Guarding the avenues of the soul.

Introduction
If one were to ask a typical young person today, how many senses do we have? Some might say five others, six. God gave us five senses the devil added one, the sixth sense: ESP…Extra sensory perception…He even made a couple movies to convince this generation that they can communicate with the spirit world and can be a channel for the dead. The old lie in the garden of Eden rings in my ear” ye shall not surely die” There was a young man I heard of, who had such a close call with an evil angel. I don’t remember every detail of the story but I would tell as much as I could remember. He had left church and upon visiting the night clubs he got close to a pretty young lady..one night he lent her his coat and the next night when he did not see her he decided to visit her at the address she had given him. Following her every direction, he came to a cemetery.. a little confused, he continued and low and behold where he ended up was at a grave stone with her name on it and his coat drapped over the grave…you could imagine the shock as the young man realized that he had been courting an evil angel… The devil enjoys fooling even those senses that we think we can trust…seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and even touching…In this warfare there are no lengths to which he would not go to take every last one of us with him.

The title of the message today is “Guarding the avenues to the soul” Lets pray….

Before we look at the senses, lets establish some ground work first from the Spirit of Prophecy…It says in Adventist Home:
.--All should guard the senses, lest Satan gain victory over them; for these are the avenues of the soul. {AH 401.2}

You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all your senses if you would control your mind and prevent vain and corrupt thoughts from staining your soul. The power of grace alone can accomplish this most desirable work. {AH 401.3}

Satan and his angels are busy creating a paralyzed condition of the senses so that cautions, warnings, and reproofs shall not be heard; or, if heard, that they shall not take effect upon the heart and reform the life. {AH 401.4}

Satan does not wish the people to have a knowledge of God; and if he can set in operation games and theatrical performances that will so confuse the senses of the young that human beings will perish in darkness while light shines all about them, he is well pleased. {AH 401.6}

we have a work to do to resist temptation. Those who would not fall a prey to Satan's devices must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts. The mind should not be left to wander at random upon every subject that the adversary of souls may suggest. "Gird up the loins of your mind," says the apostle Peter, "be sober, . . . not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living." Says Paul, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
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whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." This will require earnest prayer and unceasing watchfulness. We must be aided by the abiding influence of the Holy Spirit, which will attract the mind upward, and habituate it to dwell on pure and holy things. MYP p.286

Do you know that the brain experiences the world through the senses and that some culture believed this to the point where they guarded each portal or opening with a small god in the form of jewelry, nose rings, earings etc. Even in Genesis 35:2,4 When Jacob told his household to put away the gods that were among them they brought their earings also. Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian customs created the wedding ring, a symbol of eternal never-ending love in harmony with their immortality belief system. They placed it on the only finger they believed (wrongly so) had a vein running straight to the heart… guard the heart? That’s an interesting study, but not for today…

Lets begin to examin the senses:

First – Seeing
This sense is so important that more space in the brain is devoted to sight than any other sense. Also, the Bible places great emphasis on sight for it shows that by beholding we become change into the image we behold.
II Cor.3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Psalms 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; [it] shall not cleave to me.
Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

The arch enemy understands this and so he has amassed a great number of visual distractions, the television, books, billboards, magazines, internet, - the mass media to amuse and entertain. The entertainment industry Have you ever thought of the meaning of those words…media, amuse, entertainment…? A young pastor shared these meanings:

Media (plural) medium (singular) satan always use a medium, he started with the snake in Eden.

