When people see some dark clouds coming over the horizon, they usually think that a bad storm is coming towards them and so they need to either go home or find another safe shelter to shield them from the effects of the storm.
The practice of running away from a coming storm and seeking safe shelter is what Christians should do when they see or feel the storm of fleshly temptations aided by demonic deceptions coming towards them. This could happen as Christians are going through television stations looking for a good program to watch or trying to find a good movie to watch at a movie theater or trying to pick out a good movie at a movie rental store.
As they are trying to do those things, suddenly scenes come on in which people are either talking about or doing things which are openly going against God’s laws or principles of living found in the Bible. As these things are happening, there may be some demonic deceptions telling them that the things they are watching aren’t so bad, but instead are a lot of fun; so why don’t they try doing them and see what happens?
Such deception is the same way the serpent/devil got Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden as described in Genesis 3:1-6. First, the serpent/devil questioned her about the validity of what God had told her. Then, the serpent/devil deceived her about the effects of her possible actions.
Next, when she considered the beauty of the fruit and when she thought of how it would be good to eat, she forgot about God’s commandment not to touch or eat it; as well as forgetting about God’s warnings that if she did those things, she would die. As the result of those deceptions, she took it from the tree, ate from it, and then gave it her husband to eat.
When Eve and then Adam did those things, they found that while the fruit may have tasted good for a little while; the results of their actions had disastrous effects on their relationship with God, their Creator including losing the special spiritual connection they had with God, losing the special covering light of the glory of God, getting kicked out of the beautiful Garden of Eden and having to work for food, and falling from a perfect spiritual condition into a sinful state which they passed down to their descendants.
The above described tactics of devilish deception have worked very well for the spiritual forces of darkness down through the centuries since then, much to the spiritual detriment of millions of people.
However, when those tactics are used on Christians, an alarm usually goes off in their conscience and the inner voice coming from the indwelling Holy Spirit which says that doing those actions would break God’s laws and principles of living, as well as bring God’s punishment. Thus, when Christians hear that warning, they should pay close attention to it and then ask God for some extra power to give them the will power to reject those temptations.
As Christians use the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the fleshly temptations and demonic deceptions, they can have a good feeling about doing that and then go find some good programs or movies to watch that are compatible with their Christian values.
On the other hand, when some Christians give into following the demonic deceptions and temptations, they may feel the damage that it has done to their spiritual life and feel the broken spiritual relationship with God. After the fallen Christians have realized that and decide to repair the damage that their sinful behavior has done to their spiritual life and their relationship with God, then they need to follow the example of the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) and say I will arise, go to My Father, say that I have sinned against Him, and then ask His forgiveness for going astray and breaking His laws and principles for living.
As fallen Christians ask God to forgive them for breaking his laws, and once again spiritually apply the sacrificial atonement of Jesus on the cross to their lives; then God will forgive them for breaking His laws, make them His newly creation, and send to them the power of the Holy Spirit to help them live according to God’s principles found in the Bible.
Next, the newly-restored Christians need to spend a lot of time reading God’s Word and talking to God in prayer about their problems. They may also need some good Christian friends or Christian counselors to help them stay on the right road in their Christian walk and journey of life.
When Christians realize the difficulties that wayward Christians have in repairing their spiritual life from even a brief detour into sinful behavior, it should give them another motivation not to do that.
Therefore, when Christians see the dark clouds of the storms of demonic deceptions or fleshly temptations coming towards them; they need to ask for extra power from the Holy Spirit to help them both reject those deceptions and temptations and then run from the darkness of those storms into the sunshine of God’s love as they follow God’s principles of living found in the Bible.
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