spiritual warfare

[deputydog530]

Yankee Candle wrote:

All devils operate on the principle: Lust - sin - death.

I agree with some of what you said and not with other parts. I will stick to this one thing, your quote above. I take it you attribute all sin as demonic.

James chapter 1 says;
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Jas 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Our flesh contributes to a lot of our sin issues. Porn is usually a fleshly desire for men and women. Can the devil be invlolved? sure he can, but he is not in every instance. The devil gets to much credit for sin that is as James puts it. "of his own lust".

God Bless

[heartstrings]

Our flesh contributes to a lot of our sin issues. Porn is usually a fleshly desire for men and women. Can the devil be invlolved? sure he can, but he is not in every instance. The devil gets to much credit for sin that is as James puts it. "of his own lust".

God Bless

Amen
Believe it or not, our pastor just mentioned this very same thing in the message this morning.
And I would add, to this discussion; the Holy Ghost gets credit for a whole lot that He has nothing to do with too.

edited to fix typo

[Yankee Candle]

"Can the devil be involved? sure he can, but he is not in every instance." Give scripture to support that and please give an example that you can prove that Satan is not involved in every sin of lust. The phrase 'his own lust' does not exclude the realm of the invisible.

Have a nice evening.

[heartstrings]

"Can the devil be involved? sure he can, but he is not in every instance." Give scripture to support that and please give an example that you can prove that Satan is not involved in every sin of lust. The phrase 'his own lust' does not exclude the realm of the invisible.

Have a nice evening.

"lust" IS invisible.

Do you find the words "satan", "devil", "demon" or "evil spirit" in the scripture below?



<< James 1 >>
King James Bible

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: 10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 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. 13 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: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

[Yankee Candle]

"Very few there seem to be who take the balanced biblical approach in this."

The balanced approach: Help people who come to you with spiritual problems and treat them like a doctor would treat any patient of any disease or sickness that they might have...applying the right medicine (scripture) as the prognosis to the problem.

One who preaches God's Word doesn't have to drum up business. It will come to him as God appoints it and he will do what is necessary for each person.

[deputydog530]

I did give an example, you read it. No mention of the devil there in James 1:14 Just plain old sinful man. It appears that you are making this verse your private interpretation. It apprears you are saying that everyone has or is a devil, if all lust comes from the devil.

Another example of sinful man makeing a choice to sin is in the garden with Adam and Eve. Satan tempted Eve, but did not force her to disobey God. She along with Adam made that choice themselves. If the devil was responsible for all our sin then we would not be required to give an account of ourselves to God, we would just say "the devil made me do it".

Another example is when Peter denied the Lord 3 times. Peter did that, not the devil.

Also why does the very verse dealing with spiritual warfare say...

Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Again no mention of the devil here, just the flesh.

God Bless

[Anon]

There was someone on FFF (not that I go there much, I don't) who was talking like this, was it you, Yankee?

[deafnva77]

Personally, I don't care if which board she/he posted.

Anyway, who are worshipping? satan or the Lord? It seem that people who talk about the Devil too much is making an idolatry out of him. I am not interested in satan at all. He bores me.

I agree with the posters about the flesh. It clear that it is our flesh want follow satan. We are not sinless like Jesus. We are not God so we are bound to fail and sin, with or without satan. Adam and Eve did pretty well when they focused on the Lord, and allowing the Lord work on them to keep a straight path.

[Yankee Candle]

Perhaps I should post again what I said earlier since it did not sink in:

The balanced approach: Help people who come to you with spiritual problems and treat them like a doctor would treat any patient of any disease or sickness that they might have...applying the right medicine (scripture) as the prognosis to the problem.

One who preaches God's Word doesn't have to drum up business. It will come to him as God appoints it and he will do what is necessary for each person.

That is my heart. I wish to help those who have spiritual problems that others are perhaps (1) incapable of helping because they simply don't know how, or (2) problems of such a nature that it terrifies others and frightens them away.

As far as the devil is concerned: since it is so difficult to prove at what stage he enters the picture in the lives of sinning people then it is not worth getting into a hot debate over.

May the Lord help many through those that are willing to help.

God bless each of you.

[Anon]

Personally, I don't care if which board she/he posted.

Anyway, who are worshipping? satan or the Lord? It seem that people who talk about the Devil too much is making an idolatry out of him. I am not interested in satan at all. He bores me.

I agree with the posters about the flesh. It clear that it is our flesh want follow satan. We are not sinless like Jesus. We are not God so we are bound to fail and sin, with or without satan. Adam and Eve did pretty well when they focused on the Lord, and allowing the Lord work on them to keep a straight path.

The reason I care is because I've seen his posting before....if this is the same poster, than I know he is not teaching right things.

[deafnva77]

The balanced approach: Help people who come to you with spiritual problems and treat them like a doctor would treat any patient of any disease or sickness that they might have...applying the right medicine (scripture) as the prognosis to the problem.

I thought that verse meant Jesus is for lost sinners who need a savior -- that their soul is sick and dying and they need Christ -- Unless you are thinking about a different verse.

We do study the bible to help us spirtually plus obedience, faith and prayers. I mean, I read the bible when I am afraid, lonely, etc. There are times where satan did tempt me. Like when I am nervous, I want to grab a smoke. But I try to look the other way to Christ.

I think everything else that out of our control will be taken care by the Lord when we get to heaven, such as my deafness, or someone's mental illness (even though God does use doctors to treat them, but they won't be cure until they get to heaven) , severe diseases. My mother had cancer, and i used to pray to make her better. in a way, my prayers did answered, but not like I wanted. But at least she is not suffering anymore. I prayed for her salvation too, and she did accepted Christ as her Savior. Now, I know satan did try to prevent her from the gospel by spewing out all kinds of junk on TV . she used to watched alot of false preachers and documentaries on religion (when you are sick with cancer, that's what you pretty much can do.. Watch TV) . The more she watched it, the more confused she got.

[Yankee Candle]

I didn't intend to start a debate. I only wish to help others...both sinners and saints.

Have a nice day.

[John81]

Scripture warns us not to give place to the devil. If we allow ourselves to be caught up in some sin (I'll use pornography since that's been mentioned) then we open the door and give place for the devil to come in and make matters much worse.

It's amazing to me when I've read stories about someone who started out just looking at a "little porn". They might have started out looking at Victoria Secret catalogs and then progressed to Playboy but eventually they find themselves craving not just porn, but perverse forms of porn and oftentimes the need to act out what they have viewed. From reading of those who have been saved from this I do very much believe (some even point this out themselves) that they gave place to the devil and the devil drove them farther and deeper into sin than they would have otherwise gone on their own.

We can't "blame the devil" for everything but we can't dismiss his evil influences and attempts to wreck lives whenver the chance presents itself.

Consider Job...