The Deceiver
"I truly believe that if God would just cease the hurt...if He would just cure cancer, make my children love Jesus and appreciate me more, stop the constant sinning (ha!), heal broken marriages, heal relationships in church to make it less distracting, heal your illness...you know...end world suffering...that I would worship Him more. I wouldn't be clouded by these constant battles in my heart for loyalty to Him and submission to His plan."
Her answer to my statement, my friend who is battling a mystery illness that leaves her weak and her spirit on many days broken, was soft and direct. "That's not what happened with Adam and Eve, Annie. They had all of those things and it wasn't enough to worship Him."
Boom. There it is. The truth bomb. Thank you, God for truth- telling friends. Of course, she is right and I was in danger of dangling over the edge of the lie that was whispered at the beginning.
The struggle here on this spinning globe and the pain associated with it are not His original plan for us. Sin broke what God did. God does use the broken things in our lives to bring us back to Himself and that, at the end of ourselves, is where we find our hope and our fullness of joy. We find our Savior.
How short-sighted I am. Here on my fridge has been for the last six years the "Enemy Deceiver's Battle Plan" that my dear mom wrote up and gave to me. How quickly I forget the deceiver's plan to lie and steal from me the Truth of God's Word. God's Word and the Holy Spirit's counsel is to bring me close, to silence that liar's whispers with singing "BELOVED" over me.
Henri Nouwen wrote in his book "Return of the Prodigal Son":
I am sharing this battle plan with you on here with the hopes that it may bless someone today who is dangerously close to believing that lion who searches the earth for someone to devour. If you are in your own personal season of trial, may this be a tool to snap you back in to the realities of the devil's schemes and back into the arms of the One who promises to redeem all the pain and the brokenness one day. Print it out and put it on your fridge. Tattoo it on your forehead.
As you celebrate ADVENT this season, I am praying (will you pray along with me) that we will see the broken things with the hope and the peace that this season sings. The pain of the world and the earth that groans for His coming cause us to lift our eyes from this worthless life onto the one to come. This season is many things to many, but let it be for a reminder that Jesus took on flesh so that He could empathize with me, crush the head of the snake and redeem it all for His glory and our good. One day ALL of the sad things will come untrue. All the broken things will be a distant memory and He will be the only One with the scars to show for it.
"O come let us adore Him"
Her answer to my statement, my friend who is battling a mystery illness that leaves her weak and her spirit on many days broken, was soft and direct. "That's not what happened with Adam and Eve, Annie. They had all of those things and it wasn't enough to worship Him."
Boom. There it is. The truth bomb. Thank you, God for truth- telling friends. Of course, she is right and I was in danger of dangling over the edge of the lie that was whispered at the beginning.
The struggle here on this spinning globe and the pain associated with it are not His original plan for us. Sin broke what God did. God does use the broken things in our lives to bring us back to Himself and that, at the end of ourselves, is where we find our hope and our fullness of joy. We find our Savior.
Henri Nouwen wrote in his book "Return of the Prodigal Son":
"The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the BELOVED, and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world."
I am sharing this battle plan with you on here with the hopes that it may bless someone today who is dangerously close to believing that lion who searches the earth for someone to devour. If you are in your own personal season of trial, may this be a tool to snap you back in to the realities of the devil's schemes and back into the arms of the One who promises to redeem all the pain and the brokenness one day. Print it out and put it on your fridge. Tattoo it on your forehead.
As you celebrate ADVENT this season, I am praying (will you pray along with me) that we will see the broken things with the hope and the peace that this season sings. The pain of the world and the earth that groans for His coming cause us to lift our eyes from this worthless life onto the one to come. This season is many things to many, but let it be for a reminder that Jesus took on flesh so that He could empathize with me, crush the head of the snake and redeem it all for His glory and our good. One day ALL of the sad things will come untrue. All the broken things will be a distant memory and He will be the only One with the scars to show for it.
"O come let us adore Him"
The Enemy Deceiver’s Battle Plan
the pathway to spiritual imprisonment
by Patty Fischer
The steps of Adam and Eve (and all mankind after them)
from “enticement” to “enslavement”
(Genesis 3:2-19, also James 1:14-16)
The “Enemy Deciever” SPEAKS- the lie is presented
They allowed Satan to make them question the Word of God (v2)
They allowed Satan to minimize God’s goodness and generosity (v2-3)
They allowed Satan to contradict God’s truth (v4)
They listened to Satan’s lie (v5)
They believed Satan’s lie (v6)
They involved each other in the lie (v6)
II. The “Enemy Deciever” STRIKES- the lie is perpetrated
7. They sinned against God (v6)
III. The “Enemy Deceiver” SURROUNDS- the lie takes possession
8. Even thought they recognized their sin, they did not repent of it (v7)
9. They tried to “cover up” their sin (v7)
10. They ran from God in fear, rather than to Him in repentance (v8)
11. They missed another opportunity to repent (v9)
12. They lied to God and to themselves (v10)
13. They refused to take responsibility for their own sin (v12-13)
IV. The “Enemy Deceiver” SUCCEEDS- the lie takes prisoners
14. They had to deal with the ultimate consequences of their sin (v16-19)
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