What happens when you entertain Satan's thoughts until he pushes you way out there? You go from a seed of a thought to a big old tree of a thought! When it gets to that point, it's a lot harder to say, "No, I'm going to glorify God."

Satan tries to get us out into something called "lasciviousness." You'll find that word in Galatians 5:19. It means unrestraint. Right now, you may be keeping or restraining yourself from sinning. But Satan wants to get you into lasciviousness.

However, we are not ignorant of Satan's wiles or devices (2 Cor. 2:11). We know he wants to get us out into lasciviousness - to the point where there's no restraint.

And he does it subtly, with just a little nudge at first, just putting his foot into your thought life, and pushing further and further until he has the door wide open where he can come in and run the place.

That's what happens to people with smoking. They start out with just one puff on a cigarette, but they get to a point where they don't have any restraint in that area.

Well, Satan tries to get people into lasciviousness with sexual sin too.

At first, it's just a peck on the cheek, but the next night it can go even further. Then the next thing that happens is, you're saying, "Oh, God, what have I done? Help me."

We know that sex is a powerful thing. It's one of the most powerful "drugs" you'll ever run into.

If you get out there - entertaining all the stuff that's on television and on magazine covers and billboards - it's going to be very hard to get back to that victorious and holy Christian life you once had.

So you don't want to get out there! And the way to keep from that is to "take no thought."

The Bible tells us here that we are in warfare, and I want you to know that your mind is the battlefield where the war between your spirit and flesh is usually won or lost.

When the enemy comes to tempt you with a negative or sinful thought, you need to cast down that thought and replace it with the Word of God coming out of your mouth.

In other words, as soon as you get the thought, throw out the seed. Say, "No, Satan, I rebuke that thought. I'm going to glorify God in my body. My body is the temple of the living God. God dwells in me, and I'm not going to sin against Him."

If you keep doing that, Satan is eventually going to leave you alone and go on to try to tempt someone else in that area.

Look at what happened with Jesus in Luke 4. Satan came to tempt Him, but every time Satan tried to suggest something to Jesus, Jesus rejected it and spoke the Word instead. He didn't stop and say, "Hmm, some bread would be real good and tasty right now, and I know that I could make some good bread!"

No, rather than meditate on that thought until it became a "tree," Jesus cast the thought down while it was still a seed.

It's a lot easier to throw out a seed than it is to throw out a tree. How does a thought become a tree? When you think about it over and over again over a long period of time.

At first, you may have thought, "I would never do that." But if Satan has you out that far, he knows he can push you another step, because you keep taking his thoughts.

It's like someone who can't swim going farther and farther out into the ocean. First, he's in ankle-deep water; then he's out knee-deep. Then he is out in waist-deep water.

He might have a life jacket on to keep him afloat, but someone says to him, "Take that thing off. You're not going to go out any farther."

He listens to that person, and, eventually, he's out over his head, and he's screaming, "Help! I can't swim!"

I'm trying to show you how Satan works. But notice the subtle way he does it - through that little seed of a thought. Yet that little seed is designed to make room for itself if you'll let it.

How do you recognize a wrong thought when it comes, and how do you throw it out? By knowing what you are supposed to be thinking and meditating on.

The Word of God is what you need to think on. The Word is anointed. It contains the power to change your situation. Do you know what else it does? It drives out whatever Satan's trying to do.

The first key to glorifying God in your body is prayer. The second key is "taking no thought." Now go act on the Word with confidence.

Source: God's Plan for the Single Saint by Keith Butler, II.
Excerpt permission granted by Word of Faith Publishing