How do we actually stop sinning? (Part 3)

It was written by the Apostle Paul:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

God given liberty to humanity is the first aspect of God's empowering grace.

Think of what God did with Cain before he murdered Abel. And think again of when God came to Abimelech in the following scripture from the book of Genesis:

"Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. "


But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”

Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”


Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die.” Genesis 20:1-7


God came to Abimelech and warned him of impending sin. And we know that God came to Cain, warning him of the "sin crouching at his door," warning him of his anger that would lead to his brother's murder.

Think of it like crime shows or movies where an officer or detective or "good guy" comes in, and a "bad guy" has a gun to his head or to someone else's head. What does the good guy say to the bad guy? "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!" The very presence of the good guy has introduced an element of reality, shaking the bad guy out of his insanity. "YOU HAVE A CHOICE. YOU HAVE OPTIONS," says the good guy.

God did the very same thing with Cain and Abimelech, and I believe He does the very same thing with believers AND unbelievers, as it is written by Paul:

"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" Acts 17:26-28


Again, look at what Jesus says about the Spirit:

“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."

John 16:5-11

Watchman Nee, the author of "The Spiritual Man" said this concerning the Spirit's conviction of the conscience:

"If we desire to follow the spirit (and since we never reach a stage of infallibility), we must heed what our inward monitor tells us regarding both inclination and overt action. For its works would be decidedly incomplete if it were only after we have committed error that conscience should rise up to reprove us. But we realize that even before we take any step-while we are still considering our way our conscience together with our intuition will protest immediately and make us uneasy at any thought or inclination which is displeasing to the Holy Spirit. If we were more disposed today to mind the voice of conscience we would not be as defeated as we are."

God, by His Spirit, comes to us BEFORE and after we are tempted, to warn us of yielding, and to convict us if we yield. He also commends us if we resist, giving us encouragement and strength to continue to resist.

This is the first aspect of God's empowering grace: His presence and revelation of the liberty we have to resist the temptation. I believe this applies, though to a very limited extent, to unbelievers as well. With unbelievers, the goal of the Spirit's conviction is salvation, not just the resistance of sinful actions.

Nevertheless, until the sinner is saved, the Spirit still seeks to show them a way out of the sinful life, and the sinful decision of that moment.

The main points I'm making are  these:

God's empowerment, when it comes to moral decisions or actions, is like the power of a perfect attorney.  It is not like a physical power or energy that moves or makes the will act or choose or refuse. He can perfectly persuade and convince and motivate with truth, as the Lord Jesus said:

"If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

What sets the real disciple of Christ free?

The truth.

Therefore, the first truth of God's empowering grace is liberty, the fact that we have a choice.

If in any way we don't believe we have a choice in what we do, or that we cannot choose freely unless God does something to us, through us, or for us, beyond what He has already done in giving us a free will and a convicted conscience, we will wait for something miraculous or supernatural to happen to us BEFORE we resist sinning. But that something won't happen, and the devil will discourage us with condemnation.

Let me give one more illustration of this. When I was a bouncer, I had two experiences of the empowerment I'm speaking of. In the first, a woman looked at me and mouthed theses words, "Please get him away from me." I said in her ear, "Did you ask him to leave you alone?" She said, "No." I told her that she had to tell him to leave her alone FIRST. Then, AND ONLY THEN, could I step in.

The second experience involved me and a police officer stationed at the bar I worked. I told the officer that a patron needed to leave. The officer told me the same thing I told the young lady. I had to tell the patron to leave. If he refused, he is now trespassing. Then the officer would come and give the same command, reinforcing my command. After this refusal, the patron would be trespassing after warning, and be taken to jail...not by me, but by the officer.

Do you see the points? The woman had to exercise the authority of her identity by her will FIRST. I had to excercise my authority as a bouncer FIRST. Then the woman and I would experience the empowerment, or enforcement, of our wills or decisions. I (and the other bouncers) would get the man out for the woman. The police officer (and other officers, if necessary) would get the patron out. Notice the "power" given to my will and the woman's will. We spoke. Our wills, or words, were enforced. The power was in our enforcement, so that it didn't matter how big the man was that allegedly bothered the woman, or how big the patron was that needed to leave, we had more than enough power behind our words to have our words or wills enforced.

BUT THERE HAS TO BE A WILL TO ENFORCE! HOW CAN GOD EMPOWER US TO REFUSE SIN IF WE DON'T ACTUALLY REFUSE IT?

