I posted about it on the "old forum"...the fact that, even after believing {being a Christian} I continued to "struggle" with drinking. I'm sort of ashamed to talk about it but it's "my story." I knew the devil "had something in me" but just didn't seem able to stop drinking for more than several months.Sue wrote:I think that there is an analogy here, especially at the individual level. The way I see it, when we become born again we have been purchased, and as individuals belong to God. However, certain areas of our lives may still be occupied by the enemy (as with the Israelites). It’s up to us to clear the land by dispossessing the enemy, and take back territory that really belongs to God. Sort of like there being designated areas of our backyard that still have rocks and piles of rubbish, that we need to get rid of.
We know Jesus was without sin; and at the last Passover supper, He said:
Joh 14:30 I shall no longer speak many things with you, for the ruler of this world comes, and he has nothing in Me.
We however do yield to temptation and sin at various times; perhaps this is allowing the enemy to ‘have something in me’; I don’t see this as demonic possession, but as being influenced by the spirit of this world in some instances or particular areas, instead of living and walking by the Holy Spirit.
But we are expected to mature spiritually and allow the process of sanctification to take place and advance all the time.
I'm not into "Word of Faith." However, and even though I had "known" these verses since a long time ago; I read these verses and they "jumped out at me" about 3.5 years ago:
1 Cor 6 {NIV}
9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Someone had something wrong and it wasn't Saint Paul! So I "claimed" to be a Christian. Yet I was doing things that will prevent me from inheriting God's Kingdom? It didn't add up. Hmmmmm....
At the same time: I begged God for help and believed 1 Cor 6:9-11. I got sober and have had no desire to drink at all, other than a few temptations which quickly go when I "resist the devil and he will flee from you."
I also abandoned a lot of stuff I had been "taught" in Alcoholics Anonymous and treatment centers in the Navy {both as a patient and later, as staff}, Romans 12:2 "mind renewing."
At any rate, Sue, yes. We have an ongoing process of sanctification! Why I took so long to sober-up...well, I'm past that now and am sufficiently angry at Satan" [to him "I" say] "The LORD rebuke you!" {Jude 9}. I make it a point to witness to many AA folks, whether they're new to it or not, that Jesus Christ got me sober...and there's more to life than just not-drinking...God's Kingdom and eternal life is involved!
We're going into eschatology here. Death, as an enemy of God, is the very last enemy to be destroyed. The devil doesn't have ultimate control over us and our deaths, as I'm sure you didn't mean to say he did. I suppose we can see death as a domain of the devil. At the same time, we've passed beyond the "old creation" though we haven't totally inherited the new {as with 1 Cor 6:9a, above}. I work nites & need a nap, ThanksTheophilus also wrote:All of us are still under some control of Satan (as permitted by God) because until Jesus returns we will all suffer physical death.
Hebrews 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—