Overcoming Your Pet Sins

Many of us have pets—an animal to keep, feed, and care for. We can become so close to our pets that we consider them family members. They provide companionship and comfort when we are hurt, depressed, or suffering from anxiety. Pets are always there when we need them, and they never fail to give us that dose of “feel good” when we seem to need it most.

Many Christians have the same mindset toward particular sins and they keep those sins as pets. Familiar habits or old crisis mechanisms that give them relief, comfort, and satisfaction when their flesh screams at the top of its lungs to “FEED ME!” 

A pet sin is the one we run to when we are tired or feeling weak. The sin we defend, protect, and get angry over when we are confronted about it.  A sin that torments us at our most vulnerable point and yet the one we can’t seem to get free from. A sin that we quickly yield to, even though we know we shouldn’t. A pet that we make provision for and feed in secret. We run to it for instant gratification and then feel guilty immediately after we yield to it.

It is a dangerous deception to our souls and one that can hinder our spiritual growth and progress. It can destroy our confidence, compromise our witness, keep us from realizing our full potential, and disqualify us from God’s abiding presence.

The most significant battles are always the internal ones, the struggles we fight when no one else is around. Even with help and accountability, we must take up the sword of the Spirit for ourselves and conquer the things that torment us in our souls.

Before King David killed Goliath in front of two nations, he won victories over a lion and a bear when no one else was around. Getting victory over a lion and a bear is much like overcoming a pet sin. Sometimes, it can seem as difficult as fighting a bear or a lion. The successes we have in private prepare us for the type of public victories that will turn the hearts of men and change nations.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Suppose we are battling to keep the flesh under control, struggling to deny it from dominating our lives. In that case, it is likely, that we have not given ourselves entirely to walking in the Spirit. We must be honest with ourselves and ask, “Am I feeding the flesh more than I am feeding the Spirit?”

We must be honest with ourselves and be willing to make the changes necessary to get victory one very area of our lives. Walking in the Spirit has two distinct characteristics and can be easily measured in our lives. Obtaining freedom from tormenting sin must start with this simple, two-part assessment.

1. Am I walking faithfully in what I have learned from God’s written word?

Obedience to what we learn from the Lord is the foundation of walking in the Spirit and gives us the spiritual ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying in our hearts. If we do not start with this first step, our hearts can become hardened, and our consciences will become seared, our spiritual ears and eyes will be dulled and darkened.

This prevents us from embracing the second step of walking in the Spirit, which is hearing God’s spoken word and being led by the Spirit.

     2. Am I walking faithfully in what I am hearing and perceiving, from God’s spoken word?

Being watchful and attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit is the second step. Learning to live by the unction of the Holy Spirit, the leading of peace, and being sensitive to the still small voice inside us, are all things we must develop as we mature. However, it is challenging to be led by the Spirit if we are not committed to obeying the written word.

God is always speaking to us in some way. Without our commitment to discover and obey what God has already said in His written word, we won’t have our ears tuned to hear what He speaks by the Spirit. Neither will we have spiritual eyes to see and discern when He is leading us by the Spirit. It starts with our intimate relationship with the Lord through His written word.

Being a disciple is to live a life governed by the written word, as well as the spoken word. Only then do we become a healthy expression of the living word, Jesus Christ.

James 1:21-25 (NKJV) Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which can save your souls. ²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

If we are not committed to doing what we have learned from God’s written and spoken word, we quickly become self-deceived. We forget who we are and why we are here. Our identity comes into question, and we lose the ability to discern the truth.

Self-deception then becomes our reality. We begin to live a lie, believing we are disciples of Christ while refusing to follow Him. We are no longer walking in the Spirit, so we continue to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We hang on to parts of our old nature and shackle ourselves to the enemy’s deception. We get stuck in a cycle of sin and make it our pet.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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Am I Submitted to God?

We would all like to believe that we are entirely submitted to God, but submission is only revealed when there is a conflict of free will. We never know if we are submitted until we disagree with God. Even if we agree, it can still be challenging to follow orders. Jesus shows us exactly what that looks like.

Luke 22:41-44 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” ⁴³ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴ And being in agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

There is so much wisdom and instruction to glean from this passage of scripture. Jesus knew His calling. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy. After He declared, “not my will, but yours be done,” an angel appeared to strengthen Him. Even then, He was in great agony and had to pray more earnestly to settle this in His heart.

How intense was this prayer? What kind of conflict was going on in His soul that caused Him to sweat blood? How hard was it to see and know the terrible torture and death He must endure and still obey the Father? He could not do this on His own. Without humility and intimacy with the Father, even Jesus would not have been able to endure it. We must follow His example.

Prayer is vitally important in spiritual warfare, but praying a lot does not make us “prayer warriors.” Humble submission to the will of the Father and Spirit-empowered prayer does.

1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV) For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Notice it says, “we” have the mind of Christ, not “you” or “I.” Understand this about the mind of Christ; “I can do nothing of myself” does not just mean that I can do nothing without the Father. It also means that I can do nothing without relationships with my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. I will need others to help me accomplish all God has planned and wage the good warfare.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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Face-to-Face with God

James 4:4 (NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Friendship with the world is spiritual adultery! Let that sink in.

Mark 8:38  (NKJV) For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

From the strong language in the above passages, we see the mandate of God to separate from the world and die to our carnal nature with its selfish desires. We should never candy-coat this. We must wake up daily and present ourselves before the Lord, laying our lives on the alter.

If we buy a house and pay for it in full, but the previous owner refuses to move out, we have a breach of contract, a violation of the covenant. We are His house. We are God’s temple. He will not fully move into His temple until the carnal man dies and is removed from the premises. He will not share space with anything unholy. God is very particular about where He abides. We can see this clearly from the Old Testament Temples and the tent of meeting.

However, God is gracious. He is patient and kind. He gives us time to move out, time to die to ourselves, and time to grow spiritually. He has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and His word to help us remove everything in His temple that is not pleasing to Him. Thanks be to God!

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God’s.

Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

          We find a valuable truth in Exodus that will help us fight to keep the old man crucified.

In Exodus 33:18, Moses said to God, “please show me your glory.” This was God’s response:

Exodus 33:20 (NKJV) But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 

Intimacy with God and exposure to His word is our carnal man’s face-to-face encounter with the Lord, and no man can see God’s face and live. Approaching God and His word daily with an unveiled face crucifies the old man while at the same time transforming us into His image from one degree of glory to the next.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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