I decide to wrap up the diet journal today, because I have already done what I planned to do, even though the result wasn’t 100% what I expected.

Maybe I have been eating something that feeds the Candidas? If I am, I don’t know what it is.

I am suspecting that my mercury filling maybe the culprit. I am going to remove this one and only mercury filling in mouth, and see if I am going to get even better. I already had some good result about 10 days into the diet. If the yeast is totally gone, it must be even better!

I really pray that the Lord protect me through the mercury filling replacement procedure. I am going to look for a good dentist for this. The filling area is not small, so I hope that the alternative material will be able to do the job, and the removal of the old filling isn’t going to hurt that tooth.

If it’s going to cost a small fortune, then only God can provide. Right now I have been making more money since the diet began, but if it’s a thousand dollar dental bill I can’t afford it as of now.

Each time I bite, the filling is releasing mercury vapor! Mercury vapor sure would affect the brain in negative ways. It certainly explains a lot about me…

But I am hoping that once all the heavy metal posioning and yeast are gone, I would regain a much more healthy brain.

So my next quest is mercury amalgam removal.

Last Friday I got a rum and some cheese, and it became obvious that my mind was less sharp since, and it resumed a couple of days later. Alcohol and cheese are foods for yeast, so it’s a big no.

See how easy it is for most of us to be trapped? The common mercury fillings that people used to get a lot, combined with the epidemic yeast overgrowth that many people have, are depriving them of optimal health. Those who are trapped are underperforming spiritually, mentally, and physically, but most of them won’t see how serious the problem is, because they have got so used to this really bad condition. For people who are lucky enough to be not in this trap, they have sharper minds and have more advantages to help them get ahead in life.

Anyhow, I will probably fast for God soon.

Today is my 6 to 7 th days since I started to take the anti-fungal, candidas cleansing kit, but so far so good, nothing too violent in terms of the dying off reaction.

Somedays I experienced more brain fog, fatigue, or gas problems more than the other days, and that was it. The white plague is still on my tongue, which means the yeast overgrowth is still a problem. The yeast is supposed to be gone after 15 days, so I will see what happens.

My craving for carbohydrates decreased to a very comfortable level. I don’t feel the urges at all. My appetites for foods also decreased in general. I have 2 children legs a day on average, plus the green juice, and that was it.

I feel there is a greater ability in me to surpress distractions, and focus on what I want to do. I have a greater motivation to make money, and more positive emotions to enjoy the process, whereas before I often worried or felt depressed about many things related to work. Overall, I make a lot more money since the diet started.

When you get healthy, especially in the brain, work becomes so much more enjoyable. My social life becomes more natural and smooth too. I have more energy and spontaneity to deal with people. I feel more ready to deal with social challenges. In fact, social life is no longer a challenge, but it became something that stimulates positive emotions.

I went out to evangelize to people more often. Time doesn’t feel half as long as it used to when my diet improved. I didn’t have to push myself through the process. I still had to take time to summon courage and what not before reaching out to a stranger, but the entire process seems much easier comparing to before. It may have to do with past experiences and training, but I think the diet definitely had a lot to do with the recent boost in street evangelism performance. I just feel more relaxed. The depression and anxiety aren’t bothering me as much as before, and I am more able to focus on the moment.

However, sometimes I am still forgetful and experiencing “brain glitch”, such as miscalculate very simple math, zone out while doing important things (such as driving), or misplace appointment on my calendar.

The good thing is, these glitches are occuring less often these days, and I can work longer hours.

The future is looking good. But I couldn’t help but wish that I started having this understanding about diet and doing it much earlier.

Today I feel no craving for sugar in any shape or form. I was busy so I only drank one cup of the green juice for breakfast, and that was it, but the entire day I wasn’t hungry at all.

I think that soon I might be able to fast for an entire day with just water and don’t feel a thing. I will wait until all the yeast overgrowth is gone before I do that though, and it will take approximately 12 more days to accomplish that, according to the candidas cleansing kit manual.

I was not dying to buy my beloved duran fruit as I usually did during a  time like this (abstained from sugar for a while). I felt more alert, even though the scattered brain-ness was still there. It was a feeling of clean and clear.

