Lesson 20 Warring Against Our Flesh - Pray!
Questions 1 and 2
Praying for Freedom
ASK GOD
When I was initially in counseling with my pastor, I remember asking him, “How do I stop getting drunk and smoking, and so many other sins on my layovers when I travel out of town?”
Do you know what he said? “Ask God about it.”
At the time, I thought, “What? No, really, how do I stop?”
And yet, I realize now that his statement to me contained the seed of true freedom. All the freedom from habitual sin in my life has come directly in answer to earnest prayer. I would pray and then God would provide a solution to me that, when implemented, released me from the prison and set me free.
I could offer you a list of things I’ve done to be free (as I have earlier in the course), and it will be of some help, but God may be calling you to do something different. We all need “the wisdom from above” (not from below), which is “first of all pure…” (James 3:17), and we only get this by going to God for it and seeing it in His Word.
If we were to merely increase accountability or “get a sponsor”, we might leave an opening in our armor somewhere else, and that small opening will be exploited over and over until we learn, like King Jehoshaphat that we studied in lesson 5, to go to God and get a plan for victory from Him.
Question 1. How is your battle plan going? Does it need adjusting, or is it bearing the fruit of freedom in your life?
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SEEKING GOD IN PRAYER
If you developed your battle plan with God and implemented it, then, by now, you should be experiencing victory over substance abuse. If you are still stumbling and falling a lot then it needs adjusting. Change it, patch the holes, lock the door! Think of ways to close any access you’ve given to the evil one; for this much we know, if we give the devil an inch, he will take a mile. If we leave the door open even a crack, he will drive a Mack truck through it. But we aren't ignorant of his ways, so let's thwart His efforts by seeking the Lord and following His plan for our freedom.
Please remember that the Lord’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). He might tell us to do things that seem impractical, illogical, or unreasonable. Our natural inclination will be to balk at this prompting from the Holy Spirit.
Because of this tendency we all have to lean to our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) rather than submit to God’s Word, I will take the next few lessons to share with you how I learned to pray for freedom.
Right away, I will say that if you do not earnestly seek the Lord for freedom from substance abuse, you will not receive it. You cannot work your way to freedom through self-effort or logic. Freedom comes through following the Lord as He gives us the plan to win. And we only receive the plan as we seek God in prayer.
Question 2. Have you been praying earnestly for Jesus to set you free? Please share your thoughts.
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A TESTIMONY OF PRAYER
Andy writes, “Yes, I came to the place where I could smell death all around me. Everywhere I turned I could sense destruction. I cried out to the Lord in desperation and said if you don't help me I can't make it. The Lord brought a friend into my life that had just been through Setting Captives Free, I finally enrolled and the Lord graciously set me free."