New Creation - Growth, the conclusion

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With this chapter, I am planning to complete the growth of the new creation. This should be a very short chapter.

If we keep ourselves reading the Word of God and spend quality time with God through Prayer every day, God's Holy Spirit will keep us growing the new creation in us. Actually, for a successful growth, the contribution of both ourselves and Holy Spirit is needed. If we do our part, then definitely God will do His part and help us overcome every obstacles or problem created by devil against our growth. Now, the important question is when shall we know that we are grown to full level of
growth ? The simple answer is we cannot grow completely in our spiritual growth but gets advanced day after day as we learn and serve the Lord. That is what the starting verse says, Paul, the apostle who wrote 13 books of the New testament, who had more revelations about the Word of God than any one else and who had established many churches, just say that he had not attained yet and not perfect yet. So, we are getting grown day by day in our inner man. We also see this point in 2 Corinthians 4:16, For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward  man is renewed day by day.

So, we understand that our spirit has been revived once we accept Jesus and gets into covenant with Him through baptism where as our inner man which is the soul that changes into new creation and it gets renewed day by day. So, now the question that remains is, when the growth shall be complete? The growth will complete only when we get transfigured to God's own image and during that time we will considered to be equivalent to Him. So, for that either we need to die here in earth or we need to be alive until Christ's day of rapture. This is as per the verse 1 John 3:2, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. So, until that growth and bearing fruits are necessary for our spiritual life.

At the same time, there is a difference in the growth level that the scripture calls most of the believers as babes instead of fully grown up matured persons. We can read this in I Cor 3:1,2 where Paul addressed the believers of Corinth as babes, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able  to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." and the author of Hebrew calls the audience as babes as well, "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which  be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." Hebrews 5:12,13. Here, both Paul and the author of Hebrew says that most of the believers are like babes in Christ whereas they have to be like fully grown up matured person. So, obviously the growth was stagnating. The growth was triggered once a person becomes new creation in Christ, but later if the new creation is not fed the Word of God which is obviously the milk for new born as mentioned in I Peter 2:2 that says "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." and the Word of God and the hidden revelation in the scriptures is the meat (strong food) that matured persons can take in.

So, one thing is obvious. For growth, the meditation of the Word of God is essential. Prayer and the assistance of the Holy Spirit is also essential. But, meditation is the first and foremost stuff through which the Holy Spirit works and Prayer helps to build ourselves on the foundation that is Christ Jesus. So, now there are two things that are clear. One is whatever we grow, our growth is not complete until we die and then resurrect to be with the Lord or transform to His likeness in rapture. But, at the same time, we cannot use this as an excuse for not growing our new creation as there are different growth levels and different stages of maturity so that we cannot say that we can only be complete after our death or during rapture. Because, unless and until we grow, we can never be complete.

Now, I want to quote from a book called Power for Living written by Jamie Buckingham where he expands each letters of the word GROWTH.

G - Go to God in prayer daily
R - Read and meditate the Word of God
O - Obey God's Word
W - Witness Christ to others
T - Trust God for every detail of your life
H - Holy Spirit's dependence

We will touch these areas in the upcoming posts. But, let's close the growth chapter and will see about the maturity and bearing fruits in our lives for Christ and few other important topics before we complete the New Creation series. As you keep growing in the Christian life which is the life through the new creation, no need for others to teach you. The Holy Spirit's anointing with you will teach you and reveal His truths which are required to fulfill His will in your life. I John 2:27

I would like to complete the New Creation series and move on to other general articles as there are many other new revelations but this series is one most important for our Christian Lives and it has been dragging since last year.

May all Glory, Honor, Praise to our God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

New Creation - Growth via Prayer

New Creation - Growth via Prayer

Abide in me, and I in you. John 15:4

Greetings to all of you in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After a long break of around 6 months, I am resuming the articles. The reason behind my long break is because I am really difficult to find right time to write the articles. I am getting occupied with more and more professional and personal tasks. I usually write these articles on Sunday afternoons and my daughters were keeping me busy for the past 2 to 3 months. Please pray for me, my family and that God help me with all aspects of my life so that I will touch and transform many lives through God's Word. The Word of God gives us life. Matthew 4:4, John 6:63.

Let's continue the growth chapter as I forgot to mention another important aspect of growth which is Prayer. If reading the Word of God is the food for growth, prayer is like the breath of a true Christian. Scripture meditation and prayer are like two eyes of a Christian. In my opinion, both Bible reading and Prayer are equally important. Few people put prayer above Bible reading and few put Bible reading above prayer. For me, both of them are equally important in its own aspect and one without the other will usually go useless and wouldn't benefit much. So, one must continue to read and meditate the Word of God as well as should remain steadfast in prayer to grow in his spiritual life.

There could be many definitions for Prayer. All the religions have prayer and most of the people in the planet pray for one thing or the other. For me, the simplest definition of prayer is a form of communion (not just communication) with God where we speak what is in our mind with Him. It is like speaking to your friend or your spouse. Usually, we love to speak to the person whom we love and we like to spend more time with him or her. It may be your spouse or best friend or your dad or mom. One must have the same kind of relationship with the Father in heaven. He loves to hear from us and He wants to share back His feelings. When we communicate with our friends more and more, we learn more about them and they learn more about us. Say for example, if you are joining a new job or a new school, there we start communicating with our team mates or class mates and slowly start knowing about them. It is a gradual process. The more and more we spend time with our friends, we understand more about them and they understand about us and the friendship blooms. Best friends are those who easily say about how their friend react to a situation or what their mind would think in a particular situation because they are in sync with their thought process. Same applies for long married couple who have the same mindset. Same thing is expected out of each of the new born Christian to have with God. We slowly understand God's ways and thought process as we spend time in prayer and meditation. The friendship and love blooms as we spend time together with God. This is what Jesus said in Revelation 3:21, if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. This actually means Jesus will share His mind with the one who spends time with Him in meditation and prayer.

