1. You will be bad habits resistant and temptation resistant
2. You will be productive and prosperous in anything you do
3. You will be freed from all guilt and insecurities
4. You will walk a straight path, bypassing all wrong turns and complexities in life
5. You will save tons of times and resources that others need to spend to achieve the results they cannot even imagine they can achieve

A Narrow Path

This post is going to challenge and turn upside down the way of men. What is the way of man? Human wisdom, certitude, the board path… You got the idea.

Most people do what most people are doing. The Bible said the same of the board road and wide gate (Matt 7:13).  More people choose that path, but that leads to destruction.

You can hear the same from some of the smartest men in the world – that if you go after the low hanging fruits and do what most people do, you are less likely to succeed. In fact, the majority is usually irrational and wrong. If you follow the stampede, you will hurt yourself. For example, the stock market! History repeats and people still buy high and sell low. They just follow the stampede and the same financial actors.

Only the few who actually know what they are doing and stick to it will receive the rewards at the end (Such as Warren Buffet).

You know what it takes: Courage, patience, faith, wisdom, knowledge…

It takes that same for the spiritual elites to live differently than the majority of people on earth.

And more.

Fortunately, God already wrote down what we need to do in the Bible. It is quite a list, but as I meditate on the verses that explain how to live a spirit filled life, I became so excited because I realized it wasn’t as difficult and complicated as I thought.

They are all familiar Bible verses. I just hadn’t put them together to pay a closer look before. I began to feel that my previous experiences resonate with the verses.

If you happen to have read most of the Bible, this post should be an easy scan for you. I wish I am doing a great service to you by putting the familiar verses in a focused manner that makes it easy to understand our central theme: how to live a spirit filled life. It was all hidden under my nose before!

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The Natural Man, The Flesh, And The Spiritual Man

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgethc all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor 2:14-16

9 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.  Gal 4:29

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.   Gal 5:16-18

As Christians, we have both the spiritual part and natural part within us. The “natural man” is capable for logic, senses, emotions, words/languages, imagination, and general capacities of human beings, while the “spiritual man” is born after the Holy Spirit when we accepted Christ as our personal savor and Lord (John 3:1-16), and one of the functions of the spiritual man is to  serve as a spiritual organ that communicates with the Holy Spirit.

The natural man is pretty good at doing what it does, but it can’t receive truth and revelation from the Spirit 24/7 like we Christians can, because, on top of the natural man we also have the spiritual man in each of us.

Writing a post like this one requires the exercising of both the natural man and the spiritual man. The spiritual man receives divine knowledge from the Spirit, while the natural man deciphers the messages into human languages and understandable thoughts, so we can remember and communicate with others the lessons and messages we have received from the Spirit.

In order words, I have to allow the Spirit to lead and use my natural capacities in order to write this post. It doesn’t mean I become a robot and the Spirit take over the control of my body, but I follow His promptings to do what He directs me to do, and trust that He will empower me to do it.

As Christians, we should dedicate our body members to God (Rom 6:12-13), which include our natural capabilities; therefore, they are to be driven by the Holy Spirit, not the flesh. (Rom 8:4)

The flesh is the sinful tendency that we still retain even after our conversion into the family of God. The flesh will be gone only at the day we get into heaven or at the moment of the Rapture when we experience a transformation of our bodies into the new ones like that of Christ. (1 Cor 15:51-53)

But at the meantime, we have a war to fight. Our spiritual man and the Holy Spirit repels the flesh, and vice versa.

Here is where the natural man comes in. The flesh wants us to rely on our natural strength and capacities, rather than relying on God. The natural man is well-intentioned but it can only put on the form of righteousness. It isn’t able to empower us to live a genuine righteous life.

The natural man and the flesh don’t know what God’s perfect will is, and it will try its best to please God with its limited strength and wisdom.

Humans have a stubborn tendency to rely on the natural man to perform good works. Whenever we sin we like to figure out what went wrong with our own wisdom and logic, and then we double, triple, or quadruple our willpower to avoid sinning again. To our dismay, no matter how hard we try, the power of sin only becomes stronger over us. (Romans 7:21-23)

As Christians, it is very common for us to experience struggles between relying on our natural abilities/flesh and the Spirit.

Most of the times we are philosophically confused about it because very few Christian pastors or teachers teach about walking in the Spirit in a systematical, practical way.

As a result, many Christians are serving God out of the flesh, instead of relying and obeying the Holy Spirit.

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To Rely On The Flesh Is Disobedient, Self-Centered, And Counter-Productive

On the surface, it looks like everything is fine as long as we have the heart to serve God and live a good Christian life, but it isn’t.

Matthew 12:30

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

Matthew 7:21-24

²¹Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.²²Many 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? ²³And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.²⁴Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

1 Samuel 15:23

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Romans 8:7-8

7 Because the carnalc mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The flesh can put on the show of good works, but the power source of these good works is the flesh, not the Spirit, and it is the same flesh that is the source of all vices that we find ourselves struggling with in our Christian life.

As long as we continue to rely on the flesh, we will never experience true victory over sins, and we will never truly please God.

The flesh and the natural man can only do what they think is good. They act on what they know in their limited wisdom and knowledge, and thus create a lot of unintended consequences that will ultimately lead to bad results, but this reality will not be immediately obvious to those who are walking in the flesh.

We are in fact resisting God if we rely on our flesh to carry out good works.

The flesh likes to boast of its power. It wants others to see what it can do. It is “self”. To live in the flesh is to live a “self” life without God being our actual Lord.

The Bible never said that the flesh is dead when we accepted Christ as our savior and Lord, but it actually teaches us that the flesh will continue to present, so we have to be watchful, lest it regains its control over us.

The moment we fail to live in the Spirit, the flesh will dominate. (Gal 5:16-18)

When the flesh dominates, sins will abound.

Don’t be surprised if you find your flesh to be active from time to time. It happens if we quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 5:19), or by a dozen of other reasons, so be vigilant and always learn from the Spirit so we can always walk in Him and avoid falling into the flesh again.

It is a lifelong practice with a very steep learning curve, so don’t feel disappointed if the flesh beats your best intention at times. Just go back to God and ask for grace to resume the practice again (Proverbs 24:16).

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How Do I Walk In The Spirit?

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Gal 5:16

Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thess 5:19

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Rev.2:7

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, Jude 20:20

We walk in Him by knowing who He is, by obeying everything that He tells us, and by approaching Him as much as we can. How do we know Him? The Bible teaches us who He is.

He is with us Christians 24/7, and He loves to fellowship with us anytime. (Phil 2:1-4)

The Holy Spirit speaks to us very frequently with a still small voice (1 Kings 19:12). We can easily ignore Him and pretend we don’t know what He is trying to say, or assume that what He says is undo-able.

Why Does Christian Struggle With Sin? Why Doesn’t God Hear Our Prayers And Deliver Us From Sins and Bad Habits Right Away?

By repeatedly ignoring or resisting the Spirit, we can quench his power in us (1 Thess 5:19). If we allow that to happen, we will fall prey to the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Sins will regain dominion over us as the grace and power of the Spirit recede because of our little disobedience here and there.

Many Christians are struggling with sins. Me included. Until recently I re-discovered why – I fail to obey and listen to the Holy Spirit all the time.

When there is the flesh at work, no amount of prayers will stop it from bearing bad fruits, unless I repent at once and walk in the Spirit again.

I said “re-discover” because I learned this before, and this lesson brought me to a major revival a few years ago. I tried my best to stick to the right path while this lesson was still fresh, but later, the subtle deceptions of the flesh had slowly crept back in, and I relied more and more on the flesh again.

I was like a frog in a slowly heated water.

Watch Out Even For The Innocence

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

There is no sin that is too little. If the Spirit tells you not to do something that you think is innocent, then run away from it and never look back! I often do it or look back anyway, and it would bring me to a less innocent act, and then another that is even lesser, until I find myself drowned in sins.

In fact, anytime we disobey the voice of the Spirit His power in us will start to diminish, and we will find it harder to obey as we sink further downward.

There Are People You Can’t Handle. If The Spirit Warns You Of Them… Run And Hide!

Similarly, if the Spirit tell you to avoid certain individuals or situations, avoid them right away. There are many people or situations that will lead you astray. They can be innocent, well-meaning folks or events: pastors, Christians, harmless looking people, Christians gathering, or Church functions.

The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

There was a Christian whom I admired and wanted to connect with for quite a few years, and finally I had a chance to serve with him in a ministry. Soon, I found out that he had a lot of issues to deal with, and one of them was bitterness. This bitterness had spread out to those whom he had come across with, especially and including me. Gossips, divisions, and outburst of angers (from this person) were frequent when he was present. I regretted that I invited him on board and that I didn’t cut off all ties with him quickly.

God will deal with the people in your life if you lift them into His hand. Don’t intervene. Don’t offer any assistance or counsel to anyone if it wasn’t from the Spirit.

I made this major mistake with the guy I mentioned above, and with some other individuals.

As a result, my walk with God had been contaminated by the negative influences from fellowship with these people. It took me quite some time to recover spiritually. Their negative influence was one of the reasons why I fell prey to the flesh again a few years back – by allowing bad examples before my eyes for too long I was led astray.

He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm Proverbs 13:20

Examples of harmful effects these individuals can bring you include: they can hurt you deeply or tempt you to sin by gossiping, judgmental attitudes, and slanders. They can give you such a hard time that makes it difficult for you to be joyful, thankful, forgiving, and attentive to God’s voice. Their influences can rob you of peace.

In some extreme cases you can actually receive strong warnings from Holy Spirit when you come across extremely dangerous situations and people, see one of the stories here.

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How To Be Successful All Your Life?

Jesus has spent only 3 years on earth, but look how much He has achieved.

It was miraculous.

You and I can replicate His effectiveness too, if we simply do what He would do. We could replicate the results of a successful person by replicate his actions!

But how can we know what He would do in every situation? By the Spirit!

The functions of the Holy Spirit are to teach us all truth, tell us what God’s will is, and remind us of what Jesus taught us. (John 16:13-14; John 14:26)

Without the Spirit, we can only read the letter of the Bible, but we will not be able to truly understand and apply the deeper meanings of them. In other words, God’s words aren’t God’s words if the Holy Spirit doesn’t actively bring the words alive for us. (2 Cor 3:6)

Many times, too many times, I had wanted to read the Bible more, but ended up doing worldly things. The problem was, I wanted to control when I would read the Bible, how often I shall read, and how deep I wanted to understand the words. I was trying to achieve spiritual goals with the power of my flesh.

I had failed almost every time when I tried to be more spiritual with methods, formulas, and plans. But at the time I didn’t know what went wrong.

There is no success formula which you can use apart from the active leadership of the Holy Spirit. Formula will fail, schedule will fail, method will fail, and knowledge will fail if you don’t walk under the active leadership of the Spirit.

To apply this principle on a broader scale: we should do everything out of the Spirit from the beginning to the end. Not just with the spiritual things, but with everything as well, including career choice, spouse choice, school choice, and everything big or small, even when to sleep.

At this point you may worry, “What if I hear Him wrong?” At times you may get deceived or confused as to which voice is the Spirit’s, but if you don’t listen at all, you will always get it “wrong” anyway. So in fact you are left with only one choice – just listen:

John 7:17

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

John 10:4

And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

You Will Achieve A lot When You Walk In The Spirit Fully

Joshua 1:8

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

John 16:13

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

To meditate on God’s words day and night is to live a Spirit filled life. They work together. They are almost synonymous. Anytime you treat the words of God with complacency and neglect, you grieve the Spirit and quench His power in you, and anytime you rely on yourselves rather than the Spirit, the power and deep knowledge of God’s words will be withheld from you.

