0:00:00 - 0:00:22 Awareness is the key to overcoming temptation. And I'd like to say a few things very briefly to entice you to look into other videos that I've made to read. The book, The Glory Of God is Intelligence and the book Seek Ye This Jesus. Um because this is a very crucial topic and if you or someone, you know 0:00:22 - 0:00:44 , is struggling with uh avoiding things that they know they should avoid or doing things that um are not doing things that they know they should do. Then uh these are the ideas that can set them free from that. Um So I've made some points in videos and chapters and things. I've written blog posts that 0:00:44 - 0:01:09 I just want to summarize here. I want to make this brief. So I'm not going to present these arguments again. Satan's tool uh is to reduce negative consequences, exaggerate positive consequences. Essentially, anything he can do to distort reality, to skew uh rational choices and temptations are always 0:01:08 - 0:01:31 tied to a specific uh degree of awareness. Once you exceed that degree of awareness, you are no longer tempted by those things because you know the truth and the truth sets you free um it, it, it frees you from being swayed by arguments that you know, are false. It gives you a more accurate and complete 0:01:31 - 0:01:53 understanding of negative and positive consequences. And then you can navigate those accordingly. The key to overcoming temptation is greater awareness. It's not willpower, it's trust in God. And once you trust in God, he can reveal to you greater truth. This is not an arbitrary relationship, it's cause 0:01:53 - 0:02:21 and effect. If you do not trust in God, he cannot reveal to you the awareness required to overcome these things and all things because it will overcome you. If you don't trust in Him, that is the key. So uh here are some things that are true but are not well known, real happiness, joy and fulfillment 0:02:20 - 0:02:49 does not exist outside of equal and opposite, darkness, pain, sadness, sorrow, disappointment, and loneliness. God is the most aware being when it comes to evil and sadness and pain and darkness and sorrow and disappointment and loneliness. He is the most aware being of all things including negative 0:02:48 - 0:03:19 things. And yet He is also the happiest. He has the most joy and the most fulfillment and exploring that seeming contradiction is the key to understanding God one key anyway. But these things coexist, there are uh opposing forces to all things, there's opposition in all things. And if you want extreme 0:03:18 - 0:03:42 happiness, you will also have to experience extreme sadness. If you want extreme joy, you'll have to ex uh experience extreme sorrow and so on. Overcoming the world means developing tactics to contend with the increasing darkness, pain, sadness, sorrow, disappointment, and loneliness, so that you can 0:03:41 - 0:04:06 obtain equal and opposite happiness, joy, and fulfillment. What God reveals commands and lives is reality. It's reality. It's things as they really are. It is cause and effect violating God's instructions, character, et cetera can never bring you what you seek. So all the desires you have people think 0:04:05 - 0:00:00 that the desires are bad. It's the, the things you assume will fulfill the desires that are bad and they're only bad when they're not true, seeking God's instructions and then following them is the optimal path to obtaining the desires that you have far fewer desires are actually evil than we think. 0:00:00 - 0:04:59 It's how we assume those, those desires will be fulfilled. That is wrong and only seeking God will result in our understanding how to actually obtain those things. So what are some examples of this? Uh You can read this sli slide but essentially um anything you seek that deviates from your understanding 0:04:58 - 0:05:24 of what God wants or who God is, is an illusion. And when you trust God, he will open your awareness to show you how these things will not fulfill what you seek or that they're inadequate to do what you think they will do or that their costs far exceed their benefits. For example, I will never be an 0:05:24 - 0:05:45 alcoholic because I have experienced darkness that exceeds what alcohol can cover. And so it goes with every example of a temptation we have to trust in God sufficiently so that He can reveal to us the hard truths that actually make things harder than we think they are. And that's a tough thing to do 0:05:45 - 0:06:05 and you can't fake it, you can't fake that necessary trust in God. Because if you're already hiding from your problems with overeating or abusing social media or using pornography or whatever the thing may be. And there's millions of things. If you're already hiding from reality by doing those things 0:06:05 - 0:06:28 , then it's quite a pill to swallow to have to seek an even harder reality to free you from it. But that is the key. And as you trust in God, he will give you the tools to contend with that reality and uh you'll be able to move on now. That's a good segue to a warning. I want to give positive and negative 0:06:28 - 0:06:47 awareness are infinite. They go on forever and you should be careful anytime you're presented something that uh purports to be a final solution. This is a never ending cycle of receiving the tools you need to overcome your present level of awareness, the problems within your present level of awareness 0:06:47 - 0:07:09 and inheriting with it other problems. So it just keeps happening. It's a cycle. And the reason you should be careful about this is because when you adopt things that you think are final solutions. You tend to be blind when you're offered higher truth and you also tend to fall into traps that exist at 0:00:00 - 0:00:22 Awareness