2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
The Lord directs me to continue writing about how truth matters to Him. In the last few messages, we have been looking at Satan’s objectives in attacking us. Now, we turn our attention to the question: What should we know and do when Satan attacks? From our examination of his objectives, we already know that he wants to destroy the unity of our church and our family; he wants to entice us to sin, so he can gain strongholds in our lives; and, he wants to lead us into false teaching, causing us to question that we have truly been saved. Dirty devil that he is; we can’t allow that to happen! The real truth is that we have the supernaturally-granted power to defeat him and must never forget that [EPH 1: 18-20].
Because responsible church leaders, writers like myself, and other faithful people say it so often, it is a “no-brainer” that we must remain in the Scriptures daily to get the discernment we need to 1) recognize when Satan is attacking and 2) mount a frontal, timely, and decisive response. Consider that Satan is stupid, so our response to him must leave no question in his mind that we are his enemies and mean business. I’m not ashamed to repeat this message once again, however many times it takes, because it is that important. Our study of God’s word is greatly aided by the gift He has given us of the Holy Spirit indwelt within us. JN 14: 15-17, [Christ’s own words] “If you Love Me, you will obey My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, Who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, Who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive Him, because it cannot see or know Him. But you know Him, because He remains with you and is in you.” JN 14: 26, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.” 1 COR 12: 7, “The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.”
Think of prayer as your open communication line to the Commander. Can we imagine an army doing battle effectively if the front lines are not in touch with the leadership? God speaks to us in many ways, prayer being the most obvious one. It’s reason why I’m led to keep saying that prayer is defined as two-way communication with God, where we give Him a chance to speak first. MT 7: 7-8, “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to Him.” MT 6: 6, “But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.” MT 18: 19-20, “And I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in My name, I am there with them.” JN 15: 7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it.” REV 3: 20, “ Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him, and he will eat with Me.” I found it very useful and a blessing to put these particular citations together, so we could see just how much God tells us about study and prayer. And space doesn’t allow me to cite everything said in the Scriptures about these two subjects. The last citation is useful in more than one context, which is why it is included here.
James, the one I call our parent-apostle because of his parental pronouncements, gives us a clear cut direction from the Lord on what to do when Satan torments us. JAS 4: 7-9, “So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God, and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” As usual with him, James pulls no punches. He directs his words to people with sin in their lives and levels the truth at them with force. At first we might come to the conclusion that this is a mean, negative man. However, James, in his often harsh way, is really a sweetheart, who cares deeply that God’s message should be heard by sinners in enough time to do something about the sin that is keeping them from being purified in God’s sight. Let me repeat one more citation from the other day that really illuminates who our enemy is and the power we have been given to fight against him. 1 JN 3: 8, “Whoever continues to sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason to destroy what the devil has done.” Praise be to God that Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer Who through His death on the cross grants us salvation from eternal control by the devil and his forces of evil!
PRAYER: O Lord, we understand that we must do our part to see to it that Satan and his evil angels don’t gain strongholds in our lives. Without Your Son and the Holy Spirit, we are unable to withstand Satan’s attacks. People without faith in Christ often have no idea that Satan is holding their spiritual lives captive. PS 31: 3-5, “You are my Refuge and Defense; guide me and lead me as You have promised. Keep me safe from the snare that has been set for me; shelter me from danger. I place myself in Your care. You will save me, Lord; You are a faithful God.” You repeatedly send us back to these words You directed David to write, because You want us to recognize our dependence on You. We acknowledge that and pledge to do our part to study Your word, listen for Your commands, and obey them. There are times when we don’t recognize a trap that Satan has set for us. Those are the times when it is particularly important for us to listen for Your guidance and direction. He can be clever, but never more wise than You. You inspired Peter to give us an important message in 2 PET 2: 9-10, “And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment, especially those who follow their filthy bodily lusts and despise God’s authority. These false teachers are bold and arrogant, and show no respect for the glorious beings above; instead, they insult them.” We witness by first-hand experience that our souls without faith in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit are impoverished and are unable to discern what is evil and how to combat it. We come to You in humility to confess our sins and acknowledge the crucial teaching of RO 10: 9-10. “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.” Today, we come before Your altar to pledge You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
I am led in tomorrow’s message to continue discussing the issue of discernment in combating the devil and his evil angels. We’ll look at some modern examples of how the devil attacks and what can be done about it. I can’t help but remember Hitler’s “final solution” to what he and his followers thought was the Jewish problem. My reason is that I lost a part of my own family in the Holocaust. That changes one’s outlook for life. Our Abba is more than aware of this evil and knows that while the Holocaust may not be going on right now, some of the same anti-Semitism is festering in modern day Europe and even in North American right now. We must be on our alert to recognize it and other evils for what they are. Our loving Lord isn’t leaving us in a lurch, not for one second! Instead, He is providing us with the ability to perceive and understand His teaching, given to us out of His profound love for us. He not only does that, but He gives us the wisdom and power to be a winner in the fight with Satan, if we will only use it. I mention this, because it is one more manifestation of the love and protection God offers His children when they are faithful to Him. We need never worry about His being faithful to us. Peter and I also send you our love.”
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn