How To Kill An Evil Desire

First of all, the rules of fight or flight apply.
You don’t have to kill what you can run from.

2 Timothy 2:22
Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

I had a close encounter with a prostitute this morning at the Salvation Army while dropping off a donation. She was attractive and available.
So long as I do not go back looking for her and refuse to entertain any immoral thought of her…

2 Corinthians 10:5 …bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

…but perhaps even pray for her soul, being willing to be used to present the gospel to her… If I am honest with myself in this respect and accountable if need be, then I have fled any desire aroused by her seductive, though perhaps survivalist, intent.

But if I am unsuccessful and some desire attaches itself to my heart and like a leach begins to thrive off my heart, becomes indistinguishable from the rest of my heart and so begins to define my interior thought and motives, even though I may never fulfill this desire, have no plan to fulfill it, but enjoy the satisfaction of musing what it would be like to enjoy it – then – then I have something, "someone" to kill.

You need 4 things for a “righteous” kill.

1. Compelling Desire
2. Unconditional Permission
3. A Specific Target
4. A List of Methods At Your Disposal

Though I was successful fleeing evil desire this morning, let me use this example as a model to illustrate what I am saying. I will personify this imaginary desire to make this as biblically graphic as possible.

1. Desire

You don’t assonate someone unless you really want to. The only real and compelling reason I would forgo the private pleasure of entertaining an evil desire in my thought-life is for the superior pleasure I find in entertaining God.

If I had to choose between companionship with God or a fantasy, who would it be? If God, then why not fellowship with God now in reality as opposed to any mental dealings I might enjoy with an imaginary prostitute. I cannot do both.

Lust whether acted upon or not is sin. I cannot delight in sin and in God at the same time. If this desire is allowed to live, even if only in desire form… God is displeased and disposed to discipline.

Ephesians 4:30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.
Hebrews 12:10 God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
James 1:14 Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Proverbs 20:30 Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being.
John 15:2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Jn 15:10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
1Co 9:26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.
27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

Do you want the joy of God that comes through obedience, or the pleasure of sinful fantasy that results in grief and anxiety that He will eventually, painfully purge away? Be motivated by what holds the best, long-term, mutual joy for you and God.

2. Permission – A License To Kill

Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

3. A Specified Target

Galatians 5: 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.

Do what the Bible says. Personify YOUR sinful desire, give it a name and a face if necessary, take it to the cross of Christ and crucify it there. Kill it! You have permission to be absolutely brutal with this target of assassination that lives within you.

With everyone else’s sin, you must be loving and gentle and humble and gracious and forgiving and if necessary, stern and protective and disciplinary,

Luke 17:3 So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

…but with your own sinful passions and desires, with your own covetousness and greed and demandingness… Be merciless!

4. The Method

I suggest you pray, fast and meditate, confess, journal and any other discipline you can engage, but understand that there are a million means and methods to kill a cunning leach, once you have identified it, defined it, disengaged it and even given it a pet name… Once you have reached a point of desperation, the “I’ll do anything!” with tears, “Lord if you will not kill this desire then take my life… moment… Once you have consolidated and focused your desire, then any method will do.

Confess the truth to God that at times you would rather have fellowship with your fantasy than with him and that you want that evil craving to die.

Then set out to analyze it to death. Stop the Mary-go-round and get off and ask, “Are we having fun yet?” Is this really what I want to be doing with my life before God?

Where will it lead me? What are the long-term consequences? Will I be satisfied, joyful to overflowing or will I be left disappointed, disillusioned? If I’m going to repent some day, why not now?

If I wrote down my thoughts what would they look like? If I confessed these thoughts to a friend and maybe I should, what would he/she say? What grace and what warning would be offered?

What desire for God could reside where this evil desire now does? What would it feel like to long for God this way and have him continuously and increasingly, joyfully satisfy that desire?

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

John 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this he meant the Spirit.

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Philippians 1:26 so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

Be honest and listen to the justifications you use to permit yourself to engage in mental fantasy and desire, whether it is regarding wealth or food or sex or the companionship of someone God does not permit.

Analyze your pleasure and ask, “With what do I want to overflow? Failure and shame and regret, or the personally satisfying relational joy to be had between me and the Spirit of God living in me?” Decide and then Kill the desire you don’t want to keep. You can't keep both.

As John Owens says in his work, “The Mortification of Sin in Believers”…
“Be killing sin or it will be killing you”
And
“The Holy Spirit is the author of this work in us so that although it is our duty, it is his grace and strength whereby it is preformed.”
And
“Believers who are freed from the condemning power of sin ought to make it their business to kill the indwelling power of sin
And
If we are not always mortifying sin, we are lost creatures.

I’ll stop there.

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