Envision, if you will, that you are at the beginning of a mile long street and both sides of the street are lined with apartment buildings. At the end of the street is Jesus. Imagine your Christian walk through life is a straight walk down to the end of that street where Jesus awaits. You can see Him during the entire journey. You start to walk.
You walk along with an understanding that Satan and his demons have dominion over the world (the street) and that the apartment buildings are inhabited by beings who are committed to keeping you from reaching Jesus. Genesis 4:7 reminds us of what is waiting for us if we are not careful. “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” As you are walking toward Jesus, you are reminded that, in Christ these beings have no power to block your path or even slow your step…but they still hang out the windows and beckon you.
Their goal is to distract, entice, lure, accuse, scare, and intimidate with statements such as:
“Hey look here! I’ve got something you really want!”
Or they might say, “Who do you think you are? God doesn’t love you?”
“Try this, everyone else is…it won’t hurt you!”
Then when you do try what has been offered, they say, “Look what you did…you are terrible! How can you call yourself a Christian?”
Accusation is a powerful tool of the enemy. The taunting may look or sound like this, “I don’t need to go to church today…I went the last three Sundays.” Or, “I have to get going…I can read my Bible tonight.” “I can’t do anything right!” “I suck!” Many times the “calls” will be in first person singular. If Satan can make you think the thought was yours instead of his, he will.
Understand, on this walk…the accusing, the deception, the temptation…will be hidden…not easily recognized. 2 Corinthians 11:14, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” It is not surprising then that his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. What is the goal of the evil one? To slow you down, to hinder, to stop your walk!
When we become a Christian, ownership is never at stake. We are Holy Spirit possessed but we can be demon-oppressed! That is the goal of our adversary! He is real and he seeks to stop…hinder…scare….intimidate…entice and STRANGLE! If the enemy can get you to listen to the thoughts he plants in your mind, he can influence you. And if you allow him to influence you long enough, then through his disguising tactics, he can stop you! Nobody loses control to Satan overnight. It is a gradual process of deception and yielding and wearing down to his subtle influence.
So what are Christians to do as we walk down the street toward Jesus? We dispel the lies with God’s truth in His Word. We don’t stop to argue…that hinders our walk. We march. We put on the full armor of God. We raise the shield of faith to deflect the arrows and we walk. We run. We march forward…never taking our eyes off of Jesus!
Knowing the Word of God is powerful. Having an intimate relationship with Jesus only comes from a conscious decision on our part. The more intimate our relationship the more we will recognize God’s voice as opposed to the enemy’s. God’s voice can be as familiar as your spouse, child or parent’s voice. It needs to be even more familiar than those.
In order for that to happen, you have to be in His presence daily…hourly and continually…consciously all day seeking Him. That is a guaranteed way…of deflecting our real adversary. If you read Scripture and know it, it is crystal clear about “darkness and the prince of the world”. The biggest lie Christians buy is that the enemy is impersonal which results in a false protection.
We have to seek to know His voice and daily gird up and go into battle. We are not in heaven yet. WE have the Holy Spirit but we have to distinguish His voice from all the others.
I encourage you to understand your enemy and his tactics…but to KNOW the only ONE who has defeated him and that is Jesus. As we approach Easter….it is a true celebration because the resurrection of JESUS…was the defeat of the enemy and his power over us! It was for our redemption.
Seek Jesus today. Seek the intimacy that He offers. Know God’s voice in your life. Let no other voice lure you from His will and the walk toward Christ and your created purpose.