For 5 years, I have attempted to meditate God’s words day in and night out, just like what the Bible commands us to do, but I had failed at every attempt.

However, whenever I sincerely converse with the Spirit, He often shows me relevant verses and explanations with simple real life applications. And when I apply the words according to His leading, it always become obvious of what I should do. It’s like a ray of light shining through thick clouds.

You can’t replicate the work of the Spirit by formula, methods, and plans. There are dozens of dozen of Bible study plans and methods out there, but unless the Spirit initiates the plan and guides you through every thought and step, your effort is futile:

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1

Once you meditate on God’s words day and night in the Spirit, God will make you prosperous and successful because He promised it. (Psalm 1; Joshua 1:8)

You will also have the mind of Christ fully at work in you (1 Cor 2: 16) . We are what we think (Prov 23:7). If the mind of Christ in us works actively, we will surely replicate Christ’s results.

Meditation of God’s words in the Spirit is just the “inner game” of our walk. Now let’s move on to the “outer game”!

The Outer Game Of Our Walk In The Spirit

If we get the “inner game” right, the “outer game” will take care of itself. Let me show you what the “outer game” is about:

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Proverbs 21:5

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. Psalm 37:23-24

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Luke 5:4-7

The Spirit often instructs me to do something “out of the blue” in random places. There were several times when He used me this way and “we” had brought several strangers to Christ. All I did was just obeying His prompting.

Prior to my walk in the Spirit, i.e., while I was still walking in the flesh as a Christian, I had never brought one single soul to Christ.

Looking back, I can see logical, biblical, and even scientific reasons behind His “random, out of the blue” instructions. The limitation of human understanding often prevents us from seeing the big picture at the time, and thus the prompting of the Spirit often seems random and uncomfortable to us.

But we will eventually get to the big picture and increase our understanding as we simply obey every promptings of the Spirit.

One problem: Humans don’t like unpredictability and unknown; We like schedule, plan, and habits.

You don’t need to force yourself to build godly habits; The Spirit will build something magnificent out of His daily walk with you as you go along. This includes everything in life: career, school, relationship, finance, and health.

You will learn as you do, and whatever you do in obedience to the Spirit you will reap multiple results in this life and the next.

Like in the example of Simon and the fishes (Luke 5:4-7), God loves to instruct us where to “let down our nets”, such as where to drop our resume, which person to marry, which school to attend, and which business venture or ministry to undertake.

He loves to speak His mind to us, if we would let Him.

If we listen and act upon His instruction, we will get multiple good results in our endeavors – just like how Simon caught many fishes in one move.

Simon was an experienced fisher – just like how most of us are experts in our own field – but he and his pals failed to catch any fish for an entire night.

Like Simon and his pals, we will deal with uncertainties in our endeavors no matter how good we are at what we do. As natural human beings, our skills and experiences can only give us the approximation, not the exactitude.

There is a huge difference between approximation and exactitude.

We will never have complete information at any point in life. If we act like the non-Christians, we are playing the number game. “Number game” aptly describes what every human endeavor on earth is like: full of trials , errors, and guesstimates – this is the only way non-Christians can achieve anything.

If we rely on the flesh, we are playing the number game; It’s like throwing spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks; We will have to make multiple shots and hope that one gets in.

We will have to climb all the way up through mountains, and sooner or later we might find ourselves on the wrong mountain, and we have to climb down and try the next one, because we have no map.

We will have to compete with thousands of other people who are relying on the flesh too: job searching, public exams, tournaments and contests, business ventures, and even ministry… Since you are not following an unique calling from God, you will have to do what most others are doing or create something new of your own (and hope it works), and hope that you beat the competitions and reach the top from above the thousands.

Eventually, you may achieve some success on your own term, but the result will not last for eternity since this success isn’t part of God’s plan – it is a discord in His grand scheme of things! You will also have wasted a lot of time during the trials and errors stage. Your time will be much more productive if you give your time to God instead.

With the one clean shot you make under the Spirit’s guidance, you will live your life to the full as you make one clean shot after the next, and the next and the next and the next and the next… for the rest of your life.

If we want to master the “outer game” of our walk in the Spirit, we have to walk every single step under His guidance. (Psalm 37:23-24; Proverbs 3:5-6)

Forget All Your Earthly Glory

God is I AM, not I WAS or I WILL. Forget about your accomplishments, titles, CV, wealth, and circumstance. Surrender your past and future to Him and just focus on Him in the present.

When we truly surrender everything to Him, He can use us freely in the now and then. If our mind get entangled by the past (baggage or accomplishments) or the future (goals and ambitions), the Lord can’t use us freely.

Our employers, business partners, customers, fans, friends, and others all look at our past and evaluate us base on that, but the Lord cares about the NOW. He can use you to accomplish anything if you just walk with Him and obey Him in the present, not the past or future.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ. Hebrews 5:11

Throughout the Bible, God has used so many different characters, most of them were ignoble: they were shepherds, servant girls, slaves, losers, fishermen, and other weak folks. He has also used someone who had an impressive resume, such as priests, kings, and the riches.

It doesn’t matter to God – as long as you are willing to obey and be faithful, He can use you anytime.

You might have been a loser up to this point, or you might have been successful, but God can do something new and better in your life today if you simply follow His instruction and do what He wants you to do.

In the world, employers look at your education, credentials, references, and all that. You can be unemployed and broke right now, but the Lord can give you a prestigious job, a profitable business, or other amazing accomplishments within a very short time no matter how incompetent you were.

He knows your true gifts and talents. He has an unique calling that is custom-made for you. Only you can do the best job in that calling. No one can substitute your role in His unique plan. If you disobey and miss that calling, the blessings God could have given you and others through you will be forever lost.

His calling may seem insignificant at the first glance, maybe it isn’t a prestigious job, rather, it could be a job no one has ever heard of which is in the middle of nowhere, or it could be a business venture that goes against all odds. Persist and keep going! You will find the hidden gold mine if you just keep digging.

A friend of mine was called to be an academic. His field is data mining (*boring!*). For years he had spent so much time with text books, solving many mathematical and computational problems. He could spend an entire week in a room just to solve one math question that he finds interesting.

As a result, he can now look at any question his colleagues bring him, and within minutes he can formulate a strategy that his colleagues can use. His colleagues are PhD, masters, and some of the sharpest minds in Google. To this day, He has brought hundreds of millions of profits to Google. He manages hundred of researchers, four secretaries, and the whole nine yards (For example, a queen size bed in his office that Google gave him).

On the side he has started a few successful companies that monetize his other research findings, all of which makes multimillion dollars in profits.  (He manages quite a lot of people! )

You too can be very successful in your unique calling if you surrender all of your past and future to God, and regardless of what others think of your resume and credentials, just be courageous and do what He wants you to do.

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More On The Inner Game Of Our Walk In The Spirit

Now that we have the overall view of the big picture, we can go back to the “inner game” again to add some more crucial information, because without the light of the big picture, it’s hard to fully appreciate the information I am going to share here.

By now we know how narrow the narrow path is. It’s very easy to fall prey to the flesh again without even being conscious of it. The flesh is subtle and deceitful.

We must remember where our fleshes belong – the cross. We must put our flesh on the cross on a daily, hourly, and as-frequent-as-it-takes basis.

²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:24-25

The walk in the Spirit requires our active cooperation. We must exercise our willpower constantly to focus and obey the Spirit. And we must not forget the truth — that we have crucified our flesh.

To be watchful of the flesh all the time can be stressful. To be on call for the Spirit all the time can seem stressful too. Also, in the presence of the Lord His light and justice will progressively reveal all of our sins and erroneous thinking. For the faint of hearts it can seem too much to handle.

Satan will siege every opportunity he can find to attack you as you try to maintain this delicate balance on the narrow path. If you start shifting your focus and attention from the Lord to yourself, then Satan, the flesh, and the world will easily deceive you into walking in the flesh again.

One of his tactics is condemnation. Since you have become alert and aware of your own every darkness in the presence of the Lord, he will use that as an opportunity and condemn you with every sin that you see in yourself until you can’t stand before the Lord anymore.

If you fall for that trap, you will see your inadequacy more than you see God’s adequacy, and you will sink in doubts and sins very quickly.

Bouts of depressions and regrets will follow if you let Satan does that to you, and soon your strength, peace, and joy will leave you as you believe in Satan’s accusations and deceptions. (See Spiritual Battle.)

Before you realize what has been going on, you may have long departed from the walk in the Spirit already. It’s a narrow path, so narrow that it’s easy to fall into the ditches on both side.

In my own walk in the Spirit, I learned some important lessons about how to maintain the walk. For example, in Getting Over Regret I shared how I walked through the trap of regrets, and learned to forgive myself as I grew. It’s important to forgive yourself after you have been forgiven by God. Otherwise, the narrow path can become unbearable because of perfectionism.

It’s A Marathon, Not A Sprint

If what I just shared in the last section sound excruciating, it probably is, but in time it will get better as you become more “skillful” at abiding in Christ and walking in the Spirit.

One of the skills you need is to be thankful.

Give thanks often for every little progress and blessing that God grants you. You will find a lot of strength as you give thanks. The walk in the Spirit is full of challenges. It’s important to celebrate every progress you are blessed with before the next wave of challenges come.

The next skill is to forgive, because you will be very sensitive to sin in the presence of the Lord.

If anyone sins, don’t worry too much as you should lift him or her to God, believing that the Lord can take care of every consequence of that sin. If you sin, just repent. True repentance leave no regrets.

The third skill is wait.

You should accept your current condition before the Lord. Don’t strike. Just wait before God and wait for the Spirit to guide you along.

If we try to rush it before God’s timing, we are relying on the strength of self. I have done that many time and it always turns out to be a waste of time. I have forfeited or delayed many blessings and breakthroughs that could have been mine, or could have been mine earlier, by worrying too much and working too hard for them (all those schemes, visions, and plans!), instead of just waiting prayerfully and peacefully before God.

The blessings that I had deprived myself of by striving and scheming include biblical insights, purity, calling, financial wealth, career success, relationship, and more. That sounds a lot, but in fact everyone on earth experiences the same – falling short of God’s perfect plans. I believe very few people throughout history have attained all the blessings that God had planned for them.

If there is such person, he or she is perfect indeed.

Don’t worry too much about failures in your walk! The more you worry, the more likely you will fail. Simply trust God can empower you to accomplish everything He wants you to accomplish.

For me, the first time I embarked on the walk in the Spirit it was exhilarating! It had lasted for 2 to 3 years, and then I fell into the ditches because of many of the traps I have just mentioned in this post.

After that I was able to resume my walk slowly. The big fall into the ditch confused me somewhat, so the recovery took a while.

This time the future is bright, and I was just freed from a major sinful habit because I started walking in the Spirit fully again.

I hope by sharing my personal victories and failures with you I might be able to strengthen your walk in the Spirit. God bless!

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If God didn’t arrange the coincidence in the library, I would not have read it and the changes that came afterward would have gone missed.

I fell in love with the book once I opened it. Later, me and my friend purchased many copies and gave them out for free.

