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Tunde Mabinuori
3. Refuse to be
intimidated: Many Christians are frightened and demoralized by tempting
thoughts, often developing a sense of guilt that they haven’t outgrown
temptation. They feel ashamed just for being tempted. This is a
misunderstanding – you will never outgrow temptation. Temptation is a sign that
Satan hates you – not a sign of weakness or worldliness. In fact, the closer
you get to God, the more Satan will try to tempt you. The Bible says “When you are tempted, …” not “if”. Paul
advises, “Remember that the temptations
that come into your life are not different from what others experience.” – 1
Corinthians 10:13. You can’t keep the devil from suggesting thoughts, but you
can choose not to dwell on them, or act on them. Treat it as distraction and
refocus on God.
4. Recognize your
pattern of temptation and be prepared: There are certain situations that
you are more vulnerable to. Wise planning reduces temptation. The Bible says
that we should plan carefully what we do, avoid evil, and walk straight without
stepping aside. Don’t go to places that will stir up the desire you are trying
to kill. Avoid friends that will lead you astray. Get yourselves out of the
“hot zone” of the temptation. Flee if you have to. Don’t hang around and see if
you can withstand it if flight is an option.
Consider how Joseph fled the house when he was cornered by
Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39:6:13. He didn’t hesitate to run the moment she
propositioned him for sex.
Paul instructed Timothy along similar lines concerning lust
in general: “Flee the evil desires of
youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who
call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2: 22).
5. Meet with God
daily: Our daily quiet time will help sharpen our spirituality. This
special time of learning Good’s word and meditating on it will help us better
recognize the devil’s counterfeits and the lies behind them. We do this in
partnership with the Holy Spirit who will remind us of the truth and counsel us
on what to do (John 14:16-26).
Practice meeting with God each day for a quiet time, taking
time to worship, pray and study the word. These actions help detoxify our minds
from the evil things we have loaded into them. Use the word of God to battle
your weakness. Read, recite and personalize Romans 6:14 repeatedly. For sin shall not have dominion over you
(me) for you (I am) not under law, but under grace.
1 John 4:4 is also a relevant scripture that can be recited.
The power in the word of God will boost your resistance level to the threats f
your weakness.
6. Recognize the lies
behind the temptation : The goal is to simply discern the lie, the instant
we hear or see it. That ability comes with time after we have been faithfully
feeding our minds on the word and spending time with God. The Holy Spirit will
often step in and help us discern the nature of a thought. This may be by
reminding us of a scripture that bears application to the thought at hand. For
example, as Joe’s beautiful wife walks into church in a stunning red dress. Joe’s
friend, Jim may be reminded of Matthew 5:28, “But I tell you that anyone
who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his
heart”.
7. Take control of
tempting thoughts and cast them aside: We should not allow our minds to
dwell on the temptation or construct fantasies around it. Since our minds can generate evil thoughts in
response to a temptation in less than a second, our thought-control actions
should be immediate. We can do this by treating the tempting thought as an
enemy and giving it no mercy. We should not shelter it, protect it or toy with
it.
This often will go directly against what our flesh wants to
do with the thought. The prospect of entertaining an evil thought may “feel”
good to us, and that is precisely when we must force ourselves to say “No!” to
our flesh. After that, we must correct the lies with the truth. The truth of God’s
word destroys the power of temptations and the lies behind them. We can take
the same truth that helped us recognize the temptation and apply it as the
correction to the tempting thoughts. This is one of the ways of using the
“Sword of the Spirit”, and is how Jesus defeated the devil in the wilderness
temptations (Luke 4).
Lastly, we must jettison the thought from our minds. The
idea is to get the thought out of our minds so that we prevent our own evil
desires from engaging the thought, dragging us way and enticing us to sin
(James 1:15). The dangers of not taking control of evil thoughts are that sin
will be conceived and that our desires will take control of our thoughts.
Philippians 4:8 says
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true
,whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think of these things” (KJV).
Pastor Tunde Mabinuori is the Minister-in-Charge, Rhema Chapel
International Churches, Oluyole Estate, Ibadan.
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