If we continue to remain in prayer, slowly we get the mindset of Jesus and will reflect His nature. This is really essential for the growth. For a plant to grow it needs water as well as sunlight. While reading the Word of God is like water, prayer should be like sunlight. It is like seeing to Him. I could quote many examples from Bible on prayer and victory and I believe you should be knowing them on your own. But, just to quote a verse from my favorite Psalm which is Psalm 34. Verse 5 says They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. Our hearts will be lightened as we spend time with Him as Moses face was bright when He came out after He spent time with the Lord.

Lets look into some more aspects of prayer and wrap this chapter.
A prayer need not be formal but being formal or casual is not a mistake. But, what God looks for in a prayer is the heart behind and the thoughts from which the prayers come. If the mind and thoughts are right, then we have a right platform to communicate with God and we are assured that He hears it. It is about telling God our feelings and requesting for His help in our day to day life. Reading the Word of God and meditating more in the Word of God increases the measure of spirit filled prayer and results in unleashing of the power of God in our lives.

There are 3 basic aspects of prayer. First is about God Himself. This is about fulfilling God's will in our lives and in others' lives, in the earth. The second is about us. This is mainly telling our requests to God, asking Him to supply His needs both spiritual and worldly as well as asking for solutions for troubles and problems in our daily lives. Third is for others, like our friends, relatives, known persons, unknown persons and for the society. Jesus gave many promises for the prayers and I could quote many examples from the scriptures. Just quoting few here. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7, And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13, Ask, and it shall be given you Matthew 7:7 and That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:19.

Next, the prayer unleashes the power of God in our lives and helps us achieves the things that are unachievable by our own strength. Elijah's prayers did wonders, His very short prayer brought down fire from heaven I Kings 18:36-38, another prayer stopped rains for around 3.5 years and again brought back rains. James 5:17-18. The more you are closer to God, more the miracles and powers you witness in your life. God has solution for every difficult problem that we undergo. It may look like impossible situation but still God has unique out of the box solution for the difficulty. God says, I am the God of all flesh, is there any thing too hard for me to do? Jeremiah 32:27. So, prayer brings miracles in our lives and it gives us victory over every trouble.

Actually, prayer could be a very long chapter if I have to deal with each and every aspect of it. But, you should be obviously aware of those things. In the context of our chapter, prayer is essential for a growth of the Christian who is a new creation as it helps to have a continuous relationship with the Lord almighty and helps us to know His mind and reflect His character. It helps us to keep ourselves holy and overcome the temptations and difficulties that we face in our day to day lives. It is the way through which we communicate our needs and requirements to God, the Father and get our needs supplied by Him and finally Prayer brings miracles and victory in our lives overcoming every difficult situation that we face. Above all, prayer life is a way of living that is a basic necessity for every Christian and help us abide in the Lord and grow up. I repeat, if reading and meditating Word of God is like food, Prayer is like breath for a Christian and both of them are essential for the growth of the new creation.

All glory, honor and praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May God bless you all. Amen.

New Creation - Growth

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: I Pet 2:2

Greetings to everyone in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I wrote my last article which was just a revisit of many of the new creation series and I hoped to get the series going. But, to be honest, I am finding it difficult to keep writing. My worldly commitments are increasing where it looks like I am losing my spiritual discipline with growing pressure due to family needs and my professional works. In short, I am turning weary and tired. But, I know my redeemer is alive and He is standing at the door. I know I will see Him with my own eyes. Job 19:25,27 And, I know very well, the spiritual life may take ups and downs as I wrote in one of my previous articles. Sometimes, it looks like it gets in a drained state for too long but I do remember the one who said "I am with you always even unto the end of ages" is faithful and sincere. Matthew 28:20 He sustains me. I never dare to say that I stand in my own. If I claim such a thing, I am prone to failure like Peter who told to Jesus that even if he had to die with Him, he will not denounce, only to fail eventually. The reason for his failure is he counted on his own strength when he made that statement. He thought he could claim witness to Jesus on his own mortal strength, but when the testing came it was more than what he can face. He failed. But, the same Peter, indeed gave his life for the Savior, not in his own strength but by the strength and power of the Holy Spirit. Praise God. By Him, we are more than conquerors in everything. Romans 8:37 Things which are not possible for men are possible for God, for that nothing is impossible for God. Luke 18:27  Hallelujah.

