Temptations Reveal the Quality of Your Faith (And How to Determine Your Temptations and Overcome them)
Nature, Purpose and Best Battle Strategy for Temptations | Spirtual.Warfare.Series #Ep.04
Welcome to Biblion’s Spiritual Warfare Series. If you’re just joining, here’s where we are at, and what’s ahead:
#Ep.01 | We are at War: What Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Teach us about Spiritual Warfare
#Ep.02 | Snake-Problem in Eden and God's Antivenom for “SIN-Bites”
#Ep.03 | Spiritual Attack is beyond the loss of Jobs, Properties, Marriages, Children, or Health (the enemy's Real Intention explained)
#Ep.04 | Temptations Reveal the Quality of Your Faith (And How to Determine Your Temptations and Overcome them) ← This Post
Disclaimer — this post is a “Mini-book”, Yes it may seem long, but Read to the end.
1/11
QUALITY: How Toyota emerged as the leading Automobile Giant
After World War II, the US government sponsored comprehensive political, economic, and civic reforms in Japan, to prevent Soviet influence in the region.
Some years later (in the late 1970s and early 1980s), North America and Western Europe struggled to match the stiff competition from Japan's products — High-quality products at competitive prices.
Concerned, the US created a TV series captioned “If Japan can ... Why can't we?” to spearhead a similar Quality Revolution in America.
Before then, America’s reform investments in the growth of the Japanese economy included US-sponsored alliances of Japanese companies with US industrialists and experts. So, American experts like W. Edwards Deming delivered speeches to Japanese industry leaders on “Statistical Product Quality Administration”.
Companies like Toyota benefited from the reform efforts and alliances.
Toyota studied American auto manufacturers, as well as the operations in the American supermarket system and developed what they called The Toyota Production System (TPS).
The TPS is a methodology that eliminates Waste (Muda in Japanese) in the production system as efficiently as possible. Following TPS, Toyota workers could spot potential Defects and are empowered to halt the production line to prevent such defects from affecting the final products — this led to producing High-Quality products at very low prices.
Toyota donated the TPS expertise to many non-profits to help them improve operations. For example, Santa Barbara Foundation (a disaster relief organization), reported that TPS helped them lower the time it took to rebuild a home, post-disaster, from around 15 weeks to 6 weeks, while reducing construction errors by 50%.
Toyota has refined TPS over the years and TPS has been the subject of many academic studies. In 2004 Jeffrey K. Liker wrote the book titled The Toyota Way highlighting Toyota’s 14 management principles for their Lean Production strategy.
Today, Toyota is the world’s leading automotive company. The Corolla is judged as the most-produced automobile in the world’s history, with over 50 million units sold as of 2022.
A company’s commitment to QUALITY determined its dominance in the marketplace. In the same vein, Our commitment to QUALITY will determine our ultimate Rewards in Eternity.
If so, then meet TEMPTATION— the Quality Assurance System.
2/11
Temptation is a Mechanism to determine the Quality of “Our Final product” — It exposes “Defects” in our Faith and determines who is eliminated from God’s Eternal Reward System
Temptation comes from the word which means to Test, Experiment and ascertain the Quality of a claim, feature or attribute.
Temptation is the trial of a person’s Fidelity, Integrity, Virtue, and Constancy, in the face of enticements to Sin.
It is like a hypothesis that says, “this man will Sin against God if presented or confronted with so and so”. Temptation is subjecting that hypothesis to intense experiments. The enemy injects all the “make-him-sin” variables and tests his responses. Afterwards “Fidelity-data” is collected and analysed.
If Fidelity remains intact, that individual has passed the test — i.e., he/she Overcame and becomes entitled to rewards.
Therefore, Temptation is not necessarily a bad thing. Rather it is a tool to expose the Character of the tempted and provides him with the opportunity to be commended and rewarded.
James, writing to believers, told them to be excited and rejoice when they are surrounded and besieged with different kinds of temptations (James 1:2) — Temptations provide the opportunity to make our Faith Shine!
3/11
While We don’t Pray to invite them, everyone will have their Bucket List of Temptations — Are we Ready to go through them?
Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from evil” — It doesn’t mean, “God Abeg (Nigerian Pidgin for Please), don’t let me be tempted…”
The word lead means to be carried helplessly without any resistance with or without one’s consent.
The scenario is similar to the paralytic man who was carried (or led) by his friends to meet Jesus. That man had no resistance to their actions. He couldn’t get off that bed if he wanted — he was utterly helpless (but a good helplessness in this case, because he found healing with Jesus).
So, the prayer is “don’t let me enter helplessly into temptation, provide me a deliverance pass me from evil because you are the master controller — thine is the Kingdom, Power and Glory”.
Paul later explained what the prayer meant and how it is answered. He said — “God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. God makes adequate provision that with the temptation, there is always a way to escape to enable us to bear or endure it.”
The way of escape is packaged along with the Temptation — not after.
So when you and I succumb to temptation, No one is to blame, not even the devil. We simply wasted the Escape opportunity provided.
4/11
The World is Our Olympic Games — Where We Compete and Overcome Temptations to Win Gold Medals
Training for the Olympics for many years and beating world records during one’s training sessions doesn’t correspond to a gold medal.
We must compete in an actual Olympic game to win medals. The World has been set up to prepare us for eternity and eternal rewards.
This set-up, like a Matrix, reveals our Character and presents us with the opportunities to record cheap Victories — Cheap because I’m mindful that Jesus did the heavy lifting through the Cross.
You see, the World’s Business Model for its products and services is around the following 3 strategies — Lust of the Eyes; Lust of the Flesh; Pride of Life — and boy it sells!
We saw the first deployment of this business model Eden with the Fruit in the midst of the garden —
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food — Lust of the Flesh
And pleasing to the eyes — Lust of the Eyes
And that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom — Pride of Life
The Fruit symbolizes products and services, whose marketing promise was to make wise, i.e., becoming gods — the ability to define and control our own lives, which is tantamount to rebellion.
God doesn't tempt people. However, He allows temptation to reveal the strength of our devotions, convictions and persuasions — Our Faith and Fidelity to Him.
Temptations are not limited to sins of sexual immorality, drug addiction or financial games — Temptation is anything that questions the legitimacy of our Faith.
As long as we are in this world, we will be presented with varieties of this world’s goods. But not every product appeals to us differently.
So how does the prince of this world know what goods to sell to us?
5/11
Temptations are not Randomly allocated; Each Man determines his own Temptations — Really? Yes.
Two people could have the same family background, be exposed to the same environment and circumstances and still be tempted in separate ways.
James taught us that every man’s temptation is determined by his Personal Lusts (James 1:14).
The word Lust doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation. It means (Greek: epithumia) to passionately desire to do or have something; long for something, or desire something very much — positive or negative.
You can determine your Temptations by defining your Desires — because what you strongly desire, determines what you will be tempted with.
For example, the amount of evil any man will contend or be confronted with is directly proportional to their desire for money and material possession — It is called Avarice (popularly known as Love of Money). Avarice is a more intense desire and strong lust for money and material possessions.
Paul, admonishing Timothy, said, “they that will be rich will fall into temptations and become ensnared by foolish and harmful desires” (1Tim 6:9) — For the love of money is the root (production centre) of Evil.
The Temptation Lifecycle is defined as LUST → SIN → DEATH
Stage 1: LUST — Must first be conceived and it brings forth Sin.
Stage 2: SIN — Must be performed until completion or maturity
Stage 3: DEATH — The aftermath of Sin’s maturity (John talks about a sin that is unto death).
The period within each stage will vary, but the bottom line is that Temptation stems from our Desires.
Being Tempted is not equal to Sin; Failing the Test is Sin — Jesus was at all points Tempted and yet He didn’t Sin (Heb 4:15)
6/11
Jesus’s Passionate Desire to Rescue a Dying World determined His Temptations
Jesus’s desire was to accomplish the Will of the Father — i.e., dying to rescue a dying world; reintroduce and reconcile the World back to the loving Father.
One day He said to his disciples, “My Meat is to do the Will of Him that sent me and to finish his works“ — “My Meat” means My strongest Desire — Why I came here on Earth.
Those desires determined His Temptations
“You are hungry, why not turn these stones to bread” — tempted to perform outside the Father’s words (Rhema — God’s word for the moment).
“I’ll give you the world and its glory but bow down and worship me” — tempted to worship another spirit other than God; dishonour and rebel against the Father.
“Jump from the temple top, test the response-ability of the Angels” — tempted to waste supernatural manifestation; turn the supernatural into a circus show, without any eternal significance.
In all of these, Jesus was more intelligent than the devil and He gave us the template for victory — He Overcame.
Ultimately, He went on to overcome Sin and Death and is now seated at the right hand of the Father waiting for us to join him as Overcomers.
7/11
“If Desires determine Temptations, then Zero Desires should mean No Temptations, right?”….emmm, Not exactly.
It is almost impossible not to have Desires, Aspirations, or Goals for our lives. The challenge becomes How to rightly choose those desires.
The focus of many eastern religions has been to eliminate “negative desires” through “meditations” — I don’t know how that is working out.
One thing I’m sure of is God’s testimony of a man in Genesis 6:5 that every desire of the thoughts of man’s heart was altogether evil all the time — it’s a field day for the devil.
To determine your Temptation, determine your Desires.
8/11
We can determine our desires by Surrendering to the Holy Spirit to guide us into all TRUTH — the Word of God.
