his/her control. This self-willed person is irremediable, s/he cannot be improved, even by God, and is incorrigibly fixed upon itself and satisfying inordinately and destructively the impulses of the flesh.

Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the sexual impulse, or the impulse to eat and drink, or the impulse to rest and to be entertained, or to delight in the many good things God has made. But when a person is not "walking in the Spirit," they are "living according to the flesh" and this always leads to an excessive and destructive - a sinful - pursuit of fleshly impulses. The obese pastor standing in the pulpit telling you how to live as a Christian is not walking in the Spirit; the Christian addicted to gambling, or porn, or drugs is not walking in the Spirit; the Christian eagerly filling their days with the World, binging on Netflix, or Amazon Prime t.v., or spending hours reading Twitter posts, or watching Tik Tok and YouTube videos, or playing the narcissist, posting a near-constant stream of video and pics of themselves to the 'net is not walking in the Spirit. Most of them have no idea what "walking the Spirit" is, or that it is basic and essential to the Christian life!

The consequence of so few believers knowing of, and understanding, what it is to "walk in the Spirit" is that the Church in the West, the Body of Believers in North America, is filled with the "leaven" of sin that only a little of which, the apostle Paul warned, would "leaven the whole lump" and make the entire community of believers spiritually corrupt and impotent, as the church at Corinth was (1 Corinthians 3, 5, 6, 11). But this "leavened" condition has been the case for so long now within the western Church, many believers so deeply-steeped in a carnal, self-centered version of Christian living and thinking, that they snarl and snap at any who point out the deeply unbiblical nature of their living.

In such circumstances, it's no surprise that various sinful addictions plague the Church. And it's no surprise that those desirous of making merchandise of the "flock of God" have crowded around the Church, offering myriad approaches, and methods, and systems to deal with these addictions. God's "way of escape," however, has not altered since it was delivered to the Church two millennia ago. And it remains as powerfully-effective now as when it was first described in the New Testament.

So, then, what is it, exactly, to "walk in the Spirit"? If, as Paul wrote, doing so prevents fulfilling the desires of the flesh in a sinful manner, it must be a vital aspect of Christian living! Well, Paul left a clue:

"But if you are led by the Spirit,"

​

"Led by the Spirit"? What's this mean? Does the Spirit direct everything I do, indicating to me what socks to wear, what toothpaste to use, how many peas to put on my dinner plate, what direction to take on my daily constitutional? Is this the leading of the Spirit? Well, before this question is addressed, it's necessary to consider what "being led" implies and requires.

Continued below.

​

Certainly the serpent did not force Eve to sin, nor did it plant some “fallen angel” inside of Eve to possess her.
Eve desired the fruit because it was pleasant to her eyes, and good for food, and to make one wise.
The serpent merely inflamed what was already in man.
But the churches can’t see that. They say Adam’s nature changed after he sinned.

 

[Christ_empowered]

Helpful material…

 

[LeviR]

Helpful material…

Someone told me that the devil doesn’t want me to believe he is a personal powerful fallen Angel who can tempt me to sin. That he wants me to believe he doesn’t actually exist.

I told them that the devil wants man to blame someone outside themselves for sin.

 

[Christ_empowered]

I dunno
I understand that the evil one exists. I also think sin self and the world are huge factors in problems we face.

 

[Tenchi]

Galatians 5:22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let
us also walk by the Spirit.​

A few years ago, I was discipling a young man who was having a bitter struggle with pornography. I had guessed this was the case and was glad when he finally admitted to me his addiction to porn. We talked together about God's "way of escape" (1 Corinthians 10:13) and the young man agreed to begin to consciously, explicitly, all throughout each day submit to God. We got together the following week and I asked him how his new spiritual practice had worked out. "It didn't work at all," he said. "When I was tempted, I submitted myself to God and nothing happened. The temptation came right back. It didn't work." He sighed, frustrated and unhappy, and added, "Is there anything else that I can do?"

I responded to the young man's experience with three questions:

- What do you mean by "It didn't work"?
- What are your expectations of God when you submit? Are those expectations biblical?
- What is the primary struggle, the Great Battle, in every moment of temptation?

"It didn't work."

What the young fellow who was addicted to porn meant by "It didn't work," was that the temptation didn't stop the moment he submitted himself to God. He was thinking of submission to God as a sort of "magic spell," an anti-temptation incantation, that he could rattle off whenever he was tempted that would instantly dissolve the temptation. His focus, you see, was upon dealing with the bothersome, shame-inducing issue of pornography, rather than upon the real purpose of submission to God, which is fellowship with Him.

2 Corinthians 13:14
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

1 John 1:3
3 ...our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Revelation 3:20
20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

The young man just wanted his moral/spiritual problem gone, not a deeper, more God-centered life. What he didn't understand was that victory over temptation, over sin, is the effect, the by-product, of fellowship with God, not an end in itself. It is through enjoying God in daily, intimate communion that the Christian escapes temptation. What else would one expect in relating with the Ground of All Reality, the Maker and Sustainer of Everything?

Romans 11:36
36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Acts 17:28
28 for in Him we live and move and exist...

Colossians 1:16-17
16 ...by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

God will not be anything less than He is when He relates with us. Just as God is Lord and Master of the universe, He will be only our Lord and Master, too. Our fellowship with Him, then, is necessarily shaped by this fact. If we intend to walk with God, who He is demands our submission. It turns out, however, that yielding to God has many benefits, one of which is increasing holiness.

Romans 6:19
19 ...For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

It is as the believer's holiness expands and they are more and more set apart unto God in their thinking, desires and conduct that sinful temptation has less and less power over them.

However, the young man who desired to be free of his porn addiction had no interest in a life that was a "living sacrifice" to his Maker. No, he just wanted "spot removal," not an entire overhaul of his living. And so, the young man's "submission" to God was an instrumental act, a mere mechanical ritual, that he hoped would "activate" God to eradicate his porn problem but leave the rest of his untouched. But, since God is a Person, not a tool for removing sin, trying to use Him as a tool always yields a bad result.

As you can imagine, God doesn't much like being reduced to a spiritual "vending machine," where pushing the "button" of submission yields the "chip bag" of victory over sinful temptation. No, all that God intends to be in, and for, His children is obtained only within fellowship with Him as servant to Master, creature to Creator, sheep to Shepherd, inferior to Superior. He only lifts up those who go low - and stay low - before Him.

1 Peter 5:6
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

James 4:10
10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

It is in submitted fellowship with God that one "walks in/by the Spirit" rather than merely "lives in the Spirit." Through faith in Christ as Savior, a lost sinner comes into relationship with God as His adopted child. They are, in other words, "living in/by the Spirit" who has washed them clean of the stain of their sin, and given them spiritual life in himself.

Titus 3:5
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

1 John 4:13
13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Romans 8:9
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

But having the Spirit within does not guarantee fellowship with God, or "walking in/by the Spirit." Like the Prodigal Son to his earthly father (Luke 15:11-32), one can be related to their heavenly Father (through the indwelling Holy Spirit), but not enjoying direct, personal communion with Him. And so, Paul urged the believers in the province of Galatia not merely to be "living in/by the Spirit" - to be born-again - but to be "walking in/by the Spirit," too. It is fellowship with God - "walking in/by the Spirit" that is actually the purpose of being born-again, of coming to "live in/by the Spirit."

If submission to God, then, is to have the effect of dissolving an addiction to porn, if it's going to "work" in this way, fellowship with God must be the aim, not mere eradication of a struggle with a particular sin.

Have you been thinking about being a "living sacrifice to God," about being His bond-servant, about living in submission to Him, in the instrumental way the young man addicted to porn had been doing? Hopefully, if you have, you can see now the mistake in doing so and will consider the greater good of submitting to God, which is daily fellowship with Him, not mere victory over sin. Holiness is never an end in itself but merely the doorway to communion with the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth. Don't settle for anything less than fellowship with Him! It's what He made you for.

Psalm 36:7-9
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Psalm 16:11
11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Continued below.

 

[Tenchi]

Unbiblical expectations of a life of submission to God.

The young man I mentioned, hoping to rid himself of a porn addiction, had expected an instant cessation of temptation when he submitted to God. But he had thought to deal only with a single region of his life that he didn't like, not yield himself wholesale as a "living sacrifice" to God. He had wanted a "quick fix" of his sin, not fellowship with his Maker. He had also expected that, having submitted to God, the temptation would cease immediately and never return. He had heard of "victory over sin" and had assumed that this meant instant and permanent freedom from a sinful temptation. This was what he was expecting when he had submitted to God.

It didn't happen. Though he had submitted himself to God - or, at least, he'd spoken words of submission to God - the temptation continued, unabated. His conclusion was that submitting to God had not been the "way of escape" from sin that I'd showed him from God's word that it was. Does God anywhere in His word promise to instantly remove all temptation and testing the moment His child submits? No. I pointed this out to the young man and then took him in Scripture to the example of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ famously declared, "Not my will but yours be done."