It revolutionized my Christian life. It was like a major revamp. To this day, the presence of God is still going strong and the level of intimacy has never receded.

Biblical foundation of the Practice Of The Presence Of God

Although the author of TPOTPOG, Brother Lawrence, didn’t mention many biblical references in the book, almost every aspect of TPOTPOG stem from God’s basic commands that we as Christian were familiar with.  The way he devotes himself to live out the commands and share the insights through human words make it very enjoying and inspiring.

I thought, it was so easy! Lawrence made it clear and concise what we must do and what attitude we must have to walk with God.

Prior to the reading, I had always wondered why it felt like something was missing in my relationship with God. There was a void to be filled, but I didn’t know how to fill it. I had been going to church and fellowship with other Christians regularly, and I had quiet time with the Lord everyday, but there was a silent yearning beneath my soul.

What Will I Experience Through Practicing The Presence Of God?

Through practicing, you will be able to see the Lord and focus on Him in everything you do. You will find the power and desire to do His will amid all the usual obstacles, distraction, and chaos in life. You will be able to see and testify what God’s perfect will is in things big or small. You don’t have to do big things and take big leaps every time, even in the small things you will be able to handle them in a way that pleases the Lord.

You will gradually become a fireball for God. At first, you may not sense it, but when you can feel the intensity, it already happened. All the lukewarmness and complacency will be consumed by an intense desire to seek God.

Think You Will Feel Holy And Satisfied? Maybe Quite The Opposite!

Instead of feeling holy, the presence of God may make you feel quite the opposite! You will see every hidden sinful attitude and transgressions against God and others. You will see blind spots that you have previously missed. You will mourn for the complacency and lukewarmness of the past (In the presence of the Lord you will see your previous lifestyle as complacent and lukewarm, even if by human standard you were not) and feel intense pain for allowing yourself to have lived that way.

The fire gives you intense desire and focus for the Lord, but it can also pain you.

Rather than satisfaction or “as a deer panteth for the water”, you will feel very thirsty and hungry for more spiritual insights and growth. You will be afraid to miss out any chance to grow and serve the Lord. Anymore missing out with God’s perfect plan will pain you to no end because you can now see the eternal chain consequences of everything you do in obedience to God’s will, the blessings are too great, and therefore too painful to miss.

Random, Spontaneous, and Being On-call All The Time

You will discover that God like you to take the leap of faith when things are uncertain. Human likes to know what is going on, and what will happen, but the Lord’s servants are likely to engage one unexpected adventure after another.

You won’t know whom you are going to meet at any time, whom you are going to share the gospel with tonight, and out of a sudden God might prompt you to do something challenging such as to preach to a crowd on a very short notice.

The first year I practiced the presence of God I was a University student. Back then I would often take a walk in the Campus and run into friends. There were quite a few times when I met an acquaintance, a new friend whom I’d met for only a couple of hours, or an old friend whom I hadn’t met in a while, and God would ask me to share the gospel with them. Every time I obeyed God’s prompting the person I talked to accepted Christ!

God will work wonders around you if you obey His orders. See my article Self Doubt And The Leap Of Faith Part 3: Power And Desire to learn more about seeking God’s will and do the seemingly undoable by God’s grace.

Stretching You To Your Furthest Limit

You will become a threat to Satan’s kingdom, so expect him to wage a major campaign against you for as long as you live. If you are unalert and/or uninformed of his schemes, you will suffer continuous casualties. If you want to know why even a godly man can suffer unjust and undeserved attacks that can make your life tough, see my article on Spiritual Battle…And The Cost Of Not Engaging In It.

God will give you exciting projects to do, but the more success you enjoy, the more it can reveal your character flaws.

It’s like stress testing – you might be cool when things are normal, but God will test you by allowing things overload. You might be able to forgive one person at a time, but how about two? Three? Or many within a short time?

God will give you many challenging tasks to do, but His grace is sufficient, and He will also allow the enemies to launch waves of attacks on you – to see how long you can hold out, to test your faith and character under trying circumstances.

When people see success in you, they will be attracted by you. Many will come to you and ask for one thing or another. But be careful whom you fellowship with. Some are wolves under sheep clothing. And even Christians can be used by Satan to hurt you.

Many will come to you because they see that you have influences, so they want to use you for their own purposes, for examples, to rebuke their spouses and vindicate them in relational conflicts; to give you a bad report of someone they held grudges against so you will stand on their sides and that they can quote you in gossips or arguments; and to complain about something so you will fix the problems for them, etc.

Pray for wisdom and discernment! Don’t fall into these traps! Otherwise you spirit and soul will be contaminated!

The are many traps on your path to higher ground! Satan, the world, and those who live according to the flesh will try to pull you back as you practice the presences of God. On the other hand, the Lord will give you important assignments which test your faith and character. You will grow as you learn to defend yourself against the former and embrace the latter.

With Friends Like That, Who Needs Enemies?

There are roughly two kinds of Christians, carnal Christian and spiritual Christian. Carnal Christians seldom pray and fellowship with the Lord when alone, but they might still go to church regularly and can be very active in the Church socially, which is the problem.

These carnal Christians can also be active in a ministry, and that can create a lot of stumbling blocks for those around.

By definition, a carnal Christian is a Christian who runs his or her own show, with Christ as their savor, but not their Lord. A man who relies on self cannot help but creates many consequences that are eternally bad.

Even apostle Paul was grieved by such Christians:

²⁰[Paul:]For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you [The Corinthians Church] as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 2 Corinthians 12:20

These are fruits of carnal living. And those who live according to flesh (Carnal Christian) naturally persecute the spiritual Christian:

²⁹But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Galatians 4:29

Until they see their errors and repent, they will create problems for each other and for those who purpose to live by the Spirit. They despise what they don’t understand, and because a carnal Christian don’t understand a spiritual Christian, the carnal will persecute the spiritual out of ignorance and narrow-mindedness.

Carnal and Spiritual are opposite polar, but it’s not like you are either one or another – it’s like a spectrum where most people fall in between. Unfortunately, most people lean on the carnal side, and many are heavily carnal (But you may not find them to be frequent church goers anyway)! Be prepared for unpleasant experience when fellowship with carnal Christians.

I wrote an article about the harmful effect of bad friends, click here to see how you may avoid them.

Surrender All

God will come to you from time to time to ask for more of you. Can you surrender your relationship life to Him? Can you give up dating and reserve yourself for someone special? Can you surrender a prestigious career and follow your true calling? Can you surrender worldly entertainment and trust God as the sole provider of joy and peace?

Every time God come to ask you for something, there will be a lot of soul searching, discerning, some confusions, and ultimately, the best way out is to surrender, or you can stay where you are, but that’s not going to be the best place to be. You either choose the world from the start and embrace a self driven life, or you choose God and live a spirit driven life. Anything in between is not going to please anyone, and you will be left in limbo (figuratively, I don’t mean literally)!

Even after you decide to surrender, the temptations to take things back to your own hands will remain strong. The gal or guy you are smitten with is going to be around that you don’t know where else to look at, people will ask why you don’t apply for this or that job with your degree, and there will be many advice on how to take control of your life and etc.

More On Practicing The Presence Of God

To practice the presence of God in this age is challenging. It requires many spiritual knowledge, awareness, and training. The rewards of this discipline are exceedingly great that it worth to have an entire training program devoted to it.

The book itself is written in old English, but I somehow managed to understand what the author was saying. I am going to release a series of commentary on the original words of the book. Like this idea? Drop a comment to let me know!

More is coming.

There were times when I was confused, perplexed, agitated, and stuck. I had prayed very hard at those times, but the answers were always postponed, blurred, or blocked. Sometimes even the usual channels which I had used to reach God or other Christians were jammed.

This happened before in the Old Testament time, when a servant of God, Daniel, prayed to God about something important, but the response from God was delayed for 21 days. The messenger of the Lord explained to Daniel what had happened to him during the 21 days:

Daniel 10: 12-13

¹² Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. ¹³ But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.

God allowed His angel to be delayed by some major demons (Prince/kings of Persia) while being sent to carry an important message to His servant.

Today, Satan and His forces still operate fiercely to try to make you think that God doesn’t care about or listen to your prayers. Often times, if you don’t write down your prayers and questions for God on a journal, you will forget. Satan wants you to simply forget these crucial information and win the cases by your absence.

To use an analogy, it’s like when you try to surf the Web for information, or answers to some questions, but the Internet is cut, or a website you find helpful suddenly goes down and you don’t know what happened to it! How would you feel if your Internet get cut off suddenly? If it was me, I would be worried and wondered if the service provider is fixing it!

In fact, a website I recently recommended in my article, Spiritual Cleansing, suddenly went down after I posted the article. The author of the site later informed me that his site was targeted by IRC bots, and his router and modem got fired by a lighting! All happened in about the same time. Speaking of enemy’s attack!

Spiritual Battle Make Things Unusually and Unreasonably Hard

Are you familiar with the story of Job?

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⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
⁹ So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
¹² And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.  Job 1: 8-9

Like Job, we can encounter similar attacks from Satan. We too won’t know what is going on behind the scene.

After, Satan got permission from the Lord, he went out and wreck havoc on Job’s procession and family. Sometime Satan and his force will target us and ask permission from the Lord to do some damages to us. If we are unaware of the spiritual weapons we have, and that spiritual force is working invisibly against us, the attacks can go on and on.

Does any of the following seems familiar to you?

1. There might be days when you get targeted by bullies at work or school. And the bullying occurs very frequently and seems to have no end to it. You keep asking yourself and God but couldn’t find out why you have been targeted.
2. Schoolwork, landing or keeping a job, or other important tasks in life become unnaturally difficult and depressive. You encounter heavy distractions that make you doubt if you’re just lazy or dumb. You have been on your wit’s end. You ask and pray, but the situations get worst or stuck for no apparent reasons (or reasons just keep coming).
3. Relationships become very tough to maintain. Casual conversation or networking is frequently destroyed by misunderstanding, or unfounded prejudice.
4. Verbal abuses, physical abuses, and rebelling attitudes of family member(s) make your life a hell.
5. A simple addiction such as playing the World Of Warcraft, watching Youtube, or more sinister ones such as viewing pornography, holds you in bondage for years even you sincerely prayed for deliverance and repented every time you committed it.
6. One person after another comes to inform you of bad news or bad reports about one thing or another, which causes you to feel worry, upset, and even depressed. These random people just keep coming and dimming your outlook on life.
7. Coincidences overlap each other to bring you to a tempting situation.

If any of the above seems familiar to you, it’s very likely that this is not natural, but is engineered by our spiritual enemies.

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Demonic Attack Doesn’t Have To Be Dramatic

There are cases of heavy demonic attacks such as hearing voices, demon procession, limbs or neck twisting at impossible angles, but for us average Christians, we most likely encounter attacks that are disguised and invisible. The enemies would prefer to have us think that the evil thoughts in our minds are our own ideas, that distraction is our own lack of discipline, that the bully who is picking on us is because we lacked social grace, and etc.

The enemies like to hide and pretend they are not there, because once we realize and identify the enemies and their work, it only takes a very short time and a few steps to totally bind and defeat them and their schemes.

On the other hand, if we fail to realize what’s going on, the battles will not simply go away just because we go to church every week, and have a quiet time with God every day to read the Bible and pray.

For real case studies on spiritual attacks, click here. Like me, you may actually find some or part of the case studies that resonate with what you have personally experienced.

