Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Counselor's Corner: When the Enemy Tempts You to Go Back





When you have been making progress towards your walk with God or your destiny, the enemy oftentimes sends reminders of your past in hopes you will long for those times again. The enemy will not remind you of how awful living in sin was but will remind you of the glamorous times you had with sin. When you live a sinful lifestyle all of it is not bad, in fact some of the time it can be exciting and pleasurable.




Sin always reveals its dark nature. Give it enough time and sin will show its destructive side.




If you leave any “crack” open to your sinful past the enemy will come to see if he can gain full entrance back into your life. That is why you must shut the door and keep it locked from the things that kept you in bondage before. If you used to have a gambling addiction and have been set free from gambling, then going into a casino would be that “shut door” you would want to maintain. If you lived a lifestyle of debauchery then hanging out in a bar now would be a “shut and locked door.”



Do not entertain those things in your past that held you in captivity. Run, flee from whatever is causing you to stumble or look upon lustfully for those former things. Be mindful of the company that you keep and the lure that they can have upon you to go back. Anyone living in sin will not reveal to you the real dangers, but they will try and persuade you of the fun and allurement of what they are doing. There is no fun in the end for people who do not turn from their sins and turn to God. Yes, sin can be inviting but the end result is that sin leads to death either physical or spiritual and even both!



It is not always easy to stand against sin. When you are weak spiritually, physically or mentally the temptation to sin is greater. Focus on the reality of going back to sin. Sin hinders your relationship with God. God is Holy and He cannot be associated with sin. God will still love you in the midst of sin, but there are consequences to sin. Sin destroys. The enemy’s ultimate goal is not to just to get you to sin but to destroy your witness and your walk with God.



If you are being tempted to go back to your old sinful lifestyle, because you feel the Christian life is hard or you are in a lot of pain and your prayers seem to go unnoticed-WAIT! DON’T GO BACK! If you go back surely you will die in the wilderness as your ancestors did. The enemy hopes you will fall back into the things that almost destroyed your life and many of your family’s lives, but you are now part of a new bloodline that belongs to Jesus Christ. If you go back you may not come back as quick and very possible you won’t come back at all.



Was your life really that great before? If you are tired of living a boring Christin life as you watch those around you “living it up”, it is an illusion. If you went home with the person that you saw having a great time at a party that you really wanted to attend, you would also see that person throwing up in the bathroom because the first drink they had was fun but the fourth drink made them sick to their stomachs and the next day they suffered from a horrible headache, dizziness and more stomach aches.



Make a clean break today from anything that would hinder your relationship with God. Come out from among them and be separate. You cannot concern yourself with what people will think of you because you choose not to “run with them.”



The enemy will dig up your past in hopes that you will lust for it again.



Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).

In this scripture Jesus asked the disciples to watch and pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, but they fell asleep! Failure to watch and pray will lead you through temptation’s door. Jesus says that you may want to do the right thing but your flesh opposes that because it is weak. Your flesh is the door the enemy gains entrance through.



The Bible is clear about giving into sin after you know better:

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them

(2 Peter 2:21).



If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and a raging fire will consume the enemies of God

(Hebrews 10:26-27).



Christians do sin, BUT the Christian lifestyle is not to be identified by a life of sin. Christians should be moving forward towards holiness not backsliding into old sinful lifestyles.



Move forward in holiness and DON’T GO BACK! Going back will keep you in the “wilderness” and you stand at the entrance of your “promised land,” and not be able to enter.

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