Luke 22:41-44
41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Though he was the God-Man, Jesus still consciously, explicitly submitted himself to the will and way of God, the Father. Doing so was not an instant remedy for the terrible struggle he was enduring within his humanness that looked with horror on the terrible, brutal sacrifice of himself he was about to make. When he had prayed as he did in the passage above, Jesus wasn't instantly filled with supernatural power so that he leapt to his feet radiant and indomitable, thumping his chest and yelling, "Bring it!" No, instead, he continued in an agony of prayer, "sweating great drops of blood."

God's answer to Christ's awful need for strength to endure, for the courage to resist his human instinct to flee his approaching death, wasn't to remove Christ's inner struggle, or fill him to bursting with fearlessness, or change his external circumstance, but to offer him angelic encouragement and the strength to take one step, and then the next, and the next until his atoning sacrifice was completed. Can we expect more? Ought our submission to God move Him to a greater response than He gave to His Son's submission?

You can be sure that at every step of Jesus's cruel journey toward the fatal misery of the cross, being fully man, he was resisting the intense, natural human impulses for self-preservation and the relief of his suffering. But, if he had yielded to those impulses, in the moment that he did, he would have stepped out of God the Father's will and way. Jesus's battle, then, all throughout his "Passion" was to remain submitted to God's will, no matter what. As he did, Jesus remained in the flow of the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15, 4:1, 14; Romans 8:11), and was thus able to "endure the cross, despising the shame," and is now seated at God's right hand in his former divine glory and power (Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55; Romans 8:34).

In this, the Great Battle of the Christian life is demonstrated. It isn't a battle to defeat ourselves by self-effort, to use Self to put itself to death. No, the Great Battle is to stay submitted to God and as we do, we are enabled by the "rivers of living water" within us (the Person of the Holy Spirit - John 7:38-39) to work out the will and way of God in our daily living, just as Jesus did.

Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you...

Ephesians 3:16
16 ... strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

Ephesians 5:18
18 ...be filled with the Spirit,

Romans 8:13
13 ...if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 ...beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Lord, the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...

Not understanding this, when the young man with the porn addiction had submitted to God and found no immediate relief from the temptation to look at porn, he assumed that God's "way of escape" (1 Corinthians 10:13) hadn't worked. I pointed out to him that if the right response to temptation is always to submit to God, which it is, it is the right response to temptation no matter how many times the temptation occurs. This is the real battle of Christian living: remaining consciously, explicitly under the control of the Holy Spirit, remaining yielded to the will and way of God.

Not being relieved immediately of his temptation to look at porn, the young man had cast about for help from other things - Bible reading, prayer, exercise, gaming, movie watching, etc.. But these things don't properly answer the invitation of every sin to step out from under the Spirit's control and follow one's own will and way. Only the power of God can enable one to take up one's cross and journey into death to Self (Matthew 16:24-25) and come out the other side into the glory and freedom of the crucified life. And that power only works in tandem with our being persistently and consistently under the control of the Holy Spirit. This submission to the Spirit, to God, is the only right answer to the invitation to rebellion within every sinful temptation.

Continued below.

 

[Tenchi]

The Great Battle of Christian Living.

Like so many Christians, the young man with the porn addiction whom I was discipling had a...cockeyed view of what Christian Living was and how it all worked. In the matter of overcoming sin, in particular, his thinking was badly tangled - and very unbiblical. Three false notions had rooted in his mind that were keeping him perennially in the sin-confession-sin-confession cycle:

1.) I can achieve a godly end by fleshly means.
2.) I must do for God.
3.) God intends to improve me.


I can achieve a godly end by fleshly means.

No, in fact, this is impossible. Like begets like. A cat begets a cat, a dog begets a dog, a duck begets a duck, and so on. You, too, can only beget "in kind," which is to say, you can only beget more of yourself. Anyone who desires to be godly must "tap into" God; for only God can beget godliness.

What happens when a Christian attempts to produce godliness by means of fleshly, human effort?

Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption...

