Yesterday morning I had a wonderful chance to speak to the author of a curriculum I’m using with three different small groups of men. It addresses sexual addiction. I’ve mentioned it in past. It is called Every Man a Pure Warrior. It emphasizes over and over the importance of knowing this battle is a spiritual one. Note: SPIRITUAL. God is Spirit, Jesus is now Spirit, we are given The Holy Spirit. With all of this Satan is Spirit and so are his multitude of minions. If we keep trying to handle this warfare in our flesh we will eventually lose. Our issue centers around understanding our own spirit separate from our flesh and how to let God’s Holy Spirit be the One who fights our battles as we learn to surrender.

As this author and I talked about the best way to start helping others to find this freedom he said it is critical to help them decipher the voice of God’s Holy Spirit from other spiritual voices including our own flesh desires. Satan is deceptive and lies and he can appear as a messenger of light with his deception if we stay naive to this. As I went through my years of therapy I encountered this on many occasions. My wake up has been finding that most folks do not have a good handle on this as I didn’t for so long.

Most of my life I’ve appreciated spirit but so underrated it. God has been so kind in helping me to see the critical importance of His Gift to each of us–His Holy Spirit. Another beauty in trusting and obeying God’s Holy Spirit as He speaks to us is what I read this morning in my devotional. It says: As we obey, …“we are not left with residual feelings of anxiety, guilt, frustration or embarrassment. Rather, when we look to the Lord as our provider, He responds in a way that leaves us with deep inner peace, satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment.”