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Monday, December 1, 2014

Beware of Venomous Lies

Genesis 3 : 1 - 5, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." NKJV
Even though the serpent didn’t bite Eve, he still injected her heart with his venomous poison. Eve listened to the serpent; therefore, she empowered him to poison her heart against the Lord God. The very moment the serpent wrongly convinced Eve that God wasn’t truthful with her concerning the tree of knowledge, he captivated her heart. Then, once he seized her complete attention, he seduced her into sinning against the Lord and robbed her of the blessings of God in her life.
Satan never fights fair, to say the least. In fact, he preys on the weaknesses, the ignorance, and the vulnerabilities of us, humans. Satan doesn’t come to us as the Devil in a red suit with a pitch fork. He always disguises himself or will operate under a cloak of deception. This is depicted in the story with Eve. Satan embodied the MOST subtle beast of the field in order to pull off his vicious attack against humanity. He didn’t come to Eve and say, “Hi my name is Satan, and I want to destroy your soul. Can I enter your heart now?” Satan always uses “occasions” when we’re at our weakest or going through something that is discouraging and heartbreaking; he does this in order to assure himself a greater chance of victory.
We can see these same tactics being used on Jesus when He was fasting and praying for forty days in the wilderness. Satan came to Jesus and challenged Him while He was physically drained to do something with His anointing in order to prove Himself to be the Son of God. Once again, Satan was attacking someone born of God concerning their identity. When it comes to rejecting the poison of Satan’s lies, we have to know our spiritual identity in Christ, or we can fall prey to his devices, as Eve did.
We’re told in Luke 4 that Satan left Jesus, after he tried to tempt Him, and waited for a more “opportune” time. Satan loves to capitalize on “opportunities” to assist him in carrying out his dastardly deeds.
Whenever the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, the people, along with Moses decided to send in spies to check out the land (Numbers 13). For forty days, the twelve men spied out the land and its inhabitants. When they saw the giants in the land and saw the cities that were fortified with walls “up to heaven,” they allowed fear to fill their hearts. Do you see how the enemy got their attention on the wrong things in order to gain access to their hearts through fear? The spies gave their hearts over to fear and doubt, and then unbelief took charge. As a result, they called God's promises into question, and brought back an evil report to the people and Moses.
Once again, Satan didn’t make them “sin,” but he used a negative situation to cause the (10) spies and the children of Israel to consider a way other than what God had commanded them. As a result of the evil report from the spies, the children of Israel turned their hearts against the Lord and sinned in God’s sight. Because of their unbelief, Satan was successful at turning the hearts of the people against God by using the emotions that arose from receiving the wicked report. As Christians, we must continually guard our hearts, so that we don’t allow undesirable emotions, like the ones experienced by the Israelites to cause us to make rash decisions, which could lead us to sin against the Lord.
There is much spiritual warfare in the world today against Christians. Satan and his demons are very busy using the negativity in the world to cause Christians to begin to doubt God and His Word. The more we look at circumstances and storms and dwell upon these things in our hearts, the more we become vulnerable to Satan’s schemes and lies.
Therefore, we must constantly guard our hearts against the lies of Satan by standing firmly on the Word of God. God isn’t man that He should lie or the Son of man that He should repent. Those things that God has promised in His Word, He will surely do on our behalf. Even so, we have to guard our hearts and exercise patience. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed with discouragement, fear, doubt, and worry, then this is a Word from the Lord, which will empower you to say “no” to Satan’s lies. You are more than a conqueror through Christ, and He will give you strength to get through the storms of life. Just hold on until the answer comes and the mountain is removed.
Standing Still until the Promise Comes,
Pastor Asa Dockery 
 

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