More Social and Money Making Activities

Socially, I have been able to ask friends out more. I have more desires to meet people. It is just automatic. The moment I sensed that I needed to meet new people, get their contact, or ask someone out, I just did it. There was no lethargy or lack of motivation that stood in the way. I have more tutoring works than ever, and I have been able to juggling the schedule really well.

I have much less anxiety and depression, which helped me handle more money-making activities such as tutoring. I no longer get deterred by anxious thought. I have more energy to advertise myself and get new clients.

Creative and Intuitive

Last Friday, I did an impromtu stand up comedy before a weed smoking crowd, a tough room they said, but by God’s grace I was able to make many people laugh. I believe that the diet helped too, because everytime I got hungry for a day or two I often became more creative.

I feel that my ability to connect useful ideas and people together improved. I am able to intuitively grasp the situations, quickly come up with things that I have learned in the past that are relevant for the situations, and put them together in a productive way. I am able to tell who are the right people to get help from when I want to do something. They would just show up in my mind. Or, when I meet some talented people, I am able to come up with good project ideas that we can work on together.

For example, I have been working as a part time janitor lately, and during the diet I suddenly had this sense of certainty that I HAD to talk to my manager about starting my own cleaning company. I did and he was very eager to help. Just like that and I will probably create my own janitor job so I can earn more and have more stable hours. I will see how it goes.

Excited about the Future Result!

I had similar improvements in the said areas five years ago when I did fasting more often, and these improvements lasted long enough for me to achieve some great things that I was never able to achieve before. However, the yeast (candidas) was already there even back then. What level of mental and spiritual potential will I uncover if the yeast is finally gone? I am excited to know.

Of course, as it would take at least 2 weeks.

Do the test I mentioned in the last post, I bet many of you will find out you also have a yeast problem as well. It is worth the effort to eliminate this problem, as the benefits are many. You will live a much easier life without it.

I still have craving for sugar and diary, but I continue to consume almond milk, raw honey, green juice, and protein, instead of what the yeast wanted me to consume.

On day 4 I went to the health store and the staff (a homeopath) recommended me a candidas detox package. It claimed to kill candidas in half a month if you take it. It didn’t mention anything about dieting though. I figured it would do the work for me. It sounded good, but I didn’t buy it at the end, because I thought I should try the current plan first, so if it didn’t work I could tell you guys it doesn’t work.

I want to get rid of the sluggish cognitive tempo (a new name for the ADHD predominantly inattentive, or ADD) and its symptoms.

Is it relevant to those of you who are “normal”? YES. As we grow older, more and more of us will develop what is similar to ADD anyway, due to the cumulating effect of many years of poor diets. If you want to grow old and wise, instead of becoming old and dependent, you too should consider to do what I do now.

I heard that colloidal silver can kill the candidas effectively for the first few days, but it also destroy the good bacteria in the digestive system, so I would have to re-plant them into my gut, by eating plain, organic yogurt! It’s delicious if you mix it with raw honey.

The first 2 benefits that I get from the dieting are better sleep, and better mood!

I heard that sugar is linked to depression. It certainly links to mood swing and fuels the candidas. Ultimately, it kills you, but it kills you slowly.

I stopped getting any sugar—tea, coffee, or soda.

My quality of sleep is much better. The bouts of depression comes much less frequent and even if it comes, it is like water off the duck back.

Before this diet/fast, I would often fall into temptation—”just one more soda”, “one more cup of milk tea”, and so on! Even if that means depression would come. I would try my luck. Each time I would get insomina and depression

Milk, which belongs to gluten food group, can trigger depression in people who are sensitive to it. Here is why. And if you get rid of candidas, you get rid of some allergies too.  See Naturally and Holistically Curing Allergies by Eliminating Candidas.

I don’t know if I am allergic to gluten, but I am avoiding this entire food group to see if my health will get any better. It is the only way to test if you have it.

Now that I am off sugars and milk, my moods are much more stable. Nevertheless, some stubborn symptoms remained.

For example, I still very much “crave emotional and intellectual stimulation”, which is one of the symptoms for my sluggish cognitive tempo. The problem with that is, I would have the strong tendency to seek activities that are fun (stimulating), instead of working on what is mentally demanding, such as typing a blog entry like this one.

