EVIL SEDUCTION

IS REAL.

BE ON GARD

God does not tempt us. James 1:13 says when tempted no one should say “God is tempting me” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone: but he can allow us to be tempted.

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. In Jesus’s case it was the Holy Spirit who led him. Jesus was not tempted by evil as it says in James 1:13 that God cannot be tempted by evil, that’s why Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit; he was always led by the Holy Spirit.

As we know Jesus was and is without sin and it became proven at this point in his life when he was tested and tempted. The bible says he was tested in ALL points like we are yet He was without sin.

So Jesus was led by the Holy spirit into the wilderness to be tempted not so us. When we are tempted the Bible says James 1:14 each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Not by the Holy Spirit as Jesus was we are tempted  by our own evil desire.

We are not to yield to temptation. The bible says: James 4:7

a)submit to God,

b)resist the devil

c)he will flee.

We can’t just resist the devil, it won’t work we must do both , submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee we must submit to God first i.e.  Be obedient to his word so it’s an act of obedience firstly then and act of our will, and our decisions to resist the devil, then he will flee.

When we are in a temptation i.e. when we have wrong thoughts and desires or we are feeling the pull in the wrong direction the Bible says God will provide a way out so that we can hold up under it, or during it. 1 Corinthians 10: 12-13: “So if you think you are standing firm be careful that you don’t fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bare. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out for you so that you can stand up under it.

So what is the provision? What is the way out ?

I believe the answer is as above:

To submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee. I believe that this is the ideal way out.

But what if we do not do this, what if we carry on with the thought or the idea in our minds, what then happens is that  the idea conceives in our head, it starts to take hold, we have failed to submit to God and are failing to resist the devil we have not taken every thought captive as we are told we should do.  The Bible says James 1:15  “Then after desire has conceived , it gives birth to sin and sin , when its full grown  gives birth to death “. So there is a process starting to happen if we do not take heed and our fleshly or evil desire starts to conceive we dwell on it we give it air time and think on the idea and it then conceives and takes a hold in our mind and grows: we are now in trouble!

Hebrews 12:1 speaks of “The” sin that so easily entangles or besets us, we all know the area or areas of weakness or the sins that we seem more prone to or have more of a problem with. It’s as if there is a particular sin the bible says THE sin that so easily besets us.

So what happens next, well if we don’t submit to God in obedience , if   we fail to respond in the correct way  we are now entangled. We may have taken off our breastplate of righteousness or our belt of truth our armour may be dishevelled at this point as mine was. The Holy Spirit will still convict us if we haven’t got to the point where we’ve hardened our hearts. Hebrews 3:7 So as the Holy Spirit says “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts  as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert.” And verse 13 of same chapter says: “But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness.”

Sin is deceitful, we can get to the point where we become deceived.

The Holy Spirit may use other people to bring conviction if we fail to listen to the Lord directly as we are reading the word and praying. The Lord said to me one day in the middle of temptation “ If you love me you will keep my commandments”. He was reminding me and prompting me and also convicting me. He may use sermons directly or things we hear on the God Channel or various other means to warn and convict us. I had numerous warnings of one kind or another.

Other people may or may not be aware that they are being used in this way e.g. I was just chatting with the pastor about different translations and our pastor used a verse as an example of how much stronger the language was in the King James to the NIV the verse was “Remove thy foot from evil”. The whole verse reads Proverbs 4:27: KJ   “turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. And in the NIV it reads

: “Do not swerve to the right or to the left keep your foot from evil”.  So the king James used the word Remove thy foot from evil whilst the NIV said keep your foot from evil. Well this did two things for me, not only did it show me the difference in the two translations but I  was already struggling with a sin in my life un be known to my pastor as I had failed the first way out of temptation i.e. submit to God, resist the devil, so I had already put my foot on the wrong path so the King James had a stronger impact when it said “Remove” thy foot from evil instead of “keep” thy foot from evil. The words “keep thy foot from evil” were no good to me, I needed to “remove” my foot from evil. God had used the pastor who was walking in the spirit, to bring a word in season at the right time to give me another nudge from the Holy Spirit, another warning, in fact a command- remove thy foot in other words don’t walk down the path you are starting to go on! Sadly

I still at this point did not repent!

So we have a choice we can either yield to that conviction of the Holy Spirit or we can yield to the temptation.

We know that there should not be this struggle because we are told in Romans 6:11 “count yourselves dead to sin” consider your selves dead to sin. Give no thought to the flesh it’s dead”. If we do this, if our desires are towards God, if we are walking in the Spirit and not the flesh our thoughts and desires will be correct ones, God will give us the desires of our heart ; desires that are conceived through his word, the word of truth. 

We may get the odd flaming arrow from the enemy or (wrong thought) but if we have our shield of faith these arrows should easily be extinguished and our thoughts taken captive and brought back in line with Gods word.

But what if we have become so entangled and snared.

The Bible says in Hebrews 4:15 “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”

So-  If we are being tempted we should cry out to the Lord for help, don’t run from him , run to him in our time of need. Keep asking for strength and help until we are victorious and have overcome the enemy.

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The enemy waits for an opportune time .

Luke 3: 13

When the devil had finished all this tempting he left him (Jesus) for a more opportune time.

We may have seasons where our circumstances are such that the enemy knows we are weakened by one circumstance or another or many unfortunate circumstances at the same time, it may be money problems or sickness or a combination of things or events and we are not as strong as we should be, he  the enemy has a strategy and  he waits for an opportune time, he tries to wear us down. 2 Corinthians 2:11 “For we are not unaware of his schemes,”

We are told in Ephesians 6 to stand firm to put on the whole armour so that we can take our stand against the devils schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against authorities, against powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the whole armour of God so that when the day of evil comes (not if the day of evil comes) but when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything (.i.e submit to God and resist, watch and pray) .to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to this take up the shield of faith with which to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Some temptations are full frontal and obvious others are a lot more subtle.

The Bible says we are to watch and pray lest we fall into temptation, it’s no good praying without being watchful and it’s no good just being on the look out without also praying the correct recipe is to do both to watch and to pray.

As we know Jesus always used the word of God as his way of attacking the enemy, victory comes when we confess the word and obey it. Our sword (the word of God) is our only weapon of attack the rest of the armour is defensive. Jesus spoke to the devil literally. It’s slightly different for us as the enemy is not omnipresent but when we are tempted by our own evil desires. we can confess the word of God out loud “The devil is a liar” “ I walk in the fruit of the Spirit”  I am dead to sin and alive to Christ. I am a new creature in Christ old things have passed away  all things have become new.

Romans ch 8 is a command of God to walk in the Spirit, it’s an act of obedience and an act of will or decision. If the bible says to do it then we do it, if the bible says don’t do it then we don’t do it. It’s that simple.

But if we do sin, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. There is mercy and forgiveness, thank you Jesus. The Lord clearly told me though when I was in sin “Don’t waste my blood, its precious”.

Please Don’t ever get to the place of sin and regret as I did, let’s not abuse Gods grace lets not trample the son of God underfoot or there will be no sacrifice left for sin.

But God is rich in mercy his bank account and savings account is filled with mercy. It reminds me of the words of an old song ,“Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me  there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary”

Closing thought:

Rev 12: 11. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Lets encourage one another daily, lets not give up, lets press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs: 9:10. THE FEAR OF GOD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.

Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people ,Do Not be afraid ,God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you  ( ie in you ) to keep you from sinning

Also in John says “IF YOU LOVE ME YOU WILL KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”.

IF YOU HAVE OR ARE  STRUGGLING WITH TEMPTATION. PLEASE CONTACT US ON THE CONTACT US PAGE.