I re-learned one thing, if you want victory from sins, then obey every prompting of the Holy Spirit.
If He tells you to read the Bible now, don’t say you are too busy that you will do it later. Quench the Spirit once, and you will open up to sins. His power in you will diminish, so when you sin don’t complain that the “law of the Spirit of Life” (Romans 8:2) fails to sustain you.
If you think you are going to do something innocent, but the Spirit warn you right there, don’t do it.
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. Proverbs 16:9
I always do it anyways, and that supposedly innocent act would lead to another less innocent act, which leads to another, then another, until I am drowned in sins.
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 16:25
There Is No Formula
It’s so simple! So simple that I miss it so many time: there’s no formula to a disciplined, highly productive life. The fundamentals are clear: Holy Spirit, obedience, God’s words, grace.
Everything we often feel lacking such as victory from sins and bad habits, success in life, and everything else we often pray for and question about can find answers and lasting solution from the same fundamentals.
But I couldn’t see it that way before. When I used to be depressive, I asked God why I prayed so hard and depression wouldn’t leave me? Answer: I forgot to do the obvious: capture my thoughts and let God speak to my mind; give thanks for what I have; forget what is behind and go after what is before me. It was that simple.
I asked God: why my schoolwork suffered, and the fact that I had prayed so many times about it didn’t improve it? The answer: I didn’t follow God’s prompting when He asked me to just sit down and do the school works there and then. Instead, I think about depressive thoughts when it was time to study and believed in those lies that made me depressed, instead of simply followed God’s prompting to sit down and study. I made elaborate study plan and schedule, and tried to study the way other people do, instead of following the voice of the Holy Spirit to simplify things and do what obviously can improve my marks instantly, i.e. to practice more questions and refer to the answers keys if I get stuck, math is simply about how many questions you can solve.
I asked God: Why I lacked discipline, and many prayers over the years didn’t solve this problem? The answer: I focused too much on the worldly perception of what “real work” is! Do I really need to spend hours on school or career daily in order to be qualified as “disciplined”?
Simply follow the Holy Spirit, if He tells you to give up your busy life and to go pray and worship 80% of the time, then do it! If He tells you to stop working so hard, and sit down to compose a song for Him, do it. If He tells you to leave the office and go share the good news with someone, or just go take a long walk, do it!
I asked God: Why I always sin and this addiction pains me so much and after many prayers I still can’t see deliverance? The answer: Can you expect to live a sinless life without active, moment by moment reliance on God? You must follow the lead of the Holy Spirit! And you must believe in God’s word in order to claim the blessings it promised.
Conclusion
If you get stuck with a problem for too long, stop following the world’s solution, simply listen to the inner voices of the Spirit. Just because everybody does it the same way, doesn’t mean it’s right.
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Tags: Addiction, Holy Spirit, self discipline