The Enemies Can Rob You Of Joy, Peace, Productivity, Rest, Time, Freedom, and Possibly More

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:11 (Interpretation: That means if the Lord doesn’t rebuke the devourer, it can destroy the fruits of your labors)

Blessings are abundant to Christians. They flow to us by default, but Satan can rob us of blessings if we are unaware and get manipulated by him. For example, during my years in University, I used to have depressive thoughts, and they kept increasing by the year. Many time I’d tried to study but was totally disabled by the depressive thoughts. I would look for things to regret and feel bad about, and that makes me feel guilty, worry, and hopeless. There was no use to debate with my thoughts because debates only add fuel to them.

One time, God did a spiritual surgery on me and I realized how I could stop being depressive – by hearing His voice, instead of the enemies’, or mine. Since I applied what I learned, I have become freed from depressive thinking. See:

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7

In my depressive years, I had somehow sensed that those thoughts were originated from the enemies, but I found the thoughts so convincing that I allowed myself to analyze each word. It was how I got trapped.

I had lost some blessings that could have been mine due to depression (Does it sounds like the DEVOURER that the Bible talks about?): peace, joy, academic excellence, energies, health, and many opportunities that I’d failed to notice because of my grim outlook on life, and the lack of energy to pursue them due to depression.

In fact, sorrow, guilt, and worries are recipe for addictions, because they create a void that has to be filled by something, if not God. They also create so much pains that makes it tempting to use some addictions to medicate the pains.

Satan and His Force Love To Hide Behind The Stronghold Of Sins And Bad Habits

It makes recovery from bad habits or addictions so much harder. Behind every addiction is a lie(s), and Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).

Satan works relentlessly to deceive us into sinning, and when we sin, we become it’s slave. (John 8:34) Once we are in the bondage of sin, Satan will tease us, accuse us, deceive us, and cast excessive sorrows and guilt on us to keep us from spiritual freedom.

One essential step you can’t miss if you want to be free is to receive heavy dose of truth daily.

³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

Addiction to sin is demon’s castle. If you allow the enemies to build a base within your soul, then there is little use to fight them back, because they will come back from the stronghold very soon next time! As long as we allow certain sins in our life, they will remain strongholds for demons.

To understand more about Satan and sin, go here.

Another article I found useful is this: Deal With Sin

On the other hand, if you bind the enemies before you seek to demolish a sinful habit, it will make the healing and recovering process so much faster. In fact, the battles with addictions can drag on for years if you fail to realize that the enemies were actively working behind scenes and bind them accordingly.

Evil spirits can sometime present and resist you for no apparent reasons. They will delay answers to your prayers, blur your mind when you try to read the Bible, cause heavy distraction to you when you need to focus, and make you uncomfortable with spiritual disciplines in general. You must never be weary of praying battle prayers and verses against the enemies, especially if you are a dedicated Christian. Satan loves to target Christian who is dedicated, for example, a Christian who is involved in a ministry or obey a clear calling from God.

Usual Causes Of Defeat: Forgetfulness and Boredom

Satan and his demonic force aren’t tough to deal with, if you know what they are doing to you and follow the biblical steps to battle them. But the problem is we forget them easily.

Binding Satan everyday can be boring. When things get normal, it’s very hard to stay alert. (Looking back, things had rarely been normal for me, the enemies came back every now and then, but often times I was ignorant of it)

It’s also pretty boring to speak the truth out loud often as instructed by many Christian leaders and teachers. But really, the power of words is indeed amazing! I wish there is CG effect every time we declare God’s words, and that it will shows demons withering, heaven and earth shaking, a beam of light shining from a crack in the sky, and the whole nine yards, but this isn’t how it works.

God’s word can indeed make a huge difference: from death to life, poverty to prosperity, illness to health, sorrow to joy, addiction to freedom, failure to triumph and etc. However, most of the time we don’t feel a thing when we speak God’s words. Many times, the reality can be quite the opposite of what God promised in the Bible.

Nevertheless, God’s words will deliver. It will change the reality in time. Maybe God is just testing your faith and see if you really believe in His word.

I don’t think I can put it better than Paul Cook, the author of porn-free.org, a website that I recommend to Christian who is under bondage of any sin and bad habit.

Believe that you CAN be completely free! Breaking addiction is a healing process and believing that you can be free is an important part.  Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”  ( Mark 9:23 NKJV). We exercise our faith when we believe in God’s word and confess it with our mouth (Romans 10:10).  It could be as simple as saying to ourselves each day when we get out of bed, “I believe that in Christ I can be and will be free of my struggle.”  Often our natural circumstances may not appear to be lining up with God’s word.  The challenge is to not allow our circumstances (or past failures) to steal our hope.  Faith believes in what is yet unseen (Hebrews 11:1-3).  It releases God’s power in us to perform the impossible and bring the unseen into reality!  Paul Cook

The above quote from Paul Cook doesn’t just apply to breaking addiction, but to everything that God has promised in the Bible.

The Rewards Of Making Spiritual Battle A Habit

¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms …¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:11,12,18

²⁹“Or again, how can anyone (i.e. you) enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man (i.e. the enemy)? Then he can rob his house. Matthew 12:29

The rewards of constant spiritual victories are freedom, success, peace, more success, and joy. These blessings are ours by default, but for many reasons Satan can come to destroy them. We must stay alert and never get tired or bored with waging frequent spiritual battles on his theftdom.

I can’t emphasis enough how important is to capture every sinful thought at the first second it arises.( 2 Corinthians 10:5) If it takes more than 2-3 second for you to reject the thought before God – and then replace it with godly ones (Philippians 4:8) – you will be much more likely to fall flat into temptation and commit the act.

If it takes you 50 times a day to bind Satan and capture sinful thoughts, then do it 50 times a day! My experience is that the enemies and sinful thoughts can seem overwhelming when you engage in spiritual battles with them, but if you stay focus and do what must be done, the temptations will lose the grips on you, every time! The more you win, the stronger your spiritual muscle will become, and Satan will eventually flee.

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Relevant Articles

• Spiritual Cleansing
• Battle Verses Of The Bible
• Control Thought
• Demons Fill The Sky

See Also

• Spiritual Discipline

What is spiritual cleansing? To every Christian a spiritual cleansing should be as normal as taking a shower. It’s not mystical. It’s not for the super godly only.

Spiritual cleansing is a combined result of the following non-exclusive list:

• Reading God’s words according to the leading of the Holy Spirit
• Taking time to digest the words one verse at a time, or quickly skim through a whole chapter (whatever work better for you at the time, as long as you can handle it and understand why you do it the way you do. Be patient and wait for the Lord to speak to you through the words)
• Mixing your faith with the words such that you believe it will change you, and that the promises of God will gradually actualize in your life, even though you may not feel anything at the time, or that the scripture is saying the opposite of what you are actually experiencing
• When you see something in the words that convict you, take the time to confess them to God fully and ask Him to heal you completely
• Asking God to heal your memory of sins and past wounds
• Binding Satan and his dark force that are working against you in the spiritual cleansing process with the authority you have in Christ

To give you an example of spiritual cleansing, today I went through one of the chapters in an Online Christian course, Freedom Journey (I will show you the link at the bottom, just listen to me first ). It is a course that help Christian who is struggling with porn and masturbation. I find that the whole course is also useful for all kind of spiritual problems, not just sexual addictions.

For example, if you have a stubbornly prolonged struggle in any area such as finance, relationship, health, unpleasant memory, fear, or other stubborn problems, you can use some serious spiritual cleansing to deal with it. A spiritual cleansing will open door to a long delayed freedom.

I recommend that you go through the Freedom Journey Courses. Since you are reading this article, I would say you probably need a spiritual cleansing!

In life, spiritual wounds and bondage are both common and complex, they are like wounds with infection; you can’t expect the wounds to recover before you disinfect them properly and bandage it up. In fact, if you just let it stays the way it is, it will get worst.

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It takes time

Every time I go through similar spiritual exercises such as the ones in the Freedom Journey courses, I would find the process exhausting. Sometime, after an hour or two of spiritual cleansing I would fall into a heavy nap for hours.

And you shouldn’t expect it to be a quick fix, so don’t try to rush through it. It takes time to listen to God and internalize His messages.

Through active listening and interactive conversation with God (Although sample prayers can help, there is no secret password or spell that will guarantee God’s answer, so just be real and sincere), healing and cleansing will take place.

It is a time consuming process, be prepared to set aside a large chunk of time on your schedule for each session. It is also not a one time fix, although it’s possible to experience complete freedom the first time. You should be ready to invest time on multiple sessions to get complete recovery.

Expect negative emotion, stress, and Chaos

The cleansing process will reveal, and even stir up, hurtful memory, memory of sins, anger, bitterness, and/or a plethora of other negative emotions. You may also have a hard time understanding and receiving God’s words or pray due to physical, psychological discomfort, or heavy distraction. When one of these symptoms occur, take heart and don’t be afraid. Ask God to protect you and reassure you with His Holy Spirit and His words.

Walk in your own pace

Don’t try to rush things through, even the parts that stir up negative emotions in you. For example, it’s painful to confront a hurtful memory and forgive those who were involved. But if that piece of memory became a stronghold where Satan could use it to attack you and tempt you, you should let God speak to you and heal you until you reach a closure – when the memory will no longer generate bitter or angry feeling.

Some steps will take more time to go through than the other. For example, let say you want to go through Bible verses about healing and try to memorize them so you can quote them and pray through them 24/7, you may find it difficult to focus and keep up with the exercise. Don’t rush. Do it one verse at a time. It’s better than trying to do them all within a short period, because that way you will probably drop the ball.

Warning. Don’t back down or walk away too early!

Although you can take your time and walk in your own pace, and that trying to rush it will only be counter-productive, don’t go too easy on yourself. The spiritual cleansing process is easy to get distracted and it’s easy to forget to go after it if you put it aside for a while.

There’s always urgency and busy trivia in life that fight for your attention. The Bible says:

“And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them”—Matthew 13:7.
“He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful—Matthew 13:22.

Yes, I understand how it feels to set aside a big chunk of time to do this soul searching, healing, and cleansing thing while putting up with challenges in life. But you need to have faith. You need to believe that this is worth it, and that you will bear so much fruits if you persist till the end.

If you don’t really believe it, you will procrastinate; and you will be easily distracted by other things and soon you will give up before seeing results.

Be Relentless!!!!!

In the Old Testament time, Israel had a great prophet, Elisha. He was getting old and became terminally ill. At the time the Israel was being oppressed by the Arameans “severely” (2 King 13:4)

The king of Israel visited the sick bed of Elisha, and cried before the prophet like a baby (2 King 13:14), for there seemed to be no hope left for Israel if even the great prophet Elisha passed away.

The old prophet instructed the king:

¹⁵ Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. ¹⁶ “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

¹⁷ “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

²⁰ Elisha died and was buried.

Like the king of Israel, victories are ours if we follow through God’s instruction.

I actually learned of the Freedom Journey Course in 2006, but I didn’t go very far with it because I was intimidated by the negative thoughts and feelings that had occurred during the process. I figured I would do better if I just shifted my focus away from the battles and not to think about my problem with sins at all.

This time that I am trying to work through it again, I sense that I am able to experience a new level of freedom that I haven’t been able to attain in the last 3 years. Although the negativity are still there, this time thank God I am much more courageous and decide to see what happen if I stick it out.

