A major part of spiritual warfare is resisting the devil's enticement's to compromise on God's principles. We give the powers of darkness a definite advantage when we do anything that actually compromises the intimacy of our fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Worldliness is anything attitude or occupation that makes your heart just a little colder towards the Lord. It happens when you love something that you would not want the Lord to interrupt you as you pursue it.
When we yield to sin, we lose a measure of divine boldness and spiritual authority and the faith which comes from a close and intimate walk with the Lord. Yes, there is always forgiveness as long as we don't harden our heart and become totally unrepentant, but we lose time and opportunities in spiritual warfare by sinning. We will never know what we have missed out on by those times we yielded to sin. Perhaps some people are in hell now because of our disobedience to the Lord.
The Bible says, "Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:6). Resisting the devil is only possible when we first submit to God, by making God our God, and the first passion of our hearts and lives. We need to learn not only to praise God, but to worship Him by offering our bodies, our ears, our eyes, our mouths and our minds to God. It is only then that God's fire can work in us to make us holy and the power of sin loses its grip. When we have filled our souls on the spiritual feast God supplies, we will have little appetite left for sin.
A lot of people have gotten themselves exposed to major trouble by trying to take on the principalities and powers while their own submission to God was questionable. This warfare is real and we stand to suffer greatly through such foolish and presumptuous acts. Its better to wait on God, purify our souls through obedience to the truth, and wait for God to send us into battle, than to go out half-cocked and suffer needlessly.
We can't take authority over spiritual darkness that we are submitting to in our own lives. Therefore, we must personally renounce all the darkness before we can effectively bind the devil from working in those areas. When the church renounces the subtle versions of the sins which resemble those of the society in which it lives, then things will start to really happen and our words will carry weight in the heavenlies.
What is sin?
Sin is a "me-first" self-pleasing attitude of heart which denies God's authority to direct our lives and our world. Sinful actions such as theft, adultery and blasphemy spring from a heart corrupted by the power of sin. There are two root sins - one is pride and the other unbelief. Pride is evidenced by an attitude which is demanding and arrogant, denies its need for God, is unteachable, impatient, overly critical of others and hard hearted. How easy it is for any one of us to be infected with pride without realising it! Unbelief also, is the root of much sin. If we really believed in God's goodness, wisdom and love, what motive would remain for not doing things God's way? These attitudes hurt the heart of God and often cause insensitivity to others as well, resulting in us saying and doing things that were better not said or done.
Sin always takes more than it gives. Whatever you gain by compromise you will eventually lose. Sin is the deadly human condition which opens the door to Satanic oppression and God's displeasure and judgment. Sin definitely creates a barrier to true communication with God. The wages of sin is death. Primarily, this refers to spiritual death. God loves us and wants us to overcome sin. He knows we are powerless to do it by ourselves, and for this reason has given us divine resources in our warfare against evil and sin.
Every attempt to overcome sin by willpower, resolutions and self-discipline alone WILL f
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Post new comment