Yes, we all fall into Satan's traps, tricks, tactics and threats every once in a while and we have to shake our head afterward- he's been doing this kill, steal destroy thing for a long time and he's really good at it. Just remember before he betrayed God, he was God's top angel clothed and decorated in God's glory. He has a real gift at discouraging a Christian and building up people with pride and watching them fall. He has whispered convincing mixed trues and lies that have caused some to take their own lives. He's slow and methodical in his tactics so many don't even know what they are falling into.
Christians, you have God's Holy Spirit living in you so be diligent to Him instead of Satan.
The word of God says, "So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are." 1 Peter 5:6-9
In order for one to be diligent we must have a deep, trust, love and hope in God. We must not be slip into the discouragement of what is going on around us. WHO IS YOUR GOD? IS ANYONE HIGHER AND POWERFUL THEN HIM? NO!
Satan can't work unless you let him play with your mind. You let him mess around with you. You let him put those things that discourage you and manipulate until he has worn you down and make you forget your lasting hope in God. If he can get your mind off of Christ he can undermine your faith and your ability to work effectively in the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, not only shows you what Satan is up to but empowers you how to stand up to him. SHUT UP SATAN! I have to say that a lot. I don't have patience for Satan. Either did Jesus....
IF you are GOD's kid, God lives in you and has given you power. Use it for the glory of God.
Remember the account of Job. He didn't have the benefit of having Holy Spirit inside of him as we as Christians do today. Satan did everything is his power to undermine Job's faith in God and he suffered what most of us don't even want to try to imagine if the same came upon our own life..
Satan can cause many problems. He can manipulate others and use them as puppets but who is greater... people or God? Circumstances or God? God is is GREATER!
The word already says, "... Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against the strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12
Again remember to hate the sin. Hate what the sin is doing to that person but don't hate the person. Hate for hate does nothing. Pray for Holy Spirit to open their eyes so they would be set free from their captivity and manipulation of the flesh and Satan. Pray that the dark puppet strings would be severed along with their hooks. Be in constant prayer and give every situation that wants to build and mount to God.
Here is an example: You hear a fellow Christian gripe and complain after God has warned us all not to gripe and complain, then someone does something that makes you feel disrespected and that builds on first situation and then a loved one acts as if you don't do enough for them and what God gives them isn't enough and then that builds on top of the other... and then this important person in your life - you want to share something that you find interesting that God has shown you and they trample over your thoughts and feelings as if they are stupid and not well thought out. All these little things can add up quite quickly and make one very discouraged if we don't hand over every situation to God in prayer.
They can robe us of what God has done for us that day. Yes Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy.
Please don't miss understand me. I am not waging a war on Satan. I am no demon hunter. And I am not encouraging anyone to go after Satan. If you are doing the Lord's work or really considering coming to the Lord- he will come after you. You don't have to go looking for him he will come after you. He has so many people chasing worthless and meaningless things so their attention won't be on God.
As my father-in-law says, "Satan is like drug junkie". A drug junkie has a miserable life but still he/she encourages others to join them. Satan is a junkie and he wants as many to share in his miserable doomed fate as he so he entices people with things of this world ( popularity, power, and pleasure.). "Come and enjoy this!" he encourages. Think of what some of those things are... and what they cause: Addictions, coveting, illness, disease, a harden heart.
Satan wants people to be captive and lost in the things of this world so hopefully they won't figure out that they have wasted all their life on worthlessness and false hopes. Lost and captive to the things of this world makes it difficult to find Jesus Christ.
As Christians we do need to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. We need to pray for those who hurt others and those who have been hurt. That God may draw them in by his Holy Spirit and give them a life free of Satan's captivity. We need to trust God. Who is a righteous, trustworthy, loving and a just God!
Remember the words God spoke to Isaiah to tell Israel "Listen to me, you who know right from wrong and cherish my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people's scorn or their slanderous talk. For the moth will destroy them as it destroys clothing. The worm will eat away at them as it eats wool. But my righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation." Isaiah 51:7-8
Are these words for us as well.... WHO IS OUR GOD?
