The supply chain of a fall

Nobody falls suddenly. They are supplied.

James laid out the production line two thousand years ago. "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:14-15

Read it like a process diagram.

Desire. Then bait. Then conception. Then birth. Then death.

Five stages. The act of sin is stage four. By the time you commit it, the industry has already done eighty percent of its work, quietly, in the dark, while you were not watching your diet.

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝘀

"Drawn away of his own lust." Not the devil's. His own. The raw material of every fall is already inside the man. The enemy supplies nothing but the bait.

Which means the question is never "how do I resist at stage four?" You will lose at stage four. Everyone does. The question is what you are feeding at stage one.

"They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." Romans 8:5. Mind is a diet word. Whatever your mind grazes on, your desire grows toward. Feed the flesh for six days and ask the Spirit to win on the seventh. It will not.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲

Paul adds a word James doesn't. "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Romans 13:14

Provision. Stocking the pantry in advance. The phone in the bedroom. The account not deleted. The friendship you know is a door. The "just to see." Nobody sins at the moment of provision. That is what makes it lethal. You feel innocent while you are arranging the fall.

A man who makes provision has already decided. He is just waiting for his body to catch up.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗱

Here is the part religion refuses to accept. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Romans 8:7

Cannot. Paul does not say the flesh is weak or unruly. He says it is incapable. You cannot train it, discipline it into holiness, or shame it into submission. It has no mode in which it obeys God.

So God did not reform it. He crucified it. "Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." Romans 6:6

Your job is not to improve the old man. It is to stop feeding a corpse. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." Romans 6:11. Reckon. Count it so. Daily. Not because you feel dead but because He said it is finished.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻

There is a second production line, and it runs on the same logic.

Feed the Spirit. Then mind the Spirit. Then walk in the Spirit. Then "ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Galatians 5:16

Notice the order. Walking in the Spirit is not what you do after beating the flesh. It is how the flesh gets beaten. The victory is a by-product of the diet.

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength… to still the enemy." Psalm 8:2. The strength is in the one still feeding. Nobody graduates from the breast. The day you think you have, the first supply chain resumes.

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻

Starve stage one. Guard your mind's diet.
 Refuse stage two. Make no provision. Delete, close, leave.
 Reckon daily. The old man is dead; stop feeding him.
 Feed the other chain. Word, prayer, fellowship, every day, especially the days you feel clean.

A fall is never an event. It is a supply chain that was allowed to run.

Cut the supply.

#Faith #Holiness #Romans #SpiritualDiscipline