THE GREATEST ENEMY II

"Overcoming any battle in life in order to stand out entails overcoming yourself because your biggest and greatest enemy is you."

SELF is a person’s inner being. It is what you really are. Until you overcome your inner being, until you learn to confront your internal critic, you will find it very hard to overcome temptations. For you to overcome temptations, you must learn to resist the devil, for the Bible calls him ‘the tempter’, and for you to resist the devil, you must first of all learn to resist yourself, simply by overcoming the Self factor. Now the question is, “How do I overcome myself?”

Overcoming one’s self
This is synonymous with Self control. You must learn to rule your own spirit. Proverbs 25:28 says “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.” And in correlation with my earlier statement, having self control sometimes come with resisting the devil. And that’s why 1Cor 7:5 says, “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourself to fasting and prayer, and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your inconsistency.” This explains that one good way to overcome yourself is by resisting the devil, by prayer and fasting '...that satan tempt you not'.

Humans are tempted every now and then. Even Jesus Christ was tempted too. Of course, it is not a sin to be tempted. But how you handle the temptation is what matters.

Resisting temptations is one problem most humans face. To resist temptations, you must learn to Resist the devil. The devil is very deceptive in nature. But when the WORD is dwelling in you, not just affecting you, but infecting you, the devil will have no chances of getting at you

A reprobate minded person easily consents to temptations. But someone whose foundation is built upon the Word of God will be guided accordingly. Take a look at Joseph during his life time. He refused the advances made by Pharoah's wife. That led him to the prison, then to the palace (a place he probably never thought of entering in his life), and finally to become the Prime minister of Egypt (an height he probably never dreamt of attaining). This therefore brings about the realization of a statement usually made by one of my mentors, "Every negative action of the devil, always leads to a positive tranformation for a true believer."

Therefore, one must resist the devil and everything associated with him in order to overcome temptations, and the only way to resist the devil is by overcoming one's self, which is through Self control, which can also be catalysed by praying and fasting.