What I revealed to the woman was her liberty to tell the man to leave her alone. Perhaps she didn't know that she had that liberty and power, that SHE could actually tell the man to leave her alone. I didn't know that the police needed me to give the man the order first. And this empowered me from that time on. Therefore, the first truth of God's empowering grace is His liberating and reinforcing presence, just like my presence liberated and reinforced the woman as one who should be respected, and the officer's presence reinforced and liberated my authority as a bouncer.

The second truth of God's empowering grace is His goodness towards us. Joseph told Potiphar's wife that the Lord was with Him, and that Potiphar had given him everything except her. Joseph saw and appreciated God's goodness, and this motivated or empowered him to resist tempation.

Going back to the analogy of the officer in the movie, the one trying to stop a man from killing himself: The officer usually says something like, "You don't have to do this! You have a choice. Think of your wife and children who love you."

The officer is appealing to the goodness of the man's life as a motivation to resist the temptation to commit suicide. If the man can be convinced that he has something good to live for, then he will not kill himself.

The same is true with God and the one tempted to sin. God shows the one tempted His goodness as a provider, and His willingness to meet whatever need he is trying to meet selfishly. He persuades the tempted one by His Spirit to turn from sin and turn to Him. There are many ways God does this, in many situations. He may do this through a loved one, through circumstances that remind a person of a specific blessing, etc. This is the second truth of God's empowering grace.

The third truth is God's revelation of the vileness of sin. I've said this in an article I wrote in The Discipleship Dojo. In every temptation to sin, there will be something in the temptation that reveals it as unappealing. This is part of God's faithfulness in not letting us be tempted beyond what we are able, according to 1 Corinthians 10:13. This is one of the ways of escape God promises. Even with the power of Satan, Satan's world system, and the power of the selfish nature of our bodily passions, God will not let the strength of the temptations exceed the strength of our wills to resist. If there is any way that God DOES DO SOMETHING to us, through us, or for us, it is in the equalizing of our strength with the strength of the tempter or temptation. God "levels the playing field," if you will.

Think of temptation like weight lifting. If we experience 1000 pounds of resistance, then we will receive the ability to resist 1000 pounds, or even more! So, "where sin abounds, grace will even more so abound." Nevertheless, we still have to actually refuse to sin as Joseph did, to say a decisive and final "NO!." The strength will be there to do so IF WE ACTUALLY WANT TO RESIST THE TEMPTATION! If this is the case, we will submit to God and resist the devil. And in submitting our wills to God, God will empower, or reinforce, our submission. God did for Joseph what I did for the woman, and what the officer did for me. God reinforced Joseph's continual resistance and refusal to commit adultery.

In summary,

The way we actually stop sinning is to actually refuse the tempter or temptress! To say a decisive and final "No!" We refuse because God has given us the liberty to do so, because of His infinite and eternal goodness towards us, and because of the vileness of sinning against God and against people. These three truths are God's empowering grace, the motivations, powers, and persuasions given by God's Spirit that enable us to resist sinning. God's empowering grace is not a supernatural or miraculous power that kicks in and makes us resist sin or stop sinning, or that makes us choose to submit to Him and refuse to sin. The creature needs the Creator, but not like a puppet needs a puppet master. God is our liberator and enforcer, enforcing the law of liberty for humanity, made in His image and likeness and glory. He sent His Son to set us free from sin's slavery, revealing to us the good news of our emancipation. For the unbeliever, He does this through creation, conscience, conviction, and the gospel. For the believer, He does this by the indwelling Spirit. For both, He persuades by the truth, by the Spirit of truth who is truth, by His word, which is truth. If we will accept the truth, we will be empowered by God's grace to refuse sin. If we reject the truth, we yield to falsehood. The choice is ours. We have a choice. Amen.


For an indepth look at living without sinning, read Cleansed and Abiding: A Proposed View of Christian Perfection by James-Michael Smith, and Is It Possible To Live Without Sin? by me!

How do we actually stop sinning? (Part 2)

"We can not do anything in 'our own strength,'"  according to some Christians.

By "anything," they mean the act of submitting to God and resisting the devil, or doing God's will and refusing the devil's.  This is an attempt in humility, according to Jesus' words, "Abide in me, and I in you. .. Apart from me you can do nothing." (See John 15)

The impression I've always gotten from this concept is that a miraculous power has to come over me, enable me to want to do God's will, and then make me do it.  So if I was tempted by sin, I should pray, quote scriptures, and wait for "the power."  According to those who hold such a belief, I should pray something like this, "I can't do it.  God, do it through me."  I should "let go and let God."  After all, "it's not about trying, it's about trusting."  And so the cliches go. 

