Today is Blog #26 in the series. A lot of information shared in those first 25 blogs. Today’s post cuts to the chase, giving a step-by-step description of the Way of Escape Battle Plan. A step-by-step description of what the under-siege believer must do to escape those addictive sins of the flesh. A good mix of methods for both starving the flesh and feeding the Spirit. With heavy emphasis on pre-emptive strikes.
STEP 1: IDENTIFY AND EXERCISE SPIRITUAL GIFTS
A profession of faith empty of follow-on good works leaves the too-much-time-on-his-hands believer vulnerable to attacks of the flesh. But this need not be his continuing state. He can reduce the number of enemy “incomings” by simply identifying his spiritual gifts, and then filling his idle, temptation-filled days with ministries that exercise these gifts. A Way of Escape directs readers to resources designed to help the believer identify his spiritual gifts.
STEP 2: REMOVE THE OFFENDING EYE (Starving the Flesh, Part I)
All materials that are pornographic in nature must go (Matthew 5:29). Any electronic devices that bring these offensive materials before the believer’s eyes must also either go (preferred) or be effectively neutralized. Believers cannot win this battle if they are unwilling to let go of the devices that the enemy (the flesh) is using to trip them up. A Way of Escape provides readers with strategies for protecting electronic devices in the home, office, and hotel room.
STEP 3: WATCH AND PRAY (Starving the Flesh, Part II)
God has made a promise of “temptation avoidance” to all who commit to pre-emptively watch and pray (Matthew 26:41a). There is much that can be done in the way of “watching and praying” to prevent the flesh from launching many of its attacks. In A Way of Escape, readers are provided with strategies for: (i) avoiding predictable attacks, (ii) diffusing surprise attacks, and (iii) maintaining an effective prayer life.
STEP 4: BUILD A LIBRARY OF SPIRIT-ANOINTED APPS (Feeding the Spirit)
Before I began to track data (see STEP 5), I spent 5-1/2 months screening candidates for inclusion in my library of Spirit-anointed, flesh-diffusing apps. On my Kickoff Date for the start of data collection (December 15, 2017), I had added 12 of the 23 apps that would eventually comprise my finished library. But I started from scratch. Readers of A Way of Escape gain the benefit of my experience. They will have access to my finished library. And the strategies used in its construction. Most readers should therefore be able to construct a library of 10 or so apps in a time period significantly shorter than my 5-1/2 months.
Now comes the fun and easy part—simply start daily walking in your Spirit-anointed apps (Galatians 5:16). These new (better) neural pathways that you are creating now compete with the older (bad) ones. In time, these new (better) neural pathways will eventually replace the older (bad) ones. For me, it really was that simple.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
STEP 5: TRACK DECLINING “INCOMINGS” AND VANISHING EPISODES OF “ACTING OUT”
With continued viewing of the apps, neural pathways rewire, and the number of “incomings” decline. In the Way of Escape Case Study, “incomings” dropped from an estimated 10 stronger attacks per month to roughly only two (2) weaker attacks per month.
As the number of “incomings” decline, the number of episodes of “acting out” sexually will also most certainly decline. In the Way of Escape Case Study, episodes of “acting out” vanished approximately 20 months after construction began on my library of Spirit-anointed apps. As of this writing (October 2024), this sexually healthy married Christian male has not “acted out” sexually for 100% of days over the most recent 67 months!
A GAME-CHANGING BOOK HAS ARRIVED
In A Way of Escape, readers learn how to escape addictive sins of the flesh by stepping up the degree to which they “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). They learn how to build a library of Spirit-anointed, flesh-diffusing apps. Apps that are uniquely fitted to them, and their unique Spirit-filling triggers (Ephesians 5:18b-19).
The still-struggling now have another option. The still-struggling now have fresh hope for discovering that long-sought-after way of escape from temptation and resulting sin (I Corinthians 10:13). A way that—because it is wholly Spirit-powered—does not require enlisting the aid of an accountability partner or group. Truly, a game-changer!
THANK YOU, HOLY SPIRIT!
