"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you." (John 16:13-15)

Because this is true, when we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are actually following the leading of Jesus in our lives. Thus, we are following Jesus’ Lordship over our lives and thus He is Lord over our lives. In the same way, when we do not submit ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are actually rebelling against the Lordship of Jesus over our lives and thus He is no longer Lord over our lives.

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17)

John, when we are doing God’s will, our flesh doesn’t have an opportunity to sin because our mind and our flesh are occupied doing God’s will. John, let me share a past incident in my own life to show you how this works.

When I was in Junior College many years ago, I went through a degree in Electronic Technology. This required four hours a day of class time five days a week. We were allowed a twenty minute break in between that four hours of class. I remember how difficult it was for me in those days to sit in a chair for 4 hours. I was so antsy. I used my 20 minute break every day to go out and share the Gospel with a student. There were 15,000 students on this Junior College campus so I never had any trouble finding someone to share Jesus with. I would go through a Salvation Tract like the one provided in this Training Program of Evangelism. It took me about five minutes to find someone to share with, ten minutes to share the Salvation Tract with them, and five minutes to get back to class.

One day I decided instead of going out and sharing Christ on campus with students to go to the break room and buy a coke. I went in and bought a coke and sat down at a table to enjoy it. When I did I looked around the room and noticed it was filled with beautiful women. RED FLAG! RED FLAG! RED FLAG! Lol. That was all it took. My mind was on females and the gymnastics of my perverted sinful mind went into action. Paul wrote in Romans 8:7 "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." You see our flesh is in bondage to sin (Rom 7:14); therefore, given the opportunity the flesh will sin. James the brother of Jesus wrote:

"Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." (James 1:13-15)

The saying "An idle mind is the play ground of the Devil" is an absolute truth. If your fleshly mind is idle it will gravitate to and sin. How then do we keep the flesh from sinning? By filling up our time, including our recreation, with activities according to God’s will. Paul wrote "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). When you are walking by the Holy Spirit, using your time according to God’s will, which is what it means to walk by the Holy Spirit, the flesh does not have opportunity or a chance to sin. When I was using my break to share the love of Jesus Christ with others, my mind was filled with how to help that person release their faith in Jesus. My mind and flesh did not have an opportunity to sin. When I went into that break room and sat down at a table with my mind idle, like radar it zeroed in right onto its object of sin without even blinking an eye. "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:7-8). Therefore the only way you can keep your flesh from sinning is by walking in the Holy Spirit which means to seek God’s will in your use of time and then using your time, including your breaks, according to God’s will. When you do that, your flesh won’t have the opportunity to sin.

Second, Read, Memorize & Meditate on God’s Word. King David wrote, "I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11, Heb 4:12). John, Hebrews 4:12 states,

"For the word of God is spiritually-alive and energetically-effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the conscious-reasonings and intentions of the heart."

John, God’s Word is more than just words on a page. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is given-by-inspiration-of-God." There is Spiritual life in God’s Word, When you study, memorize and meditate on God’s word, it goes into your heart and soul and cleanses you and your human spirit is strengthened and becomes dominate over your flesh and restrains your flesh from sinning. Thus, why David said in Psalm 119:9 "I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." For this reason it is very important that you spend daily time with Jesus in His word, reading, studying, memorizing and meditating upon the Word of God. Jesus said in John 8:47 "He who is of God hears the words of God." As you spend time with Jesus in His word, Jesus’ promise is that He will reveal Himself to You (John 8:47, 14:21) and that He will give You Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to carry out His will and restraint againt your flesh to not sin (Rom 1:28).

Third, Seek Fellowship with Christians. The writer of Hebrews wrote: Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25). John, do you have a church?

John: Yes.

LE: Do you attend it regularly?

John: Once in a while.