So, instead of quoting Peter, I would like to quote Paul, who said "for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." 2 Timothy 1:12. It may look like that the enemy may be winning all posts, but be assured that the ultimate victory is  ours through our loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No matter what, we are destined to win. Our Lord knows it all. He is sovereign. All things are by Him, through Him and for Him. To Him be the glory for ever and ever. To every one reading this message, please keep me in your prayers. Our prayers are mighty. Our spiritual armors are mightier than of those of the powers of this world that they pull down the strongholds. 2 Cor 10:4

Coming to this chapter, we resumed the new creation series from last chapter. The core verse is 2 Cor 5:17, that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature and all old things had gone and everything became new. We also saw how Jesus told Nicodemus about the need for a person to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. John 3:1-10  Now, this is exactly going to be the same as such that of a birth of a new baby. Any unbeliever who puts his complete faith in Jesus and accepts Him as a Savior becomes a new person in Christ. But, he is equivalent to a new born baby and he needs to know the truth. Once he becomes the children of God, he automatically becomes the enemy of the powers of darkness. The spiritual battle begins. Now, we need to see how a baby grows to a child in order to understand how a new born Christian should grow up. When a baby is born, the first thing it needs is food. It cannot take anything. It only needs the mother's feeding for the first few days in order to receive the strength and grow thereby.

Exactly, that's what the Word of God does to a new born. The Word of God is the spiritual manna which builds, strengthens and enriches the soul. One should learn the basic teachings of the gospel, understand the power of the sin, temptation, our requirement and our support from the Word of God. He should attend a regular bible study from a church that preaches truth in a right way. It is good to listen to some of the popular preachers but my personal advice is to get into a proper fellowship in a Church or a prayer cell and start to learn. Before that, the new born Christian should take his spiritual life seriously and should be willing to spend time to know Jesus in person through the Word of God. Moreover, the bible reading and meditation should go along with the prayer life. If not, it will be like a seed planted on a land without water and die soon. Prayer is like a water to the seed which is the Word of God.

The newborn baby should be properly vaccinated regularly for diseases. Caution should be exercised on what vaccination the baby is given. A high powerful vaccination shouldn't be administered for a new born. We can only give what it takes. So, a new born person should have proper spiritual mentor for his spiritual growth and should learn about the truth and the armor of God. Ephesians 6:12-18. He should read the Word of God regularly but too much reading at initial stage is also not good as it will exhaust a new born. Too much feeding is obviously bad. Christian life is a marathon and not a sprint where one runs fast and then falls down. We need to properly pace our run to be victorious. Initially, all these things may not be possible but with sustained reading, meditation and prayer, it is possible.

The Old testament is definitely important to understand but the New Testament is a must. Old testament shows the various characters who won and lost their battles. God shadowed many things there which are yet to come. But, one cannot understand them quickly. Both OT and NT are like two sharp edges of the sword. But, we live in the period of New testament so one should learn how to run our day to day life based on the truths of new testament. But, one is considered spiritually mature when he is able to understand how Old testament serves as the shadow to the New testament. How the Old testament promises are fulfilled in New testament. If one has that level of understanding, he is considered mature. The author of Hebrews explains that the readers are like babes. He wonders they are still not grown. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which  be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk  is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." Hebrews 5:12,13. So, the growth according to the author of Hebrews is really get mastered in the scriptures to the level of connecting the OT and NT.

It is interesting to see where the author says this verse. He was just telling this when he quotes about Melchizedek and he sighs that the hearers are babes. He says this, "Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.". Hebrews 5:10,11. So, the expectation of the author is the mature reader should be able to preach all these things by themselves with the help of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the author of Hebrews considers a believer or Christian is mature when he or she is able to understand the old testament figures or foreshadows with the association of Jesus Christ. An important point to note. He defines that such a person should be able to discern what is right and wrong and should be able to exercise the Truth of God in their day to day lives. "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Hebrews 5:14. Moreover, the author wants us to be mature instead of laying the same foundations again and again. Hebrews 6:1-3.

Even Paul writes the same thing when he addressed the church of Corinth in his first epistle. The church of Corinth didn't show enough maturity, they were fighting, there was adultery and fornication in church members, they were divided in groups and were not united for Christ. When Paul addressed he told, "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able  to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas  there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" 1 Corinthians 3:2,3. Sounds like modern day churches? No wonder, Christendom is going like that. But, Lord knows His flock. So, what we understand from here? It is the wish of the Holy Spirit for us to grow. Think how an adult who doesn't have mental growth behaves. How difficult it would be for his parents? Would be terrible. That's how it will be for our Father as well when He sees us only drinking milk after so much of years living as a Christian. He expects us to grow. The advice is straightforward given in the title verse, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: I Pet 2:2. You may ask but after attending some level of maturity, how to grow further. Again the same verse applies, we can say, as children, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow again you can take the same verse to grow from child to adult, adult to matured man, etc. But, one difference is as you grow in the spiritual life, Holy Spirit helps you out at every stage. You will win more and more challenges. Remember the struggles will make you more stronger and make you more matured in Christian walk.

When the growth stops? or when the challenges stop? Only when we die or meet our Lord and that will be the time when our faith completes. Jesus is called the author and finisher of our faith. Heb 12:2. When we see Him, our faith completes because faith is not required any longer as it is written "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" Romans 8:24. Until then, we are supposed to run our race patiently. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;" Hebrews 12:1,2. Until then, we need to grow in our every day life. As per our physical growth, we should grow in our spiritual aspects too. I remember a modern saying, "Even if we are on right track, we will get run over if we don't move." So, move on my dear brother and sister. Our Lord promised that He will help you when you are blocked. Cast your burden on the Lord, for He will sustain you. Psalm 55:22.

With this I complete this chapter. If Holy Spirit helps me with more points about growth, I will either update this one include in my subsequent posts. Pray for me so that I get the strength and motivation of the Holy Spirit and right time to carry on writing for Him. All glory, honor, praise, wisdom, dominion, power and strength to the one who was, who is and who is to come. Majesty to the lamb who sits upon the throne. Amen.