When Do You Expect to See Results

God’ words is true no matter what our circumstances show us. At first, your experience might seem unchanged, or even frustrating. Don’t get whiny. Continue to speak God’s words and trust in His promises!

This is an excellent quote I copied from the author of the Freedom Journey, Paul Cook, in Chapter 1:

We exercise our faith when we believe in God’s word and confess it with our mouth (Romans 10:10).  It could be as simple as saying to ourselves each day when we get out of bed, “I believe that in Christ I can be and will be free of my struggle.”  Often our natural circumstances may not appear to be lining up with God’s word.  The challenge is to not allow our circumstances (or past failures) to steal our hope.  Faith believes in what is yet unseen (Hebrews 11:1-3).  It releases God’s power in us to perform the impossible and bring the unseen into reality!

Most of the time, my walk with God is one that is about the spirit, rather than the senses. I have never seen, heard, or touched God. I haven’t sensed any warmy fuzzies feeling in my walk with God for a long time, and it rarely happens.

Somehow it is above the physical or psychological senses, but the Spirit has gently strengthen me and encouraged me through the years. I have become more and more like a fire ball for God inside.

Similarly, it is how things typically go during a spiritual cleansing process, or any other spiritual disciplines. You don’t have to feel disappointed if you can’t sense a change or anything special at the time.

A change is usually realized after a while. It is when you have distanced yourself from the cleansing experience that you will be able to have a clear view of what happened.

Although I am not a fan for special feelings during a spiritual encounter with God, I do believe we encounter God much more frequently than we can realize and He is speaking to us most of the time.

But I Have Daily Quiet Time With God!

Do our daily quiet times bring spiritual cleansing as well? Certainly!

I have seldom skipped my daily quiet time with God and my Bible in the past 3 years. Those were sweet hours with God. And God has spoken to me often everyday. All I have to do to listen is to listen.

But why do I need to set aside large chunks of time for other spiritual disciplines such as going through the Freedom Journey Course, working through other Christian devotional or books, taking time for retreats, doing fast, and participating in fellowship with other Christians?

Suppose we compare God to an endless stream of river, and we are containers. The river always flow, but we as the containers need maintenance, cleaning, or major repairs from time to time in order to maintain our capacities to draw water from the river.

It’s difficult to spend time alone with God all the time. The first hour might be sweet, but the remaining day can become long and tiring if you continue to do it alone.

In the past 3 years I have been home a lot, at the beginning I was very much eager to study the Bible, memorize it all, and meditate on it day and night. But soon worldliness and heavy distraction crept in. Doing quiet time with God for about an hour per day has become my limit, averagely speaking. (Anyone can be totally excited for a while. I myself had done a 40 days fast together with a friend before. You can pray for 7 hours a day for a few days, but soon that will wane)

You need other Christians’ help. For example, read their devotional online, watch TV church, join a support group or Bible study group, or even read a Christian bestseller book. (Of course you should be a regular member of a godly Church too. )

Finally, Rejoice!

You should always end the spiritual cleansing sessions with joy and thanksgiving. I will tell you why:

The Israel and Judah in the Old Testament time had sinned too much and the Lord punished them by delivering them to their enemies. The Israel and Judah were conquered and enslaved by invaders respectively.

When the Jews came under the rule of the Persian Empire, a Jew named Nehemiah was an attendant before the Persian Emperor. The king showed him favor and allowed him to rebuilt the Jerusalem. Long story short, the city was rebuilt and they had some sort of a ceremony accompanied by having the ministers to read the law of Moses to the people in the city.

The Jews, upon hearing the law, wept. For they now knew why their nation was destroyed – their ancestors had sinned and ran away from the Lord.

The spiritual leaders there comforted the people, and admonished them to stop grieving:

This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.¹⁰Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our LORD: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8: 9-10

Joy from the Lord is our strength. Without joy it is very easy to fall into sin and all sort of addictions again.

Grieve is normal during genuine confession and confrontation of sins before the Lord. But the Bible say, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Godly sorrow will quickly turn into joy and celebration (See the Bible story of the Prodigal Son in luke 15), but beware that you don’t get stuck with regrets. Satan will try to use excessive guilt, sorrow, and regrets to keep you under his yoke.

And finally, this is the link to the Freedom Journey Course that I recommend to you, click here. You can also visit the entire site at www.porn-free.org

If you think this article is a blessing to you, you can help me to bless more people by CLICK HERE to donate

True romance is like a wine, the best favor takes time to come out. It requires consistent prayers, and a lot of effort.

In Part 3, we discussed how hope, faith, and love related to purity. This time I am going deeper: How do these pillar concepts of Christianity relate to intimacy and romance?

In fact, the Bible says a lot about love between a man and a woman. Some passages are even metaphorically graphical, such as passages from the book of Song of Songs.

It is God who created romance and physical intimacy. He Himself has said a lot about it through His inspired words, so of course He has the best way to fulfill such needs.

Remember in Part 3 I said that hope can give us strong endurance? Knowing that God will fulfill our needs and give us a happy ending can help us endure temptations much better.

⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37

If we find delight from the Lord, it will become much easier to wait, to wait for God to give us what we desire. It is not the other way around. Immature people like to satisfy themselves first, before they will satisfy the requirements or conditions for the rewards.

It’s frustrating to deal with such people. They always scream for what they want, but never accept their responsibilities. They keep fighting for their rights, but never take up their obligations first.

We can do things our way, but…

Imagine if we entertained these God-given desires in our own ways, wouldn’t it be chaotic?

If we shared our most precious gift with more than one person, in random timing, would you still call that gift precious?

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷ Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.

¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.

²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?  Proverbs 5:15-20

God created marriage. It is the only way, and the best way, to fulfill sexual needs, legitimately and morally.

Sex and intimacy before marriage, or outside of marriage will only bring you sorrows and curses in the long run. Pleasures and excitement from sin are but a moment! Um… make that a few moments if you like!

Marriage is an effective measure against sexual temptations!

One of the chief functions of marriage is protection. It protects both man and woman from sexual temptations:

²But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband…

⁹But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 1 Corinthians 7:2, 9

Does that mean marriage will fix your problems totally, even with lust?

No, marriage is a lifelong classroom. If your spouse was the nicest person on Earth before marriage, he or she could turn into your meanest coach who revealed and rebuked your character flaws, until you were willing to change or repent.

If a Christian believe he or she can use marriage to replace his or her problems, such as family conflicts or lust, he or she will be disappointed.

God loves us too much to give us an easy way out.

I personally know many people who think they can finally get spoiled when they get married. Some of them who did get married actually signed up for the harshest training camp that will last for the rest of his or her life.

Many dating couples broke up before they could make it to marriage, because they never admitted their wrongs when conflicts arose. They just kept pointing fingers at each other, hoping the other person would say sorry first. And if they don’t get their ways, things can escalate. I have seen someone badmouthing her ex on the Internet, guy who acted hysterically and carried a knife around in mediation meeting, and wife who would call every friend of her husband and leader of his church and make a scene every time they had a fight. Nasty!

Till the end, very few people repented, but then they get into new relationship to heal the previous wounds! And the cycle repeats!

Happily ever after belongs to the humble and meek, not the narcissist and stubborn.

Marriage can be sweet, if you invest yourselves into it, before and after marry

We will sow what we reap in marriage. Even for single Christians, if they want to marry someday, it is crucial to start investing in their future spouses now by praying for that special person regularly. Yes, even before they meet that person.

When you start doing that, you will notice a few major changes.

Change 1: Sanctification

I started praying for my future wife when I was 10. It was a starry night… I think… I don’t exactly remember the stars but it was at night for sure, and I did look up at the sky the first time I prayed for my future wife.

Since then, my view toward relationship had started to change over the years. I had changed from wishing to have many girl friends and sexes before settle down to have one girl friend only; and later, from one girl friend only to no premarital sex; and from there, to no physical touch before marriage; and eventually down to no dating at all!

Now I believe in Christian courtship! Meaning, no random try out, but to carefully observe and discern a girl’s characters before making any attempt to discuss possibility of a relationship with the girl’s parents/guardian… then talk to the girl!

Change 2: Romantic

Over the years, I have become more and more romantic. As a single person, I can’t prove that to you, but I can sense it. I started making songs for my future wife a few years back. I have been writing journals, hoping someday a special person will read it. I have been learning about how to be a man and a leader, so I can lead my future family when the time comes. I have been taking good care of my body, exercising frequently, and even learned some beauty cares!

I have fantasied about massaging my wife after I get married. One time I was receiving a massage from a massagist, when I told him I wanted to learn massage and why, he rebuked me strongly! (I was in mainland China. Chinese men still have this pride thing)

Change 3: Dating-Resistant

Many friends I know who are close to my age have been in a relationship more than once.

If you believe that God has someone special reserved just for you, you will have peace and security. You will not date around for fear of aging alone.

⁹However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love (or wait for) him” 1 Corinthians 2:9

If you believe in this promise, anything less than God’s best will fade.

God’s plan is beautiful. Once you see it with your inner eyes, everything else, including and especially lust, will reveal their ugly selves comparing to the beautiful picture that you see.

You will not be able to date someone you know you are not going to spend the rest of your life with. You can’t, because that will make you worry what happens if God’s best suddenly shows up tomorrow! Or shows up but withdraw immediately after he or she sees that you already have someone!

I wonder how many guys and gals have repelled God’s best because they have been going out with someone! Heh heh! (You think I am mean? No, I’ve seen too many of that I don’t want to be heartbroken anymore!)

Deep in your heart, you know what you want. You know when a person isn’t the husband/wife that you like to have. And similarly, you will be very confident when you finally meet someone you can grow old with. Anything in between is NO! And God’s best will only appear in your life once, assuming that you have obeyed God’s plan A!

What if you miss out God’s best? Well… God always has a plan B, because He know that you and I are weak. But let us focus on plan A while it is still intact!

Beware of dating, especially with non-Christian, for you can adopt destructive habits through dating.

It’s a lifelong practice

Again, we sow what we reap. What you do before you marry will have consequences that last through your marriage. And for those who have married, it’s important to know that your spouse will change if you change first. Lasting romance only come from hard work and spiritual disciplines.

At the end of the day, it’s inner beauty that counts. Outward beauty will fade (Proverbs 31:30). However, every spiritual blessing that come from hard work and obedience will eventually become outward beauty! For example, many godly men in the Bible were handsome, and had beautiful wife or children. It was a bonus blessing from God.

But if you hurt relationships and family by sinning, how can you expect wounded souls to become beautiful outwardly? Guilt, abuse, or immorality can turn attractive persons ugly.

Ultimately, it’s God’s love that can strengthen marriage and repel lust. With God’s love, marriage can become an effective defense against lust. And hope of marrying God’s best will strengthen us against temptations even if we’re single. (Unless you have the gift of celibacy. In that case, you are waiting for the marriage between Christ and the Church)

Coming Next

I am going to talk about God’s word and how it can cleanse our soul and shield us from all temptations.

Go to Part 5, Spiritual Cleansing

Go to Christian Purity

The concepts behind familiar words such as faith, hope, and love have a lot to do with it.

We are to be careful so we don’t say these words so carelessly that we forget their real meaning, or by hearing them too much we became too numb to conduct any meaningful contemplation on these words.

The more we are filled with faith, hope, and love, the more we will find it easy to set ourselves apart for God.

