In this blog I am going to address the technical side of the inner workings of our conflict with sin and obedience to the Holy Spirit. As an analyst, I am constantly asking questions about how and why things work the way they do. It is hard for me to accept things at face value. So when I started investigating the conflict we all experience with our sin nature, I had to examine the key components of how we process information as human beings.
The objectives in our conflict
The place to start with any war or battle is to determine the objective. Every conflict has an objective. There is usually an aggressor with one objective and a target with a different objective. In our conflict with sin, there is a third Person with an objective. For in our conflict with sin there are three combatants. There is Satan with whom our sin nature is more aligned than not. There is the Holy Spirit who is working God’s holiness and righteousness into our lives. And then there is you and me. We have a huge influence on how battles go.
So I pose this question to you, what are the objectives of Satan and the Holy Spirit in our struggle with sin?
I talk about Satan’s objective in my book, The Stranger’s Conflict on page 79.
“He [Satan] is unrepentantly corrupt, and his influence is thoroughly corrupting everything and everyone he touches. He is rotten to the core, the father of lies (John 8:44), bent on stealing, killing, and destroying (John 10:10) anything to do with Creator God and His relationship with His created beings. Satan is gleeful when he can make just one person deny God. He is ecstatic when he can nullify the testimony of even one believer. He drools with delight at the prospect of corrupting even one life, one soul. When he can deceive societies, or nations, he is in his highest state of euphoria. He thrives on division, hatred, and the destruction of human life. There is nothing redeemable in him, nor in the hordes who follow him.”
Satan corrupts people by working to get them to make choices that go against following Christ. He began his assault on humans in the Garden of Eden with the first sin of human beings. It was Satan who was there, creating doubt about God’s commands and character. It was Satan who appealed to the innate desire in human beings to know that which we do not yet know and understand. Satan’s tactics are the same today. He has had no need to change them through the ages because they have always worked. His objective is to influence our choices in such a way as to separate us from God’s presence and blessing. Our sin nature is the weak link in our lives. Satan does not control our sin nature, but it is subject to his deception. In James 1:14, James wrote that we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own desires. It is the cruel delight of demonic forces to work to draw us away. Our sin nature is the weak link through which we are drawn.
Opposing Satan’s efforts is the Holy Spirit of God who lives within us. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit was sent to lead us into all truth (John 16:13). Where Satan works to deceive us, the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth.
The Spirit’s mission and our transformation
What is the Spirit’s objective? Romans 8:29 tells us that the Holy Spirit is working to conform us to the image of Jesus. That is His mission both now and when we pass from this earth. In Philippians 3:21 Paul writes that at the end of our physical life, we will be raised to new life in a body that is conformed to His [Jesus’] glorious body. The same Greek word is used in both verses to express the idea of us being conformed.
The conforming work of the Holy Spirit in both senses is a complete transformation. It is a complete makeover. The Spirit is currently working in every believer to move us away from worldly thinking and actions to living lives that align with the call of Jesus Christ. Just as one day our bodies will be like Jesus’ resurrected body, the Spirit is working in our hearts and minds to transform us today.
Choice at the center of the battle
There is a component involved in this process that neither Satan, nor the Holy Spirit can control. That component is the choices we make. Paul charges us to not conform to this world, but to be transformed by renewing our minds (Romans 12:2). That is the choice that we make. God created us with free will. Our will is not free if we do not have the capacity to make choices to rebel as Adam did in Genesis 3. Adam knew the command and as he was presented with the choice of obeying God’s voice, or succumbing to the temptations of the physical world, he rebelled against God’s command and chose alignment with physical gratification.
The objective of both Satan and the Holy Spirit is to influence our choices. Satan will use deception and coercion. The Holy Spirit will employ truth and love. His goal is that we freely choose to follow and obey Jesus. That we make daily choices that strengthen our spiritual lives.
So here you and I exist. The image on the right is from page 93 of The Stranger’s Conflict. It illustrates the interaction between our physical being and the physical world and our spiritual being with the spiritual world. The kingdom of darkness, or Satan’s realm cannot touch our spirit. He can however attack us physically, attempt to elicit emotional responses from us, and bombard our minds with deceptive tactics that can pull us away from God’s path for our lives.
In all of this, we make the choices that move our lives. The second diagram below from page 95 in The Stranger’s Conflict illustrates how communication within our being happens. We perceive inputs in our body from the physical world through the five senses. These are all sent to the brain where the soul processes the inputs and evaluates them as to whether we need to respond to them. Likewise, we receive input in our spirit from the spiritual realm. Some of these inputs are from our environment and some are from God through His indwelling Holy Spirit. The soul accesses and processes these inputs to determine what to do with them. All these inputs lead to decisions based on the importance given to them in the evaluation process within our souls.
Many inputs that come to us cause an emotional response in our souls. A harsh word from someone in authority can cause us to feel ashamed. An aggressive driver cutting us off in traffic can cause us to become angry. A kind word from a loved one can make us feel at ease and loved. Our emotions can have a significant impact on our decisions.
Circumstances, smells, specific foods, or certain times of the year can pull out of us memories of earlier times in our lives. If there was trauma associated with any of those, we could travel back in our thoughts, feelings, and self-perceptions simply from the impulses we encounter.
Inputs impacting our decisions can come from current surroundings, but they can also come from the memories of experiences we had years ago. Sometimes Satan can keep us ineffective by keeping us trapped in the emotional bondage of our past. These memories are not always negative. Many of them are positive, like when we smell a certain smell that takes us back to a comfortable memory of our childhood. The smell of fresh baked bread might remind us of grandma’s kitchen and the unconditional love we received from her.
Our choices are our responsibility. We own the choices we make. Our choices are the essence of our lives. They are the focal point of the battle in which we are engaged. I am grateful for the grace of God that we can tap into through faith in Jesus Christ. He has taken the wrath for every sin we have committed or ever will commit. Our sin is the result of bad choices, but 1 John 1:9 tells us that when we confess our sins, not only does God forgive us, but He continues His work of cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
The battle in which we are engaged is constant and sometimes fierce. No one can force us to make specific choices. For good or bad, they are ours to make. Thankfully, God has provided resources and His grace to help us make choices that lead to eternal life.