New Creation - Lookback

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Cor 5:17

Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am glad to resume back my blog articles after a long gap. As per the intuition of Holy Spirit, I am resuming the New Creation series that I had been writing and this is really going to be a short chapter summarizing what and all we had seen in this series till now.

This series started with a question of What should I do to please God in my life ? or How do I fulfil His will in my life? Should I be an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist to please God. I explained that the will of God is to walk this life as a true Christian. The word Christian means to have Christ in our life. To be a true Christian we have to walk in the spirit of Christ. We have seen this in those chapters.

We have seen how sin divided man and God and how God provided solution to fix the gap through Jesus Christ. This is essentially what is salvation process. Once we are saved through our belief in Jesus through our acceptance and declarration, we should affirm that by the process of baptism. Baptism refers to the process of getting immmersed in water where our old man getting crucified with Jesus and buried with Him through faith and when we raise up the new man gets created. This new inner man is a baby now and he needs to grow. We will see these process in the upcoming posts. I have also mentioned about the other types of baptism (Baptism by Holy Spirit and Baptism by Fire).

I had dealt some of them in detail in the older chapters. I will focus on how to walk in the spirit of the Lord with faith, how to grow the inner man, how to sustain when troubles come our way, how not to turn back to the older ways and keep focused, how to bear fruits for Christ and more in the forthcoming chapters. This is just a very short summary. Remember me and my family in your prayers.

Sometimes we feel upbeat in our spiritual life and sometimes we feel very down. This is normal. But, one thing for sure is our Lord Jesus Christ is always with us. One who promised is truthful and sincere. He never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8. He neither leaves us nor forsakes us. Even through our worst mistakes or sins, He helps us to come up and climb back. With His loving arms, He brings out from the miry clay, cleanses us with His blood, lifts us on the mountain. So, hold on to Him even if situation turns from worse to worst. Be worried for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phil 4:6,7

All glory, honor and praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be dominion, glory, power for ever and ever. Amen.

Overcoming lust

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22

Greetings to all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was not able to write for some time as I was busy with other works. In this article, I would like to focus on one of the very important aspect of temptation which is lust. It is very crucial to understand lust in order to overcome it. Overcoming lust is very important to lead a successful Christian life and I believe this will be very useful for the readers.

First, let's understand lust. Lust is the sexual attraction towards opposite sex in order to satisfy our own self desires. Unlike other habitual sins like smoking or drinking or gluttony, this is something that comes in built in our body. There are lot of hormones in our body that energize us and when we attain certain age, the sexual hormones in our body start to work. Before understanding lust, let's ask this question. Is sex a sin? Is sexual thoughts are sinful? Why it is required? To answer these questions, I have to refer all the way back to creation in Genesis. It was written when God created human beings, He created them as male and female. "So God created man in his  own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Gen 1:27 Why? In order to fulfil His purpose. What is the purpose? The next verse states that, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:" v28. So, God wanted us to multiple and fill these earth. To multiply, the design of God is male and female to unite and bring forth younger ones. This is applicable not only to humans but to every creation like animals, birds, sea creatures and plants.

When we see further detail in 2nd chapter, we see the order of God saying, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen 2:24. One flesh states that they are one in their bodies and they are inseparable and there is nothing hidden between them, including their bodies. So, now to answer our question. Is sex sin? The answer is No, not at all. Because it is written in Timothy, "Every thing God created is good". I Timothy 4:4. So, sex is not a sin. In fact, Sex is a beautiful thing created by God and it is holy when it is between two right persons (male and female) and performed at the right place at the right time (after marriage, i.e, after getting the approval of God by entering the wedding covenant). You may ask that the child birth is due to the act of sex which is considered as sin because it is written, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5 where David laments after he lusted after Bathsheba and committed adultery with her. Even my understanding was like that for a long time after the Holy Spirit clarified the truth behind that verse. The truth was the seed of man was corrupted after Adam committed sin. So, whoever borns of a seed of man is a sinner by birth and that is the actual meaning of the verse. It is not the act of sex that is sin but it is the seed of man which is sinful and hence it makes every human being a sinner except one, the Lord Jesus Christ who was concieved in a virgin and it was the only virgin birth because a man's seed is not qualified to atone for the sins of others so Holy Spirit gave that seed and Jesus is considered as the seed of a woman. Please refer to Gen 3:15 and Gal 4:4 that says "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman." Hope it is very clear now that the sexual act between a husband and wife is never ever considered as a sin in the site of Holy God.

In order to fulfill this God given purpose of multiplication and filling the earth, there are sexual hormones and physical feelings that are generated in our body. We need to understand this very clearly. But, when these feelings overtake God's standards, then it turns as lust which is a sin. When these feelings go out of control, then it will lead to lot of sinful practices like adultery, pornography, extra marital affairs and other illicit sexual practices. The world that we live in today promotes lust and sex are very casual and they give a feel like nothing wrong in that. All the mainstream media like cinemas, movie songs, advertisements, news and even games like cricket matches promote lust by showing male and female in inappropriate postures, half dressed women and all the indecent stuff. No wonder John wrote "the whole world lieth in devil." I John 5:19. All these things are running based on money making business and behind the scenes, the world runs this show and behind the world, the satan works. All the stuff that you see in the world are designed in order to deceive you to make you fall under sin and separate you from the living God who loved you and gave His life for you and to stop you from attaining eternal life. If you have this clarity, the way you feel about lust will be different.

