Genesis 4:6 "Why are you so angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, IT desires to have you, but you must master IT."
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a great title. I've never seen the movie, but it describes perfectly to me what is going on with Satan and the destructive forces in my life. You see, I don't believe that Satan can get into the head of the believer, in the literal sense. When sealed with the Spirit, Satan is locked out. He is not omnipresent and He is not omniscient. But he can get in my head in other ways, and that is by watching me, like a "hidden dragon" and seeing what sins are "crouching tigers" by my door. What am I attracted to, what do I talk about, what do I complain about, what is consuming my thoughts - Satan watches these "tigers" and feeds them when I reveal them to him.
Psalm 73:15 says that "If I will speak thus I would have betrayed Your children," with the implication that if we vent our critical and doubtful feelings, those around us suffer. But I also use this verse to remind myself that if I am constantly revealing my inner struggles to the world (and to myself) then Satan will feed them. And they will grow.
Because there is a very simple principle in life: What is fed is what will grow.
I'm not saying that we should just stuff everything down inside of us until our insides rot, I'm saying that we have to quit playing with the things that are killing us because this is feeding them. Thinking about these things, complaining about them, meditating on them is feeding them. We feed our lusts by our thoughts. We feed our bitterness by our simmering angers. We feed our critical spirit, our cynicism, our discontent, our laziness, our apathy, our competitive nature . . . we feed them and they grow and then we wonder why we have no victory.
In conclusion to this brief series on defeating the IT in our lives, I've come to the realization that eradication of the IT is not going to happen, at least in most cases. We live with the lingering residue of our sinful nature until the day we die. Galatians 5: 16 says that we are to "live by the Spirit and we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." It does not say that we won't have these desires, just that they won't be fed to the point of devastating fulfillment.
Again - what we feed is what will grow. The Ishmaels (fruit of our flesh) must be sent to the desert, as Abraham reluctantly did in Genesis 21, and left to die. The Isaacs (fruit of the Spirit) must be fed and nurtured so they will grow up within us and in our homes.
There is no other solution. We know what the ITs are in our life and we simply have to stop feeding them. If you have a problem with lust, gouge out your eye! Get off the internet sites that feed it. Stop watching the movies that nurture it. Stop thinking the thoughts in your head that bring it life.
Stop giving the "hidden dragon" the food to feed the "crouching tigers"!!!
This is true for every IT in your life. We are without excuse. God has given us everything we need for a life of godliness in this world. (II Peter 1:3,4) If we're looking for a six step solution, we're just being lazy and avoiding the truth. Nothing more is coming. We have His Holy Spirit. We have His Word. We have the example of Christ and all of His riches. We have Christ within us!
Read John 6. Christ is telling us to feed on Him, to devour His flesh and blood, and let Him grow within us, until "Christ is formed in you." (Galatians 4:19) Then there will be no room for the IT in your life to grow, and Satan will have to move on to some other feeding ground.
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