how can we overcome sin?

Our situation today is very grim. Man seems to have chosen death over life. All the helps that have come from above to make him retrace his steps have been disregarded. He doesn’t seem to mind where he is heading; doesn’t care about the Will of God and, for many, doesn’t even know there is a God. He is thus surrounded by darkness out of choice.

Consequently evil has permeated the entire planet. We are now in a world where being a lesbian is no longer seen as abnormal and the most sexually promiscuous persons are virtually being worshiped; a world where the more you show of your nakedness the more fashionable you are; a world that confuses the word sexy with beautiful; where might is right and guile is acceptable so long as you can beat the earthly laws. The hold on mankind by the darkness is suffocating. It seems impossible to go against it.

But not for you who sincerely wish to serve God; you who believe that there is a heaven and wish to thread the path leading back home to it.

There certainly is a way back home. It is not as difficult as you may think. It has nothing to do with the walls erected everywhere by different religious groups. The worship of God is not supposed to be something rigid or regimental. It should not choke or oppress you. It’s supposed to be a way of life; the kind of life willed by God; a life of love, peace and harmony; a life of freedom…spiritual freedom; a life devoid of sin. Those who serve God should therefore flow with such life. They should be one with it; should possess it.

Here on earth, you are learning how to live that life; and you can. The way lies in knowing your God, understanding His Will and living in harmony with it so you can go back home to Heaven where you can live it to the full.

You serve The Almighty God, Creator of everything that exists, Who sustains all by His Will, The Holy Spirit. It is in His Will that you make it back home to Paradise and He has therefore equipped you with everything you need for the journey, everything you need to overcome sin, but you must make use of what has been given to you. I will briefly talk on two of these.

Your conscience:
Given to you as a gift by the Creator, it is meant to warn you when temptation approaches you. And it does warn you without fail…Always. The warning comes early enough. Long before any iota of darkness linking itself to you in the form of unclean thoughts has gained strength at all. If at this stage you heed the warning and snuff out the life in such speck of evil thought you wouldn’t have problems resisting evil, but no, you dwell on it instead; you play with it, allowing it to grow; building up strength in the process, until finally becoming so strong, it overwhelms you.

The point is, when you dwell on unclean thoughts, you show your desire for sin and thus stretch your hands to the darkness. The moment you do this you automatically turn your back on the power that is available to you from God; you break the connection with God and hence stand momentarily on your own, unprotected and when the darkness eventually envelops you, causing you to sin, it is because you desired it.

You cannot fight the darkness on your own. You can only do so with the power of God. You must therefore remain connected with this power against which the darkness stands no chance.

Therefore be alert. Listen to your conscience. The more you heed its warning the louder it gets and the stronger you become. The reverse is the case when you fail to heed its warning. Always busy yourself with noble things. Do not tempt yourself; do not say you are so strong and can go anywhere or see anything. It is self deception; a trick of the darkness. You are not strong. Instead you have access to the source of all power…God.

The darkness knows this, and so it lures you into situations or conditions where you cannot but dwell on evil thoughts which disconnects you from the protecting power of God, thus creating the opening for it to reach and control you.

Prayer:
Prayer is the lifting up of our heart and soul to God. Through prayer we lay our spirit flat before His Mightiness, acknowledging His Power and Love, and asking Him for strength to live in harmony with His Will. Hence through prayer we also receive the strength we need to overcome sin. But you do not wait until you are almost completely overcome by temptation before you pray.

You pray as soon as an approach is made to you from the darkness. And that is where your conscience comes in. It alerts you as the approach is made, long before you get into the danger zone i.e. long before you disconnect yourself from God.

Once in danger zone you will not wish to pray. Remember you are already disconnected from God by your choice and are connected to the darkness even more strongly instead. The thoughts assailing you then will only be evil thoughts from the darkness. Surely you don’t expect the darkness to ask you to pray against it, do you? What is more likely is that you’ll be asked to complete the task at hand; get it over and done with and repent later…but the cycle is always repeated.

The Son of God, Jesus gave us everything in His admonition to “watch and pray.”
“To watch,” means to listen to your conscience; to be alert to the warnings it sends out to you; to receive them and to heed them.
“To pray,” refers to actively connecting yourself with the Power of God; a power that nothing can stand against. A short heartfelt prayer for help would suffice and the darkness would retreat immediately.

In order to overcome sin therefore, you must know your strengths and weaknesses. Do not tempt yourself. Keep away from occasions of sin. You do not need to prove to yourself that you are strong because you are not. You only have access to power from God by being connected to Him. You loose this privilege when, and for as long as, you desire evil.

Therefore, let your heart be a temple of God; raise an altar in your heart for the worship of God. Protect the altar. Pray without ceasing.

Put simply, keep your thoughts free of evil.
Be alert to your conscience.
Be Prayerful

May the Almighty God bless you.

Merry Christmas Everyone

As we celebrate the coming into the world of our Lord Jesus Christ, I wish
you all, His Love peace and happiness. I also pray that you are able to conquer
your weaknesses and live a life that is in harmony with the will of God, so that
ultimately you can make it back home to that place where we shall have joy for
all Eternity. Living any other way makes nonsense of His sacrifice.

Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart

When Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts, He is not just

asking us to say that we love Him; He is also not begging us to

tell others that we do either. Fine! It’s good to say these things.

But what good is it if we still indulge in every vice that exists;

how do we show that we love Him, if we still make massive contributions to the rapidly increasing spread of evil on earth?

Jesus once said
“Not those who call me Lord, but those who keep the Will of my father who sent me.”  Who are those who call Him Lord? These are people who say they believe in Him; people who say they love Him; who bear the name Christians (like-Christ); those who attend Christian service and fellowships; and who go for Christian song festivals. Now Jesus doesn’t condemn these, no, rather He says they should not stop there but take another step forward towards Him. They have opened the door. Now they should tread the path shown by Him.
 Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Prince of Peace knocks on the door of our hearts. He is “THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE”
When we open up to let Him in, we are confronted with the following;

1    THE WAY;
The path we must tread if we are to make it back home to Heaven as members of the family of Christ; that path which is in harmony with the Will of His Father who sent Him. We cannot have the strength to tread this path if we do not genuinely love Him. Mere claims of loving Him do not suffice. We would always end up indulging in sin and sadly, very sadly, always fall back on the notion that we are covered by His grace and can make Heaven nevertheless so long as we believe in Him…A recipe for destruction. Therefore, in order to help us in this, He clearly stated;
“If you love me keep my commandments.”
It is not as difficult as one may think. We do not use our own strength. We use a power given to us by God. Such power is given when, and only when we earnestly desire to overcome sin. That is why it is said that
 “We can never be tempted beyond our means” to overcome. if we fall it is because we chose to ignore the support given to us at all times.  
Hence, Christ is the way back home; a path we must thread; a pointer to Heaven.

2    THE TRUTH;
that there is a God, The Father Almighty, Creator of the Heavens and the earth, and of everything that exists; that He came from God; and that He is the Son of God Who came to show mankind the way out of the darkness into which they had sunk themselves; that He was prepared to face anything, even humiliation and death on the cross; that the home of mankind is not “planet earth,” but Heaven; and that all who believe in Him and thus walk in the direction shown shall be saved.

3    THE LIFE;
that He came from the source of all Life; that He is thus a part of this Life; that He is Life; and that all who believe in Him and live in harmony with The Will of His Father Who sent Him shall be saved and thus have Life, Eternal Life…the Life of God.

Thus The Son of God knocks on the door of your heart. When you open up to let Him in you are shown the path you must thread if you must make it back home, the truth you must believe in if you are to be a member of his family, and the gift of life that becomes your own when you worship Him in Truth and in Spirit.