But, knowing this clear idea alone is not going to help you to overcome the lust. In one of my previous companies, I attended an induction program. The trainer quoted a very good example. He asked a question first saying, "How many of you believe doing exercise for 30 minutes per day is good for health and help you to stay fit?" and he asked those who believe that to raise hands up. Almost all of the participants raised their hands. Then, he asked the second question, "How many of you are actually doing 30 minutes exercise every day?" and when he asked to raise hands for that only a very few hands went up and we can finger count that. So, there is a difference between knowing and doing. Knowing the truth alone won't help you succeeding in the battle against lust. You may tell that Jesus said "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. Of course. But, the word also speaks a.bout walking in truth. 3 John 1:4. What Jesus really meant is, without knowing the truth one cannot practice it. So, without knowing the above facts about lust, we cannot overcome that. So, knowing is the first part of it. But, walking in the truth day to day is essential to live a victorious Christian life and overcome all these temptations.

Hope the explanation is clear and clarified many doubts concerning it based on biblical truths. Now, let's see how to overcome this. We have seen that lust is not like other temptations and very difficult to overcome and many times we fall in it because the roots for lust are present within ourselves and it overcomes us often. To overcome this temptation, one must desire holiness and Godliness more than the physical desire to fulfill the lust unless it is impossible to overcome this because this is going to be a life long struggle and not a one time stuff. I would like to quote a short story. A grand father told his grand son "My child, there are two animals living inside every person. One is good and another one is evil and they keep on fighting." The boy asked back, "So, who wins at the end?". For that, the grand father replied calmly saying, "the one which was fed often wins the other one". That forms the crux of the idea. Let's see what do we need to do in order to overcome lust on a day to day basis.

1. Read and meditate the Word of God regularly. The scripture is insipired by God and it will make you holy. Jesus said this in John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." So, sanctification is through the Word of God. One more verse says, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. So, make a decision to read and meditate the Word of God for one hour everyday (morning 30 minutes and evening 30 minutes) and make it a habit like brushing everyday. Making decision is in your hands. If you do that regularly day-in and day-out, it is 100% sure you will be purified. That's why whenever you get into a sinful habit, the first thing it attacks is your scripture meditation and prayer time. Because, sin could separate you from God whereas living a holy and righteous life bring you nearer and nearer to God. There is a video that shows a glass cup filled with ink but pouring out water continuously inside it slowly removes the ink and eventually makes the cup full of clean water. Exactly that can happen to your mind as well. Your mind may be full of filth but pouring out the word of God continuously inside it will remove all the sinful thoughts and make your mind and heart pure. Remember, it is not an easy process and you need to be very consistent, otherwise it will not yield. It never works if you read 20-30 chapters per day and then ignore the Word of God for next 5 days. You need to read day in and day out. We shouldn't complain we don't have time. God gave us 24 hours per day and if we are not able to spend 1-2 hours with God everyday, our life will go waste.

2. Control what you see. Our eye is entrance for our heart. What you feed your eyes, directly gets into the heart. A major application is lust. The desire starts from our eyes not only for lust but for any greediness, we are attracted towards beauty in all forms. If we see a beautiful house or a beautiful painting or a natural scene, we are all attracted towards that. That's why Jesus said in Matthew "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great  is that darkness!" Matthew 6:22, 23. The last 2 of 10 commandments speak about lust and the origin of both starts in eye. It is not enough to read Word of God but seeing whatever we want. We should avoid every pitfall to the extent we should not read a sexist news if we think it will occupy our mind. Better be ignorant of such news insted of corrupting our mind. Should stop every kind of movie song or scene or anything that could corrupt us. In the example mentioned in first point, if you pour both water and ink in the jar, definitely you will not get a pure water. So, this is also a decision that we should make, however much we are tempted in lust in our flesh, make a decision that we will not yield to the pressure and will not feed the eyes.

3. Tell your problems to God and sought the help of Holy Spirit. We should not think that we can overcome this temptation by ourselves. Definitely we will fail. Instead ask for the power of Holy Spirit to overcome this. Tell God frankly about your problems, how you are tempted and tell God that you want to live a holy life, pleasing to Him and need His help for that. God will definitely help you out with giving you the power to overcome the lust.

4. Spend a calm time of prayer everyday with God. Bring back the scripture memorizations, recount the promise verses and praise God. You may feel like there is no effect after continuing for certain times. But, persist in prayer. In my experience, persistence with prayer and scripture meditation is more important to lead a victorious Christian life. It is about depending on the strength of God and not fighting the battle alone. Jesus told to His disciples, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye  are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:4,5.

5. Realize that the resurrection power of Jesus which is working in you is more powerful than any other power in this world. It overcomes the power of lust, temptation and possibly everything else. Remember one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. When you ask for more power, God unleashes more power in you. Remember without knowing the truth, you cannot walk in truth. Everyday morning declare that you are going to walk this day in power, the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Romans 8:11. Don't focus too much on the power of lust and attraction instead change your focus to the power of resurrection.

6. Avoid situtations that could make you sin. For example, if you are often tempted by a girl, just forcefully avoid her completely. If you tend to stare the bodies of women, don't go to beach. Avoid friends who talk about lust and sex. I think a better example is if you have the drinking habit and freed of it, never walk in the street that has a wine shop. You better know about yourself and you should act accordingly during times of temptation. Remember how Joseph fleed away pothibar's wife when she tried to force him to commit adultery. Another example is explained in Proverbs 7 and Proverbs 6:25 says "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids." This is often difficult but that's why I told earlier the desire for Holiness and Godliness should overcome the desire for temptation and only if you have such an attitude, you can overcome lust.

