Anthony Zarella said on Quora regarding Adam and Eve: "We are told what the fruit was—”knowledge of good and evil”. Specifically, having their own ideas about what is “good” and what is “evil” rather than trusting in God’s wisdom and moral law. That was the Original Sin—and in a way, it’s the only sin. Each and every sin is a human being saying, “God, you say this is bad… but I know better,” just as the Serpent urged Eve to do.” I talked to someone this week and said: We can increase our pleasure as well as our joy if we really live the way Jesus wants us to live. He disagreed. He is sure he knows better than God because that is his experience. If we roll in the mud, then repent, then roll in the mud again, we will lose our joy. If we live an on fire life like Paul from the Bible did, we will gain our joy, increase our pleasure, excitement, and fulfillment. Psalm 16 says: KJ21 “Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Memorize that sentence: “At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Maybe 94% of people here may still believe that their addictions pleasure is better than anything God can give them. If we believe that, we are saying: “God, you say this is bad… but I know better,” just as the Serpent urged Eve to do.” Sin's pleasure is always short-term, it always leads to destruction, and depression in the long term. Secondly, we can increase our joy with a simple war on sin. But how do we experience an increase in pleasure? That can only happen when we have a fire for Christ. When we present our body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before Christ. When we fanatically fill our journal with tips on quitting and then study them every day. When we become determined to let Christ shine through us to start to be the answer to the world's problems.
Thanks for bringing that verse up, it must have gone over my head last time I read it. What are these top 60 verses I hear about on the forum. Where are they listed?
If you can't find the 60 verses for quitting, it is because it was named, "The # 1 way to fight temptation." But here is the link if you want to reference it. https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/the-1-way-to-fight-temptation.323359/
The power of life and death is in the mind and in the tongue. Never say regarding addiction: This is who I am. Instead say: I am committed to Your will oh Lord. #2 Say: I am available for the Holy Spirit's use. He has something great for me to do. Pray: “Father, increase my wisdom for fighting this addiction.” Being converted means that I turn away from my own will to do God’s will. Jesus prayed, “Not My will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:42. The point is that people are to do the will of God here on earth. We have received power to do His will through the Holy Spirit which has come upon us, the same Spirit that was over Jesus in the days of His flesh. Firstly, we make it a habit to go to war with sin and addiction. Secondly, we make it a habit to be refilled with the Holy Spirit every day through Bible-study and prayer. Then, as we are refilled we start to get an idea of what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. My practice is to spend 60 to 80 minutes in prayer each morning to try to get an idea of want God wants. Then, despite the fact that I am absolutely nothing and nobody... I listen to see if God has something for me to do. If He does, I try to do it. None of us will ever be filled with the Spirit like Paul in the Bible. But we can be filled enough to help the messed up hurting people that are everywhere.
Interesting... this is never how I had interpreted the verse, though I could be wrong. My understanding was that knowledge of good and evil was/is an awareness of the law, which tempts us to obey the rules for the wrong reasons, i.e. because we try to justify ourselves (when we are already justified!), and not out of a pure heart. We become aware of our own inability to lead perfect lives, which leads to shame and fear, and with those, irrational behaviours including attempts to fix things ourselves or pleasuring ourselves as a means of comfort in the face of despair. "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." - Romans 3:20 Also, knowledge of the law of good and evil teaches us what evil practices are out there for us to explore, as in Romans 7: "7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 And I was alive once, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life" - Romans 7:7-9 But I agree that we come up with our own ideas about what is right and wrong. Perhaps both of our interpretations of the passage are correct under some broader definition. However you look at it, knowledge of good and evil tempts us to take things into our own hands (coming up with our own ideas and attempting to earn our own justification) and also teaches us concepts we simply cannot comprehend, which just breaks us mentally.
I liked his version of what the fruit was better than what I had been taught. Whether right or wrong it made me think about sin a bit differently, and it was helpful for me.
