768 - How To Deal With Opposition In Your LIfe (1)-1
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[00:00:00] Hey, hey, what's up my man? It's Sathya Sam here. Welcome to Unleash the Man Within. Thank you so much for listening. I'm so glad you're here and excited to spend the next 10, 12 minutes with you here. Uh, we're diving into a really interesting subject today. We're talking a little bit about opposition in life.
And, you know, I've seen a lot of people handle this subject pretty poorly. And so I want to make sure that, you know, wherever you might be facing challenges or plateaus, that you're aware. opposition is and that you have some tools [00:01:00] and solutions to move past it. So that's what we're going to jump into today.
Before I do that, I want to make sure that if you are looking for help quitting pornography specifically, that's my specialty. I've helped hundreds of guys. We've actually helped thousands of guys now quit pornography and uh, we have a very successful, very simple system. It just, it's effective, a nice mixture of scripture and science coming together.
And guys really resonate with it. So if you feel like you've tried a bunch of solutions, they didn't work, or you know that you've tried stuff, but you haven't really gotten to the roots of the issue and you're ready to do that, there's the link in the show notes for you to see a case fit study video that kind of explains what we do, what we're about, and if it looks like a good fit, then you can book a time in our calendar.
And we'd love to speak with you and see if we can actually help you. Um, and if you want to find out a little bit more, when you do click on that link, you'll also get sent some more videos that show, you know, other people's experiences of our program. So you can kind of get an idea of this is the right fit for you.
So the links in the show notes, we'd love to see if we can help you quit porn in the next four months or so. Um, and [00:02:00] I, uh, I'll leave it there. I want to jump into today's content. So, you know, um, after five and a half years of helping guys quit pornography, one of the questions that comes up again and again and again is why would I need to do a program?
Why do I need principles? Why do I need tools and resources and coaching and therapy when Clearly, this problem is just the enemy at work, and all I need to do is just, you know, um, cast out the demon, do spiritual warfare, strengthen my relationship with God, and I should be good to go, right? You know, it's a spiritual problem, give it a spiritual solution, and away we go.
Uh, but you know, it's interesting, all those people who asked me that question have already tried all of those things and were unsuccessful. So, clearly, the fruit should speak for itself, right? That's biblical. A tree is known by its fruit. So if the results of your efforts are not matching what you want, then we don't want to defend your efforts because [00:03:00] clearly they were ineffective or you didn't execute them properly.
So when people talk about like, you know, I've done all the spiritual warfare. I know it's a spiritual problem. We just got to keep, you know, casting it out or rebuking it. Or, you know, we just got to kind of. wage war against the enemy. Um, but they're clearly just spinning their tires in the mud. I start to wonder if maybe they have mislabeled what the enemy really is.
Now that might sound uh, like a little bit of blasphemy to you. Uh, but I want you to think about this. Okay. There's scripture that would suggest to us that sometimes Satan or the devil is not actually the enemy that we really need to be worried about. Sometimes his opposition is quite literally the least of your worries.
So, uh, what I'd like to suggest to you is there is another force at play. It's a force that you would never expect to oppose you in your efforts to walk in integrity and holiness and purity. [00:04:00] Uh, but the fact of the matter is. When this force is against you, there is nothing you can do. Doesn't matter how hard you try.
As long as you are against this force, I can guarantee you, you can white knuckle, bounce the eyes up the spiritual disciplines, muster up willpower, install the internet filters, get an accountability partner, hire a coach, hire a therapist, take an online course, attend a webinar, attend a seminar, go to a conference.
Uh, you know, you name it. You could do all of those things. It won't matter. It truly, it won't matter because if this force is against you, then you are shot. You're a stick in the mud. You got no chance. Now you might be wondering, Cynthia, what the heck are you talking about? Let's open up the scriptures.
Let's talk a little bit about James four, six. You've probably heard this scripture quoted before. If you've grown up for, you know, any extended period of time, but James four, six, four verse six, God [00:05:00] opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, I want you to just pay attention to the first two words of that verse.
God opposes, God opposes. So did you know that in your journey to recovery, God might actually be your opposition? See, sometimes we say that the enemy is the enemy, right? Satan, Satan, Satan. The devil, he's our enemy. When in reality, the actual opposition you're facing is God. Now that might sound like blasphemy to you, but this is biblical.
This is scriptural and it's under very specific conditions. We have to read the rest of the verse. Obviously we can't just stop there. God opposes. So what happens when you and I operate in pride is it's not even about the enemy trying to oppose us and trying to trip us up. God himself [00:06:00] opposes us because of the pride that's within our hearts.
