Open Your Eyes To The Tricks Of The Enemy

It is amazing how we move through our day without much thought to what is happening beyond what we see. We worship our awesome God but set our minds against any thought of the unseen. We very much live "what you see is what you get" which is a bit frightening considering the forces that are at play. We don't seem to appreciate how much the enemy hates us and plans to destroy us any way he can. It isn't even so much about us as it is about what hurt he can inflict on Yahweh by hurting us.

Now I am not talking about being fearful or looking for demons behind every rosebush but we do need to consider our words and our actions. We need to consider the things we watch and participate in. We need to recognize the motivation behind some of the things that will come against us today. We need to consider how the enemy twists things for his own evil purposes, especially to bring confusion to the mind of a believer. If we are not solid in our reading and studying of the Word of God then we are wide open to the enemy's attacks of influence.

The enemy will use anything he can get his hands on to destroy the things of Yahweh. He loves to steal symbols of love and covenant from Yahweh and distort them for his own purposes. Just consider one of the most prevalent symbols of our day:

I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. (Genesis 9:13)

The rainbow is an ancient symbol of Yahweh`s covenant, with all living creatures, that he would never again send the flood waters to destroy:

It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (v. 14-15)

The thing about this covenant symbol is it is a symbol to remind Yahweh of this covenant:

The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. (v. 16)

And this covenant is not just for us but for all living flesh on the planet. Now we have taken this ancient symbol and have turned it into something that represents the common, the unholy, a manifestation of a rebellious heart. You don`t think this was prompted and orchestrated by the enemy of our soul? Of course it was. If we can't see the obvious what hope do we have of seeing the subtle?

The enemy is defeated but he is hard at work to bring as much pain as he can to Yahweh. Don't let him use you today. Set your heart and your mind on the things above, not on this world. Fix your eyes on Jesus and be determined to run the race with all you have, trusting Jesus to provide all that you need. It is true that we can't do it in our own strength, which is why our relationship with Jesus must be strong and growing stronger, because we do it in his strength.

Understand what you are engaged in today, stand your ground, pray without ceasing, and allow the joy of the Lord to be your strength and his peace to be your constant companion. Do not fall for the twists, turns and lies of the enemy. Live by the Word of God. Open your eyes!








  

Don't Give Satan Power Over You

Have you ever been told to be careful of what you say? Have you been told to watch what you confess with your mouth? Often people say that you will bring life to whatever fear, worry, lust, longing that you speak. Your words give it life. The Word of God is filled with warnings to be careful of what you say. There is a reason for all of this: It is with your words that you either defeat or arm your enemy against you.

So let's understand this: Satan is not God. He is not an equal force fighting against him. He is not arm wrestling with Jesus over souls. Jesus sent Satan packing with a few simple words and, with the authority given to him by the Father, he sent the servants of the enemy scurrying away with the simple command to "Go!" God is God and there is no other. Evil cannot overcome him and there is no foe that can defeat him.

Now understand this: Only God knows your thoughts. No one knows what you are thinking, except for our Creator. He knows our motivations because he knows our mind and our heart. Don't worry; he knows and he has still chosen to love you. That's how great his grace is. The Word tells us:

You know when I am resting
    or when I am working,
    and from heaven
    you discover my thoughts. (Psalm 139:2)

 Don’t say, “I didn’t know it!
    God can read your mind.
He watches each of us
    and knows our thoughts. (Proverbs 24:12)

When king David was preparing his son, Solomon, for the great task that awaited him, he told him:

Solomon, my son, worship God and obey him with all your heart and mind, just as I have done. He knows all your thoughts and your reasons for doing things, and so if you turn to him, he will hear your prayers. (1 Chronicles 28:9)

The problem is when we turn around and credit Satan with the same attributes as God. Satan does not know your thoughts. He cannot hear what you are thinking. He does not know your words before they are on your lips but when they are on your lips he knows, and that`s the point.

Satan is a great student of human behaviour and character. He has servants who watch, take notes, and listen to your words to know your heart. He has no other way to know you then to study your words and actions. It is the reason we are warned:

Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. (1 Peter 5:8)

How does he know who to attack? Is he going to attack those who stand strong in the authority of Jesus; who worship and praise all day long? Is he going to attack those who proclaim the promises in every situation? Is he going to attack those who have developed faith muscles by declaring the goodness of Jesus in the face of all circumstances? Or is he going to attack those who show their weakness by the confession of their mouth? Those who grumble, complain, back bite? Is he going to attack those who confess (not to God but the world) their illnesses, lusts and desires? Is he going to attack those who expose their plans and who curse the good things that God is doing through circumstances?