Amuse – to deceive by diverting the attention – Are we being amused by the enemy of souls?
Entertainment:
Enter-to come in tain – to hold/to possess ment- a state of
So it means: to come in, posess and keep in a state of possession. Are we letting our children and ourselves be posessed?
Hollywood, the word alone refers to holly, the stick used by magicians like Harry potter and many others, its satanic. It was used to put people to sleep. Not even the so called religious films can be trusted…Every easter we watch the story of Moses but do you know that the account is Islamic from the Koran in detail and not the Holy Bible’s account. Be careful when the devil begins to quote scripture or create things that seem Biblical. Its as much fiction as the fiction books we let our children feed on…Fiction debases the mind. Some people says, oooh its harmless…just a cartoon…we don’t have time to go into it this morning but with the devil there’s nothing like just harmless, since 1844 he began to train an army for himself and some of us and our children are enlisting. Some of our homes are arranged to facilitate the enlistment process, all furniture arranged around a central display-the tv- reminding us of some cultures that set their furniture around the image of their god in the living area. The Bible clearly says that those who enjoy looking at sinful acts portrayed are just as guilty as those committing them…see Romans 1:26-32.
Messages to Young People says:
Dear youth, cease to read the magazines containing stories. Put away every novel. . . . We would do well to clear our houses of all the story magazines and the publications containing ridiculous pictures --representations originated by satanic agencies. The youth cannot afford to poison their minds with such things. "What is the chaff to the wheat?" Let every one who claims to be a follower of Christ read only that which is true and of eternal value. {MYP 286.1}
This is reinforced by the book Last Day Events, it says:
Among the most dangerous resorts for pleasure is the theater. Instead of being a school of morality and virtue, as is so often claimed, it is the very hotbed of immorality. Vicious habits and sinful propensities are strengthened and confirmed by these entertainments. Low songs, lewd gestures, expressions, and attitudes, deprave the imagination and debase the morals. {LDE 87.2}
Every youth who habitually attends such exhibitions will be corrupted in principle. There is no influence in our land more powerful to poison the imagination, to destroy religious impressions, and to blunt the relish for the tranquil pleasures and sober realities of life than theatrical amusements. The love for these scenes increases with every indulgence, as the desire for intoxicating drink strengthens with its use.--4T 652, 653 (1881). {LDE 87.3}
The blessing of God would not be invoked upon the hour spent at the theater or in the dance. No Christian
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would wish to meet death in such a place. No one would wish to be found there when Christ shall come.--MYP 398 (1882). {LDE 87.4}


Now I need to say this even though I think it is understood…when I say tv I mean hollywood’s productions not 3ABN production, its not the instrument or medium it’s the one using it. It was not the smake, it was satan. Sometimes we don’t even have to go out to see, on the streets your eyes are assaulted with billboards and walking advertisements. Imitation copies of superstars, undressed in public.. In the garden of Eden when man sinned God dresses man, today satan is undressing …Even in church…sisters, we know that,
The outside appearance is an index to the heart.--1T 136 (1856). {LDE 89.1}
Let us stop the world from dictating our dress…too often we get caught up in a trend as the hem lines get shorter and the cloth gets less, so more and more of our skin is exposed.. Satan knows the effect on the opposite sex and so he pushes it as far as he can go and I think some have gone too far...Let us help our male brethren and not be a stumbling block for them.

Lets move to the next sense


Hearing
Lets read, Romans 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Pervert our hearing, pervert our faith…
What are we hearing today? Music, everywhere… on phones, ipods, mp3 players, in cars, from houses. everywhere …music. I don’t need to tell you that music is powerful, it is the only universal language. A love song in any language conveys that emotion. It can also go into the mind and register without processing and acceptance from the person. A song can teach you something you don’t even want to learn. Let me prove this, how many of us learnt advertisements without even trying. Unfortunately, when create, Lucifer was given that very gift. Lets read Ezekiel 28:13
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Lucifer was and is music. Today he continues to influence people through his music…he knows it’s the end of time and so he has his music tailored to every group on the earth. Rock for the worldly, Hip Hop for the not so wordly and so called Christians and church music for the church.
In messages to young people, it says: Music is the idol which many professed Sabbath-keeping Christians worship. Satan has no objection to music, if he can make that a channel through which to gain access to the minds of the youth.MYP p.296

