Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19

The first time we make this declaration, Satan will laugh at us. We need to keep saying it. Satan is the tempter, but he is very methodical and wastes no time. He will tempt you if he gets any response from you. When there is no more response, he won’t bother to tempt you. So, we can be tempted in, let’s say, resentment.

We must keep saying, “It was crucified. It has no power in me. It has no place in me.” The devil says, “That isn’t really true. That’s just something Brother Prince said.” But we keep saying it. And after a while, it becomes so real that the devil doesn’t waste his time trying to tempt us any longer.

One of the things we must do is build the walls of our character. The Bible says that the person who has no control over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. (See Proverbs 25:28.)

In our culture today, many people are growing up like broken-down walls because of bad homes, drugs, or evil influences. Anybody who has been deep in drugs is a city without protective walls. We build the walls by strengthening our wills and asserting our rights bought by the cross. We may think of this process as a terrible experience. But we don’t realize how much good it is doing us; at the end of it, we have built strong character.

Gifts are temporary, for this life only; character is permanent—it goes into eternity with us. God is infinitely more interested in your character than in your gifts.