Early Christians did not have scriptures — the reasons why Holy Ghost Baptism was crucial. Even today, there are many who can’t read or write — but the Holy Spirit guides all into Truth.
God can now work within us, by the Spirit, to make us Desire and Do His good pleasures (Phil 2:13). We now have the fruits of the Spirit — in-born inclinations that make God pleased.
The Holy Spirit has empowered us with the power of Choice. We then decide to either seek God’s Pleasure or Displeasure.
The Father’s good pleasure is His Kingdom and Righteousness. It is therefore wise for us to be aligned with the Kingdom of God as Jesus taught — Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt 6:33).
9/11
When our goals and passion are towards the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, our Temptations we follow accordingly — We determine the battle Terrain.
The terrain is an important aspect of warfare. Key terrain is any location whose control gives a military advantage to the entity that holds it.
When we choose and pursue godly desires, we determine the Key Terrain for our temptations.
We invite the enemy to a familiar zone where we control the battle parameters and have the advantage of a Cloud of Witnesses — those who Overcame, hinting strategies at us and cheering us on.
Godly Desires, Goals and Aspirations control the odds in our Favour (I just remembered back in high school. We were sometimes asked to choose our punishments. I knew boys who choose the one they could bear).
10/11
When our Desires are contrary to the Kingdom's aspirations, we struggle, at best, and at worst it leads to Idolatry.
Lot struggled for the rest of his life.
Abraham and Lot’s Servant had a contention. Abraham asked Lot to choose anywhere he wanted.
Gen 13:10-12
Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.
Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east.
Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.
Lot’s temptations and experiences living close to and later in Sodom and Gomorrah were unpalatable.
Besides the trauma of being a Prisoner of War, Lot’s daily life was a rollercoaster of a mess — for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard — 2 Pet 2:8.
Yes, God rescued Lot, but Lot lost many things — his wife and children. Imagine how his two daughters got him drunk and raped him in an incestuous relationship — what a life!
Idolatry is exalting anything above God or regarding anything as the object of Worship or Subject of Living other than God
The blessing from God makes rich, not resettling in Sodom or trading in Gomorrah — but Lot didn’t get it.
John warned, little children, keep yourself away from Idols — be it social media, advancements in science and technology as it impacts health, education, security or the economy, a government system or an institution.
Anything that makes people say, “I don’t need God in this area of my life because I have access to so and so”, is Idolatry; and Idolatry ends in multiplied sorrows (Psalm 16:4).
11/11
Heaven is the Home of Overcomers — Jesus Overcame so We can Overcome.
Before 1954, it was impossible to complete a mile race in under 4 minutes. Runners worldwide sought to achieve it for over 70 years to no avail. The fastest runner completed it in 4:01.4 minutes.
In 1954, Roger Bannister completed the mile race in under 4 minutes (3:59.4 minutes) for the first time. Bannister’s record lasted for only 46 days —after that many others also completed the race in under 4 minutes.
The “Bannister Effect” — the phenomenon of one person showing others that it can be done and, thus, prompting others to believe and achieve. Today, the world record for a mile race is 3:43.13 minutes held by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.
Hebrews 10:12-14
But when this Priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.
Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet
Because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
Jesus broke the Overcomer’s record and showed us it was possible — now it’s our turn to complete what He began.
The true test of the stature of a Christian and what confers status to a Christian in eternity is how much they Overcame.
God has ordained that we dominate, and the proofs of our dominion are things we Overcame with our Faith still intact. This is the Victory that shows that we Overcame — our Faith intact.
Before now, we could complain all day about how helpless we were against the forces of Sin and strength of temptation; how we could not do righteousness if we wanted; how another law was warring within us bringing us into sin and ultimately death.
Now we no longer have excuses — if any man Sins, he does so willingly, cooperatively, and voluntarily.
He cannot blame the devil, evil forces, his neighbour’s wife or daughters, his boss at work, the main media or social media, the internet or popular culture. Every man now becomes responsible for their Sins.
1 Peter 1:6-7
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.
These Temptations will show that your Faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.
So when your Faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much Praise and Glory and Honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
So, Paul could boldly testify — I have fought a Good Fight, I have finished my Course, and I have KEPT THE FAITH, and now a crown of Righteousness awaits me (2Tim 4:7-8).
Paul overcame the Strong Man.
Paul overcame the Wicked One.
Paul overcame the World.
Paul has joined the great Cloud of Witnesses to cheer us on — We too shall Overcome. Amen!
— Azubuike ✌️
A lot to ponder on from this.
We only have the chance to win medals when we participate in the race.
Of what use is the training and preparation if we don't get on track.
God abeg, lead us not into temptations
Thank you so much sir.
A great piece sir!
I have overcome the world!!