Lets briefly address the last two groups we stated earlier, since it is highly unlikely that we will be found at a heavy metal rock concert. Hip Hop according to Craig Lewis, a music producer, was created as a tool that crosses the boundaries of world and Christian music. Our young people are listening to Snoop Dog, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for life. KRS1 who in his song says to stop worshipping God and be god and reading the Bible is irrelevant. Bone Thugs and Harmony who use their message on the back of their CD’s written backward to cast spells on young people. When young people hold their CD’s up to a mirror in order to read the message, they take part in an ancient witch’s rite from Salem, and unknowingly speak the curse into themselves. The young people listen to DMX- Dark Man X – who mocks and mimics Christ on his album and employs the devil in the production of his music. One music producer tells of hearing on his album music and cords that cannot be reproduced in any studio…it frightened him because his Christian outlook told him that this music could only come from the devil himself.
In the church the rhythms and beats of the hip hop culture has infiltrated as young people and even some adults listen to this music during the week and when they come to worship on Sabbath they bring with them the need to have things sung and played in a particular beat and rhythm, otherwise the music is boring.
We must remember that Satan wants our worship, even if we are not aware that we are giving it to him. Some so called Christian artist also employ this music, yet we allow their music to be sung in God’s house. Worshipping Satan in God’s house. Allowing him to turn every potential worship service into a celebration of one human inventing or another…celebrate more, worship less…
Ellen White says:
The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, [THESE COMMENTS WERE MADE IN CONNECTION WITH THE "HOLY FLESH" MOVEMENT AT THE INDIANA CAMP MEETING OF 1890. FOR FURTHER DETAILS, SEE SELECTED MESSAGES, BOOK 2, PP. 31-39.] the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. . . . {LDE 159.1}
A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of satanic agencies blend with the din and noise to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit's working. . . . Those things which have been in the past will be in the future. Satan will make music a snare by the way in which it is conducted.--2SM 36, 38 (1900). {LDE 159.2}
Let us give no place to strange exercisings, which really take the mind away from the deep movings of the Holy Spirit. God's work is ever characterized by calmness and dignity.--2SM 42 (1908). {LDE 159.3}

But you know, the devil knows that he can’t get some sisters or brothers in the church to sing hip hop or rock, because they are old fashion and it just does not feel right, so he infiltrates our hymns. Hymns are not just songs. Hymns put into music what we believe hence we are suppose to sing with understanding. Someone sent my husband a Christ in Song – anyone remembers that old hymn book. Before the Church Hymnal and there I understood this concept because the text was quoted and them the song was written. But let’s look at one of the hymns we sing…Let us turn to hymn #403 and at the same time find Ezekiel. 8:16-18. Lets read the text together……..in vs.16 it talks about sun worship...now read the hymn on your own #403. Do you see it? Are we sun worshippers? Why then are we singing such a song? Brethren the devil is working overtime, the Lord must be coming soon.

Ellen White says:

The history of the songs of the Bible is full of suggestion as to the uses and benefits of music and song. Music is often perverted to serve purposes of evil, and it thus becomes one of the most alluring agencies of temptation. But, rightly employed, it is a precious gift of God, designed to uplift the thoughts to high and noble themes, to inspire and elevate the soul. {MYP 291.3}

Music was made to serve a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which is pure, noble, and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God. What a contrast between the ancient custom and the uses to which music is now too often devoted! How many employ this gift to exalt self, instead of using it to glorify God! A love for music leads the unwary to unite with worldlovers in pleasure gatherings where God has forbidden His children to go. Thus that which is a great blessing, when rightly used, becomes one of the most successful agencies by which Satan allures the mind from duty and from the contemplation of eternal things. {MYP 293.1}


The next sense: Touching

This is a ticklicish one, no pun intended…but it has both direct and indirect applications. Our skin is covered with about 5 million sensors…When touched in the right place at the right time a person’s emotions and movements can be controlled, since the area in the brain which processes touch is located directly behind the area associated with movement. The young and lonely are particularly vulnerable to this as the comfort of a loving touch can do wonders .We know touch is especially important to healthy infant development. Human being need to touch and therefore perverting such a simple act of touch would serve to weaken our spiritual defenses.