I wrote that we shouldn't stare at a woman who was not modestly covered, last week. Someone replied and disagreed. I certainly disagreed when I was younger as well. What changed? God freed the Israelites from Egypt's slavery. God wanted them to do exactly what He wanted, then He wanted them to go straight to the promised land. But life was tough in the desert. So some of them gave in to their lust. Here is a quote Paul made about the Israelites: 1 corinthians 10:8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died." Ouch! But what about the Israelites who just committed some borderline staring? What happened to them? They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and then died. If we want to enjoy the borderline things of this world, then we “Want to go back to Egypt.” That way is choosing (even the borderline) pleasures of this world instead of exactly what God wants. Instead, we can start doing what God wants us to do and head for the promised land. Consider praying: “Father, help me to focus on doing things Your way.” God had things for the children of Israel “to do” on their way straight into the promised land. Consider praying: “Father, take away this spirit of lust, and show me what you want me to do.” This week, every time you start to think a lustful thought, stop, and think about how the Israelite's sin caused them to wander in the desert. Then pray about being in God's will. Last, write down things you need “to do,” in order to head in the direction of your promised land. God wants you to have a great life. The rules exist so that we can “know” exactly how to live in order to have a great abundant life.
All good stuff. I do want to add that very often the path out of sexual addiction and other unwanted sexual behaviors is through digging into what caused it to begin in the first place. So recovery may not be a simply matter of just avoidance, i.e., kill lust off and all will be well. There may also be a need to do some hard work of probing into the specifics of your unique brokenness to understand why you began down that road to begin with. I know this was the case for me, and I believe it may be the same for many others who have battled sexual sin chronically. Thanks for your support of this community, @timcia .
So our sin may have different causes. But does it have the same solution? It seems so in the bible. What do you think?
Jesus is always the answer. How we meet him and get to know him is as varied as there are people in the world.
Yea, 100% - Eph. 2:8 "we are saved [freed, healed, & delivered] by grace [the empowerment from the Holy Spirit] through faith [believing what Jesus believed; about Himself, the Father, and His neighbor].
With these conclusions reached. Is it helpful to dig for deep reasons that cause addictions? Like childhood trauma for example. Or should we focus strictly on the solution?
It was crucial for my recovery for me to uncover addiction's root cause in my life. I think most addicts in recovery share that experience. You don't need to do it just to recover from the addiction, but for your overall mental and emotional healing, I do not think it can be avoided.
That makes sense. It must be some unhealthiness that caused you to seek it. So finding that unhealthiness is probably good. For me I think it was just running from a poor life.
Overall I agree with Tao that this is a helpful exercise, but personally I approach it with caution as it can also be triggering. I remember very clearly the images that laid the foundation for my fetish and when I reflect on them I have to ask myself whether my motivation is driven for this reason or if I'm using it as an excuse to engage in lust. One thing I learned about myself in recovery is how good I am at lying to myself! Indeed my relapse before my current streak was partly due to rewatching a TV show that likely contributed to some of my fantasies. There was an element of investigation and it was informative in understanding where things went wrong... but I had to except that I was enjoying the scenes a bit too much.
This is why we do not engage in recovery in isolation. A sponsor and a team of APs will help us stay on track while we engage in the very difficult work of digging through the past. It can absolutely be triggering.
We are always fighting 2 battles. One with our flesh, and the other with satan. Pastor Jack Hayford said, “You can't cast out the flesh, and you can't disciple a demon.” First, how do most demonic battles look? They are often a demon whispering to us, “Look at that, that is spectacular. That is what you want, what you have to have.” The Bible is clear, some people are demon-possessed. But, in addition to that, many people are oppressed to a lesser or greater degree. Second, if we treat demonic warfare the same as our warfare with the flesh we will get into trouble. The Bible says: Matthew 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” The key word in this passage is “empty.” The person in this example repented but then did not start to do God's will. Did not start to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Third, whether you have a demon, or are harassed by one, you can get it out. They hate the verses for quitting. I will never forget the day I printed those verses out. I printed them and decided to attack back when tempted. When tempted I was going to get those verses out and start studying. I was shocked by how my temptations changed. Sure... I wanted to look, but now I was not being driven toward my habit. I was not enslaved like I had been. It was now a fair fight. A fight I wanted to win. Fourth, when I say we must “Pound things (darkness) out,” I am referring to demonic harassment. They won't leave you alone until you pound them in a way they hate. Fifth, demons of lust hate verses about lust. Demons of drinking hate verses about drinking. Demons of covetousness, hate verses about covetousness. They are smart, they know you are submitting to God by quoting these (Very hard) verses. They know you are learning about them, learning about the destruction, learning about their darkness. Learning how to break the very chains they put on you. Finally, most importantly, seek your purpose fervently. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit fervently. That way... When they check on you they say, “Not much room here for me. This house is full. I am not going to check on them as often in the future.” After that, it is a fair fight.