I understand the desire of those who believe this, having been one who was taught the same, and one who practiced "letting go and letting God."  I know the desire to abide in Christ, to stay connected to Him in total dependence and total surrender, seeking His power.  But there are two problems with this belief:

1. A Deception.  The power never happened when I would wait for it to hit me.  No matter how many prayers I prayed or scriptures I quoted, God never made me want to obey Him, and He never made me obey Him.  No feeling came.  No internal motivation to resist sin came.  No internal supernatural ability came to say "no" to Satan and sin, and "yes" to God.

2. The reason is that God is not Satan or a demon.  He does not partake in possession or domination in the ways of Satan and demons.  With God there is the cooperation of free will submission. 

Understand these two truths: 

God does not do for us what He has given us the ability, responsibility, and authority to do. 

God does not require of us what He does not give us the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.

For example, in Judges 6:11-14, when God called Gideon to save Israel from the Midians, the LORD said to Gideon, "Go in the strength that you have and save Israel from the Midanites.  Am I not sending you?" 

What is the difference between Gideon "going in the strength that he has" and "going in his own strength," according to the present day cliche?  Nothing.  These are  two ways of saying the same thing.  And it is actually very encouraging for God to say this to Gideon.  It shows that all Gideon had to do was to  be as strong as he presently was  at that moment.  No more strength is required of him than what he had.   I believe this is what happened in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and what happens today with God's children in their God given missions.  We see this with Adam, Abraham, and Moses in the Old Testament.  We see this with Jesus in relationship to His disciples.  We'll discuss this in the coming blog....

How do we actually stop sinning? (Part 1)

I'm considering this as an additional chapter in my ebook, Is It Possible To Live Without Sin?  For now, I've had many thoughts about actually resisting sin. 

So, how do we actually stop sinning?

The answer to this question is given in Joseph’s resistance to temptation:

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”  But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. Genesis 39:1-11 NIV

Before we look at the situation with Joseph, let's look at what Paul says to the Corinthian Christians:

 "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."  I Corinthians 10:13 ESV

For me, a problem in some Bible teaching is the divide between theology and history or practicality.  In other words, some read the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife and make a Sunday School Lesson out of it, but don't think of this as a situation that really happened between a real man and a real woman.  This is exactly what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 10:1-6

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

Apply this to Joseph's temptation.  He was a man like I am a man, just like James said about Elijah:

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth."

So was Cain when God came to him, and so was Joseph, whom God was with as well.

Now, what do we see with Joseph when he is tempted?  What did he actually do to keep from sinning when he was tempted over and over again?

HE REFUSED! 
Plain and simple.  

But how did he refuse?  We will explore this in part 2....

An Introduction to My E Book

I  used to want to be a psychology major.  In fact, I was a psychology major and a music minor in my freshman year of college.  I remember sitting in psych classes and thinking to myself, "All we are doing is studying the sin nature."  Because of this, I dropped psychology and majored in music.

But the question of sin and our nature of sin never left me.

Are we doomed from birth with irresistible vices?  Vices so strong that even the Lord Jesus Christ cannot save us?  Habits so powerful that even the Holy Spirit's empower is not enough?

I never knew anyone else had these thoughts until I read the works of William Law, Watchman Nee, John Wesley, and Charles Finney. In reading them, I found hope and truth for what I had been seeking as long as I can remember--an answer to this question, which is now an E book I've recently written:

Is It Possible To Live Without Sin?

This book has been on my mind and in my heart from those days in college, practically already written.  It explores my thoughts and reasons for believing in the possibility of sinless life.  If you want to find the hope of the liberation from sin that comes from Christ, I invite you to think with me through the scriptures and our deepest desires.  May God bless us as we seek our truest salvation.

For and in depth look at the doctrine of Christian Perfection, also read
Cleansed and Abiding:  A Proposed View of Christian Perfection by JM Smith.

Frodo, Neo, and Freedom from Sinning (Part 2)

We've seen the salvation of Gollum, if you will, when he received Frodo as a new master, setting him free from the dark lord Sauron.  Think of Sauron as Satan, the ring as sinful desire, and Mordor as the Satan's evil kingdom or world system. 

