First of all, I am so glad that you desire to gain the victory over the evil desires of the flesh. The Lord can surely grant you that desire and He has given you (the believer in Christ) the resources for victory over indwelling sin. We will look especially in the book of Romans which addresses this subject, and we pray you will lay hold of the truth and become a true overcomer.

I would encourage you to read Romans chapter 7. In that chapter the Apostle Paul relates the very same experience you are going through. In short, he was trying to please God by keeping the Law and because he was focused on the Law, he was expecting to gain the victory over sin in his own strength. In verse 5 he recalls his experience BEFORE he was converted, “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were around by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.” This indeed is the experience of all people who are yet unsaved and trying to lead a righteous life before God by keeping the Law (the Ten Commandments). In verses 7-13 Paul goes into some detail as to how the Law convicted him of sin and how it also condemned him. Starting with verse 14 he describes his experience AFTER his conversion, teaching us that he too was in a battle between the “old nature of INDWELLING SIN” and the “new nature” that he received when he was born again. His language sounds very similar to yours: “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (verse 15). He then discovers the evil nature that is still within him: “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but SIN THAT DWELLS IN ME. For I know that in me (that is, in MY FLESH), nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (verses 17-18). Paul found he was constantly DEFEATED by “indwelling sin” even though he realized he also had a “new nature indwelling him.” We see this in verses 22-24, “For I delight in the law of God according to the INWARD MAN. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of SIN WHICH IS IN MY MEMBERS. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” These words surely describe the miserable state of one “losing the battle between the old and new nature” and yet in them we also see Paul crying out for deliverance OUTSIDE OF HIMSELF! And immediately Paul realized that deliverance must come from His Savior, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord” (verse 25). He knew that just as Jesus Christ had given him victory from the “penalty of sin” (Hell), He must also give him the victory from the “power of sin” (the “old sinful nature”).

In the next chapter we see HOW Christ gave Paul the victory over sin. Let’s read verses 1-4: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS HAS SET YOU FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (NASB). I would ask you to meditate long and hard on these verses, for they do give us the “way of victory over sin.” We will never gain the victory by our own power but by the power of the INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT! Even though we have a “new nature” that gives us the desire to please God, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to win the battle over the “old nature.” Instead of us being focused on “keeping the Law” the Holy Spirit wants to focus our hearts on “the life in Christ Jesus” that is ours. If we allow the Holy Spirit to keep us in fellowship with the Lord Jesus through the Word of God, we will be “walking according to the Spirit” and He will enable us to live a holy and victorious life. In other words, we must allow the Holy Spirit to control us and when we do, He will keep the evil desires of the flesh from overcoming us. We see this wonderfully brought out in Galatians 5:16, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” That, dear friend, is a promise to each believer! We need only apply this truth by allowing the Spirit to control every aspect of our lives. We are told in Ephesians 5:18, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” As we yield ourselves to the Spirit’s control, He WILL occupy us with our blessed Lord and Savior (see John 14:15-17, 25-26; 15:26-27; 16:12-14) and we will become more and more like the Lord Jesus (2nd Corinthians 3:18). There is no other way of deliverance from indwelling sin. The old nature of sin will seek to rear its ugly head every day, but if we turn the battle over to the indwelling Spirit, He will give us the victory!  (DO)  (602.3)