We need to speak up and stand in love, humility and in the power of the salvation God gives us through Christ Jesus. For we have been told time and time again that we can come fearlessly into God's presence assured of his glad welcome because we belong to Christ... hence the name "Christian". (Refer: Ephesians 3:12) Will God not supply all our spiritual needs as well as physical needs? Have you trusted and asked Him?
"I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources he will give you might inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love." Ephesians 3:16-17
Notice Paul says "in your hearts" not your minds. Heart is where the faith is stirred up and and brought forth and brings conviction to do right." Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
NO CHASING
A time ago I had a dream where Satan was portrayed as enormous cat (big as an elephant) that was causing all these fires around my house. Tired of putting out the fires I ran inside my house to a great tall suit of armor and grabbed it's sword. The sword was bigger then I was. I somehow managed to run outside with the sword with my intentions to go after Satan with it. Satan was already heading into the woods but I was stopped and told that is wasn't my job to go after Satan but God's.
Satan and his demon's will be dealt with by God. For just as God deals justly and judges man he does this as well with fallen angels:
"And I remind you of the angels who did not
stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place
where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment." Jude 1:6
Stand up to Satan but don't chase him.
God rewards people not just in this life but more importantly in eternity for remaining faithful to him.
"So you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him."Hebrews 11:6
So sincerely seek God out when Satan comes at you with temptation, whispers of fears, anxieties, ideas that lack reverence towards God, discouraging and mounting situations. Trust and give those things to God.
JESUS AND SATAN
Why are Christians a threat? They serve the God who created the heavens and earth. THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD, who so loved the world that He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins for every man and woman on earth, so those who believe in Jesus Christ and make him Lord of their life will have everlasting life in heaven instead of hell. (Refer Genesis 1:1, John 3:16)
Why is this a threat?
Satan, prince of this world, wages war on Jesus' Name. Ever question why Jesus name is so threatening? People can pray to "that" god and "that" god and it means nothing to Satan but pray in the name of Jesus Christ with true genuine faith and see Satan push people to rid Jesus' name from the public arena. Why? Because Jesus Christ is GOD! He is LORD! He is the one true God. (Refer John 17:1-5) For GOD is Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. They are not the addition of three gods but the multiplication of the one true God. They are 1 X 1 X 1= 1
Satan discourages people from knowing the one true God.
Let's take the celebration of Christmas. He has slowly and methodically stolen the meaning of Christmas from the world has he not? For hundreds of years people celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas day. Then suddenly out of no where it became a problem. Satan's time is running out and he wants to take as many souls with him to the same doomed fate he will be facing. He wants people to miss the entire reason why people celebrate Christmas-which is Jesus.
Remember when people used to shout "Merry CHRISTMAS!"? Think about it... no word "Christmas" then no reason to explain the celebration of Christmas- which is Jesus "CHRIST". The word "Holiday(s) is meaningless
Wow! A "holiday" with no real reference. Hum... what's the point of the holiday? Again Satan has people chasing and accepting meaningless ideas. Greed was never the reason for Christmas nor Easter. But greed has made a meaningless "Holiday". Satan essentially/basically stole the word Christmas but "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" will be planted with joy on my lips this season.
Why is it that the LORD, who came down from heaven to pay for our sins, so those who believe in him can go to heaven instead of hell, is a shame? Think about it.
STAND
Even though Satan is toothless, we need to stand up against him when he comes against us. Notice I said "stand". Don't go chasing after Satan down into some dark woods or bunny hole. And when I say "stand" I say stand in the Spirit of God. For you and I can not stand against him just by our "fleshly" means. The flesh is weak but the Spirit is willing and able.
Notice the word of God even says: "Stand firm." Ephesians 6:11
POWER VS NO POWER
Remember... you must humble yourself before God to live "in" the power of Jesus Christ. No one working in the flesh truly has any power.