We have nothing to fear from Satan unless we give him the power over us; unless we leave the pasture of our Shepherd and tell the world of our fears. As long as the Lord is our strength, our sword and our shield, as long as his praise is sweet on our lips, as long as we make sure our words, the confessions of our hearts, are seasoned with his grace and love, the enemy will never be able to touch us. But the moment we start confessing our fears, anxieties, anger, bitterness, hatred, discontent, he will know exactly how to work on us until he succeeds in separating us from the Lover of our Soul. Like a knife in an open wound, he will continue to twist on the nerve of our emotions.

Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

And let your words flow from such things. Even if you are struggling with a wrong attitude, confess it to God but be silent before your enemy. In fact, know what is best for you and despite how you may feel, let the praises of our Lord fill your mouth and the air around you simply because you know he is good. May the atmosphere of where you are change from whatever it is to the sweet awareness of God's presence and may others be blessed by you instead of cursed as a result of your close walk with Jesus.

Satan Knows How To Destroy You

The enemy of your soul wishes to destroy you today. He won't be in your face about it but instead will use the natural weakness of your flesh against you. He will initiate something that you will continue with and he is good enough at it to make you think it is God's will. Consider Eve.

Eve's big mistake was answering the serpent but she did handle herself well. When you read this passage realize that Eve responded to the serpent's twisted truth in the same manner as Jesus did, with the exact words of God. But little did Eve know that by continuing to entertain the serpent she had already started down the slippery slope. I am sure the serpent had studied Eve and knew that her weakness was her curiosity which he worked on to overcome her obedience to God. All Satan had to do was nudge Eve's curiosity enough to get her to look at the fruit, then Eve did the rest. This is what Satan did to King David.

Often we consider David's biggest sin was his sexual sin with Bathsheba which led to the murder of her husband but there was another sin that resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people. It started off with Satan:

Satan decided to cause trouble for Israel by making David think it was a good idea to find out how many people there were in Israel and Judah. (1 Chronicles 21:1)

It is only natural that a king would want to know the strength of his army. All it took was a little nudge from Satan to push David in that direction. But God had ordered from long ago that Israel was never to take a census of its strength. The reason is a simple one: the strength of the army was never what the king of Israel was to rely upon. His true strength was found in his relationship with God, who is the defender of Israel. David did wrong and thousands of people paid the price.

Satan hasn't changed. He still uses his little bag of dirty tricks because they still work. He is very good at separating us from dependence on God. He is very good at working on our weaknesses. He is very good at nudging us in the direction of relying on our "armies" instead of God, and it keeps us weak. He does it in such a way that we think it is normal, natural. After all, it is only natural that we would keep a census of our wealth. It would be crazy not to. How else would we know what we need to pay our bills?

Yet Jesus told us to have nothing to do with fear or worry. He said not to chase after the values of this world as the people of this world do. In other words, we do not conduct business with the same set of values as the world; we have Kingdom values. We do not use the same wisdom or approach; we have God's wisdom. Whatever we have that comes from this world we give it away so we can receive Kingdom riches. We rejoice when we look weak in our finances and health because God is about to glorify himself in our weakness. We are a crazy bunch according to the principles and practices of this world, and that is what Satan wants to prevent. He does not want us discovering the Kingdom principles. He does not want Jesus to be our strength.
 
It comes down to this one basic truth: Your strength is found in your relationship with God. Anything else is a lie and will end up being your death. You will die on the riches of this world. Your bank account will be a dry twig and when you lean on it, it will snap. Your health is like the mist, a strong breeze will blow it away. Your family will be scattered with one simple crisis. The only true strength you have is Jesus Christ and that strength preserves finances, health and family. Without him you have nothing and you are nothing.

If the enemy of your soul comes whispering today rebuke him with the Word of God and press in to Jesus.

My body and mind may fail,
    but you are my strength
    and my choice forever. (Psalm 73:26)

In This Clear And Present Danger, What Are You Doing?

