Mike,
I hope you understand the point of this question. I’m not quite sure how to ask it but here goes. When we are tempted in light of Eph 6:12 and God is allowing it to happen and is totally sovereign over the outcome if I give in how does 1Co 10:13 fit in? God says I can bear it and will provide escape. When I compare Eph 1:11, Eph 6:12 and 1Co 10:13 I get real confused. If all are true, it appears God wants me to sin, and this can’t be the case; it’s got to be up to me at some point.
 Thanks Guys,
M____

Hi M____,
You ask:

“… if I give in what does that say about 1Co 10:13?

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

… and Jas 4:7-8.

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

  ‘I’m confused when I compare – Eph 1:11, Eph 6:12, 1Co 10:13, Jas 4:7-8.’

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

And Eph. 6:12.

Eph 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.” 

If you give into temptation, what does that say about 1Co 10:13 which promises “a way of escape that you may be able to bear it?”
What it says is “that you may be able to bear it,” not avoid it, as so many seem to think Paul is saying.
You also ask:

“If all [ four verses] are true it appears God wants me to sin and this can’t be the case. It’s got to be up to me at some point.”

It cannot be the case that God wants you to sin? It’s got to be up to you? You can’t even sin without God “shaping you in iniquity and conceiving you in sin.” It is pure vanity for any human being to think that he can do anything outside of God and God’s will. God’s sovereignty is very limited indeed, just as all the churches of Babylon teach, if He is not the one working the evil as well a the good in this world.
Look at a few verses in Isa 45. This chapter will help you to understand the mind of God as He speaks to us. Some ministers who believe in man’s free will quote Isa 45: as proof that God has put our hope of salvation in the hands of our own free will. Some go so far as to say that God has given us that power to command Him concerning the work of His own hands. I should hope that you know better than that, but that is where the concept of self- determination leads us. Here is the verse they misuse to make their point:

Isa 45:11  Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

Isa 45 is the chapter which proclaims God’s sovereignty above light and darkness, good and evil. This is the chapter that reveals that mans will is wrapped up in, and is subject to God’s will.

Isa 45:5  I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

“There is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.”  Is there anything in that statement that sounds like God is having any trouble coping with man’s fabled “free” will? “I make peace and create evil.” Does that sound like God is having trouble coping with the evil that man’s fabled “free” will places before God? How absolutely absurd that a mere “clay pot” can tell its Creator what that clay pot will do and command its Creator concerning the work of its Creator’s hand. What utter foolishness. Yes, man does indeed have a will which he exercises every time he makes a simple decision, but there is nothing “free” about mankind’s will. God is so sovereign that He tells us that even “evil is His creation… and there is none else.” So our God continues declaring His sovereignty over the affairs of His own creation:

Isa 45:8  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
Isa 45:9  Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Isa 45:10  Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
Isa 45:11  Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.
Isa 45:12  I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

There it is in verse twelve; “I have made the earth, and… man upon it… the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded.” It is God who commands the hosts of heaven and earth. It is not the pot which commands its Creator.
 “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?” What part of “Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?” does Christian “Babylon the great” not understand?
The translators have placed a question mark at all the right places but at the end of verse 11, “Concerning the work of my hands command ye me???” The absurity of it should require three question marks. The clay has no say at all in how it is fashioned. None of us would do things the way God is “working all things.” Not one of us was asked by our creator if we wanted to be “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” And yet that is exactly what our sovereign Father has done with every man made of sinful flesh who He has ever brought into this world:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and i n sin did my mother conceive me.

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

How was the creature “made subject to vanity?” Was it made subject to vanity by freely deciding to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? How absolutely absurd! How void of spiritual understanding. Those with eyes to see understand the meaning of being “made of the dust of the ground” and being “naked…” from “the Potters hand.” Adam and Eve were both “made” by their Creator as sinning machines, “made subject to vanity,” totally incapable of seeing the spiritual advantage of eating the fruit of a tree “with no comliness that we should desire it.” Their decision and the decision of all flesh is to eat of the tree that “was pleasant to the eyes, and desired to make one wise.” It was a predestined event, by virtue of being made of spiritual dust and being made spiritually naked. Mother Eve had committed every sin, “all that is in the world” before she ever touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was [1] good for food, and that it was [2] pleasant to the eyes, and [3] a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And what Eve did was in the very order in John lists “all that is in the world,” 1) the lust of the flesh; “the woman saw that the tree was good for food;” 2) the lust of the eyes, ” and that it was pleasant to the eyes;” and 3) the pride of life; “and a tree to be desired to make one wise.”
Cain’s murder of his brother, and every sin that has ever been committed since was wrapped up in those three sins committed by our common mother Eve before she ever even so much as touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was naked before she touched that tree. She simply didn’t realize her spiritual nakedness until afterward:

Gen 2:25  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Those who want to “return to Eden,” ought to be rejoicing because that is exactly where this sinful world is headed, and it too, “is not ashamed.”
Yes, God did intend for Adam and all of his seed to sin. That is why “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope.” You and I, just like Adam and Eve, will do what “sinful flesh and blood” always does. It sins. That is what God created in Eden; He created sinning machines.
That is why the “lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, and we were called in Christ before the world began.”

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called [ us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

God’s plan from the beginning was to call many, while living in this flesh, and out of those “many called” He would choose but a few, who will in turn be used to bring all mankind to Him.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

It is all to being accomplished through what scripture calls “an evil experience.”

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens:it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

It’s not that, as you put it, “God wants you to sin,” rather it is that God made you and me and all in Adam “subject to vanity,” meaning we are subject to sin.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

We are not born with the spirit of God. Adam certainly did not have the spirit of God any more than any other beast in whose nostrils was the breath of life from God. Without God’s spirit daily slaying our natural carnal mind, we “cannot be subject to the law of God.” There is no such thing as “free will” to obey God. God has to give us His spirit to overcome our natural carnal mind before we can submit to the laws of God.
What man, without the spirit of God, can love his enemies, have no lust in his heart and will not resist evil. The mantra that is fueling the churches and the nations of this world is “All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” The inference is that we are all to resist the evils of this world or we will all become communists or Moslems or whatever is the enemy of the day.
According to scripture we are all by nature the children of God’s wrath against the sin which we all are by nature:

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Who is ungodly and unrighteous? Who holds the truth in unrighteousness? Who are the children of God’s wrath?

Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

Who are these “children of disobedience upon whom the wrath of God comes?”

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; a nd were by nature the children of wrath , even as others.

That is right, “we are all by nature children of disobedience and children of wrath even as others.”
You ask how God can tell you not to sin and at the same time be working all your sins after the counsel of His own will? The answer is that salvation is a life long process that requires the presence of sinners who are always sinning. When Christ said “The well need no physician,” He was not saying that anyone was naturally ‘well.’ When He said that He had come “Not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” He was not saying that there were any righteous. What Christ’s point was, is that those who think they don’t need a physician, will not accept Him and His doctrine, and those who think they are righteous, won’t even see the need for a Savior.
Our sins are the result of our “of the dust of the ground, naked” composition “in the hands of the Potter.”

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter [ Adam and all in Adam]: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

The life of God’s elect is the remaking of that clay vessel. But it takes a life time for that work of remaking that vessel to be completed. What your giving in to temptation and being overcome of the forces in the heavens of your mind says about 1Co 10:13 is that God is not yet finished working with you. The day will come when you will be literally nauseated at the thought of giving in to the temptations that once ruled your life. But until that time comes God is using “an experience of evil to humble you” and to show you that you can do nothing of yourself.
What you are yet to learn is the meaning of “living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” and the meaning of “keeping the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Rev 1:3  Blessed [ is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

The words “In the day you eat thereof your will surely die” proceeded from the mouth of God, and all the sins of the churches recorded in Rev 2 and 3 are part of “the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
All of us will live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and we will all “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” All of our days were written in God’s book of each of our lives “before there were any of them.” It’s a book out of which each man will be “judged according to his deeds,” because it is a book that has all of our deeds, good and bad, written in it “when as yet there were none of them.”

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them .

And it is by what was written of these days “when as yet there was none of them,” which will judge us in the day of judgment:

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [ the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

No, it not up to you or me. When we sin, we sin because we are sinners by God’s design, and when we finally do overcome sin, it is not us but Christ in us:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

We don’t even contribute the faith that is required for salvation. That faith is “the faith of the Son of God,” and it is a gift.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

There is nothing of ourselves because God is working all things after the counsel of His own will. We have our wills, oh yes! But they are no more free of the influences that God has made them subject to than we are free to just roam around on the surface of the Sun. Our wills are all wrapped up in God’s will, and we will all sin, and we will all be shown just how weak and helpless we are, and we will all cry out to God for a Savior who will save us from “the body of this death.”

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

The answer to Paul’s question is that we are saved through Christ in us:

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

I hope this has helped you to see that you are a sinner by nature, and that you will continue to give in to temptations of the flesh until God Himself puts Jesus Christ in you and you will then despise the sins which once ruled you with a merciless rod of iron. Rest assured, that day is coming, and when it gets here, you will have the peace of God that passes all understanding:

Php 4:6  Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.
Php 4:7  Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (MSG)

… or as the King James puts it:

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike