Grant, yep, certainly true regarding the fruit of the Spirit and the 
devil gets far too much credit for our downfalls.  Also, I believe 
our blindness comes from God, if not directly, then, indirectly.  It 
is all part of His plan.  If I hadn't been born blind, I doubt if I 
would be saved, now.  God has had his hand on me since sometime in 
eternity past.

earlier, Grant E. Metcalf, wrote:
>Andrew,  Brad has provided some beneficial general advice. I have 
>been blind since 1948, when I was 8 years-old.
>During my years of involvement with the church and other Christians 
>I also have encounted occasionally ignorant or porrly taught church 
>attendees. Many of these have been involved in the charismatic 
>movement and have a man-made definition of what true Bible-based "faith" means.
>Also, sad to say, most do not understand the three enemies of the 
>true believer or how to deal with them. Doubtless you are familiar 
>with these three enemies, the Flesh, the World, and the Devil.  I 
>put them in that order, because that is the order we most often have 
>to deal with them on an individual spiritual basis.
>1. The devil can only attack as God allows, 2. the world system has 
>many lusts/cravings as described in First John 2:15-17, and then 3. 
>their is the "flesh" or our old sinful nature which is always with 
>us and we will only escape its lusts/cravings when we go to be with 
>Christ either at the rapture or by physical death.
>First, the devil gets blamed for a lot of things which he does not 
>do. One example is drunkenness.
>Specificly in Galatians 5:19-21 drunkenness is listed as one of the 
>lusts of the flesh which can best be dealt with by allowing the part 
>of the fruit of the Spirit, self-control or temperance to help us 
>gain the victory.
>A desire for the so-called "devil's brew" does not come from Satan 
>but from our old sinful nature's cravings. When that lust comes to 
>us, it is the Holy Spirit that provides the strength to say "no". 
>The devil being a liar and the Father of lies, wil say "Go ahead and 
>have a drink, it won't hurt anything."
>If you know what the Bible says about drunkenness and the Spirit's 
>provision for self-control, you have the answer to his lie.  A 
>careful study of the Bible teaches us that most all attacks from 
>Satan are lies. You will find most of his attacks described in 
>Ephesians 4:17 through 31.
>And  as mentioned, the lusts of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 list 
>things like sexual lusts, emotional lusts, religious lusts and 
>sensual lusts which can all be overcome by allowing the fruit from 
>the Holy Spirit to provide the victory as you direct a specific 
>aspect of the fruit toward its object.
>Secondly, the world system is full of all kinds of lusts/cravings, 
>including those of our old sinful natures as well as the lies of 
>Satan, et cetera. If we direct our "self-sacrificial-love" Agape 
>love" toward anything other than God, we become carnal or fleshly 
>and thus are not in fellowship with God. Anything that takes our 
>agape love away from God and focuses on other things is going to 
>break fellowship with God. John tells us, 'STOP LOVING THE WORLD 
>SYSTEM AND THE THINGS THAT ARE IN IT!"  Or as Nancy Reagan used to 
>say, "Just say NO!" smile
>Thirdly, our old sinful nature is the greatest cause for our 
>spiritual defeat when we give in to those lusts/cravings. Paul had a 
>great deal to say about this issue in his letter to the Romans, 
>chapters 5:12 through 8. What Paul discovered was that he could not 
>defeat his old sinful nature in his own strength even though he had 
>a new God quality of nature. He discovered that when the Law said 
>"You shall not covet", his sin nature said "Oh yes I will!" In his 
>own strength, even having a new nature, he could not win that 
>battle. However, what he discovered was that he could gain the 
>victory when he "got out of the way" and allowed the indwelling Holy 
>Spirit to provide the power to overcome his sinful nature.
>With Paul, I have discovered that the most important key to this is 
>given in Romans 6:11: "Consider yourself  to be dead to your old 
>sinful nature and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." When He 
>died, He died not only for ours sins but also for our sinful nature. 
>When we are baptized into Christ death and resurrection by the Holy 
>Spirit when we first believe, we are placed into His death, burial 
>and resurrection by the Spirit. That is how God sees us and that is 
>how we should consider ourselves in this present life. Such a mind 
>set allows the Holy Spirit to then produce His fruit in us.
>Galatians 5:16-18 tells us to order our lives by the instrumentality 
>of the Spirit and we will never, no never fulfill the lusts/cravings 
>of the sinful nature. That is because the Holy Spirit wars with our 
>old sinful nature/spirit and cancels it out and then produces His 
>quality of fruit in our lives. In my own strength, I cannot produce 
>love, but I can direct the part of the fruit of the Spirit called 
>love toward the appropriate object. The same is true with the other 
>parts of the singular fruit of the Spirit. But one must be spiritual 
>to do this having his mind set in the right place.
>
>On the Bartimaeus website there is a book entitled "Maturing in 
>Christ". This book is a compilation of several small booklets 
>written by a former pastor of mine who helped me greatly in my 
>personal spiritual life.  The book contains chapters on "The Enemy 
>within", our sin nature, "The World System and Other Appeals", 
>"Satan, The enemy without" and other chapters regarding the 
>Christian's thought life and spiritual living.  It is under 
>copyright and so you need to become a qualified member of the 
>Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind reader's list to access it in HTML 
>format. However, if you read braille, it is available in braille 
>format in the braille library and can be read on a refreshable 
>braille display or embossed.
>You may not want to read such a detailed book, but I would recommend 
>it to everyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the 
>Biblical teaching regarding our basic spiritual life, how to 
>understand it and live it. Not everything will agree with things 
>said and/or taught on this list, but I personally have found it of 
>inestimable value for my personal relationship with God and other believers.
>
>Listening for His shout!
>
>Grant
>Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Inc.
>Email:  [log in to unmask]
>Website: http://bartimaeus.us/
>
>-----Original Message-----