Remember Act 19:13-16 "A team of Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they used was this: "I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches to come out!" Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But when they tried it on a man possessed by an evil spirit, the spirit replied, "I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you? And he leaped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured."
The son of Sceva were using the Jesus Name as child's play. They had heard it worked when people spoke it but they didn't realize it came out of them through faith in the Spirit of the Lord. These Jews were doing it for their own fleshly benefit and the evil spirit knew this. Evil knows where their is the presence of Holy power and not the presence of Holy power. They were no threat to the evil spirit because the Spirit of God was not living in them and activated in them.
In the Spirit you can stand and only stand against Satan. In the Spirit of God we can sense fortified presences of evil.
PERSONAL ACCOUNT
Last week I had the blessing of being able to speak to the church. Satan didn't want me to speak. He didn't want me speak the truth. He wanted what was in the dark to stay in the dark. He didn't want minds alerted and awakened to God's enlightenment. So he came at me hoping if he handicapped me in the flesh I wouldn't be able to work in the Spirit of God. He came at me with a dream.
Your mind on anything but God turns off the switch in which we receive from God.
This attack came while I slept. Satan can "suggest" things in your thoughts when you're awake or asleep. A bad dream "can" put you in a bad perspective and a bad perspective can make it so you do not to receive from God.
Notice the word "can".
Complex and twisted this tale was. Like the smell of someone's bad breath lingering in your face- it lingered. Like being disoriented after a dizzying amusement park ride this tale was. In the dream it seemed like everyone was against me. There was this sense of unknown division. There was undermining my authority as a parent. There was judgement and accusations.
Finally after a few awakening minutes of this I said, "NO MORE SATAN! No more division! No more digging up the past to ruin or hurt the power that would come from the teaching what the Lord wanted me to share. " He wasn't allowed to mess with my purpose God had given me.
I continued, "I will NOT let the pain and deep sorrow that surged my Lord's veins as he was crucified and the power that came from such pain to become meaningless and for nothing!"
The Spirit of Christ rose up inside of me and I said, "NO MORE!" No this dream of a nightmare- complex and twisted will not influence my attitude this day or any other day! You can not pass! There is a wall you cannot slither over. I stomp on the every snake head of all this evil and it will not come to pass, I will and shall live in the freedom that Christ has paid for in his blood. In Jesus Name Amen!"
Gone the negative lingering and disorientation/ focus went.
I believe Satan tried to build a stronghold in my mind with this confusing and complex dream. He knew if he undermined my thoughts with his ideas of division, I would be unproductive in teaching what God had for me to share.
That is one of the reasons why the Spirit had Paul write: "We use God's mighty weapons, not merely worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds." 2 Corinthians 10:4
The Spirit of God/Christ (Holy Spirit) activated by a faith of conviction gave me power to remain mindful in the Holy Spirit and in doing so- speak in the Holy Spirit to the church. If I had allowed the negative dream to stay there and stimulate my thoughts and feelings, my words would have been just words with no power behind them to make a positive impact.
1 Thess 1:5 "For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true."
I noticed that my spirit was quickened when I was given a moving account of Jesus. Jesus being nailed to the cross and I witnessed his pain and hurt he was going through and it was then a conviction of power came over me to not allow Jesus' pain to become meaningless and for nothing.
Also when the Spirit took over and I didn't really know what the "wall" meant when I said it. I didn't even question what kind of wall until I was looking in the bible at another passage. My eyes feel upon the words, " Walls of God's Salvation."
"In that day, everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song: Our city is strong! We are surrounded by the walls of God's salvation. Open the gates to all who are righteous; allow the faithful to enter. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!" Isaiah 26:1-3
Wow my heart jumped as the words combined with the reality of such a truth!
God has built walls of His salvation around our soul if we truly trust, acknowledge, honor, fear, love, and obey Him. Jesus Christ is the walls of our salvation. To live in freedom, our soul must live "in" Him. In Him is power that we can not even imagine to defeat what Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy from us and others.
May God give you the power to stand up to Satan as you humble yourself before God and continue to pray and seek Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment