Trouble is coming and it may already be here. The nature of Christian life on earth is one of both war and peace. Now what I am about to talk about is not for light weights so I will pause for a moment so that all those who just dabble in Christianity but are not really ready to go all the way can exit this entry..... (I would reccomend like the "Who is about to get whooped by the weekend" entry for you because you are probably on the list).........
Ok, you are still here so I guess you are ready for this. As Christians who have received the holy spirit we have access to peace in our minds and hearts. Inner peace comes from the holy spirit dwelling inside of you which is the spirit of peace. However, we are at war at all times and engaged in battles most of the time. We are literally in a war with the devil and all his buddies. Ok so the Devil gets talked about quite a bit but most people don't know who the devil really is (currently). The Devil is your enemy and his ultimate purpose is to kill you and drag your soul off to the Lake of Fire to join he and his buddies (because in the end, that is where they are going).
The following is a list of facts about the Devil that you should find useful:
#1. There is only ONE thing the devil can do to you. Does that surprise you? The devil only has one weapon and it is (drum roll please), deception. In other words the only way the devil can get to you is by lying to you and you accepting the lie as true. So God tells you, I love you no matter what and my love for you will never change. The devil tells you that this cannot be true and that the things that you have done make it impossible for God to love you. In fact, God is probably angry at you. The devil tells you this until you accept the thought as your own and adopt it as the truth. BAMN, he's got you. It may only be one weapon but it is powerful for this reason: God is the truth so every time the devil gets you to believe a lie, you are rejecting God and separating yourself from God. Apart from God, you will not win a battle and you are sure to lose the war.
#2. The Devil is extremely smart, manipulative, and strategic BUT unlike God, the Devil can not read your mind. The only thing the Devil can do is read your actions, listen to your words and plant thoughts in your head (if you don't know how to prevent it). This is a really important point because ALL of the information the Devil has about you, comes directly from you. There is nowhere in the bible where the Devil read anyones mind, his power, unlike God's is limited.
#3. The world that we currently exist in is satan's (another name for the devil) territory, he owns it and rules it until Jesus returns. That is why when you look around this world, the information that you receive contradicts God's word. When I was younger R. Kelly was the contradiction and now it's Trey Songz. It was Lil Kim and now it's Nikki Minaj. It was 90210 and now it's Gossip Girl and Skins (ugh). It was Jay Z and now it's Gucci (is he out of that mental hospital yet...) and Drake and Wayne and Waka Flake (I mean seriously....). All of these parts of popular culture tell us what is not true and we turn it up louder and pump it into our brains on almost a 24 hour loop until we believe it. Satan is referred to as the Prince of the Air but remember Jesus is the only King. Satan is perfectly aware that he has a limited amount of time to get as many of us as he can, that is why he tries to overwhelm you with misinformation (lies).
#4. The Devil has no authority over born again Christians. This means that though the Devil may be running the Earth, because we have God living inside of us and are God's representatives on Earth, the Devil does NOT run us. Remember, Jesus was a man on the Earth which is (and was then) under the Devils control. However, the Devil had no control over Jesus and in fact, Jesus regularly slapped him around. It should be the same way with us (but there are some reasons why this is not the case).
So now you have some information about your enemy and that's good because you are going to need it to fight (and win). Tomorrow we are going to talk about the nature of the fight that we are in and who are the Devil's buddies that I kept referring to.
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