Basically, anything that doesn’t provide instant gratification, but requires some amount of thought and focus, would often be challenging for me—I would not be able to do it as much as I want to, when the mental energy is just not there. The level of energy is sporadic. It is hard for me to control it.

This is how it’s like if you have sluggish cognitive tempo.

It really messes up your mind if you have it—”Am I lazy?”

Even though I know that what I am dealing with are symptoms, but I often still feel that it is me. I already am taking the actions I need to take to cure it, but the guilt is still the first response when I don’t feel like I have done enough. Somehow I still feel like the symptoms shouldn’t be there, or I could somehow overcome them with my willpower, such as getting the task done despite the strong pull from distractions, and the lack of mental energy (low motivation).

I have lived long enough to know that everytime I tried to beat it I would end up losing. When I don’t have the motivation to do something, no matter how hard I punish myself afterward, or to scare myself into doing it beforehand, I just couldn’t do it. Even if I managed to start it, I would still get distracted shortly after. I would try to get back to it again, and only to find myself distracted again. Hours later, I would wonder how I became lost, and forgot what I originally wanted to do.

I have hopes. If the candidas is gone, along with the sluggish cognitive tempo, life would be so good. I would finally be able to become what I long wanted to become.

I still consume meat though, such as sardines and salmons. I also eat chicken and beef. This fast is still good spiritually even though I have these delicious foods. It is my preliminary round of attack against my spiritual enemies. It will make my subsequence fast much easier. The detox symptoms will be less severve when you eliminate candidas and some toxins. It’s better than doing it cold turkey from day 1.

You can get a lot out of this post too, because most people have some degree of candidias due to the standard diets, and the health issues that come from the overgrowth can not be underestimated. Everything is easier when you keep the yeast away. For example, you can solve the achieve weight loss much more easily if the overgrowth is gone.

And in my case, it fuels my ADD/ADHD. Even for “normal” people, yeast problem causes brain fog. Many people live under its curses. If only we know what normal truly is for our brains, our productivities will increase many folds.

The ADD and ADHD took my life away from me for many many years, long before I realized what they were.

If you read my ADHD articles, then you know how much pains I have been through on a daily basis becuase of the conditions.

Then I also discovered I have a yeast overgrowth (Candidiasis), which is also common for ADHD or ADD. Some of their major symptoms are the same. In fact, ADD and ADHD sufferers do often come with other health issues that are not part of the list of symptoms for their conditions, but they happen to be on the list for candidiasis.

It makes me wonder if they have the same causes. One thing is for sure—that if I get rid of the yeast problem, my ADHD/ADD will calm down a lot too.

If you don’t mind, I would like to show you my tongue. You can see a layer of cotton cheese like of white stuff on my tongue.

A white coated tongue wasn’t the only thing that convinced me of the problem. I actually did a home candidas test and found out I did have an overgrowth of candidas.

I have symptoms such as inability to concentrate, mood swing, fatigue, depression, anxiety, short term memory problem, and probably some other symptoms that I overlooked. Each person with an overgrowth problem has a different combo of symptoms on the list, but they rarely have the entire set. You can see the complete list here.

What made me hopeful is that if I do get rid of the yeast problem, I might finally get rid of the conditions together. In “How to Improve Your Handwriting Simply by Changing What You Eat“, Dr Hyman explains how he cured ADHD and a load of other health issues in a boy, by changing what he eats, and by eliminating his yeast overgrowth!

I am not here to tell you what Dr Hyman said. You can go to his website to read that article, but here I want to show you my simple plan.

To starve them.

The Green Juice

The good news is, I don’t have to spend a lot of money and go through a rigorous dieting plan to starve the yeast. The plan isn’t complicated at all.

I don’t have to starve myself to starve the candidas.

My trusty researchers recommend this green juice. It is delicious.

I forgot to buy the celery and parsley. But I added some frozen fruits bought from Costco into the incomplete ingredients, and put them into a blender to make something similar. It tasted fantastic.

I also drink lemon honey. I use raw honey though, to avoid feeding the yeast.

I can sense the yeast fighting back on the very first day. They make me crave sugary or diary drinks and foods, such as rice, cheese, wine, beers, milk, and coffee/tea(with the milk and refined sugar of course). It’s almost like they can take over my brain to control my behavior.

It’s okay to eat canned sardine or salmon. They are actually healthy. Protein and fruits won’t harm. To block my craving for milk, I bought a box of organic almond milk. It tastes really good, and it isn’t more expensive than milk anyway. If you are allergic to gluten, like many are, then you should drink almond milk instead of animal milk, or soy (as it is toxic).

I also eat plain, organic yogart. It is diary, but it is good for the gut, because it plants new, beneficial bacteria into it. It works much better than probiotic for many people.

In the future I might get a juicer to make green juice out of the receipe. For now, the fiber doesn’t harm. I pooped 3-4 times the first day with the green drink.

I estimate that I need to do it for 2 weeks. At some point I might turn it into a fast (with no protein and solid food). My intention is to pray more as the whole thing is actually a fast. I am fasting from diary and sugary foods. I am also avoiding the junk foods.

I used to do water fast a lot. The last major water fast was 5 years ago. I couldn’t do it anymore. I was burnt out. It was exhausting. Now I know why—the candidas overgrowth made it so much harder for me when I tried to drink only water.

I need to get rid of the yeast problem, and detox my body, before my body is willing to do it again.

A water fast is healthy, but it is too challenging with the sugar craving, and the relapse from cutting off the toxins in my usual diet. It is like quitting a drug addiction cold turkey.

My Expectation

I expect new found clarity for my brain. I look forward to not having to live with the constant bombardment of thoughts again. I will probably sleep less and no longer have frequent fatigues or emotional exhaustions. Insomina shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

With a new ability to focus, I will procrastinate much less, and get on with tasks much more quickly. There will be much less fillers in between tasks. I will actually be able to prioritize the tasks and automatically know when to do what, and actually get to do it.

I will also have an increased ability to multitask. Now I tend to do a lot of things at the same time, but that is because I can’t muster enough focus for each activity, and I am constanly under stimulated, so I crave stimulation from many sources. My mind jumps to another direction before I complete something at hand, and it continues to jump like that, and then suddenly I wonder, “where am I? why am I doing this?”.

I often find myself at activity D, E, F, or G, and wonder how I got there from activity A.

I don’t have my schedule planned very well. Tomorrow I could be somewhere talking to someone I haven’t seen in a long time. I am very spontaneous and random. On the other hand, I could forget the only one commitment on my schedule, such as friends’ wedding.

It is THAT bad.

I am very excited to get rid of these problems and gain new abilities.

Spiritual Benefit

A major benefit is becoming happy. When you can finally focus and enjoy your work, money, success, freedom… start to come. Life will be so much easier if you can just focus. People with little problem to focus don’t know how depressing to not being able to focus productively.

I have anxiety and depression (ADHD based). They have huge, negative spiritual impact.

Depression made the worst impact, because it stands between me and what I have to do a lot. When you are depressed, you can’t function. You just sit there and wallow in sadness. You won’t have the strength to do anything afterward. An entire day would be gone if you are depressed enough.

Anxiety is a pain too. It gets triggered whenever I read a job posting, for example, which set me back from doing as much as I can for my career. I would have done a lot more if the anxiety isn’t triggered so frequently throughout the whole process.

They affect the way I see God. When you are depressed, it’s very hard to see God in a positive light.

Another benefit is the increased capacity to do more spiritually, due to increased energy. Spiritual insights, spiritual discipline, and ministering to others require a lot of energy. For example, writing for this blog takes a lot of mental effort. It takes energy to serve others and God.

When you pray, it takes a lot of energy if you are praying for real, not just doing it as a token prayer before going to bed. It is a spiritual battle. If you have a low level of energy, you will fall into sleep, you won’t be able to fight off distraction, you won’t remember what to pray for, and therefore your prayers won’t work. The is speaking from my 14 years of experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will post more about my Candidas diet as long as it is still going. You might hear more from me as my brain works better. The last time I did a major fast my brain was so clear. I only needed to sleep for 4 hours per night. I didn’t have the bunch of healthy green foods and supplements back then though. This time I am starting off with healthy green drink, and protein. When my body gets healthier, I might do a couple days of water fast or juice fast, and see if it’s going to be different than before.

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

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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