Eleven Things To Stop Sinning

​Love you all, praying for you. 
 
Sin sucks.  Don’t be naïve.  Learn to hate sin like God hates it.  It will ruin your life, it will affect your relationships, it will destroy your ministry, and ruin your testimony, it will try to steal your destiny.  It’s not worth it – ever.  Not even a little.  What is temptation?  An invitation to something less than God’s best.  To do something He didn’t tell you to do, or something He told you not to.  Sin becomes a habit, if you give in once, its easier the next time, and the third and fourth are guaranteed.  Sin is like a staircase.  A stairway to hell.  The devil wants sin to become your habit.  It doesn’t matter what it is, fear or fret, doubt or unbelief, grumbling and complaining, anger, lust, slander or accusation – a critical spirit, greed, alcohol, over-eating even grief can become sin, it’s certainly less than God’s best.  Some people even blame God for bad things that happen, when their own choices got them where they are, or just things that are common to man.  Sin is habit forming, the devil uses temptation to lure you into it, and he doesn’t care what stair you’re on, as long as you’re on the stairs…  he knows he’s got you.  With sin comes guilt, and shame, and consequence.  Temptation happens to everyone.  The wise avoid it.  So what are Eleven Things To Stop Sinning?  Before we even start… Repent – stop the bleeding.  If you’ve been caught on that staircase… repent – think differently about that sin you’ve fallen into.  No, it’s not OK, it grieves God, it quenches the Holy Spirit, it curses you, it keeps you from your destiny, it blocks God’s good, and will lead to destruction.  So before we learn about prevention, start with a clean slate.  If you ask God to forgive you, He surely will, no matter how bad the sin, or how many times you’ve fallen.  I John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!  God wants you on a different staircase altogether.  The stairway to heaven - where you walk in victory after victory!  Also just as habit-forming.  The more you overcome the easier it gets, and the devil will flee, and try to come back another time…  but you’ll just be stronger by then!  If you repent, God forgives you!  So now, how do you prepare for the next time temptation comes?  So you are on the right staircase?  What are Eleven Things to Stop Sinning? 
 
#1 Turn  – When faced with sin – turn instantly.  Reject it!  Make it a habit.  The fear of the LORD is to turn from evil.  If you knew the cost of this sin, you wouldn’t do it, you wouldn’t even consider, it’s not worth it - ever.  Turn the channel, hang up the phone, look away, don’t participate, stop engaging, change the subject. Your first response to any opportunity to sin – is to turn immediately! This is the fear of the LORD.  If you play with fire, you will get burned.  If you turn from it, you get stronger very time. 
 
#2 Run – Like Joseph.  Some temptations linger and hover, others get right in your face, and grab your arm.  Run, leave your coat behind if you have to.  Don’t wait around, move your feet, change location, right now – your life depends on it.  Your fellowship and relationship with God depends on it.  If you are in a place you shouldn’t be, or are faced with temptation here, Run, move, change locations – right now!  Don’t wait!  Don’t delay.  He who hesitates is lost.   
 
#3 Choose Grace -  You choose it by rejecting the temptation with your mouth, and declaring that you choose His Grace to overcome this temptation.  His grace is there for you – but you have to choose it.  You get it - if you choose it.  Reject with your words what displeases God.  Call it out, and say out loud.  “Nice try, I’m not going to do it, I’m not falling for it, I’m not taking the bait, I choose Grace!  Declare what you are going to do.  I’m choosing Grace!  I’m choosing the way out that God promised – and I’m walking out the door right now!   Declare out loud. “I can always sin tomorrow, but not today.”  I can always quit tomorrow, but not today.  Then Thank Him for the Grace to say no to anything less than His best for you!  Your words are important they will justify you or condemn you.  Use them strategically, wisely and continually for your victory.   And as soon as you do – PRAISE HIM like you just won the lottery.  You did!  You won something far better than the lottery.  You won a battle with the enemy of your soul, you avoided the path that leads to destruction.  If you get stuck on that path, the lottery won’t help you.  The next time you are faced with an invitation to less than God’s best – reject sin, and choose grace.  I can always sin tomorrow, but not today, His grace is enough for me!  I choose it!  Then give a testimony of your victory – call someone and tell them what God just did – and the victory He just gave you!  You overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of your testimony.  Celebrate every victory over sin, no matter how small.  It’s a big deal!   
 
#4 Praise – Instead of caving in to temptation or sin, Praise God instead.  If you’re praising, you’re not sinning.  Praise Him for who He is – infinitely more powerful than sin.  Praise Him for what He does.  Protects you and warns you for your own good – so He can bless you.  Praise Him for what He gives.  Discernment – so you can see deception for what it is - before it consumes you.  Praise Him for Grace to say no to ungodliness and choose life instead.  He promised!  It works!  Praise Him for the Way Out – that he gave you, that He promises every time you are offered an invitation to compromise in any area of life.  I Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can stand up under it.  He gives you a way out – so you can conquer temptation, instead of being ruined by it.  Praise Him for His goodness, and blessing, and promises, for the victory that you have in Christ Jesus.  When you praise, God inhabits it, the devil flees, you get stronger.  When God inhabits your praise, He is light, so light comes with Him, and darkness has to flee.  Praise will help you stop sinning.
 
