disarming habits

S. Sekou Abodunrin

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace Rom 6:14
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any 1 Cor 6:12

It is true that Jesus died in your place. It is equally true that you were crucified with him. There is a faith that knows this and rests in such glorious truth. This is the basis for the statement that sin shall not have dominion over you. [see Romans 6:6 – 8]

Sin had dominion over mankind until Jesus came. When the bible says that sin shall not have dominion over you, is it saying that the flesh has gone on holiday and given up finally? The reason why sin shall not have dominion is not because something changed in the flesh, but that your relationship has changed and you no longer rest on the law, but you now rest on God’s grace. There is profound power in grace to unseat the rulership of sin through the flesh.

I have some good news for you from God’s word. You can walk out on your habits whenever you are really ready. Trouble is very few Christians believe that and so few ever act on it. We have come to respect the audacity of the habits that we want to get rid of to such an extent that we forget that the word of God can re-arrange the molecular structure of any addiction. The word that rearranged the atomic structure in nature so as to produce planets and all that we see around us can definitely alter the chemical balance of your life.

Like Abraham you will have to break out of the mould of hopelessness and helplessness by calling the things that be not as though they were. You have to believe that you are actually free. Well, how do you know that you are free? Whatever you base your answer on is an indication of where your soul really finds rest. It tells you what you are resting on. So, I ask again – how do you know that you are free?

In reality when it comes to habits, the grace of God will extend to you an open door of escape out of the hold of the habit and for as long as we stay in that grace-empowered freedom the habit is unseated and dethroned. The flesh will rise up to lead you down that old road but you will maintain your faith resolve. If you give in to the sales pitch of the flesh you step out of the sufficiency of grace.

You can walk out on your habits whenever you are really ready. This readiness is empowered by your awareness of the ability residing within your spirit to bring forth the fruit of righteousness and peace. You do not draw out of your spirit what you need the most. You can only draw out what you believe for. God has provided the freedom that you need to you through your spirit. The more you shun your spirit in this area the surer the guarantee of failure.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Heb 4:11

Faith is spoken of as a fight and a labour. The beginning stages of faith require schooling your soul with these redemptive truths of union and oneness with God in your spirit. There will be evidences and facts that assure your soul that the thing you believe for is unreal. This is where labour is needed. It is schooling and bombarding your soul with the word that cannot lie. To declare as true that which your experience declares to be untrue is like leading your soul up a mountain or swimming against the tide of the river. Unbelief will rise up and declare you a lunatic in this pursuit. This is where you must fight. This is the ground of labour.

I suggest that you read through and confess Romans 6 a lot. It takes you into identification proper. This feeds your emotional realm and the realm where habits take dominion with the image of God. The truth is that we often give up because the answers or required freedom doesn’t come into manifestation all at once. There is staying power available in your inner man. This supplies the patience required to manifest the freedom that you believe for from the habit. If I excuse the habit, I effectively disarm my spirit from expressing dominion in that area. I must labour against the soul and rest in the reality of God in my spirit.

I remember counselling a Christian lady, years ago, who was having cigarette cravings. I told her that each time she is about to have a puff, she should hold up the cigarette and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus before taking it. She was to affirm that according to God’s word she has dominion over this habit in the name of the Lord Jesus. I knew that if she did this often enough the grace of the Lord whom she acknowledged would take her past that habit.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Rom 6:12

The truth is that unless you resist against the flesh, sin will attempt to reign. According to God’s word sin shall not have dominion through your mortal body. The reason is because the life and character of God is not only in heaven, but also in your spirit nature. Your spirit carries the holy nature of God. You have to plant into your soul the awareness that the power of God is within your spirit already. This will grow like all seeds as you water it and allow the word provide light. The key is you have to allow the awareness of this new creation life of God to grow in your soul.

The habit keeps manifesting so as to limit you from receiving, retaining and resting in the revelation of God. The greatest challenge that many Christians face is at this level. It is deeply personal and many folks never seem to rise above it to bring forth the fruit of revelation. Once you get past this, the next level of challenge is to hinder you from operating as the agent of revelation providing windows through which God’s light is brought into dark places. Dark places simply means areas where the revelation of God’s grace is not reigning. We take the word into these dark places.

What is the evidence that you need in order to know that you are free from the power of a habit?

You recall that according to the Lord his grace is sufficient for you. You must rest in the power of his grace to take you past the barrier of whatever habit has you bound.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. You are hoping for or desiring or imaging the end of the habit. You cannot see this in the natural day-to-day exercise of your walk. You will have to retain your faith in the power of grace to overhaul you and dismantle the power of the habit enforced by the flesh.

When you are faced with a habit you know too well the power of the habit and so you rest in the stronghold enforced by the habit. However faith is the evidence of the things not seen. In that situation what is not seen is your freedom from the hold of the habit.

You are free because the word says that you are free. You are not free because your feelings agree or you feel like it. Your feelings will go like a yoyo, but the word of God is established and firm in its victory.

…to be continued