7. When you are alone or if you are not getting sleep, often you would tempted by the sinful thoughts. That's where the scripture memorization and reciting it in our mind comes handy. The way I overcame it was, I memorized a list of psalms. As of this day, I know around 25 psalms by heart and whenever I was aroused while I am in bed, I start recounting the psalms and by the time I say around 3-5 psalms, I usually sleep. If I don't get sleep within the time of reciting 5 psalms, I will recite around 10 psalms. We should defend and attack the problem of lust with a specific strategy, otherwise we are prone to fail. Remember it is not an easy battle because it comes day in and day out and we need to win each and every moment to be on top of this.

8. The final and most important suggestion is when you fail at times, never lose heart or never condemn yourself or give up saying "This is my nature or I am like this". Because, say if you are avoiding a sinful habit for 50 days and then you are falling back, then the sin will pull you back all over again will try to make you worse than previous time. Remember our God is a loving God and He is interested in you standing up and running again instead of laying down where you had fallen. He promised that He neither leaves you nor forsakes you. He gave His own life to redeem you so He will not leave you as such. But, you have to take the positive steps agian and should not yield back to the habit. Don't think you are a sinner if you fall back. Instead, say that you are righteous and a saint before God not because of your actions but because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. Just tell the enemy back, "I acknowledge you won in this round but in next round I will have an upper hand and you know what, the final victory is going to be mine no matter what" and start fresh all over again.

I believe it is a huge post but I believe it is really an important and helpful for the readers. I declare that if you committed to do the steps mentioned above, you will overcome the lust 100%. No doubt at all. It may even take 2-3 years to get into a winning practice of overcoming lust everyday. But, persistence and patience is the key. May the Holy Spirit guide you and assist you in this battle and directs you to success.

Praise to the God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. All glory, honor and praise to you Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Overcoming Temptation

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12

Let's continue the study about temptation in this chapter. We saw about three types of troubles that we face in our spiritual lives and we saw about how the first two types of tests and trials and biblical examples of them and we gave an introduction about the third type which is temptation. I gave a note that temptation never comes from God but comes only from the devil. The satan doesn't need the permission from God to tempt people. Because, it is within his limits and God allows his children to be tempted by satan and He wants us to overcome the temptations because that bring glory to His name and glory to us as well. Jesus Himself gone through the temptations at the start of His ministry. We will study about temptations in detail and how to overcome them in detail.

We must understand that temptation is not a sin in itself but it will lead to sin. It means that the devil cannot push you to commit sin. All he can do is, He can tempt you with all the attractions and he can hit your weakness areas, he can work in your thoughts, give you sinful memories but he cannot make you commit sin. To better explain, let's take the temptation of Eve. The serpent asked the question to Eve and spoke to her, lied to her and convinced her to cross the line. But, the serpent didn't pluck the fruit and pushed it into Eve's mouth. This is the way the devil works. Take the temptation of Jesus, Satan didn't bring food and pushed Jesus to eat that, didn't push Jesus from the pinnacle or didn't make Him bow under him. Just he tried to convince Jesus to commit those sins. Hope you understand now. That is the trick of Satan. He designed the sins that the entire world commit and tries to make the believers commit the sins but he can only tempt but the choice of committing it or not. That's where the control is given to us.

To know why we commit sin, we need to understand about temptation in detail. Let's study about the three basic forms of temptations. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. 1 John 2:16. The SELF nature of flesh crave for these appetites. For example, I can say our mind is like a remote control for these temptations which are like TV programs. Whatever we want to tune using our remote, the programs will run as per our choice. But, there is a built in nature in human flesh for these things like how all the channels are built in inside remote. When Adam and Eve sinned, all the humans got a bondage for these types of temptations. Let us take the original sin. When the serpent tempted Eve, we could see there are three ways in which Eve got tempted. "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it  was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." Gen 3:6. First, she saw the fruit was good for food and it shows the lust of the flesh, Second, it was pleasant to the eyes, directly corresponds to the lust of the eye. Thirdly, it is desirable to make one wise, it shows the pride of life because it promises to get her wise in a form equivalent to that of God. Looks like it is the best thing in garden of Eden except that it was forbidden by God. Can you make out a point here? All that glitters is not Gold.

Let's understand why God has put such a condition and tree. God created man not only in His own image but He created them with the free will. Otherwise, He is like some other animal creature which cannot think and decide. Animals just work based on their instincts. If they want food, they find food or hunt other animal. If they want sex, they find a mate and just they were driven by what they want next. A human is far above an animal being and the specialty is he can think and decide, he can choose what he wants to do. The ability to think and the free will of choice makes man superior than the other created beings. God created humans in His own form to complete His masterpiece. One more point, let's understand why God created humans at first place. The reason God created human is because He is love and He wants to show His love to someone who could understand that love and reciprocate it back. Though He created many angels and other spiritual beings who are at heaven, He wanted someone like Him to show His complete love. Whom do we love most, our child or our pet, a silly question, but as simple as that, isn't it? Instead of just an obedient angel who works like a machine, God wanted a similar kind of being who could think independently and at the same time show the same love back to Him.