#5  Call a Friend to pray for you.  If you are battling against temptation, or sense it could be coming.  Call a friend to pray for you. Humble yourself.  God said – Confess your sins one to another and pray for each other that you may be healed.  You don’t have to wait until you fall.  Call a friend first, an obeyer who can pray for you (the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective ) so you choose the Grace that God has for you – and walk in the victory He has in store for those who obey him!  Prayer is powerful.  Jesus said to Peter, I’m praying for you that your faith may not fail.
 
#6  Pray – for yourself.  Pray in the Spirit – It will be the exact prayer you need, the will of your Father in Heaven for you even though your mind doesn’t understand it.  God does.  The Holy Spirit is praying His will on your behalf.  And Pray in the understanding.  Ask God to help you choose His Grace to say no – to anything less than what He has for you.  Pray His Word over you.  You can read His Word, and Declare His Word – what He said, and that it is exactly what you will do.  Commit yourself with your mouth!  Then Pray that Word over you.  Ask God to help you to do it.  He answers prayer – He will help you if you go to Him.  Declare that He is your refuge and strength, a present help in time of trouble.  If you are under being tempted, this is a time of trouble.  You need God, and if you ask Him He will help you, He will save you – He will give you victory right now – every time.   
 
#7 Obey – Get busy doing what He called you to do in this hour.  This is not it.  Move your feet, and get back on track.  If you reject temptation – by God’s Grace, don’t just stand there looking at it, it will bite you again.  Get moving!  Do what He told you to do right now, in this hour, and you will leave temptation behind.  Go back to PiVAT for today and get busy!  Go back to what He told you to do today, in this hour.  
 
#8 Overdose on God’s Word – When people are iron deficient, they can go to the doctor for an iron infusion – that increases their iron levels.  You need to do that with God’s Word.  Read His Word, Do PRISM again for today!  Read through PRISM and RELATIONSHIP Topics & Packets – the power of God’s Word on a subject. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. 
 
#9  Fast - Cut off every influence that is a breeding ground for temptation and sin.  Don’t go there!  Fast those things, activities, conversations, social media, music, movies, or people – relationships that lead you to sin, not obedience.  Whatever draws you away from God - Cut It Off.  And then fast as the Word of God instructs.  Fast... food.  If you won’t even eat food – the most basic physical pleasure, you are less likely to succumb to temptation.  It loses it’s affect. I Peter 4:1 – Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.  As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God… Fasting can break things off of you, and focus you on the things of the Spirit, not the things of the flesh.
 
 
#10  Change Your Diet - It’s how you prepare for next time. You need to stop feeding your flesh more than you feed your spirit.  Certain things are not for you – if the guys at work are going to Hooters, that’s not for you, you just hit Wendy’s drive thru instead.  You need to only feed your spirit, not the flesh.  Rather than binge watch Netflix – being inundated with worldly thoughts and actions, binge watch the Word.  Establish PRISM times in His Word.  How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word.  Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.  Increase your daily dose of God’s Word.  Do it regularly.  God knows the temptations you will face, and He will give you his Word just in time to overcome every single one of them.   Speak your PRISM out loud!  Increase your daily dosage of God’s Word, and Praise, and declaring what He said, that you will do!  Change Your Diet – feed your spirit more than you feed your flesh. 
 
#11  Overcome Daily – God said to exhort one other daily – so none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  Deceit is dangerous.  If you knew you were being deceived, it wouldn’t be deception.  Sin is deceiving, and is always momentum.  It’s like that staircase, you are either going down or going up.  Every time you entertain a perverse thought (not a perverted thought, a perverse thought – considering any other option than complete and instant obedience) the perverse heart and tongue God despises… if you entertain perverse thoughts, entertaining sin… you are already on the staircase downward.  The devil doesn’t care if you fall of the cliff of sin, as long as he has you on the stairs. Getting a little closer to the cliff – where you soon fall past the point of no return.  Gravity isn’t the problem, it’s getting too close to the edge.  God said exhort one other Daily.  Get a Daily Call – overcome with your testimony, be encouraged by theirs.  It’s God’s built in protection to avoid sin completely.     
 
Eleven Things To Stop Sinning.  First start with a clean slate, Repent - think differently about the sin you’ve been caught in.  Then... Turn, Run, Choose Grace, Praise, Call A Friend, Pray – in the Spirit, and in the understanding, Obey what God told you to do, Overdose on God’s Word, Fast, Change Your Diet, and Overcome Daily.  Praying that you are always on that staircase to victory! 
 
Love you all,
dad