Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:40-41.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
I have redeemed you from the curse of the law in Jesus and raised you up with Him to seat you at My right hand with and in Him. However, that is in the spirit, but, even though you are no longer of the world, you are still in the world and the world is still under the leasehold of Adam so even though you are sealed by the Holy Spirit as a pledge of what is to come, you still have the flesh to contend with. And Jesus prayed to Me about this on your behalf:
I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. John 17:15-17.
And how do you contend with the flesh? By prevailing in prayer with the blood of Jesus and the Word of your testimony, that is, by the truth. For even though you live in the flesh you do not walk according to the flesh (its whims, lusts, emotional outbursts, and selfish desires) but according to the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4.
You are no longer apart from My Covenant as an unbeliever. You have come into Covenant with Me in Jesus. You are an heir of Salvation and the angels were made to serve you. You are called now as ambassadors of My eternal glory and Kingdom, joint heirs with Christ, with My Holy Spirit in you forever. You are filled with resurrection power. Remind yourself that as My special treasure and royal priesthood you are pursuing the outcome I want in any situation, getting My Will done on earth as it is in Heaven. YOU ARE WORKING WITH ME TO MOVE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE OBSTACLES TO MY WILL BEING DONE AND PULLING DOWN THE STRONGHOLDS THAT THE DEVIL HAS ERECTED IN VARIOUS PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS.
I want to repeat once again what prevailing prayer is, it is using your faith with Mine to obtain a miraculous result to which there is opposition from the world, the flesh, and the devil. It could be a hindrance that you find in yourself or another that is limiting the greatness of what I desire as the outcome in various situations.
And today I want to talk with you about keeping your flesh under and your spirit on top, because as you know so well, your flesh will try to run your life, but if you let it do so, it will kill you.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21.
What is the answer? Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. The Law was given to curtail the flesh, and people who are giving free reign to their flesh need law to curtain them from stealing, killing, and destroying, sound familiar? The devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy and those who act in that manner have been taken captive to do his will, which is lawlessness. But those walking in the spirit need no curtailment for you know the fruit the Spirit produces with your spirit in you: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24.
How do you not succumb to the temptations to your flesh? Be filled with the Spirit, if you stay filled with the Holy Spirit you will not give in to your flesh.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:25-26.
To be full of My Spirit you must be full of My Word and when you sing My Word as in the Psalms and Praises the glory will come to fill your space, place, and inner man.
We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:19-21.
Jesus gave you counsel about temptations and tests. Both in the priestly prayer of the “Our Father” and the night of prevailing prayer over His flesh in the Garden of Gethsemane, He explicitly tells you to pray that you not be put to the test, that you not be led into temptation, and that I deliver you from the evil one. And in the Garden He revealed the reason you need to watch over yourself in avoiding these things: i.e., your spirit is eternal willing but your flesh is still mortal and weak. Guard your heart with all diligence for from it flow the issues of life. Guard your spirit from being dominated by the flesh. The devil moved Adam and Eve out of My Words of Spirit and life into the words of the flesh realm of self-glory by separation from Me and gratification apart from the Spirit. He pulled them into testing My Word to see if they could prevail over their source.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3.
This is the realm into which Adam placed you by the flaw he caused in himself by removing the eternal Word of truth and replacing it with a perishable lie. But how did that change? By My grace, which comes to you in Jesus Christ. The law was given to Moses to curtail the flesh so that men might walk in righteousness, peace, and joy by filling their minds and hearts with My Word and obeying My Word and those, like Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Hannah, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and many others got so full of My Word they walked in oneness with Me even before Jesus came in the flesh. And they had Covenant with Me—My Words in their mouths and My Spirit on them. However, their hearts were not created anew as yet and the Spirit could not be in them until Jesus set your spirits free in bringing you back to Me and birthing you again from above by the imperishable seed of My Word believed, received, and grown by keeping and doing of it. It separates you from those who walk according to the flesh.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10.
But I am asking you to be innocent as doves, but as clever as that serpent of old. Do not be unaware of his tactics, for he tried to make Jesus fall in the same way he had Adam and Eve so he could keep the throne of the son of man that Adam had abdicated to him, but Jesus crushed his head by the truth of His Word, slayed him with the Words of His mouth, the double edged Sword of the Spirit, and put him under His feet. Jesus knocked the devil off Adam’s throne and took it back for you. I raised you in Him and seated you back in your authority in Him. Your position of authority is now only in Jesus. And who is Jesus? My Word and He only spoke My Words for in them is eternal life and that life is in Him.
You drive out Satan only one way, with My Words of truth that contradict whatever accusation, symptom, disaster, or threat he has leveled against you. But temptations are far more subtle when they have to do with your emotions, your selfish desires, and offense at the things he incites in others to do against you. He is trying to make you lose self-control even though you have it already in the fruit of the Spirit that you produce when you stay attached to My Son as a branch in the vine if you remain in My Word.
Jesus told you to pray that you not be put to the test and that you not fall into temptation. Since He told you to pray that you know it is My Will to keep you out of the evil that is so prevalent today on the earth and is packaged in terms that mimic Mine but are counterfeits that lead not to life, but to death. So pray that with confidence to avoid all the pitfalls and ditches on the road of the world and stay up higher on the Highway of holiness.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5:13-15.
The answer to keep away from testing and temptation is to tread on it by keeping your mouth and your heart filled with My Word and constantly making melody unto Me in your heart. Jesus told His disciples they were clean by the Word He had spoken to them and you have a book full of My Words to keep in your heart and mouth and to do them all day and all night. My Words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. I send My Word to heal you and to DELIVER you from destruction. Take Me seriously in this.
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:13-21.
It is all about My Word in you and you in My Word and that is your answer to staying out of temptation, when you are full and satisfied you are not tempted to take in anything more than what you have already in Me. When you know you have the best, your spirit, soul, and body are at rest. Come share My joy.
I love you. You can rest in Me. Love never fails. In Me you are more than a conqueror.