To know whether human loves Him back, God just wanted to test the obedience of Adam and Eve whether they love Him, honor Him even if He is not present with them. For that, He designed a condition in the form of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If I want to know my daughter truly respects me or honor me, I can give a condition like that there is a box which is available for you to access but you shouldn't open. Obviously, she is not going to open at my presence. But, if I am not. Why that condition? Not to forbid her from the contents of the box but to say everything I do have belongs to you but still I am your master. God wanted the same thing out of Adam and Eve. He let them know all of the world created is theirs but just wanted to let them know He is their creator and they should love Him and obey Him and trust Him alone for their needs. But, to really test them, the object that is forbidden should be attractive. If I give something of little value to my daughter, that is not of much importance to her she will obviously won't be interested. But, if it is something thrilling, something of lot of interest, she will have the temptation to check what is in the box. Same thing happened to Eve. But, their is another player here in the form of serpent who really wanted to upset God who had thrown Him out of heaven tempted Eve to disobey God. Before that though Eve might have saw that fruit, she wouldn't thought about eating that. She didn't have a pressing need to eat that one. But, when there is one who tempts, then your mind actually conceives the action first. Eve thought about eating the fruit in the mind, to know its taste and she couldn't resist. Hope you understood how she had fallen.

Now, I feel it is clear what is temptation and what is sin. Until the thought comes up, Eve was clean. But, when the temptor brought the idea, Eve was tempted and thought about committing the act. She is still in temptation phase but the sin has originated in the thought. But, only when she plucked the fruit and ate that, she committed the sin. Now, the sin got fulfilled. This is exactly what each one of us go through in our life. This entire cycle is well documented by James in his first chapter. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:13-15. There is a phase by phase development from temptation to sin and to death. If we learn to realize and stop this cycle, we can overcome the temptations from getting converted to sinful ideas and then actual committing of sin.

Jesus is also tempted based on these three forms. First, to make the stones to bread represents the lust of the flesh as he is hungry. Second of jumping from the temple tower tempts whether he boasts about His power and to prove He is indeed the son so it attributes to the pride of life and the last one of riches of this world is the lust of the eye and pride as well. But, how Jesus overcame every temptation. Jesus didn't argue with satan, He simply didn't refuse or He didn't say "I am Son of God, I know that and I needn't prove to you." Instead, He faced each and every temptation with the Word of God. He met every situation with the appropriate scripture that made the devil powerless. When Jesus answered for the first temptation that it was written a man doesn't live just by bread but by every Word of God, the devil couldn't oppose. But, he is clever and cunning, he immediately tempted Jesus by the basis of another scripture in the second temptation. He used Psalm 91 and tried to misuse the promise of angels carrying without stumble but by making Jesus to fall from the tallest tower and tried to made Jesus to commit suicide. But, Jesus, our Lord simply overcame by another scripture. It shows that sometimes even we get tempted by some scriptures which are inappropriate to the situations that we are in. Unless we are strong in all the scriptures, we will tend to fail. And the third one, though Jesus had already overcame two temptations, He could exercise the power to drive satan out this time. So, He told away with you satan. But, He is sure to set the scores right by quoting the appropriate scripture again and told the devil we always have to worship God alone. Glory to God. The tempter can never ever win over his creator. He might be clever but one who created him is omniscient and He Himself is the source of wisdom.

The first and foremost weapon in battling out temptation is the Word of God. You could see the armor of God in Ephesians 6 and we could classify them to defense and attack. We need to have the truth as belt and the Word of God as sword to overcome all these types of temptations. How can we use the Word of God as sword if we don't know that at all? That's why we need to meditate the Word of God day and night and filled our hearts and minds with the truth of the Word. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If our heart is filled with scriptures, we will give more fruits, overcome the temptations and live a victorious Christian life. Let us try to fill our heart, mind and thoughts with the scriptures and replace the sinful thoughts with the Word of God from today on wards. Memorizing scriptures and recollecting them is another method. Meditating the scriptures is best according to Psalm 1:2-3. The Word of God is power. Let's take a decision to read and meditate the scriptures every day. If you are not doing already, I believe the Holy Spirit has lead you to this page to start this habit immediately from this day on wards. As a personal testimony, I was also a sinful person living in lust and filth. But, the Holy Spirit touched me changed me to meditate the Word of God daily. Only thing I did is, I took a decision that I will stick to reading the Word of God everyday whatever the situation may be or whatever the difficulty may be. There could be few days where you could never read. But, that doesn't mean we start to slip. We need to develop a habit of reading the Word and praying as some of our other habits like brushing, bathing and eating. So, I invite every reader to try and follow that.

In my next chapter, I will try to explain how to overcome lust, the common temptation that we prone to fall every now and then. Why it is so hard to resist the lust? I will try to present some useful ideas. May God give you all the wisdom and strength and make you bear plenty of fruits for His name. All glory, honor and praise to you God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

TTT

As mentioned at the end of my last article, we take part in the sufferings of Jesus Christ as well. In general, the sufferings are classified into three types. I call them TTT and the term stands for Tests, Trials and Temptations. I would like to deal with different types of troubles and problems we face in our life both physical and spiritual but the stress is on spiritual side of it. First, we should understand the basic difference of the three so that whenever we are in a situation we can assess the situation and found what we are in exactly. If we understand the type, we can better respond to the situation.