Now, I don't know about you, but I know that for me in my recovery journey and my pursuit of holiness and integrity. I had a lot of pride. You know, I was the guy who wanted to do it alone. I wanted to be the hero. You know, I wanted to have that story of like all these guys who had to join accountability groups and get professional help.
But there was Sathya, the self starter, self made man of freedom, who figured it all out on his own, didn't need help from anyone. You know, that to me was like, The ultimate I'm like, man, if I could figure out a way to pull that story off, how sick would that be? So, you know, I wanted to do it on my own. Um, sometimes I would look around.
I'd say, Oh, man, get a load of that guy. You know, at least I'm not struggling as bad as him, right? Like so much pride in my heart, trying to justify trying to keep me confined. ultimately just holding me back in my calling in my destiny and in my pursuit of freedom. And not just because of [00:07:00] the pride itself, but actually because God himself opposes the proud.
Now, uh, we would be remiss if we stopped reading scripture there. And if you have been operating in pride, you know, you're trying to do this on your own. You've been offered opportunities to maybe get some extra help and you refused it. Maybe you're trying to justify your, your issue because somebody else has it worse, or, you know, at least it's not as bad as so and so or, you know, once it gets to this point, then maybe I'll really consider some help.
You know, all of these things are, are pride. They're pride that they just slowly chip away at our well being. They slowly keep us just a little bit more bound and just a little bit more stuck. And the worst part would, what infuriates me about seeing guys walk in pride is that we do the enemy's work for him.
You know, the devil doesn't have to do any work when you and I walk in pride because God himself will oppose us. Really think about that. That's just absolutely. Bananas, if you ask me. So where am I going with all this? What's what's our end game here? What's [00:08:00] our conclusion? Well, we got to keep reading the scripture God opposes the proud we've established that but he gives grace to the humble A lot of people in state grace and say grace is forgiveness.
You know, we hear things like oh, well, you know, there's There's grace for that. You know, if we fall short of that kind of thing, biblical grace is actually divine empowerment to walk in God's ways to accomplish God's assignments and to become more like God. Grace is the enablement. It is that God gives us strength and gives us power.
To do the things that he wants us and that he has called us to do. So when the scriptures say that God gives grace to the humble, it means that when you and I lay aside our pride and we choose to walk in humility, we actually invite the empowerment or the enablement of God to do the thing that we set out to do.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, which means if you are pursuing [00:09:00] righteousness, you're pursuing holiness and you're pursuing integrity, The best thing, the thing you want to do is you want to operate in a spirit of humility because if there's pride at play, then you will not receive that necessary grace to do so.
So we, we have to make sure we got to check our hearts because we want to make sure that we are walking in humility first. That is like step one. That's the basic foundation of recovery. And then if we are pretty confident, you know, and we can maybe test it against scriptures and some trusted leaders and, you know, even our own relationship with God, we can, we can feel like, you know what, I'm pretty sure I'm walking in humility here.
I feel like I've eliminated most of the pride, but you're still getting opposition. Then we can talk about spiritual warfare. Then we can talk about the enemy. Again, we don't want to discount these things because they're all real. It's just that they actually become lower priorities when you and I have pride in our hearts.
So I want to invite you today to [00:10:00] take a look within. Are you operating in pride? Is pride holding you back? Do you have opportunities that are coming your way? You know, maybe Maybe it's not the sexiest solution in the world. Maybe it's not the most attractive or it's not going to make for the greatest story.
Or, you know, maybe it's a little bit humiliating for you to do that. Well, that's kind of what humility is. Humility can be humiliating. They come from the same word, but what are those things that are there that are available to you, but pride has stopped you from accepting them. My friend, it is time to say, yes, it's time for you to get past this, to not struggle anymore.
It's time to say, yes, it's time for you to get past this, to not struggle anymore. To walk in that freedom, to walk in that righteousness that we're talking about. And you might be one moment of humility away from your next huge breakthrough. And that's the beauty of this. You and I are in control of whether or not we walk in pride.
Nobody else can do that for us and nobody else can take it away from us. It's your decision today. I want to invite you take a look, invite the Holy spirit, Holy spirit. Show [00:11:00] me, are there any areas of my heart where I'm operating in pride? Let him reveal those things to you and let's walk in greater humility and greater freedom together.
and look, if you do want a little extra help with this, you know, and you want to be part of a recovery system that's been proven that can help you get to the next level and ultimately walk in lasting freedom. Like I mentioned, there's a link in the video or there's a link in the show notes. Make sure you click that, watch the video, see if everything's a good fit.
You can book a call with us. We'd love to speak with you and see if we can help you. God bless you guys. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk soon. Bye bye. [00:12:00] [00:13:00]
