You would think that a new or untrained Christian with all their struggles would have no problem continuing to maintain the attitudes of Matthew 5:3-12. You would especially think they would have no trouble being poor in spirit. They want to do right, but don’t do it. They want to stop doing things wrong, but can’t quit.

Did any of us take this problem to God and ask for His help, sure. And, God did give us the victory in various areas. However, other areas seemed to be invincible. Our “want to” and “don’t want to” was aimed in the right direction. In other words, our will was submitted to the will of God as it related to these issues.

Because of our struggle, some of us doubted that we really wanted to be set free from these misdeeds of our body bad enough. We thought that maybe a stronger desire would set us free. But, I am sure we can all see that Paul’s will was intensely pointing in the right direction. Yet he said: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Those who can identify with Romans 7:15-25 do not have a will problem. Those who are wrestling against their sinful nature with this degree of intensity, are being faced with a power problem rather than a will problem.

However, you as a mature Christian and a minister have had lots of areas of your life where you no longer have a will OR a power problem. Romans 8 has shown you how to win over all kinds of sins, shortcomings, mistakes, habits, and addictions. But, you are still having to fight battles against new issues that seem resistant to the Biblical procedures that brought freedom and victory in other areas.

Satan is trying to convince you that these “old” Biblical methods don’t work on these new problems. This isn’t true! You may need some new truths in order to be fully set free.

You may need to take your desire and spend more time studying; you may need to spend more time praying; you may need to get Jesus to speak rhema words of faith into your heart (Romans 10:17); and you may need to take some new steps of faith-action. But, you should NEVER turn away from the Bible and start looking to worldly systems for help.

There are “Christian” systems run by Christians who have mixed the Bible with worldly systems. They are philosophies of the world that have been given Scriptures to try to back up and verify these world methods. They have stories of victory and testimonies of proof that they are miracles that these worldly principles have produced. But, they draw your faith away from the principles of the Bible and put your faith in the systems of men. It will change your message away from the concepts presented in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5.

1 Cor 2:3-5 (NIV) I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, SO THAT your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

If you get the victory through outside sources, your message of healing will no longer be about the power of God. You will find yourself talking about the power of something or someone else. You will be testifying about the power of some medicine, procedure, food, vitamin, program, supplement, exercise, diet, expert, or human effort. You will find yourself mixing the principles of God with the philosophies of false religions, world philosophy, and satanic methods.

The Egyptian magicians were able to produce miracles similar to Moses’ miracles of God (Exodus 7:10-12). Don’t be fooled by the world’s abilities to produce similar miracles through their human efforts. They have side-effects and end results that cost a lot of money, draw you away from the power of God, and change your story, testimony, message, and ministry.