is the key to overcoming temptation. And I'd like to say a few things very briefly to entice you to look into other videos that I've made to read. The book, The Glory Of God is Intelligence and the book Seek Ye This Jesus. Um because this is a very crucial topic and if you or someone, you know 0:00:22 - 0:00:44 , is struggling with uh avoiding things that they know they should avoid or doing things that um are not doing things that they know they should do. Then uh these are the ideas that can set them free from that. Um So I've made some points in videos and chapters and things. I've written blog posts that 0:00:44 - 0:01:09 I just want to summarize here. I want to make this brief. So I'm not going to present these arguments again. Satan's tool uh is to reduce negative consequences, exaggerate positive consequences. Essentially, anything he can do to distort reality, to skew uh rational choices and temptations are always 0:01:08 - 0:01:31 tied to a specific uh degree of awareness. Once you exceed that degree of awareness, you are no longer tempted by those things because you know the truth and the truth sets you free um it, it, it frees you from being swayed by arguments that you know, are false. It gives you a more accurate and complete 0:01:31 - 0:01:53 understanding of negative and positive consequences. And then you can navigate those accordingly. The key to overcoming temptation is greater awareness. It's not willpower, it's trust in God. And once you trust in God, he can reveal to you greater truth. This is not an arbitrary relationship, it's cause 0:01:53 - 0:02:21 and effect. If you do not trust in God, he cannot reveal to you the awareness required to overcome these things and all things because it will overcome you. If you don't trust in Him, that is the key. So uh here are some things that are true but are not well known, real happiness, joy and fulfillment 0:02:20 - 0:02:49 does not exist outside of equal and opposite, darkness, pain, sadness, sorrow, disappointment, and loneliness. God is the most aware being when it comes to evil and sadness and pain and darkness and sorrow and disappointment and loneliness. He is the most aware being of all things including negative 0:02:48 - 0:03:19 things. And yet He is also the happiest. He has the most joy and the most fulfillment and exploring that seeming contradiction is the key to understanding God one key anyway. But these things coexist, there are uh opposing forces to all things, there's opposition in all things. And if you want extreme 0:03:18 - 0:03:42 happiness, you will also have to experience extreme sadness. If you want extreme joy, you'll have to ex uh experience extreme sorrow and so on. Overcoming the world means developing tactics to contend with the increasing darkness, pain, sadness, sorrow, disappointment, and loneliness, so that you can 0:03:41 - 0:04:06 obtain equal and opposite happiness, joy, and fulfillment. What God reveals commands and lives is reality. It's reality. It's things as they really are. It is cause and effect violating God's instructions, character, et cetera can never bring you what you seek. So all the desires you have people think 0:04:05 - 0:00:00 that the desires are bad. It's the, the things you assume will fulfill the desires that are bad and they're only bad when they're not true, seeking God's instructions and then following them is the optimal path to obtaining the desires that you have far fewer desires are actually evil than we think. 0:00:00 - 0:04:59 It's how we assume those, those desires will be fulfilled. That is wrong and only seeking God will result in our understanding how to actually obtain those things. So what are some examples of this? Uh You can read this sli slide but essentially um anything you seek that deviates from your understanding 0:04:58 - 0:05:24 of what God wants or who God is, is an illusion. And when you trust God, he will open your awareness to show you how these things will not fulfill what you seek or that they're inadequate to do what you think they will do or that their costs far exceed their benefits. For example, I will never be an 0:05:24 - 0:05:45 alcoholic because I have experienced darkness that exceeds what alcohol can cover. And so it goes with every example of a temptation we have to trust in God sufficiently so that He can reveal to us the hard truths that actually make things harder than we think they are. And that's a tough thing to do 0:05:45 - 0:06:05 and you can't fake it, you can't fake that necessary trust in God. Because if you're already hiding from your problems with overeating or abusing social media or using pornography or whatever the thing may be. And there's millions of things. If you're already hiding from reality by doing those things 0:06:05 - 0:06:28 , then it's quite a pill to swallow to have to seek an even harder reality to free you from it. But that is the key. And as you trust in God, he will give you the tools to contend with that reality and uh you'll be able to move on now. That's a good segue to a warning. I want to give positive and negative 0:06:28 - 0:06:47 awareness are infinite. They go on forever and you should be careful anytime you're presented something that uh purports to be a final solution. This is a never ending cycle of receiving the tools you need to overcome your present level of awareness, the problems within your present level of awareness 0:06:47 - 0:07:09 and inheriting with it other problems. So it just keeps happening. It's a cycle. And the reason you should be careful about this is because when you adopt things that you think are final solutions. You tend to be blind when you're offered higher truth and you also tend to fall into traps that exist at 0:07:09 - 0:07:11 your current level of awareness.