Now we move from Mordor to the Matrix, and into the second analogy of being set free from sinning. 

Morpheus speaks to Neo about the Matrix, telling Neo what the Matrix is.  Neo, having been introduced to the truth, is now presented with a choice:  to reject falsehood and enter into truth, or to reject truth and remain in falsehood.  And what is this truth that Neo must accept?  That he's "been living in a dream world," that he is "a slave." 

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo:   What truth?

Morpheus:   That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

If Neo is to become "the one," he must first accept the reality of his slavery.  He cannot be truly free, or "unplugged" until he sees that he is not free.  Like Gollum, he must have a revelation of his true situation.  So it is with every man and woman.

We too, were born into slavery, a prison of self centered passion, under a slave master named Satan, with this present world as his plantation. 

Satan=Slave master
Selfish passions/sin=Overseer
This world/matrix=Plantation

As an African American I've thought of the concept of embracing slavery.  Not of being a "sell out" or an "Uncle Tom," meaning one who loves oppression and refuses resistance.  The issue with the evils of slavery in America is idolatry--false gods, false masters.  "The white man" did not rightly own my ancestors.  He did not rightly own them, define them, or determine their actions.  Some of my ancestors sold some of my ancestors.  Yet even this does not come to the point.

It is written,
"The earth is the LORD'S and everything in it, the world and all who live in it."
"You are worthy O LORD to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created."
"In Him we live and move and have our being."
"All things were created through Him and for Him, and in Him all things consist."
"You are not your own, you were bought with a price, therefore honor the Lord with your body, which is the Lord's"

In all of these scriptures, we see the true Owner, Definer, and Determiner, the true Master.  It is Him we embrace, and it is this slavery that we accept.

But our first father gave the earth to a rebel spirit.  Adam rejected God as his rightful Creator, Father, and Master, and accepted Satan as his new creator, father, and master.  And all of Adam's children belonged to Satan from that moment on--born into slavery, into a prison for their minds....

Frodo, Neo, and Freedom from Sinning

In Scripture sin is presented as a slave master.  (See my friend James-Michael's Sin as Conqueror, Captor, and Enemy.)

Look at Paul's description of sin in his letter to the Roman Christians:

"Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

Romans 6:16-18

In "The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers," and "The Matrix," I see three very good analogies of sin as a master, and the way to freedom from sinning.

The first analogy is in "The Two Towers." There is a scene with Gollum in which he talks to himself about "the one ring."  Gollum is a slave to the ring--which tempts all who wear it with DESIRE, and POWER.  The ring's master is Sauron--THE DECEIVER...who for me is a kind of Satan figure. So Gollum is ultimately ruled by Sauron when he is ruled by Sauron's ring.  He cannot escape this master....until he has the revelation of a NEW master! Upon this realization, he sees that HE NO LONGER NEEDS THE OLD MASTER--THE RING, or SAURON/SATAN/SIN. So what does Gollum do with this realization? He commands his "sinful nature/the side of him enslaved to the ring" to "leave now and never come back!"

Upon experiencing his new found identity and authority, Gollum says, "We told him to go away, and away he goes!  Gone, gone, gone!  SMEAGOL IS FREE! "   Through Frodo, Gollum is reminded of who he really was and who he really is. It is only when Gollum is deceived concerning his new master that he turns back to his old master. I believe the same is true in relationship to sin as a master and Christ as a liberator from sin.

 Smeagol's nature became warped by the ring, and he couldn't find freedom until he received a new master. This is the same in relationship to Christ setting all who believe in Him free from sinning.  We must acknowledge the truth: that self-centered desires are our master.  We must then HATE self-centered desire as a master (just as Gollum hated the slavery of his ring ruled self.)  We must then reject the old master, which is sin, and accept a new master, which is Christ the Lord.  In accepting a new master, WE NO LONGER NEED THE OLD MASTER.  As Gollum said to his ring ruled self, so we would be able to say to the sin that rules us:  "Christ looks after us now.  WE DON'T NEED YOU ANY MORE!"

When Gollum realized he had a new master, there was nothing in his "warped ring ruled nature" that kept him from choosing Frodo and refusing Sauron. In the same way, our natures are warped from birth.  This is so because Adam listened to the Satan, the deceiver.  But our warped natures are not so warped that we cannot accept the freedom Christ offers us.  We still have a choice.  We can choose or refuse "the ring" of power and self-centered desire. And we can choose or refuse "the red and blue pill".....(To be continued.)