A brief overviews of faith, hope, and love

Do you know that your level of faith is proportional to your level of accomplishments in life? If you try to do something without putting real faith into it, you will never reach your full potential. Similarly, you will never experience true freedom from sin if you don’t really believe that freedom is yours to have.

Your behavior and attitude will stand in your way if you mentally agree with something, but not really believe it with your whole heart. And you if you don’t even agree with it, you will never take the first step.

Hope. It can give you endurance that is comparable to steel. When politicians fail the people, they often talk about the future so the people will endure poverty and chaos of the present.

It’s like the network marketing industry. Most people in a NM company don’t make money, but rather, lose money to yet another conference, yet another training course, and yet another “business expense”, but the stars on top will keep pointing them at the beautiful future so the representatives will stay with the company.

Hope works!

The examples I used might sound negative, but without hope, we can do nothing.

²⁴But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? Romans 8:24

Everything that takes more than the present to accomplish requires hope. A college student spend years and big money on school because he has a hope: to graduate and find a job with his degree.

Developers spend years to build a skyscraper because they hope to make money. Oil companies take risk and time to detect an oil mine, negotiate with the local government, and invest in major equipments in hope of making profit many years later.

Suppose you are a single Christian. What can keep you from satisfying your sexual need with premarital sex or casual dating? It’s hope. If you have a hope of marrying the best person ever, you will feel worth it to preserve your purity for that special someone. You will find strength to endure until the time come.

We will talk more about marriage and intimate relationship in the next installment.

And finally, love

Love has many facets. One of that is repulsiveness to lust. If you have god’s love in you, it will repel lust. If love and lust share the same room, they will fight until only one remains.

Let’s take a full look at the biblical love:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Where there are impatience, unkindness, envy, boastfulness, pride… or any other antithesis of love, there are cracks for lust to creep in.

To excel in one thing requires excellence in everything. Virtues support each other. Purity requires other virtues to stay strong.

If you have read previous installments of this series, you should note that I mentioned a fateful night when I fell into lust, and experienced self-arousal for the first time at 24 years of age.

What happened before that night that lead to my downfall?

In the year that lead to THE night of downfall…

…I had kept record of wrongs of fellow Christians. I had involved in gossips that contaminated my spiritual well being. I was burned out in school because of self-imposed expectation and regrets. I had made many complains. I had been negative toward life. I had been careless with worldly things such as cable TV. I had harbored angers. I had intense fears.

Collectively, these were probably what set up the fall for me.

A Christian should always be joyful. I had lost my joy. My love was not pure and strong.

When a Christian loses his love and joy, addictions and sin will set in. Why? because the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh 8:10), and that love unites all virtues (Col 3:14).

Without joy, you have a void. It’s hard to not find something to fill a void. The longer that void exist, the more likely you will find indulgences to fill it.

Without love, all other virtues will start to disintegrate, and every defenses against temptations will crumble.

Coming Next

I will further delve into the concepts of faith, hope, and love, and explain how we can apply them while we are yearning for intimate relationship. A healthy Christian relationship and sweet fellowship with brothers and sisters will complete our defenses against lust. Coming next: Romance, marriage, desire, and intimacy.

It might be embarrassing to ask them for tips. And they probably do not have a clear 2 lines answers for you.

How to overcome temptation is a world of knowledge. There’s no simple, one dimensional answer.

In the Bible, numerous bible verses contains some shred of tips on how to live a holy life. But there’s no condensed formula.

The best way to make one thing right is to make everything right.

Our five senses, daily routines, belief, thinking, friends, focus, and lifestyle, almost everything contributes to the outcome in our battles with sexual temptations.

Good news! There are principles that determines the outcome of our battles with temptations. Once we have a firm grasp with these principles, and change our lifestyle according to them, it will be much easier to live a holier life.

Let’s get into everything the Bible says about temptations and see what the principles are:

Escape, not fight

God promised that a Christian will always find a way to escape from temptations. But He never promised that we can confront a temptation and beat it with willpower.

Even if we pray for strength, we will never change this escape-not-fight reality. It’s not a head-on fight, but it’s how well you practice the art of escape.

Ya, the fact isn’t exciting. I know. It took me many years to accept that too.

Let’s look at the following passages from 1 Corinthians 10:13

¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Therefore, the first thing is to admit that we are all weak. We will commit any sin if the situation is right. But God will not allow us to be in a situation where things are too much for us to bear.

That also means we have no excuse when we sin. It’s a fair game, because God never allowed challenges that were too much for us. If we felt like we had tried our best, but still got defeated, it was because we missed the escape routes that God had prepared for us.

Let’s identify some escape routes that are hidden in the bible verses we are so familiar with! Talk about hidden under your noise!

Visual Sensation

The Bible gives us stern warning about desires of the eyes:

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;
Walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes;
But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9

The Bible admits that we have desires, and that our eyes love attractive things, and we can fulfill them moderately or excessively. How we choose to fulfill the desires of our heart and our eyes will determine whether God is happy with us or not.

I believe desires work in quota, so if we fulfill the desires in wholesome ways, we will minimize the risk of falling into indulgences for fulfillment.

Take a walk in the nature. Watch the beautiful sunset or sunrise. Develop a visual hobby such as photography or drawing.

The root of pornography is a combination of human’s aesthetic need, and of course many other needs such as need for intimacy, thrills, and pleasures. These are legitimate needs, but if you are not living according to the Holy Spirit, it’s easy to twist these needs into lust.

But if you fulfill all the needs with God-allowed, or God driven activities, you will have a much easier time dealing with sexual temptations.

Replacement is better than deprivation.

If you deprive yourself of a sinful indulgence but not replace it with the godly or healthy alternatives, chances are you will fall into even worst indulgences. (Luke 11:24-26)

Food For Lust

Pornography, dirty jokes or conversation, rock music, clubbing, casual dating, and sensual reading material are food for lust. The scripture tells us not to “make provisions for the flesh”(Romans 13:14). Provision means “supplies such as food, drink, or equipments.” Don’t feed lust to make it strong!

Anyone who feeds his or her lust will never have freedom!

In my university years, I used to take regular walks in the park, and pray as I walk. The nature was my source of comforts. It gives me quietness and relaxation.

There were times when I would make music for the Lord during my “prayer walk”. My Christian friends liked my music.

However, instead of being contend about where I was spiritually, I felt guilty because some Christians criticized me for not working hard enough in school, but spent the time making music and taking random walks. The criticisms sunk in.

I started to force myself to sit more, because I thought that would make me focus more on my study and not being so lazy.

I deprived myself of a spiritual discipline that I enjoy, but forced myself to sit and work, and that created a major void that invited the horror…

I never really used computers before I was 24 years old, except for gaming, schoolwork, and checking emails. I never had vivid, graphical, and lustful fantasy before 24 years old.

At 24 I fell into an lustful habit that began on a strange night, and after that I started to browse pornographic sites. Later I bought my first laptop. When I started to use the Internet more the problem of lust escalated.

The more I sat, the more I fell into Internet porn.

I had never seen so much graphical details prior to 24 years old. How I wished I had kept it that way before getting married! What a shame!

Those are memories I wish I could unlearn. Unlearn it I will, but it takes time.

Now I know better! Making music for the Lord, and spending large chunk of time for personal devotions may not feel like productive, but are critically important in my walk with God.

Had I been confident about the spiritual disciplines and not get swayed by others…

Holy Spirit had forewarned me!

But I can’t really blame others. It was me. Holy Spirit had already warned me of lust 6 months before I first fell into lust: That fateful night at 24!

Be careful how you live, and be diligent in keeping your lifestyle pure! For me, sticking with the computer for too long is oftentime unproductive, and create boredom and fatigue that invite temptations.

Trying too hard and working too long can create unintended consequences! A healthy adult need to walk 10,000 steps per day in order to stay healthy.

Don’t use the Internet unless you use it for work. If you have to use it for wholesome sites, use RSS reader to consolidate all the contents of your favorite sites so you can read all the necessary materials without leaving a safe place (i.e. your RSS reader).

Now I no longer visit porn sites. I haven’t done that for more than 6 months now. Even while I still had that problem, I did it sporadically.

Interestingly, it was when I resumed my walks in the nature when the problem with porn started to diminished.

It was by God’s grace that this problem shrunk. It could have been worst. Much worst.

My problem with porn had lasted for two years.

So how did God cleanse me? What exactly did God do to set me free and keep me free? The answer is, everything I have mentioned in this article thus far and what I am going to share for the rest of this series! So let us keep going!

Our Tongues

Our tongues control our whole persons. It can make a person unclean:

¹⁷“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ” Matthew 15:16-20

Christians are to avoid all “hints of sexual immorality”, which include: “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking” (Ephesians 5:3-4)

Workplace and high school are perhaps the most vicious place when it comes to immoral talks.

I don’t know how, but I adopted an escape mechanism, when someone or a group of people do obscene jesting, my mind would automatically zone out, and by the time I “wake up”, all I see are the evil smiles on people’s face.

When you really want to avoid temptations, and God see your sincerity, He will use divine mean to keep you from harm’s way. And when that happen you might not realize how many temptations have passed you by.

The key is humility. Admit that you’re not sinning at the moment because of God’s divine intervention. If the situation is right, anyone can commit any sin.

Give thanks when you’re not sinning!

Curses, Music, and the Media…

The world is full of messages. Messages that come from TV, newspapers, commercials, novel, the Internet, music, and many other media contain messages have huge influences on us.

If someone tells you to do something, or put subtle suggestions in your mind, but you don’t have other messages (such as God’s word) within you that nullify it, you will be manipulated, like what happens in hypnotism.

You may not feel the power of evil influences the world can have on you because it happens all the time that you probably feel numb to it already. You maybe used to evil and violence you encounter daily from cable TV or computer games, and think they have no influence on your behaviors.

But whatever goes into our mind changes us. The more we spend time with someone or something, the more we are influenced by it.

We can’t expect ourselves to live a clean life if we go to church only one day per week but expose ourselves to evil for the rest of the days.

Remember I told you in a paragraph above that the Holy Spirit had warned me of lust 6 months before I fell into it?

Long before I had a problem with lust I already had read some good books on how to overcome temptations, such as Praying God’s Word Day by Day (Beth Moore), The Eagle Story (Institute In Basic Life Principles), The Bondage Breaker(Neil. T Anderson), and The Normal Christian Life (Watchman Nee).

Foresights and good books were not enough to keep me from harms. During that 6 months(2005 Fall) I watched some cable TV shows, which had violence and sexual contents. I guess that was one factor that brought me down.

But that was not all that brought me down. One time I went to a Christian bookstore and read a book that talked about Christian purity, and it contained detailed description of a sinful addiction that I was ignorant of before. I wished I hadn’t learned those details from the book.

Months later, in a strange night when I was away from home to attend a conference, alone in a motel room, I did what that book “taught” me and adopted that lustful habit since. Prior to that I had never experienced self-arousal ever.

How ironic, I learned a sinful habit not from secular movies or books, but from a Christian book!

The lesson is: The is no end all be all solutions in any book. Purity is a constant path. As long as we live in this world, we have to pursue holiness continuously. Keep praying. Keep asking God’s guidance. Be vigilant!