LE: John it is real important that you attend church at least once a week, preferably 3 times a week. The reason for that John is not to get saved, because you are already saved and can’t be anymore saved then you already are. John, the reason you need to attend church is for the same reason I am sitting here talking to you right now! You see, John, we are having church right now! And what am I doing? I am encouraging you to walk with the Lord, I am showing you how to overcome sin in your life, I am helping you in your walk with Jesus. That is the purpose of church fellowship. The purpose of church fellowship, John, is to encourage one another to love and good deeds and to help each other in our walk with Jesus! John, no one can live the Christian life in their own strength. We need the power of the Holy Spirit and the encouragement and support of one another to succeed in God’s will and plan for our lives and to keep from falling back into the world and sin! So it is real important that you weekly attend church. If you are not getting the encouragement and support you need in Jesus at the church you attend, you need to find a church where they do love Jesus and will give you the encouragement and support you need in Jesus. Okay?

John: Okay!

LE: Finally, John, in order not to sin, Ask God for the Power of the Holy Spirit to Not Sin. The Psalmist wrote: "Seek Yehovah and His strength; seek His face continually." (Psalm 105:4). If you remember on page 6 I read the passage Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." John, Jesus does not command us to be strong in our strength, He does not command us to overcome our problems through the strength of the flesh, He commands us to overcome our problems through His strength! Therefore, whenever you start to have a problem in your flesh, find yourself falling to temptation, the thing you need to do, and you need to not put this off, is instantly get on your knees and lift up your hands and cry to Jesus for His Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to not sin. Get into a private place if you have to. That is why Jesus created bathrooms, lol.

John: Lol!

LE: Go to the throne room, the bathroom, and cry out to Jesus and say "Jesus! I need Your Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to not sin. Jesus! Save me this temptation and sin! I need You!" Jesus says in His word in Romans 10:13 "For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved," and in Matthew 26:41 "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." When you call on Jesus He WILL save and help you from sin and temptation. That is how you overcome the temptation to sin, not by trying to exercise will power. God’s word states plainly that the flesh never did obey God’s laws and it never will, so the only way you will gain victory over temptation and sin is by drawing upon Jesus’ Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to not sin. Okay?

John: Okay!!! I didn’t know this! Thank You!

LE: John you can keep this tract titled Jesus Is The Answer To Your Needs. Also, if you would allow me, I would like to give you a copy of these two books I have here. The first one is titled Jesus Is The Answer To Your Needs, which has the same title as the Tract but is not the same content. John, this book has a chapter in it which will explain to you how to establish a quite time with Jesus in His word. I would encourage you if you read nothing else in it to read that Chapter. However, the rest of the content of this book will also give you assurance of salvation, teach you how to relate to Jesus for the answer to your needs in prayer, how to know what is truly Jesus’ voice, how to know what is His will and plan for your life and how to succeed in that plan.

John: Thank you very much! I appreciate this!

LE: John, one of the reasons Jesus wanted me to give you this book and why he brought me across your path today was because he has a purpose and a plan for your life. Because He does, he didn’t want you to be stuck in false condemnation and self-condemnation over past and present sins. He wanted you to know how to release your faith in His love and fogiveness when you do sin so that you can continue to walk in the Holy Spirit and receive the will and plan that He has for your life! That is why Jesus brought me across your path today! That is the reason why you need to read this book Jesus Is The Answer To Your Needs. Okay?

John: Okay!

LE: John, the second book I have here is titled Experiencing Jesus’ Forgiveness Daily. What this book does is go into a deeper study about what the Bible teaches on God’s love and forgiveness, how to have victory over sin and how to draw upon Jesus’ Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to overcome temptation and sin and succeed in the will and plan that He has for your life. So if you would allow me I would like to give you these two books

John: Yes! Definitely! Again, thank you very much!

LE: John, I appreciate you allowing me to take some of your time today to share these things with you (as I am shaking his hand). God loves you John, He has a purpose and a plan for Your life and He has visited you today to encourage you to daily seek Him while reading His word so that He can reveal to you want that will and plan for your life is and to encourage you to walk in that will and plan. John, you have a really great day!

John: I will! Thank you again for sharing with me and these books. I will read them this week.

In this illustrated presentation we successfully illustrated clearly how to accomplish with the Forgiveness Tract the following five objectives: