BEWARE OF THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN STOP YOU
This
year, 2018, is a very great year. It’s loaded with so many good things, countless
opportunities for empowering information, business and investment ideas, wealth
building, openings for social connections and networking, and several other
benefits. Undoubtedly, there will also be some challenges. But the challenges are
surmountable. In all of these, it is only one
person that can definitely stop you from making this year your very best so
far. Let’s see who this person is and how you can successfully keep him at bay.
The English physician and writer,
Thomas Browne wrote, “There is another man within me, that's angry with me,
rebukes, commands, and dastards me.” Jesus Christ told the
disciples in Matthew, 26:41
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the SPIRIT indeed is
willing, but the FLESH is weak.” The flesh is that other “man.” As that
Scripture indicates, the flesh is “the body
of weakness,” “the non-spirit nature”
in each person. It is the greatest
hindrance we must all overcome.
A number of times, have you seen
yourself do the things you wouldn’t want to do ordinarily? Or have you
sometimes seen yourself do things in excess and you wonder why you allowed that
to happen? The truth is that you allowed your second nature or the body of
weakness to dominate and take charge of affairs in your life. This second nature
or “old man” as it is sometimes called, loves to procrastinate on virtually
everything. It craves for appetites of all kinds, excess food, surplus sleep, uncontrolled
pleasures, and what have you. It is not comfortable with hard work. It resists
self-control or moderation of any kind.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye while speaking
at the Redemption Camp Congress in December 2017, said that, man’s greatest enemy
was himself. In his words, “overcoming yourself is greater than
overcoming a city. The first and biggest victory a man can achieve is victory
over self. A man who can control his anger, temper, emotion, and stay out of
sin generally, is a victorious man already.”
How then can you most effectively overcome
this internal opposition, this body of weakness? First, know that it is your spirit
that is the being that is created in
the likeness of God. Regularly studying
God’s Word and praying energize
“him” (your spirit) to remain in top form; sensitive to God and healthy enough
to daily power you to make right decisions and take right actions.
Second, you also need to have a clear
understanding of the flesh or the second nature; you can’t satisfy its appetite. The more you feed it, the more it
grows and expands into ever-widening desires for excess pleasures. “All the
labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite
is not filled” (Ecclesiastes 6:7).
Third, since uncontrolled appetites
strengthen the “body of weakness” to grow weaker and weaker, self-control
strengthens the spirit to grow stronger and stronger. A spirit that is healthy
regulates moderation in all things.
Fourth, when your spirit is healthy, he
sharpens your thinking, quickens your actions, and multiplies your results.
Therefore, the best way to most effectively put in check your most-tricky enemy
(the flesh) from stopping your breakthroughs and joys in 2018 is to bring it into
subjection to the spirit. Remember, “the
first and biggest victory a man can achieve is victory over self.”
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