Romans 8:6-8
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 7:18-19
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Fleshly effort can generate a superficially "spiritual" result, appearing externally to be godly, by which is meant, "nice," or "pleasant," or "kind." Fleshly "spirituality" checks all the boxes of popular thinking on what it is to live "godly in Christ Jesus": attending church on Sunday, praying, participating in a Bible study, singing or playing an instrument on the Worship Team, giving to the church and charities, etc. These are all external things, however, and in the majority of professing Christians run in tandem with addictions, bitterness and resentment, secret sins, worship of other "gods" (career, family, hobbies, wealth, notoriety, etc.), various neuroses (depression, anxiety, obsessiveness, perversion) and so on. This is nothing like the life God produces in those in whom He is truly working.

https://jonathanhay.substack.com/p/conduits-not-copyists

But the life only God can "beget" begins within the inner person, transforming core desires, altering fundamental beliefs and patterns of thinking, engendering in the born-again person holiness, and a hunger for God's Truth, and a deep, self-sacrificing love of the brethren (1 Peter 2:2; Jeremiah 15:16; 1 John 3:14; 1 John 4:7-11). Life in, and by, the Holy Spirit is supernatural, enabling a person to truly love their enemies, to do good to those who use them despitefully, to go the extra mile regardless of the cost and to do so joyfully (Matthew 5:38-48); to separate more and more from the World, the Flesh and the devil unto God as a "vessel sanctified and prepared for every good work" (2 Timothy 2:21; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Ephesians 5:1-13); to endure suffering for the sake of Christ with equanimity and even contentment (Matthew 5:10-11), knowing that the "sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:17).


I must do for God.

No, God must do for you. If He doesn't, if you try to do what only God can do, the result will ultimately be the corruption and sin the flesh always produces. Instead, the way things actually work spiritually is summarized well by the apostle Paul:

Philippians 2:12-13
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, etc - is the fruit of THE SPIRIT, not of you. Without Christ, without the Spirit of Christ working in you (Romans 8:9-13), you can do NOTHING to produce the spiritual "fruit" of the Vine (John 15:4-5). You can only work out what God, by His Spirit, has first worked into you.

But so many Christians don't believe this! And, worse, they are taught not to believe it. They are told to "try their hardest," to "labor diligently," to "just do it," to "really work at it," and to "be disciplined." Christians are instructed to exert themselves, their fleshly power, their human determination to the utmost until these things fail (as they must), and then they should turn to God for aid. "God helps those who help themselves," right? Wrong.

Galatians 3:3
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Colossians 2:20-23
23... asceticism and severity to the body... are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is ...
23 ...self-control...

Romans 8:13
13 ...if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Continued below.

 

[Tenchi]

When the Christian ceases to do for God and, by faith, in love and submission, waits upon God, upon His Spirit, to enable the life God has commanded of all of His children, they don't encounter strain, and labor, and exhaustion but the exact opposite:

Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Psalm 84:5-7
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

The naturalness and effortlessness with which the believer walking in the power of the Spirit lives a godly life is always astonishing to them because it is entirely opposite what they are told to expect in their life as a believer and what they've experienced as they've tried in their weak humanness, in their fleshly power, to do for God.

The Great Battle isn't, you see, to make yourself live the life God wants you to live, to produce for Him your best version of a godly life, but to submit to Him, in love and faith waiting upon Him to form in you the life only He can beget in you. And as He does, you will find yourself simply going His way, doing His will easily and joyfully, going from strength to strength, not into regular moral collapse and spiritual exhaustion.


God intends to improve me.

No, He intends to put you to death and install in you a new life entirely. There is nothing in you apart from God, there is nothing in the old Self, the person that you were prior to being saved, that can be improved. The old Self is thoroughly rotten, incorrigibly rebellious and sinful, and cannot be remediated.

Romans 7:18-19
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Romans 8:6-8
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Titus 3:3
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

And so, God isn't interested in improving you. Instead, He puts to death your old Self and replaces it with new life in Jesus Christ, the life of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; Philippians 1:19):

2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Colossians 3:3
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Romans 6:6
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Galatians 2:20
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

The born-again person who thinks God is in the business of their Self-improvement, of making over the sinful, rebellious person they were before being saved, of polishing up the old Self and making it shine, has not understood at all what the true nature of the Christian life is! No, their old, unsaved Self must DIE so that their new life in Jesus might manifest in them by the work of the Holy Spirit. He does this, though, as has already been explained in earlier posts in this thread, only as the born-again person is walking in daily conscious, explicit submission to his control.

And so, the Great Battle of the Christian life isn't to make our own best version of a Christ-like life but to submit to the Spirit producing in us his life, the life of Jesus Christ, and in his infinite power and wisdom making us who he wants us to be.

Romans 8:29
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

Philippians 1:6
6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Have you been misunderstanding the basics of Christian living, as the porn-addicted young man I was discipling had done? Until these misunderstandings are corrected and a proper, biblical conception of walking with God is taken up, God's "way of escape" is not available. In the end, His goal is not merely that the Christian come free of some particular sin but that they move into ever-deepening fellowship with Himself. This is, then, at its core, God's "way of escape": Knowing and enjoying Himself. Is this what you want in overcoming your sin?