A second way to tame the flesh is to “guard the gates”
more specifically the eye and ear gates.
Job 31:1 says, “I made a covenant with mine eyes;
why then should I think upon a maid?”
The Amplified Bible makes it plain as Job 31:1 reads,
“I dictated a covenant (an agreement) to my eyes;
how then could I look [lustfully] upon a girl?”
In this passage of Scripture, Job, a man of God indeed, is demonstrating
how he made a personal covenant, or commitment to God, Himself, to not
even look lustfully at a woman. Job is demonstrating ow he is guarding,
or protecting his eyes from even “going there.”
In today’s society, especially with images of sex being advertised on seemingly
every billboard and every television commercial, you have to make a special
effort to be careful about what you set your eyes upon, so you don’t look
lustfully upon it and arouse the flesh.
This is another reason why it is so important for believers not to get caught
in satan’s trap of pornography, whether in a magazine, on a video, or online.
The word, “porneia,” means harlotry, idolatry, and fornication.
As you look lustfully on these images, the spirit upon it, which is definitely
not the Holy Spirit, defiles your own spirit. It causes you to view the opposite
sex as merely a sex object, even during day to day encounters with people in
general, you begin to undress people with your eyes.
I have heard of marriages which were shattered and almost broken because
their spouses were addicted to letting their eye gates get a hold of this filth
and allowing the enemy to have his way, subtly, tricking the person viewing it
into thinking he’s not doing anything wrong since he or she isn’t actually
having sex, but simply viewing it.
However, viewing it is not protecting your eye gates.
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that
turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. Psalm 101:3
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The following has been an except from my latest book,