Kingdom Secrets! 8
Going back over our journey with the farmer and his seed please remember that Satan comes against you, not because you have sinned, but because you have heard the Voice of Jesus and have taken what He says into your heart – or into your thought processes.
His war with you is not about whether or not you sin, he is concerned with what the Word of God wants to do within you. Satan needs to keep you in a position where you remain blissfully unaware of the fact that you have been forgiven and as a result have access to everything that God has for you. He also only has one form of attack that he can use against you and those are the circumstances of your life. He will use and create circumstances that will challenge the Voice of God in your heart.
Jesus said that the purpose of the parables is to get you to THINK! The degree to which you think about what Jesus is saying, is the degree to which the kingdom of heaven operates in your life. Also, as you begin to perceive and understand what He is saying in your conscious mind, you will know His forgiveness and walk in it.
Knowing His forgiveness and that His purpose for dying was so that He could purify you from all sin is the power of God that will transform your life. Satan needs to keep you identified with your sin. For as long as you identify yourself with sin, Satan will have dominion over you. This is not God’s fault. He has sent His Word to you and it is your responsibility to take it and to produce fruit, or change, in your own life and world.
If Satan fails in his first and second attempts to steal the word from your thoughts, he will come again with his third strategy. His first is to keep your mind occupied with general thoughts that cause you not to pay any attention to what you are hearing. This is the easiest thing for him. If that does not work, he will get someone to verbally attack you about your faith in Jesus and make you feel unworthy. If he can manage that he has nothing further to worry about.
However, if you continue in your faith in God even though you have been persecuted, he will have to work harder. These strategies may take longer and be harder for him to put together, but he will. He will use adverse circumstances to arouse your thoughts to being worried about the future, about your finances, and about the things you think you need to have. All these thoughts are rooted in being considered “acceptable” by the dictates of this world. If he can get you to judge your life according to what this world considers acceptable, He will effectively cause the Word of God to be unproductive because your attention will be on your life instead of on Jesus.
The temptations that this world throws at us are very powerful. Do not underestimate the power behind the temptation to conform to that which the world dictates. We all have a desire to be acceptable, to look good, to have money, to be admired and successful. The acceptance of the world is very dominating in our thought processes and if we feel like we are not acceptable it is easy for Satan to defeat us.
Now, defeat does not always look like sickness, disease and poverty. These are easy to recognise and to judge. How many times have you felt judged by others because you are sick, or have no money, or seem to be failing in some or other way? Be careful, Satan is standing behind those circumstances and he is waiting for you to accept that you are somehow guilty of sin and NOT FORGIVEN! This is not true! YOU ARE FORGIVEN!
There is one of two things that you can do when you face these kinds of trials. One is to accept them believing that you have done something wrong and that God is not pleased with you. Beware, there are many sermons out there to convince you that you opened the door to the devil because of something you did wrong.
WE ALL DO SOMETHING WRONG SOMETIMES!
Jesus overcame your “doing something wrong” by providing ABSOLUTE AND COMPLETE FORGIVENESS!
Believing you’re in a mess because of your sin will keep you in a mess! The only way to get out of your mess is to understand that YOU ARE FORGIVEN! It is God’s forgiveness towards you that gives you the power to stand up against the enemy of your soul – your thoughts – and to defeat him and bring the truth of the gospel to shine in your life.
I encourage you to take some time to THINK about the way you are thinking and feeling. Are your thoughts based in the knowledge of forgiveness or unforgiveness? What “word” are you hearing? Does it condemn you or edify you? Yes, you hear voices in your head and it’s time to start analysing who you are listening to!
Tomorrow I will deal with the “good” side of Satan’s diabolical plans against the Word of God within us.
Thank you ! Amen
Jesus teaches us to be humble. The difference between feeling unworthy and humble is a fine line. As long as we remember that, it is in Christ that I can do all things and not in my own strength. That is humility.
Bless you. Bless you. Bless you.
Bless you my sister, thank you so much, we really appreciate and value this.