Two Opposing Plans

Every Christian understands that God has a plan for their lives. The primary objective of His plan is to ensure that we are all living a life that is led by the Holy Spirit. Those of us who are living each day guided by the Spirit of God will see our lives changing.  We will see ourselves moving from what we were like before Jesus, to who we are becoming through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We will see our lives filled with more love and affection for others. We will have more joy and peace whenever we face life’s challenges. We will have a greater forbearance to the worldlyness of others. We will exercise more kindness and goodness in our actions. We will have a faith that is ever increasing as we become more gentle and show greater self-control. These truths are known as the Fruit of the Spirit, found in Galatians 5:22-23.

God’s plan for our lives began to take shape whenever we first committed our hearts to Jesus. The changes within us also began to manifest once we allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to us and to change us from following the ways of the world, to following the ways of God.

But, there is another plan working in our life. It is an ingenious plan that began to take shape during our childhood and is continuing to influence each of us to this very day. It is a diverse plan that was birthed from the heart of Satan. It is also a wide ranging plan that teaches us to embrace the acts of the flesh from a very young age. Some of these acts we may reject outright while others seem to define our nature and speak to who we are in this world.

Paul describes Satan’s objective in Acts 5:19-21, where he says, “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

How many years has the devil’s plan been an active part of our lives before we received the Holy Spirit? How many years have we embraced the acts of the flesh until they became deeply entrenched into our very being? Many of these worldly acts are temptations that we still struggle with each and every day.

Is it any wonder why Paul describes in Romans 7:15-19 what we all experience daily, where he says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing.”

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit continues to convict us each time we sin.

Pray that the Lord will quickly show us the way to avoid falling into these temptations and to show us how to walk boldly in the ways of God.

Satan’s plan has had decades to entrench itself into our psyche before we found Jesus and received the help of the Holy Spirit. However, now when we sin, we feel a strong pang of regret. This is because the Holy Spirit is telling us that we sinned and did something that is counter to God’s will. 

What we must do each and every time we feel those pangs, is to IMMEDIATELY acknowledge our sin and to ask God for His forgiveness. We must then ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the desire to repeat those sins and to live in a manner that is worthy of our Lord Jesus.