Ahhh, what a beautiful day. I love Saturday's; the day we get to catch up on everything we couldn't fit in during the week. Also a day when we can take the time to "smell the roses", a time to relax and simply enjoy life. What will you do with this day? What would Jesus do with it?

Oops, what would Jesus do? What does he have to do with Saturday's? Well, he has everything to do with everything and if we do not realize it then our "following Jesus" is lacking some understanding. To be a Jesus follower requires total commitment; I mean total. Everything we are is all about him and he directs us, in everything we do, how to bring him honour and glory, and how to fulfill our part in the mission.

You would be amazed how he can use our everyday chores for the Kingdom. I mean the car washing, grocery shopping, lawn mowing, snow shoveling, but we have to be attentive, looking for the opportunities and jumping on them when they are presented. In other words, Jesus must always be on our mind.

I was reading Psalm 79 this morning, which was the reaction of this psalmist to the devastating attack of the enemy of God's people, and I realized how fitting it was in describing the effects of our enemy's attack on the Church:

O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; 
   they have defiled your holy temple, 
   they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble. 
They have left the dead bodies of your servants 
   as food for the birds of the sky, 
   the flesh of your own people for the animals of the wild. 
They have poured out blood like water 
   all around Jerusalem, 
   and there is no one to bury the dead. 
We are objects of contempt to our neighbors, 
   of scorn and derision to those around us.  (Psalm 79:1-4)

The enemy in North America has been very subtle for years, invading the Church inch by inch, slowly eroding away our core beliefs, the foundations of our faith. Like a constant, gentle wave against the shore line, he has taken years to change us from Christ-centered to self-centered. So now we are weak and we are getting to be easy for the picking. Don't be fooled by the number of large churches; those who are strong in their faith, focused on Jesus and have turned their back on the pleasures of this world are much fewer in number. We have been seeing for years now the changes in doctrine being accepted without a fight, pastors changing the Word to fit their own ideologies without much of a challenge at all, and Christians being shaped by the thinking of society instead of the Word of God.

The nations have invaded God's inheritance. They have defiled his holy temple, which is us. They are tearing down God's nation from the inside. The dead bodies of God's servants are being fed on as they pile up, one after another, as these servants put a longing for success ahead of faithfulness to God. There is very little doubt any more of the contempt, scorn and derision that people around us feel toward us. Oh, maybe not toward those who are willing to compromise to be accepted by their neighbour, but those who stand by the Word, who refuse to give an inch to the enemy and whose constant thought is Jesus.

It is not hard to tell which camp you fall into and it is not hard to change it. Is Jesus the center of everything you do? Is he involved in everything you do? Do you do what you do because of Jesus? Is there anything in your life that has a greater influence on you than Jesus? Is your greatest desire to please Jesus in all your thinking, feeling and actions? Do you see him as the reason for your life? Is there anything that you tolerate that comes against the person of Jesus? If Jesus was physically present with you all day today would you change some of your plans and perhaps some of your vocabulary and maybe the way you treat family and neighbours?

The difference is sometimes very subtle. Do you spend time with your friends because you get something from them or because you want to add to them? Do you help your parents with resentment or with joy? Do you play video games with your children because you enjoy video games or because you enjoy your children and being with them gives opportunities to teach about Jesus? In everything we do it is always a question of the heart. Is it because it honours Jesus and a giving to others or is it because we get to feed our own selfish needs?

We have to stop playing the church game. Either we are followers of Jesus or we are not. There is no in between place. Jesus said that anyone who was lukewarm would be spit out. He said to be his followers we would have to give up everything. He said we would have to deny ourselves, take up our calling (purpose)(cross) and follow him. In other words, go all the way until our purpose has been completed.

The enemy is in our midst and some of us are just becoming aware of it. The good news is that he is nothing compared to Jesus. He is weak, pathetic and simply a fallen angel in rebellion against God. Jesus won't be taking him on because the enemy is beneath him. It is the other angels who will fight against Satan and defeat him. We are powerful against him and the Word is clear that we must be attentive to the war that is raging around us. We are those who pray and send the enemy fleeing. We know in this age many will be deceived but we do not have to belong to this group. We are the children of God and we must take our stand, trusting,  believing, refusing to give an inch to the enemy.

So, I ask you again: What will you do with this day? What would Jesus do with it?