We live in a world full of curses…

This is not the Lord Of The Rings or Dungeon & Dragon. I am talking about the real world we are living in. Even our family can pass on curses to us:

⁷Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.  Exodus 34:7

Harsh words that our family members have said to us, deceptions or compromises that our parents, great parents, or great grand parents made or chose to accept, and consequences of their decisions, have long term impacts on us.

The weakness of parents will likely pass on to the children.

Some people swore they will never be like their parents, but they ended up being exactly the same or the opposite.

My great grand father had two wives at the same time (It was legal and common at the time). The first one was my great grand mother. The second wife left with another man at some point. But my great grand mother was still very bitter because of this polygamous situation, and this caused her to berate my great grand father every single day for the rest of his life. This ended until my great grand father died of cancer.

But the hateful words have a lasting impact on my mother, who had heard the bitter words everyday while growing up. That bitterness and its long term effects still persist in my family today.

The bitter words of my great grant mother were verbal curses! Every words that come out of our mouths will have eternal consequences. (Proverbs 18:21)

Fortunately, the Lord has given us powerful solutions that can override all curses: the Bible, His numerous promises, prayers, blessings, salvation, fellowship of the church, and many more.

We have to actively use what God has given us, or we will be overpowered by curses that are so overwhelming in this world.

Spiritual weapons are rarely automatic. We have to put them on everyday and wield them to fight.

If you are struggling with certain areas such as lust, but can never conquer it despite years of spiritual disciplines, the root cause of your failures could be hidden curses that you are not aware of.

To cure the problem of lust, you need to get into the roots of the problem. Has you father kept a hidden stash of porn somewhere in the house? Has anyone hurt you deeply with verbal curses? Are you in a dating relationship that involved ungodly activities?

Confess every sin in your life, and reflect on where that sin came from. Was it from your dad? mom? peers? TV?

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

Trace every sin to its root, and replace it with spiritual discipline. For example, if someone curses you, you should return him or her with blessings (1 Peter 3:9) and overcome evil with good. If you harbor bitterness and grudge, the curses will have influences on you.

Enough said

I have said enough about the our senses and how they related to lust. Next I am going to talk about how to avoid lust easily by serving God!

If you fight with lust, it will always be more relentless and more powerful than you are. But if you replace your focus with God given responsibilities, wonderful things will happen. You don’t need to consciously resist lust if your focus isn’t there.

In the upcoming installments, I am also going to share about hopes and how they give us power to persist in staying pure.

Go to Part 2 of How to Overcome Sexual Temptation: Christian Servanthood

Return from How to Overcome Sexual Temptation to Christian Purity

Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10

¹⁶Be joyful always; ¹⁷pray continually; ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5

Depression, or merely sadness, can sap you of energy, motivation, and strength. In a long run, it also saps you of health!

The side effect of depression, whether clinical or not, is lethargy. It can disguise itself as laziness, which produce guilt. Guilt is a fuel of depression.

I used to be stern serious! I would often analyze the past and come up with reasons for regrets. Regrets had become my greatest fears.

I also used to compare with others. I would see things that others had achieved and concluded that I could have achieved the same things if I were more careful, more courageous, more etc… Then I would feel like crap.

Even when I just achieved something, I would feel the urge to look for my inadequacy and criticize it, instead of celebrating the achievement.

As a result, lethargy became a strong hold for me for many years, until I realized the problem and grew out of the habit of depressive thinking.

Then the power of joy became obvious. When I am joyful, my productivity would increase much more and become more stable.

Give Thanks

Thankfulness rewards the good, but too much self-criticisms punish everything. It kills both the good and the bad.

To give thank is the best cure to the habit of complaining, bitterness, depression, and by extension, lethargy.

Try and give thank for even the tiny little things, you will be amazed at the result if you do it consistently for a few days and carefully observe the change.

For example, when I give thank for completing a small task such as posting an article on my blog, I would find more strength to do the next task, instead of lacking motivation and needing to take more breaks.

2. Do Not Fear

¹³ The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road!
A fierce lion is in the streets!” Proverbs 26:13

It’s easy to associate work with fears such as pain, failures, illness, danger, and whatever that makes you afraid.

Here is a personal example, I have a quite heavy condition of astigmatism, and medium shortsightedness on my right eye. I also have bothering floaters floating around that often distract me while I read.

These conditions started to develop when I was 15, I was very much concerned. I worried about my eyes day and night, and tried to avoid using my eyes for intensive activities. After many years, I had unconsciously developed the habit of avoiding study, and my attention span became shorter than my peers by the time I entered University. That put me at a serious disadvantage.

But entertainments that were close vision intensive such as watching TV, computer gaming, and reading manga could numb my fears, and so as the years passed, I became hopelessly, progressively addicted to those activities. Whenever I felt depressed, I would go back to them for temporary comforts, even though I was fighting to resist and force myself to do productive things instead.

The more I fear, the more I got trapped by that fear and actualized it.

When you create fears, you are at the same time conditioning yourself to avoid the fears you created. Whether you are doing it consciously or not.

While you and I are surely not as stupid as the “lazy man” as is depicted in the bible, who made up a lion in his head, you and I could make up a lot of fears in our minds.

For me, my made-up fear was going blind. I didn’t know that my eyes conditions were results of improper diets and mental stress, not just strenuous activities for the eyes, and that the conditions of my eyes can be reversed!

Similarly, a salesman might find it hard to sit down and make sale calls, for fear of rejections. A unemployed person might dread taking actions to look for work for fear of landing in an abusive work environment, or fear of working hard to make someone rich.

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3. Avoid Perfectionism and Accept Uncertainty

⁶ Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well. Ecclesiastes 11:6

Being uncertain of the results and worrying about failures produce procrastination. Most works involve more than 2 steps, and it is uncertain whether the current step actually lead to the end result.

It is uncomfortable to shoot for the stars, because you never know whether you will hit something. You don’t know how many more steps you have to take before you get the desired result.

While in University, one of the required class for my major was programming. For that course, the term project was to simulate the game of Monopoly. And we were working in groups.

In my group, I was always the last one to take actions. I had very little understanding of programming at the time, so during most of the course I felt lost. I usually came to understand what each assignment and project was about at the very last minute.

I hated to come up with new code to solve a problem I had never seen before. I hated the feeling of uncertainties: uncertainty of whether the solution I just made up would work or not.

So I chose to debug the code for my group, since debugging came last. They usually finished their parts on the weekdays, and I spent the weekends to debug and perfect the code.

I just didn’t have the guts to “just do it”. I was a person who needed to have complete information before taking actions. I would wait for the doers in my group to tackle the uncertainties first, so I could work on the information they left behind.

Many time when my group tried to run the program and crushed I had a very uncomfortable feeling, because I never knew when the code will ever run properly.

If you have ever been a novice of programming like me, then you know what I am talking about. There are no guarantee whether you will find out all the bugs and whether you can come up with something that solve the next technical challenge. And you don’t even know what the next technical challenge maybe.

You just don’t know when you will finish the program. There are full of uncertainties in programming!

But every time when I do finally summon up the courage to tackle the code, the task would eventually get done. And I would question myself, “it was easier than I thought, why didn’t I just go for it and finish it at once? “

And so is everything in life.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 says it clearly. You never know which specific action you take will bear fruit, but you have to keep taking actions, because some of the actions will bear fruit. Don’t wait for certainty. If you’re programmer, just program. If you’re writer, just write. If you’re composer, just compose.

Don’t wait for good mood. Don’t wait until you feel certain about it.

And don’t worry about the quality of the result, why?

Because…

If you wait, and work very slowly, you will make mistakes slowly, then you correct them slowly, and you will get the result slowly.

If you work quickly, you will make all the same mistakes within a shorter period, then you correct them quickly, and you will get the same result, quickly.

Slow or quick, you make the same mistakes. Same result, but quick is better than slow.

4. Prepare Your Tools

²⁷ Finish your outdoor work
and get your fields ready;
after that, build your house. Proverbs 24:27

If you want to build solid habits, you should do all the preparation at the beginning when your willpower is still strong.

For example, If you want to adopt a healthier diet, or develop a habit of going to gym, you can make regular appointments with a gym coach, or enroll in any training class in a fitness or recreation club. You have paid the money, and there are people doing it with you, such as a coach or classmates, so it is easier to maintain the commitment in the long run. As for healthier diet, you may order grocery online and make recurring order that ship healthy food to your home regularly.

That way you do the prep work only once, but the momentum will serve you continually.

Everyone’s willpower is the same. Willpower alone will not establish solid habits for you. It may give you a burst of energy initially, but it dies out very quickly.

You need to build a mechanism that provides accountability, quick reward and punishment, and ease of convenience.

Invest in expensive tools such as juicers, blenders, chair, bicycle, laptop, or whatever that give you ease and convenient for the purpose of developing the habits you want.

Poor investment in tools will give poor results. For example, I was a very frugal person. I needed a big computer monitor and a good chair because of long hours of work before the computer, but I refused to admit that I needed them. I just settled with my laptop screen and a cheap dinner chair. Soon I had severe pains in my neck and my entire back.

I had to receive acupuncture and massage treatments. And my focus were heavily reduced by the back pains. I wanted to work more, but my psychological instinct refused to let me work by reducing my attention span.

It was an subconsciously self-defensive response. My instinct sensed severe consequences that were coming if I worked more.

But my conscious mind interpreted that self-defensive instinct as laziness.

Finally my parents bought me a big screen and an office chair. The chair wasn’t the best, scientifically designed chair ever, but after I used it my back pains were gone. And the big monitor allowed me to read longer hours, and with better neck posture. Going to yoga class helped too.

I used to believe that tools and classes were for weak persons and procrastinators. I thought they just didn’t want to work, so they spent the money and time to buy the pretty fancy stuff and joined some expensive programs to make themselves feel better, instead of just putting up the effort.

Now I am a believer.

Also, an organized and intelligently designed office do improve productivity by tons. Better to put some picture, fragrance, and plants there too.

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5. Avoid Heavy Meals and Drowsiness

²¹ for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
and drowsiness clothes them in rags. Proverbs 23:21

Drowsiness and gluttony are twin brother! Heavy meals decrease energy. Also on the anti-energy list are greasy, sugary, dairy, and junk food in general.

Sugar and caffeine filled food or beverage make you hyper, but reduce attention span and focus. Back in the day when I didn’t know better, I took them while I studied for exams, and I couldn’t do any significant learning afterward even though I felt very much awake.

I used to be a believer in milk. I used to have a glass of milk before exams. Now I understand why my mind turned blank during the exams! Drink soy milk instead! I mean pure, organic, and sugarless soy milk (No refined sugar, but natural ones are fine. Some brown sugars in the coffee shops are essentially white sugars in brown color).

Raw fruits and plants, on the other hand, give stable energy and nutrients to the body, and cleanse the body of toxins that come from the environment and standard diets. I am not talking about one apple a day or 1 to 2 oz of vegetables. I am talking about filling your stomach with them! Drink large dose of juices! Eat a lot of fresh vegetables!

Speaking of stable energy, natural, organic rice is stable fuel for the body. The energy that comes from natural sugar in the rice can last for many hours.

One time I did a 40 days fast, and on the last 20 days I only needed 4 hours of sleep. I was very energetic and alert. I realized how drowsy I was when I was consuming regular diets.