Test is the first type where God tests a particular person to certify him, to approve him. The best example I could take from the entire scripture is God's calling of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on altar. So difficult, isn't it? It is a biggest test of the faith in Abraham. "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Gen 22:1,2. The phrase says "that God did tempt Abraham" but I believe the right way of telling that would be "God did test Abraham" because God is never a tempter as we see later. This is the greatest shadow of the God, the Father is going to give His only begotten son, Jesus Christ on cross as burnt offering. As I wrote already, here God needed the approval of Abraham to give His son Isaac as a sacrifice so that He can give Jesus as sacrifice on cross. But you may ask, why that is required? Simply because of the fact Jesus Christ is going to be Abrham's son as well in future and only if Abraham who represents God the Father of GodHead (as he the Father of Israelites) willing to sacrifice His son Isaac who represents Jesus Christ, the son of the GodHead, then only in future, the Father can give Jesus on cross. When Isaac was thought of as human son of Abraham, the ram (Jesus Christ) which was caught in thorns by its horns is the substitute of Isaac (who represents all the believers) and it was eventually sacrificed in place of Isaac. What a figurative representation? 

Abraham succeeded in this greatest test of faith by strongly holding on his faith on Lord. This is beautifully explained in Hebrews as "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." Gen 11:17-19. No more explanation required. These kinds of tests would come and essentially they test our faith and if we stand strong, we will receive greater blessing. When Abraham offered the ram in place of Isaac, the angel of the Lord called from heaven for the second time and assured His promise and blessed Abraham greatly. Because, Abraham just fulfilled God's divine plan of salvation in shadow. Praise God, to Him be the glory now and forever. "And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which  is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies". Gen 22:15-17. Peter says about this type of test as, "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perish, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see  him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of  your souls." I Pet 1:6-9. 

The second 'T' stands for trials. We can also call this as tribulations. I would like to classify this as the distresses from having a small difficulties like suffering from a minor disease to deep sorrows and distresses like losing our loved ones and losing our life itself for the glory of Lord's name. That's why this is also called tribulation. The best example I can quote from Bible is none other than Job. None of us could ever imagine a Job like situation happening to us. Here the devil, one who accuses the brethren all the time (Rev 12:10), put a blame on Job in the presence of God and we all know what happened later. God gave everything that Job had in hands of satan. Job lost all His possessions, all His sons/daughters all of a sudden in one day. Not only that, the devil made Job to suffer with sore boils. His pain was too great that even his wife encouraged him to curse the Lord and commit suicide. Even his friends who came to console him, couldn't recognize him and cried for seven days and seven nights. Job chapters 1 and 2. Unimaginable situation. More difficult than losing our lives for the Lord. If we are killed, the pain is for a matter of few minutes and then we will be with the Lord for ever. But, living like that for few months is horrible, cannot be expressed. The rest of the book of Job is a lamentation book with the friends trying to accuse him and Job trying to justify himself and we all knew that. This stands for tribulation.

But, when God put a challenge on a person, He will give him enough strength such that the person overcomes the tribulation. That's what happened in Job's situation as well. Finally, Job as he himself said, came out like gold purified in the furnace. The Word of God states that "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly". Job 1:22 and finally God testifies Job that he spoke upright. "in that ye have not spoken of me  the thing which is right, like my servant Job." Job 42:8. God blessed Job twice than his earlier state. None of us need to go through such a trial. Because, Job's situation is completely different than ours because during Job's time there is no mediator between God and man during that time and the Holy Spirit, who is the comforter and counselor was not indwelling in humans that time. Even Job states the need for a mediator "O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour" Job 16:21. This mediator who pleads for us is Jesus Christ. Regarding this types of trials, which we call as tribulations, Paul writes in his epistle to Corinthians that "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I Corinthians 10:13. Here, I believe we can replace the word trial for temptation. It makes more sense. 

We can say this also means as chastisement where a Father chastises His son so that he can learn some good thing. Hebrews chapter 12 quotes the verses from Proverbs to explain this. "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" Hebrews 12:5-7 and the fifth verse is taken from Proverbs 3:11,12. When God brings you through such situations, He will either make you more pure and righteous or he will teach you how to respond to certain situations. Anyway, it will be beneficial to you on a long run. Remember, our Lord is good all the times. "but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" Hebrews 12:10.

Let's see the third type which is Temptation. This is the dangerous one of all the three. Though the other 2 gives us suffering and difficulties, this is the one that impacts our eternal glory. Temptation comes from the word tempt and this refers to the situations that lead us to sin, thereby making us sliding down from our spiritual standards, make our conscience guilty thereby separating us from our Lord. More important point to note here this doesn't come from God but from devil. You may ask me Job's sufferings too didn't come from God but came from devil. True, but there is a catch. Devil has to take permission from the Lord to touch Job and his possessions there by making Lord indirectly responsible. That's why it was written in the last chapter of Job, it was written "and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him" Job 42:11. So, it was Lord who permitted devil so this was attributed to Lord indirectly. But, it turned out in a greatest testimony to Job and his righteousness and it meant to give way for the book of Job that shows how much a man suffered but yet lived sincere for the Lord and it was set as an example. On the other hand, the temptation is the direct weapon of the devil and he absolutely doesn't need to take permission from the Lord before tempting a person. Remember, the devil didn't take permission from God to tempt Eve on garden of Eden. It is permitted for him. But, devil was only given permission to tempt us but he cannot force us into committing sin. This is one of the biggest subjects for study and I am postponing that to the next chapter where we see the temptation cycle from the book of James, Eve's temptation and the three tempting attempts on Jesus.

Hope this article is useful for your spiritual life. Taste and see that the Lord is good. All glory, honor and praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May He be exalted now and forever, Amen.