Self Control

The Greek word for self-control is (enkrateia) it means literally “exercising dominion, from within” to get a hold of or to get a grip on.

John Maxwell said, “I consider self – control the most important part of a persons character. It will give them success and help them reach the highest potential that they can possibly reach.”
Plato said “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

TPT Proverbs 25:28 says If you live without restraint
and are unable to control your temper,
you’re as helpless as a city with broken-down defenses,
open to attack.

CEB 2Tim1:7 says – God didn’t give us a spirit that is timid but one that is powerful, loving, and self-controlled.

Gal:5:16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

1Cor 6:11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Rom8:3- 4 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So how are we living.

There are three levels of life we can live in.

1. Instinct is where most people live, obeying their driving impulses and instincts without question or inhibition. In other words, if it feels good we do it. There is a old country song that describes living by instinct. (How can it be so wrong when it feels so right).

2.Duty -Then comes religion with its “Thou shall not do this; thou shall not do that” this is the introduction of duty. This level of life is filled with clenched fists, knit brows, set jaws– people who are struggling to be good. It is religion full of pain and strain. These are people who sigh and look for heaven as a release from all there tense struggles. For them “life more abundantly “ must wait for death and heaven.

3.Grace- Here is the place where you surrender your all– ALL YOU KNOW ABOUT YOURSELF. Here is the place where nothing is hidden. You tell the Lord openly all you know about yourself and all you are capable of doing. Then the spirit is able to apply grace at the place where it counts- at the depths, at the subconscious. Then grace is redemptive, taking over the instincts and cleansing away all wrong bents and intents, directing the driving impulses toward new ends with new power WITHIN. The instincts and wrong bents and wrong desires are not eliminated or even suppressed, but we now have power over them through Gods Spirit. Romans 8:2 says

And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Gal5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

It is only by the power of Gods spirit that we are able to live a victorious life.