God has charged me with the mission to walk alongside other women and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as we move to higher ground.  It’s no secret that life is filled with valleys and deserts.  For some reason, my Lord has seen fit to use me in the lives of others, gently guiding them through the desert and out of the valley.  I call it my God Job. This is a passion that God has woven into my very being, a passion I can not shake.

Recently, I’ve been working with a lady who was shackled in a life-dominating sin.  One of those sins that was a recurring pattern in her life.  She had come to the point that battling it on her own was not an option anymore.  She wanted to be free from it and knew that God was calling her to find accountability and to turn, once and for all, from the flesh that so easily entangled her.  She didn’t know what else to do, she was a slave to sin.

When dealing with these types of issues you first, of course, teach repentance and discover practical ways to avoid/turn from the sin.  But this really isn’t enough to truly overcome.  Life dominating patterns are really a symptom of a deeper heart issue.  One that results from a failure to walk close with the Lord in faith, obeying the principles of His word and being led by the Holy Spirit.  Those of us that get stuck in these life dominating sins have failed to make GOD the first and most dominating priority in our life.  We have sought God to bring about happiness and to make life work but it has not been an “all-in”, “all-encompassing” following of Christ.  We fail to see God as NEAR.  NEAR ENOUGH to see, NEAR ENOUGH to hear, NEAR ENOUGH to care, NEAR ENOUGH to make us think twice about our choices.

We think godliness and righteousness just happens because we believe Jesus for our salvation.  But I’m her to tell you that the time between trusting Jesus for Eternal Life and the time we go to that place He is preparing for us, is riddled with hard work and purposeful living.  Sin doesn’t disappear, in fact sometimes it becomes more daunting, but your tenacity and dedication to Christ can and will overcome all things.  You have to train as to run the race, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”  Hebrews 12:1

Here is your training plan that will strengthen your spirit and create a place for the
Holy Spirit to dominate!

1. Be a slave to righteousness
   • I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. Romans 6:19
   • Begin to find pleasure in pleasing God and living righteously.
2. Don’t think about the sin anymore
   • But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14
   • For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8
   • You are in charge of your mind, bring it into submission and don’t let your flesh rule!
3. Train yourself
   •  Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness        1 Timothy 4:7
   • Be in the word every day, morning, noon and night.
   • Go to Church
   • Be near godly people who will hold you accountable
   • MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE
4. Focus on what you are going to PUT ON
   • Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰ But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹ assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²² to put off your old self,^[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, Ephesians 4:17-22
   • But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14
   • …forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13b-14
   • Make a list of what you are going to PUT OFF and what you must PUT ON
5. Set your mind
   • Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Phil 4:8
   • You choose what your mind will think about.  If you think about the things in Phil 4:8 your mind will be set on the things that bring freedom.

My dear friends this works….every time.

Proverbs 4:23 says Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.  

The gospels tell us “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Mathew6:21, Luke12:34

Where is your mind? What do you need to be put on?  Where is your treasure?  Have you guarded your heart?  What are you Putting on? Concentrate on what needs to be PUT ON not on what sin you need to overcome.

Happy  Training!