man's greatest weakness

The devil is cunning, when it comes to him preying on men he is methodical, you could say he is a methodist.  He is so covert in his operation that he can totally manipulate a person and they won’t ever be aware of it.  So, what does the devil target?  Human emotion!  Emotion can be a person’s worst enemy because it can promote the pride of life.  Watch a beauty pageant sometime, when one woman wins, several of the others are devastated.  They cry and ridicule the winner!  Why?  Because they think they are more beautiful.  Where does the beauty of a woman come from?  God put beauty in all women, no one has a right to exploit such a gift.
 
Galatians 5:16 Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
 
God provided every man an opportunity to fortify his weak flesh, but he must first recognize he needs help.  If a man could garrison himself against the wiles of the devil God would never have offered to help us.  So how does a believer walk in the Spirit?  He substitutes the Bible for his feelings.  He makes a commitment to act on God’s Word and not how he feels about the matter.  Samson was dedicated as a Nazirite, which meant he could never cut his hair or drink intoxicants.  He let his lusts overcome him when he fell for a Philistine girl.  He did not walk in the Spirit, he gave up his secret when he told Delilah about his vow.  He fulfilled the lusts of his flesh, it cost him his freedom, his eyes and eventually his life.
 
Ephesians 6:12 We do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness.
 
If we don’t hear God, we will wrestle with people and the devil will have a ringside seat.  The devil is the promoter, he makes the matches between men.  Have you ever gotten into a heated argument with someone and when it finally came to an end, you realized it was over nothing?  You were manipulated by the devil and you didn’t even know it.
 
Man’s greatest weakness is his commitment to promote himself.

The more important you deem yourself to be, the easier it is for the devil to pull your strings.  Jesus constantly offended the religious leaders because He did not hold the level of importance as they did.  They became jealous of Him because He drew bigger crowds and the people gave much to Him.  He was working miracles and they could not. They hated Him for no good reason.
 
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do.
 
The most religious leaders of the day were being manipulated by the devil and didn’t even know it.  Human emotions are natural feelings and man thinks nothing can be done to control them.  Jesus told these Jews that if they would know the truth they could go free.  But they disputed His claim, they did not believe they were in bondage to anyone or anything.  They believed they were totally justified in their pursuit to kill Him.  If the Bible says thou shalt not kill, then you don’t kill no matter how justified you feel about it.  Walking in the spirit is saying yes to God and no to our flesh.  

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