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Why Do I Keep Struggling with the Same Temptation?

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Answered by True Bible Teachings AI on 6/26/2026

1) Direct Answer
You keep meeting the same temptation because the old nature is still being fed, a door has been left open, and the battle is being fought too much in your own strength instead of walking in the Spirit. Victory comes by full surrender to Jesus Christ, the infilling of the Holy Ghost, and cutting off the provisions that keep the cycle alive.

2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says there’s a war inside: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh… the flesh lusteth against the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-17).
- God promises a way out every time: “God… will with the temptation also make a way to escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
- The door must be shut: “Make not provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14). “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).
- Watch and pray or you’ll enter into it again (Matthew 26:41).
- Real power is by the Spirit: “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
- Bring it into the light: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9).
- Overcome by the Blood and the Word: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
- Flee what inflames it: “Flee… youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22).
- Arm yourself with the Word: Jesus answered every temptation with “It is written” (Matthew 4:1-11; Ephesians 6:17; Psalm 119:11).

3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- You can’t starve and feed the same thing at once. If you feed the flesh, it rules; if you feed the inner man, he rules.
- Temptation returns where a door is still unlocked. Shut the door, and the thief loses access.
- Willpower alone grows weary; the Holy Ghost never does. Victory is not by grit but by surrender—Christ living in you.

Practical steps
- Repent specifically: Name the sin to God; renounce it. Ask for cleansing by the Blood (1 John 1:7-9).
- Shut the doors: remove triggers, access points, and companions that lead you there (Romans 13:14; Matthew 5:29-30).
- Submit and resist: First submit to God, then resist the devil; he will flee (James 4:7). Don’t argue with temptation—flee it (2 Timothy 2:22).
- Fill, don’t just empty: Seek to be filled with the Holy Ghost daily (Acts 2:38-39; Ephesians 5:18). Pray, worship, and keep the Word in your mouth.
- Use the Sword: Memorize two or three Scriptures that answer your specific battlefield; speak them when the thought first knocks (Matthew 4; Psalm 119:11).
- Stay in the light: Walk in fellowship; confess your faults to a faithful, praying believer (James 5:16). Isolation fuels bondage; light breaks it.
- Watch and pray: Set times for prayer and the Word; temptation thrives where watchfulness is absent (Matthew 26:41).
- If you stumble: Don’t settle. Run to the Blood at once, get up, and keep walking (Proverbs 24:16; 1 John 2:1).

Short reinforcement
Now notice, God has already provided the escape and the power. Yield to the Spirit, close the doors of the flesh, take the Word in your mouth, and walk on. The same Jesus who saved you can keep you.

What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?

Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.

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55-0806 §22

Now, if we keep grieving this little fellow called soul, after awhile it will finally depart from us. The Bible said, "The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die." Now, death doesn't mean what we term it to be; death means "separation." If I died here at the pulpit now, I wouldn't be dead. You died there you wouldn't be dead. You'd be dead ... we'd be dead to each other. Here's one alive, and the other one gone. Means to "separate." But we'll be alive if we're Christian in the presence of God. If we're not, in tort...

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SermonRelevance 37

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56-0311E §26

It puts me in mind of a man with a bird in a cage. He goes and gives him the best food he can, bone building, to make good strong bones on his canary. But he keeps him in the cage so he can't fly. What good does it do to give him good orthodox food, if you keep him penned up? That's what's the matter today. You're sending preachers to seminaries, and being very orthodox, and trying to give the best food, but they're afraid to come out and tell the people that they're fake, and set them free, and make them healed an...

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SermonRelevance 37

Abraham

Friday, the 24th of June 1955

55-0624 §19

...I said, "Doctor, is it true every time we eat, we build blood cells in our body, that makes us grow?" He said, "That is true." I said, "I ask you a question. I'm eating the same kind of food now that I ate when I was sixteen. When I was sixteen, I ate the food, I grew, got stronger, bigger. And now, I eat the same food, perhaps better and more of it, and I'm getting older and weaker all the time." I said, "Explain that." It's not scientific. If this glass has got water in it, and you pour more in it, it just keeps...

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SermonRelevance 36

Greater than Solomon is here

Wednesday, the 5th of June 1963

63-0605 §102

...quiet, and be in prayer. Now just imagine. Now, if anybody does not think that This comes from God, then in the Name of Jesus Christ I challenge you to come here and do the same thing. And then if you can't, don't say nothing about It. Search it in the Scriptures, you see. Now as far as I know, with God's Bible here before me, and this bunch of men sitting here looking at me, and in the presence of this people, this woman is a stranger to me. I don't know her. She's just a woman standing there. I know nothing of he...

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SermonRelevance 35Broader match

A Super Sign

Sunday morning, the 27th of December 1959 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

59-1227M §42

He had another time that He proved. He proved in the flood that He was the God of judgment, and the God of mercy to those that keep His Commandments. He showed at the burning bush, by a sign, that He would keep every promise that He made. And at the Red Sea, He showed that He would make a way for those who were trying to do right and follow His Commandments. No matter what cuts it off, God proved at the Red Sea, and gave a sign, that He could open up the sea. In every temptation, He will make a way of escape. Say,...

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