John Eldridge could
not have said it better. This is why you do not see me writing about Satan. Because
as far as God is concerned, if we truly focus on Him, the rest is simple and
really easy to deal with because you know who you are and Satan has no power
over you. Every attempt, he makes on you is met with defeat and you just put
him in his place as you go about God’s business.
As the matter of
fact, I know enough to say that there is no such thing as Christian being
possessed by the devil because if you are possessed by the Holy Spirit, there
is no room for the devil to come in and kick the Holy Spirit out. Yes, we can be in bondage in certain areas in
our lives, but if we are truly His, it is a matter of time as God deals with us
through the process, to be freed. I learned enough from God to know Satan keeps
us busy in casting him out that we have no idea we left the path and we have
actually been so busy with him we neglected the true God. Another thing that we
do is that we put all the blame on him for our sinful nature and stubbornness in
following the true God. As long as Satan is to be blamed, then we are in the
clear, all of the sudden, it is his fault not really ours.
By the way, when
Eldridge says: “believing and agreeing with the truth” in the last paragraph,
he does not mean the kind of belief that is only on the lips, but in our heart
and walk with Him
I am going to stop here, I would rather you
read John Eldridge….
In order to recognize a lie, we need to know the truth. Experts
in counterfeit money don’t spend their time studying counterfeits. They study
the real currency. In the same way, to engage in the spiritual battle raging
around us, we don’t shift our focus to lies or to the Devil. We focus on Jesus.
We marinate in the truth of who God is and who he says we are. Then and only
then we will be able to quickly recognize a lie. And though there are some
areas of bondage in our lives where truth is not going to be enough to set us
completely free, we will never get any freedom at all without it.
Remember
when Jesus was in the wilderness and the Devil came to tempt him? Jesus didn’t
reason with the Enemy. He didn’t engage with him in a dialogue; he simply
refuted him with the truth. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will
set you free” (John 8:32 ).
So,
Spiritual Warfare Level One: you have an Enemy. You are hated. Evil exists.
Satan exists. Foul spirits exist. Peter writes, “Be alert and of sober mind.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour” (1 Pet. 5:8 NIV 2011). Devour, not tempt. Devour as in shred, maul,
kill, destroy. James commands, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the
devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
If
we do not submit to God, the Devil will not flee. If we do not resist the
Devil, he will not flee. There is no reason to fear or strive. But we do need
to submit to God and resist the Devil. We enforce the freedom Jesus has won for
us by believing and agreeing with the truth. This is a big, big part of “shake
off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem
Courtesy of http://ransomedheart.com/
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