The ultimate act of intimacy, sex has also been distorted. In today’s society the act of sex has been so debased and distorted that it can be found in dance moves, in games, in festivals and celebration. We are often caught up in this as there seems to be a kind of freedom, looseness, familiarity exhibited between the sexes in their casual intercourse.
When growing up there was something called personal space…it was that unwritten barrier that existed around a typical Adventist young girl. A barrier that young men had to get permission to cross. Where has that barrier gone? 1Corinthians 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] good for a man not to touch a woman. Young men and women are too common in their interactions, the body is no longer treated as the temple of God… Young men are given free access to touch, squeeze and fondle, even under the guise of play. The bodies of young ladies are displayed and paraded in church for the young men to see…I must say that I admire one of our older sisters, she will diligently cover up some of the young who come to church exposed
Ellen Whit admonishes: The forwardness of young girls in placing themselves in the company of young men, lingering around where they are at work, entering into conversation with them, talking common, idle talk, is belittling to womanhood. It lowers them, even in the estimation of those who themselves indulge in such things. . . . Young ladies should be reserved and modest. {CH 294.2}

This not only goes for the young but the older ones who are now getting involved in such boob display and fashions of the world and who set a bad example for the young.

She goes on to say:

The young are bewitched with the mania for courtship and marriage. Lovesick sentimentalism prevails. Great vigilance and tact are needed to guard the youth from these wrong influences. Many parents are blind to the tendencies of their children. Some parents have stated to me, with great satisfaction, that their sons or daughters had no desire for the attentions of the opposite sex, when in fact these children were at the same time secretly giving or receiving such attentions, and the parents were so much absorbed in worldliness and gossip that they knew nothing about the matter. {5T 59.4}

No one is saying that you should be cold and touch no one, however that touch must be one that would encourage, uplift and ennoble. In the garden of Eden, eve was told not to touch the tree…Israelites were told not to touch the ark…we are admonish not to touch the even the carcase of unclean animals like the pig.
Leviticus 11:8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they [are] unclean to you. Who you touch, when you touch, how you touch, is important.
However, when you touch Jesus and he touches your life something different occurs:
Matthew 9:21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
Luke 6:19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed [them] all.

Taste
The tongue has 10,000 very tiny bumps called taste buds, they help us to taste what we eat. The sense of smell is also closely connected to taste. Have you ever noticed that when you have a bad cold you cannot taste your food much? I don’t think I need to spend much time on this for every Adventist know that we become what we eat…the body temple is either made healthy or sick by our dietary habits. The appetite of the world should not be ours. The overstimmulating chemicals which makes addicts of those who eat should not be our experience…when the time of trouble hit, are we going to let the smell of KFC lure and numb our senses so we cannot discern aright and make sound decisions. Ellen White says:
Satan is constantly on the alert to bring the race fully under his control. His strongest hold is through the appetite, and this he seeks to stimulate in every possible way. Counsels on Diet and Foods p.150.
The battle of the appetite is so great that it was the point at which Satan gained victory over Eve. Israel fed upon angels’ food and still begged for the flesh pots of Egypt. Esau for a morsel of meal sold his birthright (Heb.12:16) It took Jesus 40 days of fasting to break the sinful hold of appetite and when he was at His weakest, Satan attacked Him with the temptation, turn these stones into bread. Our diet and spirituality are closely connected. The book Temperance (p.20)says that Christ “ knew that appetite would be man’s idol and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the way of his salvation”
The controlling power of appetite would prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this one point, they would have the moral power to gain victory over every other temptation of Satan. But slaves to appetite would fail in perfecting Christian character.(p.16)
The ultimate act of temperance has to do with our whole being. It demands that we totally abstain from that which is bad and moderately use that which is good. Daniel understood this. He said, I will not ‘defile’ myself with the portion of the king’s meat. Paul understood this when he said in 1 Corinthians 8:16,17, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Why are we still struggling with dietary abnormalities? Because on this battlefront, if victory is won, we would easily overcome all other areas of our sinful life. Sanctification would be our daily experience. Clear minds and hearts will communicate with God.
Some of us are still struggling with the basic – no meat! Our taste buds have been perverted. Do you know that flesh or meat contains blood and uric acid (urine)? Someone told me that the urine and blood gives it that special smell. If you remove the blood and urine from meat, the meat would taste like shoe leather. The jews are very particular about the processing of their meat…they prepare meat the way the Bible intended, they remove all blood from it, they call it cosher meat.
The Bible says,in Lev.17:10-14 and Lev. 19:26 what is confirmed in Genesis 9:4, which says:
“But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”
The Spirit of prophecy admonishes that we take one more step:
God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to His original design--that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord meat eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view and endeavor to work steadily toward it.--CH 450 (1890). {LDE 81.5}
Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a work which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the danger of meat eating who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God's people, to walk no more with them.--RH May 27, 1902. {LDE 82.1}

