Breaking the Mechanism of Action of Sin
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:14–15, KJV)
James describes for us in very vivid terms how sin operates or its “mechanism of action.” He carefully enlists all the steps that sin walks us through. The Lord wants us to know our adversaries and how they operate, so we do not fall into the snare they set up for us.
He starts with the mother of sin, which he calls lust. It will tell you shortly why lust is the “mother” here. He says we are drawn away by our own lust and enticed. Lust is simply a strong desire from our flesh for the things that are contrary to God’s will. The subtlety of lust is that it is us. It is our desire. We then move on to the next step, which is enticement. We are drawn by the promises of all the wonders that desire promises to give us. We see the benefits, the pleasures, happiness, wealth, the power etc. and become drawn away. A classic example is when a man sees a woman and his entire brain gets twisted by the glamors of having that woman in bed with him. He does not think for a moment, any consequences. He is enticed. He sees nothing but roses fallen off from her. Lust is powerful and deceitful.
James moves further and says lust then conceives, that is, becomes pregnant! You remember I mentioned above that lust is the mother. How does lust conceive? When we give in to the desire and do what it wants us to do, we are causing lust to conceive! And when lust conceives, it brings forth a baby called sin! That baby then grows us and kills us! It says above that when sin is finished, it brings forth death. Sin always kills. It will kill our joy. It has killed some families leading to divorce and bitter children. It has killed careers and businesses. It has also killed ministries ordained from God. For some, sin killed their health, leaving them with diseases that erode their bodies. Sadly, sin has literally caused the physical death of many. Worst of it all, sin leads to eternal death. If we ask Adam, he will tearfully warn us with the words “all that glitters is not gold.”
The greatest power of sin is its enticement. It does not force us. It knows how to entice us through our own desires. The only way for us, believers, to escape the practical grip of sin is to yield to the Holy Spirit. Obey and follow the Holy Spirit for your own good. It takes His power to break the mechanisms of action of sin in our daily lives. Make up your mind to do the Word always so that that sin will not carry out its mischievous processes in your life.
MEDITATE
Are our desires always evil? Can we have godly desires? Can you think of a scripture that tells us God will give us the desires of our heart?
APPLY THE WORD
Is sin currently having a grip on your life in any area? The way out is to follow the Holy Spirit’s leadership rather than that lust. That is what it means to deny ourself. It is something you want so badly, but the Spirit says “no.” You yield and follow Him rather than “yourself.” Later, you will thank Him He did not allow you to follow you!
PRAY
Pray that the Lord to empower us to break every grip of sin in any area in our lives.
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Pastor Oben,
I have been traveling and is catching up with your daily devotionals. I have been reading and watching your Bible teaching for two years now. I would like to say that since that time you have been truly GOD sent and a man of GOD as far as my limited biblical understanding goes. I thank GOD for you and your ministry and its teachings.
I was reading another devotional that I have been reading in excess of 25 plus years. My confusion—-even though it was explained by Samuel, 1 Samuel 15th chapter, Saul Is Rejected as King; Today’s English Version. My confusion is this; GOD knows what we will do before we do it, my human belief, is why did or did not know ahead of time King Saul would not obey his instructions to destroy everything as Samuel told him. Please clarify for me!!
Hello Eulando,
Thank you for those encouraging words and so pleased to know the Lord is using His Word to bless you richly.
That is a really good question. Yes, such questions cross the minds of believers at one time or another. The truth is there are some things which we will only fully comprehend in our heavenly state when our understand will transcend the understanding of our current state in the flesh.
A few thoughts to help with this. Yes, the Lord knew Saul will disobey Him even before Saul was chosen as King. First, God is outside of time, and is not like us. He does not know yesterday, today and tomorrow as we do. He is eternal and functions outside of time. That means the past, present and future of all things He has made are known to Him. He is omniscient. This is mind-blowing and our human brains certainly will have a hard time figuring this. Secondly, He created us with a powerful capacity called freewill. He made us with the power of choice, so powerful that we can choose things against Him.He does not override our freewill as we would typically imagine. If God could do that, not a single human being will end up in hell. Lastly, Saul was a response to the request of the people. The Lord never wanted to give Israel a human king because He was their king. So His will for them was not to give them a king. The people demanded a king. They wanted to be like the rest of the ( 1Sam 8:7). This is what we have come to call the “permissive will”, that is, when God allows us to choose( again the freewill I mentioned above) a path that is different from His original intentions. As always, whenever we choose the permissive will, we always find out later why God did not want it in the first place. God knew Saul would fail as a king. He responded to the will of the people to give them what they demanded and allowed them go through the consequences of their choice. Yet in His love for us, He always make a way out even when we fail.I wrote this devotional on the permissive will of God that could also be helpful.https://patrickoben.com/the-permissive-will-of-god/
This is just shedding some light to help with this. There are other questions that might arise and as I noted above, God’s ways are outside of our human comprehension and there are certain things we will only fully understand in the world to come when we are functioning in that higher dimension of the spirit realm. Blessings