“Pastor, I stopped smoking and drinking when I got born again last year, but I’m surprised that the urge has come back and it’s difficult to resist. What do I do?”

One of greatest mysteries about salvation in Christ is that God shed His love in our hearts by His Spirit. In the Old Testament, the reason why the people could not obey the law was primarily because there was no love in them for God. I’m sure you know how difficult it is to obey someone you don’t love.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that they didn’t want to love God, they just didn’t have the capacity in them to do so. Read your Bible, even till the early days of the New Testament, you’d realize that those who served God blamelessly and righteously had undying love for God. Think of Moses, Daniel, Joseph, Job, David, and even Zachariah the husband of Elizabeth – who gave birth to John the Baptist.

Even though they were all operating under the law, their testimony of love for God was what kept them righteous and blameless before God. I’m still amazed how David moved on with his life after a high profile sin against God. You slept with your warrior’s wife, then killed him just so you could marry her. As if that was not sin enough, you still wanted to keep the fruit of your atrocity. One would think that God would kill David instantly, instead, God took the child. Till date, nobody can speak against the fact that David went ahead to marry a woman whose husband he killed. We can’t even question God, only because we can clearly see that there was love between David and God. David wasn’t living a sin-conscious life; rather, he lived a love-conscious life. If he was ever worried, it’s because he had betrayed his love for God, not because he sinned. Till date, David has remained a template of love for even Christians who Christ died for. We’re even told that Jesus would inherit the throne of his father David. The same David!

Joseph couldn’t sleep with Potiphar’s wife because he loved God. His exact words were “how can I do this shameful thing and sin against my God?”. That wasn’t the natural flesh talking, that’s love talking. I know this because the bible clearly tells us that the flesh is an enemy of the Spirit. Joseph would rather spend his lifetime in prison than betray his love for God.

Daniel was unwilling to defile himself with the king’s rich food. How can hunger be staring at a person in the face, yet he was more concerned about pleasing his God?

If the saints of old could live above sin through the power of love, then love is certainly the only way to live above sin in the new testament. Even if we conduct a deliverance session for you, if you don’t develop the love of God that is already in you, you’d keep needing deliverance sessions, because the only way to neutralize the mystery of iniquity is through the mystery of love. And the good part is, at the point of salvation, the love of God was shed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Let’s see how scriptures put it:

Romans 5:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Did you see that? They were without strenght to love God, so God shed love in their hearts. Everything about this kingdom works by love; faith works by love, peace works by love, joy works by love, hope works by love, walking in righteousness works by love.

Although this love for God has been supernaturally shed in our hearts, it’s our responsibility to develop it. It’s why some new believers go back to their vomits after a while; the love was hot when they received Christ, but because they did nothing to develop it, they went back to their old ways. Let me show you a scripture:

Galatians 5:
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulful the lust of the flesh.
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.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Asides the many works of the flesh that were listed, did you notice that drunkenness was also mentioned. So if you went back to drinking, chances are that you’ve been working in the flesh and not the spirit. And like I already mentioned, our spiritual engagements are channeled towards developing our love for God by default. So as you spend time in studying and meditating on God’s word, that love grows. As you spend time fasting and praying based on the revelations of God’s word you know, that love grows. As you spend time fellowshipping with the saints and doing the work of an evangelist, that love grows. The more the love grows, the lesser the urge for sin gets.

You’d notice that anytime you get one fresh revelation, the thought of sin will be far from you, that’s because your emotions at that moment is fixed with God. Imagine if you make it a routine to study, pray, and even fast. Even if you do fall into sin, your conscience will not let you rest, because you’d feel like you’ve betrayed your love for God. You’d want to even punish yourself for it. Only those who love God can punish themselves when they fall into sin. A lover doesn’t consider evil things except he loses guard. I love how 1 Corinthians 13 addressed the subject of love:

1 Corinthians 13:
4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; Love envieth not; Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Did you see that? You can’t be in love and be thinking of evil, neither will you be thinking of yourself. All your heart will be channeled towards pleasing God. And if you do fall into sin, you won’t be happy about it. Indeed, love is the greatest strategy against sin.

Ofcourse God knows that it’s not an easy task to develop this love, that’s why He reserved special blessings for those who love Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him”.

So my dear, seeing that the love doesn’t remain hot forever, you’d have to be more deliberate about your spiritual life. Study your Bible always and make sure you understand what you’re reading. If you don’t understand, buy books written by men of God who have great testimonies and read them. Fast often, and pray always. Attend fellowships, both in church and every other place believers gather. Do the work of an evangelist. The more you do these things, the more your love grows. Love is the fulfilling of the law!

If you don’t want to fulfill the lust of the flesh, then walk in the spirit. You can’t be idle; like they say, the idle hand is the devil’s workshop.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

#EmekaAnslem
#writer
#inspiration
#knowledge
#understanding
#wisdom
#revelation
#trending
#IncreaseWithoutEnd