Back to God's Design.--Again and again I have been shown that God is bringing His people back to His original design, that is, not to subsist on the flesh of dead animals. He would have us teach people a better way. . . . If meat is discarded, if the taste is not educated in that direction, if a liking for fruits and grains is encouraged, it will soon be as God in the beginning designed it should be. No meat will be used by His people.

Brethren, Let us be careful that the cunning enemy of the soul has not laid a trap for us even in our logically calculated diet and lifestyle. Let our lives be guided and dictated by the Spirit of Prophecy. The Holy Spirit works in us to help us overcome, even our intemperate activities.


Smell-
This is a unique sense, often underestimated…for when the devil cannot get us to indulge directly, he triggers our memory through smell. By indulging the memory we partake in the act once again…Let us remember Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places .



In Closing
We are counseled:
Many of the amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are indeed few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying souls. Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance, the card table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle and open the door to sensual indulgence. In every gathering for pleasure where pride is fostered or appetite indulged, where one is led to forget God and lose sight of eternal interests, there Satan is binding his chains about the soul. {ML 87.3}
Our only safety is to be shielded by the grace of God every moment, and not put out our own spiritual eyesight so that we will call evil, good, and good, evil. Without hesitation or argument, we must close and guard the avenues of the soul against evil.

Why God Gave Us Eyes, Ears, and Speech?.--God gave men eyes, that they might behold wondrous things out of His law. He gave them the hearing ear, that they might listen to His message, spoken by the living preacher. He gave men the talent of speech, that they might present Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. {AH 401.1}


Those who would have that wisdom which is from God must become fools in the sinful knowledge of this age, in order to be wise. They should shut their eyes, that they may see and learn no evil. They should close their ears, lest they hear that which is evil and obtain that knowledge which would stain their purity of thoughts and acts. And they should guard their tongues, lest they utter corrupt communications and guile be found in their mouths. {AH 404.1}
Let me end by sharing a story told by David Gates: While flying in an airplane he met a witch that boasted that he had the ability to take a man’s wife from him and give her to another, even if they are christians…So David Gates told him he could not do that to his wife. They went back and forth,” no you can’t”, “yes, I could” Finally the witch said, before I could do this let me ask you a few questions, he proceeded to ask him
Are your sins forgiven? He said yes
Do you watch soap operas? He said no
Do you read novels? He said no
Do you memorise the scriptures? he said yes
Do you listen to wordly music? He said no.
when all his answers proved that him and his wife were true Christians, not tainting themselves with the things of this world. The witch had to admit that he could not touch them. He had no portal of entry, he could not posess or manipulate their actions.
The Spirit of Prophecy says:
All who name the name of Christ need to watch and pray and guard the avenues of the soul, for Satan is at work to corrupt and destroy if the least advantage is given him. {AH 402.3}
Lets not give him the advantage. Let us clean our houses, clean our hearts, so we could meet Jesus when He comes. Amen.

source: Nicole Belfast