
The Trickery of Temptation
I once heard an amazing story from my pastor at Times Square Church. There is so much truth behind this story, and it also has spiritual meaning. This is how the story went:
There was a ship captain who sailed a route from Colombia to California. One day he was unexpectedly approached by a drug cartel, who asked him if he would take a small shipment of drugs to California. They would pay him $500,000. Immediately he declined and told them no. Sometime later they came back and made him another offer. He said no. They kept amping up the offer every single time until they reached two million dollars. He hesitated and said he would think about it. He contacted the DEA in the United States, and they set up a sting operation. The bad guys were arrested. The interesting part of the story is that when the DEA asked him why he waited so long to contact them, the captain responded, “They were getting close to my price.”
Temptation has a price. Temptation comes at a cost. Temptation knows your price. Hear me out, loud and clear. I believe that one of the devil’s names is Temptation. That is just my take on it. James 1:13 says, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” God isn’t the one tempting you.
Listen to me carefully. I want to teach you. I want to equip you. I want to keep you armed and dangerous. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I am exposing the devil and his fine print. Often, we read the bigger letters but bypass the fine print—and that is where the danger is. That is where the devil is lurking over you. We see the fine print in TV commercials all the time. The company tells you a whole story about something they are selling, but they make the fine print on the television so small you can’t even read it, often hiding important information in the fine print. The devil does the same thing.
But I have good news for you today. I’m taking you to the Holy Spirit school. Temptation has a price tag, and here is how it works:
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Temptation knows your weaknesses.
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Temptation knows where you walk and where you are most defenseless.
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Temptation will keep making relentless offers to your soulish man.
One thing you should know about the soulish man is that he is always shopping—not for things of the kingdom of God but for things of the world. The enemy knows that, so he continually makes offers to your soulish man that are enticing, entertaining, and hard to say no to. So, what should you do? The Bible says:
—1 Corinthians 9:27
In other words, the apostle Paul is saying he puts the soulish man, the flesh, the outer man into submission so he will not be disqualified from running the race that God has paved and mapped out for him. We should take heed of Paul’s words.
To learn more about John Ramirez’s latest book, Exposing the Devil’s Playbook, visit MyCharismaShop.com