Temptation From A False God
God can give you victory over every temptation:
1. Know that Satan can't make you do anything you don't
want to do. He can't move your body unless you want to move it.
2. Know that God has the power to deliver you from every
temptation, if you are willing. You have to hand your thoughts
and your will over to him 100% and resist the devil and he will
flee from you:
"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ"
(2 Corinthians 10:5).
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you" (James 4:7).
When you are tempted, you can pray something like this: "Our Father
in heaven, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, I pray that you would
forgive me for these thoughts and bring them into captivity to the
obedience of Christ. I lift my will into your hands 100%, and I leave
it there, and I pray not my will, but your will be done in all matters
continually."
"I resist the devil in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Depart from me, every spirit of temptation, in the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Depart from me, every spirit of [the
particular sin that is tempting you] in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth."
"I renounce and reject Satan, and all of his works and all of his
ways. I renounce and reject every spirit of rebellion, and every
spirit of laziness, and every spirit of wickedness, and every
unclean spirit, and every spirit of [the particular sin that
is tempting you], and all of their works and all of their ways,
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth."
"Our Father in heaven, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit,
I plead that you would forgive me for and deliver me from
every spirit of rebellion, and every spirit of laziness, and every
spirit of wickedness. I plead that you would deliver me from Satan
and from every spirit of temptation and from every unclean spirit
and from every spirit of [the particular sin that is tempting you],
in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
"Our Father in heaven, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit,
I plead that you would fill me with the spirit of obedience,
and with the spirit of diligence, and with the spirit of righteousness,
even at this time, wholly by your mercy and your grace, in the name
of Jesus Christ, Amen."
3. Know that there is no such thing as more temptation than you
can bear. Pray and ask God to reveal to you the way of escape from
the temptation:
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:
but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
4. Know that God never wants you to sin any sin, no matter how small.
Satan and unclean spirits are able to sound just like God in your thoughts,
saying that they are God and that it's okay to sin this time, that it's his will,
or that he wants to use your sinning for his glory, or that you need to sin
this sin so that you can stay humble before other people, or so that you can
grow spiritually as you exercise with the weights of sin, or so that in your
moral weakness (instead of physical weakness) God's strength can be made
perfect in you, or so that like a water pot with a crack in it you can water the
pathway of your life, or that sinning this sin will keep you from sinning a greater
sin, or they will say that God has cleansed this particular sin so that it's okay for
you to continue in it as long as you please, or they will speak any number of
other deceptions in your mind, sounding in your thoughts just as tender and loving
and holy as God himself, all in order to get you to wilfully commit a sin in the
sight of God and his holy angels..
But always remember this scripture:
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust"
(James 1:13-14).
5. Know that there is no such thing as necessity as far as any sin
is concerned. We have been commanded not to make any provision
whatsoever for sin:
"Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11).
"Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14).
"Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1).
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh"
(Galatians 5:16).
"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should
abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess
his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence,
even as the Gentiles which know not God" (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).
6. Know that temptation that continues can be thought of as a pain in
the body: it can be ignored. If you can bear a pain in your body without
having to commit a sin in the sight of God, then you can bear a temptation
in the body without having to commit a sin.
"Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Hebrews 12:4).
7. Know that those who claim to know and serve Jesus but continue to
willfully practice sin will be rejected:
"I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway"
(1 Corinthians 9:27).
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22-23).
"The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,
and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past,
that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God"
(Galatians 5:19-21).
"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that
despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:26-29).
"They themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome,
of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions
of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they
are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than
the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them" (2 Peter 2:19-21).
"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8:34).
"He that committeth sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (John 8:44).
"Now they have no cloak for their sin" (John 15:22).
"By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart
from evil" (Proverbs 16:6).