6. Wake Up with The Sunlight

¹⁹He made the moon for the seasons;
The sun knows the place of its setting.
²⁰ You appoint darkness and it becomes night,
In which all the beasts of the forest prowl about.
²¹ The young lions roar after their prey
And seek their food from God.
²² When the sun rises they withdraw
And lie down in their dens.
²³ Man goes forth to his work
And to his labor until evening.  Psalm 104:19-23

Different creatures have different biological clocks. Some beasts were created to be active at night, and some are to be active during the day. Humans operate best when we wake up as the sun rises.

It is now pretty well known that the morning is the most productive time. Some say an hour in the morning equal to 3 hours in the afternoon in term of productivity. I totally agree.

As the day pass, the burden and usage of our mind increase as well. We can’t reserve our energy and capacity of our minds for later in the day, because our minds are always active.

The brain will invent tasks for itself and keep itself busy, whether you like it or not. Taking deep breaths will relax it, but the default mode of the brain is to find something to release its energy upon.

If you don’t assign important tasks for your brain first thing in the morning, it will go after low yielding tasks such as checking emails, social chattering, worrying, daydreaming, fidgeting, surfing the Net, and etc.

Divide your day into two half. There are approximately 16 hours of wakeful time for an average person. Allocate your first 8 hours for work. Assign the first 4 hours of the first half of your day for important tasks such as studying for professional exams, or intelligence intensive works such as drafting a proposal.

Use the remaining hours of the first half for less important but urgent work such as business calls, checking and replying emails, and any other low yielding work.

8-10 hours of works per day should be enough. Any more than that is a waste of time due to diminishing returns, and can even be harmful to your health.

It is important to wind up the day. Release and let go of all petty concerns of the day and enjoy a quiet evening. Reduce factors that is bad for sleep hygiene such as lights, noises, crappy food, alcohol, coffee, and upsetting conversations or TV programs.

Bad sleep hygiene results in drowsiness during the day, which is one of the major factors for laziness. (See number 6)

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7. Observe and Emulate

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!

⁷ It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,

⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-

¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man. ^[a] Proverbs 6:6-10

Emulation is the natural product of observation. When you observe something or someone attentively over a long period of time, you will emulate its qualities.

Ant isn’t smart, but they are good at being consistent and at dividing tasks into smaller parts. They probably don’t understand what difficult means, since an ant’s brain is 1/40000 of the size of human’s.

Size, complexity, and difficulty of work cannot intimidate ants; Therefore, ants don’t procrastinate!

They just look for the next thing to do and do it. When they encounter a food that is bigger than they can carry, they divide it.

Also, the scripture warns us of napping. Napping can be bad because it reduces qualities of sleep for the night, thus create the need for nap on the next day. And the cycle goes on.

8. Go Hungry

¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” ¹¹We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11

²⁶ The laborer’s appetite works for him;
his hunger drives him on.  Proverbs 16:26

Slothful man is oftentime a meddler. Slothful man will busy himself with all kind of things, but will not commit to any major responsibility.

If you meddle in other people’s affair or gossip, then you probably have too little responsibilities of your own and are being too idle.

Meddling Christians bring so much trouble to the church. They create stress for the real producers, leak secrets to third party, and throw accusations at others.

Meddler has no clear job description, but love to throw advice at everybody, especially at the authorities and the real servants of the church who do real work with sweat and love. Meddlers (Busybodies who are actually idle) regard themselves highly. (Proverbs 26:16)

They also respond bitterly when they think their advice is not heeded. This is why they are often the originators of gossips! They feel bitter at people who don’t seem to follow their advice and complain to others about it. They use secret information they coveted through all kind of means as evidences to convince a third party who is not involved with the issue.

Hunger is a great cure for slothfulness or meddling. When I did my 40 days fast, someone said I was meeker than usual. I was able to sleep much less due to the benefit of detox. My mind was crystal clear.

If you are struggling with a lack of motivation to work, try to reduce your food intake. This is what I do to myself. It’s actually healthier this way. Often time, your body is fatigue and overwhelmed due to the toxins that come from unhealthy diets.

In a developed country, we tend to eat much more than we need, and we eat meals that make the stomach full but lack real nutrients. Gluttony!

If you’re not exercising your body, your body doesn’t need as much food as it does when you engage in physical labor such as going to gym.

As for mental work, it’s the same, if you tend to avoid work, then avoid eating more than your body needs too. Keep your food intake to the bare minimum.

Don’t let security or gluttony take away your drive and will to work.

Appetite is a great source of power, utilize it.

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9. Move Your Body

¹² The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep.  Ecclesiastes 5:12

On top of other benefits to health, exercise is also important for sleep hygiene. A rich man who lacks physical labor but only engages in mental work such as counting money will find it harder to have a good night of sleep.

Studies show that it is optimal for a healthy adult to walk more than 10,000 steps per day, and no less than 5000 steps.

10. Avoid Idle Chatter

²³ In all labor there is profit,
But idle chatter^[a]leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23

“He who only does the talk but no chop chop will produces nothing!” (By Me)

Conversation is addictive.

It’s easy to mistake idle chatters for “fellowship”.

When I had the addiction of idle chatters, I believed I needed regular heart-to-heart meeting with like-minded Christian and pour out my heart to them, and during the meeting I just went on talking.

You can get addicted to spiritual sharing!

Recently, I have been burying myself into this blogging project, and realize that I can go on without heart-to-heart conversations like this for more than a month. I don’t even talk much at all for most days of the week, except on Friday and Sunday when I take Kung Fu classes.

Building this website is a profitable project. If I talk to someone and share my spiritual insight in person, I am only serving one person, and all that are said during the conversation will pass. But for written work, it will work 24/7 for me for years to come, and a lot more people will receive the benefits.

Building a website is a lot of labor. Obviously when I am working on this project, I can’t talk. But thinking about the future this project will bring is a great joy that keeps me going.

Idle chatter grows.

Like any other addiction. The more you enjoy idle chatter, the more you become dependent on it. You will feel a void if you’re deprived of it suddenly.

When I was in University, I often end up talking with random friends I run into, instead of just quietly engaging in my studies. Years later, I don’t know where these random people are and what they’re doing right now, but the idle chatters produced nothing of lasting value for me today.

Use your time to build things that last!

Last words

By now you might be able to spot a slothful person very quickly. I admit it usually took me quite a while before I realized the damage and the true character of a slothful person.

Cut all association with them. Don’t trust them with anything, even if you feel lonely at working by yourself. Otherwise you will get hurt, you will be meddled, you will be gossiped against, and you will be disappointed!

In the near future, I might write a post about slothful people, and what kind of traps they will pose to the good-meaning, but unaware individuals or groups! That means YOU!

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Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Little thanks can go a long way. I wouldn’t say it if I hadn’t truly observed the tremendous power of thanksgiving.

Whenever I sense that I am treading on the path of depressive thinking, I would give thanks for at least 10 items, and the disastrous pattern would be channeled back to the productive and truthful thinking. I used to be a depressive person, and depressive thinking and emotions had devoured a lot of blessings that could have been mine: such as time, opportunities, focus, academic performance, health, and relationships.

God commanded us to give thanks not because He was egotistic, but for our own good. There are indeed so much blessings in and around us that deserve our thanks.

Last night, I was strolling on a street in Hong Kong, a clamour broke out on the street across from where I was strolling, and as I looked into the direction of where the noises came from, I saw a bunch of teenagers messing around. One of them yelled, “Ah Sir is watching!” (We call police officers “Ah Sir” in Hong Kong) I looked around and spotted two police officers standing on my side of the street, watching the teenagers intensively, with their arms folded.

At that moment, I was touched. It had been a long time since I last felt touched by these civil servants (When I was little, policemen used to be my heroes, because of the TV shows that featured polices, and probably because of Jacky Chan’s Police Story‘s series)

If not for them, the streets wouldn’t be safe for me to stroll around. As a writer, it’s important for me to stroll around and stretch my body when taking breaks from long hours before the computers.

Also, the parks, the soccers/basketball fields near my home, the fresh air, the trees, food, water, and a lot of things that keep me healthy, happy, and safe so I can do my blogging at this moment.

Thanks Giving and Self-Discipline

If we don’t practice thanksgiving, it’s impossible to maintain a super high level of self-discipline and motivation.

How do they relate?

When I accomplish a task —small or big —if I don’t truly give thank for what I was able to accomplish, I always feel a period of lethargy afterward, because deep in my heart, I fail to appreciate what I just did, nor the resources and help that assisted me to accomplish it, so my heart stops giving me more energy that I need to proceed to the next tasks.

Our heart and mine need our affirmations. They don’t know what we want them to do if we don’t let them know. I just started writing this post right after I gave thanks for being able to accomplish the previous one, but before I gave thank, my motivation was running so low that I thought I might call it the night.

You can’t be complaining or remaining neutral when you want to have strong self-discipline. For example, give thanks for being able to solve one tiny problem at work, if you want to maintain a good mood to go on solving the next 20 to 30 problems; give thank for receiving a random act of kindness from a friend, if you want even more. Don’t just look for things that are not there yet, but be grateful for every little gift and blessing that went your way.

If you want to make the most out of what I share here, I recommend you look into the original source that I have been using, and begin your own journey of truth seeking. My source is the Bible.

The Bible said “The truth shall make you free”. Lasting freedom comes from the truth. Truth is the living words of God. If you receive the words of God into your spirit, it will grow and transform your life day by day. It will gradually purify and heal your mind, emotion, and body. Whereas our own efforts might be short-lived or misguided, the power of God is eternally reliable and steady.

How can you receive the words of God? First, your spirit needs to be born again. So how are you able to be born again?

One of the Jewish teachers went to Jesus and asked him exactly that question.

Jesus told him that, “the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” In order to be born again, you need to accept the Spirit of God – note the capital ‘S’ indicates God’s Spirit, and the lower case ‘s’ for human’s spirit.

Jesus then goes on to promise this, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

You receive the Spirit of God, and have your spirit born again by believing in Jesus Christ as your personal savior. He came to die for our sin on the cross, was buried and resurrected, and now He is preparing heaven for those who believe in Him.

When Jesus himself was tempted by the Devil in the desert, He didn’t argue with Satan, but He defeated every temptation with the words of God from the Old Testament. With the Spirit of God, and a born again spirit, you’ll be empowered to do the same too. Jesus promised that if we become the children of God by receiving him as our savior, we’ll live our earthly life to the fullest, as well as eternal life in heaven.

What is the role of spirit in defeating addictions and bad habits?

We have talked about the roles of the mind, emotions, and body. Finally it’s time to talk about the spirit. A person can excel in all faculties of the brain, being able to perceive and understand empirical, and scientific knowledge, but without a born again spirit, that person will not be able to discern the big picture, and true nature of things.

For example, do you know all the consequences of every word you have ever said, and thought that you have ever conceived? Do you know how many generations will be affected because of one immoral act the ancestor committed? Can you come up with a formula that solves your life’s problems such as an addiction? Are you sure where you’re going after life?

Our spirit is like an antenna that receives divine signals from God. God can transform our nature, and renew our mind by telling our spirit what to think and what to do. In a world of conflicting information, we need a source of information that is 100% pure.

Addiction is a result of wrong thinking, and misplaced affections. It’s actually very hard to get our thinking right by ourselves. We need to replace our thoughts with God’s thoughts. He created us, and therefore knows how we’re supposed to operate. The Bible is the instruction manual of how humans should operate. Do you want to make the most important decision, to be a born again Christian?

It’s simple. No matter where you are, tell God about your decision and sincerely pray. There, you become a Christian!