I wanted to share some Victory Verses.

What the world calls addictions the bible calls sin.  If we are saved, God will change our desires, direction, and destiny.

Salvation is not turning over a new leaf.

It is becoming a new creature.

And for the most part, a life long battle as a Christian is believing God when he says we are a new creature and learning to ignore the devil’s lies and the lies of our past that says you are the same person you always were.  Feelings can lie but God’s word becomes real when we act on it.

Here are some verses that have encouraged me.

Proverbs 4:26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Application — you must count the cost of giving into the pleasures of sin for a season if you want to see victory.  Victory pleases the Lord.  God loves you lost or saved.  But lost you will end up in hell.  God loves the saved child of God whether they are in victory or defeat.  But those in defeat are going to be miserable, chastened by the Lord until they wake up and learn from their sins, and the devil will hound them and want them to quit.  The bible says the righteous are as bold a as a lion.  When we start getting a taste of victory and see it is NOT US we will be excited to face life.

Actually see that you don’t have to give into desires that are forbidden or destructive, and start to recognize that these are lies of the flesh and devil and they will simply go away anyway if we call on someone and call on the Lord or flee the scene or quote scripture or grab our journal and read about past victories to remind us who we are.

Grasp in your mind how giving in now will make you miserable later. and see also where going in a certain direction will lead you, toward life or death.

Romans 13:14 says But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

I look at that verse in the context of the putting off of the old man (for me it is the Old Mike who lived for himself and couldn’t say no to the wicked desires of his flesh — and practically it is living by feelings during the trials and winter seasons of life)  and putting on the new man, which is a type of surrendering to the Lord.  It is going from natural to spiritual and trusting God’s word and promises over the feelings that only FEEL true (until you give in and wake up to how tricked you just were).

It is walking in the spirit, which can mean reading the bible long enough until you feel full spiritually.  The bible says be not drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit.   When you are drunk with wine you say things that aren’t natural, you go to places that aren’t natural, and you do things that you wouldn’t consider sober.  Likewise when you surrender to Jesus, saying, not my will but yours, and trust God you will do things you wouldn’t normally want to do, such as church three times a week or week long revival meetings or witnessing to the Lord from a street corner, to giving hundreds of dollars to the church during a weekly offering.  And having a better attitude about giving then before when  you would put in a dollar bill!

It is turning from sin to the Lord and not making preparation for sin to take hold.  When you get tempted, and lust conceives and takes hold of us , sin will be birthed and that will bringeth forth death.  Your calling may seem to die, your desire to witness about what Jesus did for you will die, your desires for  your wife may die, your marriage may die, your desires for church may die, and in many cases, sin may lead to your actual death.

One young husband in my recovery group had a problem with alcohol.  He lived in a trailer and one morning when drinking tripped, fell backwards and landed on the trailer hitch.  He ended up in a coma and died several weeks later.  He had 2 young boys and a young wife and they just moved up from their home in North Carolina.  Sin will destroy you.

But Christianity isn’t this white knuckling way to live like those in AA experience.  It is not whining about the good old days when you could drink to the hilt.  It is a new life and it is finding real life.  It is finding the living water that satisfies.  Everything you have ever tried and everything you ever did when stressed or angry or rejected or confused or bored is an unfulfilling attempt to find satisfaction.  Only Jesus will quench that thirst and meet that need.

James 4:7 says Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

This is not a passive, woe is me response.  RESIST that wicked devil.  See his way will destroy you, destroyed those before you, and had destroyed you without God’s intervention.

Proverbs 6:26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress will hunt for the precious life.

The devil is a liar.  Any sin will destroy.  When it comes to pornography, homosexuality, masturbation, fornication, or adultery, they will leave one hunting for the precious life  that only obedience to God and respect to his boundaries would produce.  Any sex outside of marriage is like pouring gasoline on the fires. it will not satisfy and we will be ever wanting and never satisfied.

I tried to just pick one verse from my favorite chapter but am going to share this entire chapter.

All of Romans 6 is awesome.  I recommend reading this chapter over and over until things click in your mind and are alive in your heart.

Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ponder the path of your feet.  Which way are you going?  Toward God or toward sin?

By the grace of Jesus turn around today if your direction is not one headed toward life.