If you feel yourself infected by sinful struggles in mind, body, or spirit, you are probably eager to be healed and have your life transformed. If so, your desire shows that your conscience is still alive and that the Holy Spirit is working inside you to will what God wills. What you are feeling is a godly restlessness—a dissatisfaction with the things of this world and a yearning for the things that are from above. However, you not only need to be cleansed of your sin, but at the same time you need to be filled with holiness.
We may get rid of a compulsive thought, attitude, or behavior, temporarily—perhaps through an exertion of willpower or by some type of therapy. That’s good as far as it goes.
Yet if we do not cooperate with God to supply a new thought, attitude, or behavior to take its place, the sin is likely to come back into our lives with a vengeance. What a sad outcome!
As Peter said, “And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before” (2 Peter 2:20). They are worse off than before because they have fallen more deeply into a sin habit.
In the past, have you had trouble making your resolutions to quit sinning stick? Maybe it is because you concentrated on the negative part of the equation (eliminating sin) and forgot about the positive part (adding holiness). Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, has rightly said, “We cannot say no to temptation without saying yes to something far better.” It is like defeating cancer: doctors not only want to destroy the cancerous cells but also boost the body’s ability to replenish healthy cells. We need to tear down sin habits in our lives and replace them with virtue habits.
If we leave a vacancy in our spiritual lives, it will be filled with something. Either the same sin will return (perhaps grown more powerful) or another will come in to take its place. If you quit getting drunk, for example, you might start overeating. Instead of that kind of setback, let’s allow holy qualities to flow in and fill the space vacated by a sinful practice. That is the biblical way.
God, in His Word, has provided principles for defeating the sins that trouble us. We have organized these principles into a five-step process which can help put an end to your sin habit.
Here are the five steps in an overview:
- Step 1. Adopt a correct view of God.
- Step 2. Revise your false beliefs.
- Step 3. Repent of your sin.
- Step 4. Defend against spiritual attacks.
- Step 5. Flee temptation.
Underlying all of these steps is a prayerful relationship with God and dependence on the Holy Spirit for His transforming power. Prayer starts the healing process, keeps it going, and ensures its lasting effect. Prayer is the means by which we gain God’s perspective on our life, and it opens us to His influence on us. And it is only as the Holy Spirit works within us that we are truly changed.
5 STEPS to TRUE HEALING and FREEDOM
Along with generous doses of prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit, then, the five steps constitute our prescription for your life. 
It is a proven treatment plan, and many ex-sufferers can testify of its ability to cure the sickness of sin. We urge you to try it if you want to be healed from the soul weakness that a sin habit has given you and to be transformed.
There is more to each of these five steps and their implementation than the overview reveals. The free ebook, 5 STEPS to True Healing and Freedom, will take each of the steps in turn and explain it in depth so that you will understand thoroughly what it means. This will provide the complete prescription for your healing.
[Download 5 STEPS to TRUE HEALING and FREEDOM for free now!]
