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give me a word and I'll show you what I can do with it. give me the chance to write, to speak, and life will not be the same, for sure...

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Saturday, 12 May 2012

Five More of Satan’s Devices of Which Not to Be Ignorant!

“This is PART TWO of my blog note on Satan’s Devices of Which Not to Be Ignorant. I had the first six devices in that note, and here are FIVE more. Please refer to that note for the intro which is at this link: http://wp.me/p21nNI-9T. No need to retype it!)

F O R G E T F U L N E S S

One of Satan’s devices that he uses most effectively against the Saints is forgetfulness. There are two things that Satan tries to get believers to forget. #1 The battle is already won because you are on the winning team – God’s team. And #2 He wants you to forget the many battles that God has already won on your behalf in many times past. If he can get you to forget those two things, he can cause you to either BE defeated or to FEEL defeated. And sometimes actual defeat is almost as bad as perceived defeat. For example, imagine that you are 20 years old when your doctor tells you that because of your current state of health, it’s only a matter of time before you die. And then you live to age 90 all the while thinking every day of those 70 years that you have just days left to live. Even though the doctor was not telling the truth, the fact that you lived 70 miserable years made you live a defeated life – even though it was a long-lived, DEFEATED life. Satan can have you thinking that you are doomed, damned, and defeated every day of your life when all the while you are winning and blessed from the very beginning!

You need to know that in this life – if you are a believer – you are a winner. You are a winner NOT because you are a great fighter, but because you are on the winning team! God’s team cannot lose! So if you are on a winning team, you will win because the team you are on is destined to win. And Satan’s team is destined to lose. That’s common sense. The game was fixed before the world began. God set it up so that He wins and Satan loses. And whoever is with God will win, and whoever is with Satan loses. One of Satan’s tactics is to get you to FORGET that. And when you forget that immutable fact, you begin to walk by SIGHT and not by FAITH. So when it looks like Satan is beating your butt, you forget that you’ve already won and then you concede that you’ve lost. And also, Satan wants you to FORGET that the same God who helped you through similar, previous battles will be the same VICTORIOUS God to help you through future battles. God can’t help but to be victorious. He was victorious in your struggles then, and He will still be victorious in your battles later. Please remember to never forget that Satan’s job is to have you to get amnesia about your predestined victory! The battle is already won. While Satan is over here trying to have you worried and stressed trying to figure it all out, God has already worked it all out.

“F O O T -I N-T H E-D O O R” T E C H N I Q U E

Another effective strategy that Satan enacts in the believer’s life is what is known in social psychology as the foot-in-the-door technique. Because Satan knows that he can’t flat out ask a Holy Ghost-filled believer to do heroin or murder, he may try to do this technique to increase the chances of you doing a “bigger” sin. For example, door-to-door salesmen may come to your door and ask you to accept a free offer for six months of a free weekly magazine subscription. If they come to your door and say, “Hey, ma’am. Please cancel your subscription of your favorite weekly magazine and buy a lifetime subscription of our similar magazine instead. Of course, you would say something to the effect of, “No, thanks. I like my current subscription just fine.” But if they’re giving you FREE magazines for half a year, why not? But I hope you wouldn’t be foolish enough to think that the salesmen is only knocking at your door to give you free magazines. Of course not! He’s ultimately after getting you to commit the rest of your life to BUYING his company’s magazine after those free six months run out. But he’s wise enough to know that it will take the foot-in-the-door technique to even have a fighting chance.

Satan is wiser than your average door-to-door solicitor. He knows that he will not likely have you commit to living a lifetime of sin for him and for the destruction of your flesh and soul. So he will apply this foot-in-the-door technique. He will offer you some bait for free while will open the door later for more costly offers. The free stuff he offers you puts a crack in the door, and then later because you’re already so well-acquainted with his mess, he knows that the next time he knocks, you’ll open the door a little wider next time. If you let the free magazines in your house for half a year, why wouldn’t you pay a low price for the same magazine you accepted already? Satan knows that Christians are too wise to pay for anything he’s offering, so he’ll make it more easily acceptable gift TEMPORARILY. But you better know that he will come back later to get his due. Don’t even open the door. Treat him like you’d treat your local Jehovah Witness or Mormon when they knock on your door early one Saturday morning! Act like nobody’s home!

“M A J O R I N G I N T H E M I N O R S”

Sadly, this one brings down many a believer. You can know Satan is at work when you find yourself “majoring in the minors” (which by default will have you “minoring in the majors”). Do you ever find you or many in your church home or denomination doing this? An example would be this: Does your pastor spend inordinate amounts of time telling his congregation what clothing and accessories and hairstyles to wear? Does he rant and rave every Sunday about men wearing cornrows and dredlocks? About women wearing pants or shorts? About men wearing earrings? About women wearing their hair short? Well that is a perfect example of one who is majoring in minors. Minors in this instance are little, almost insignificant details that have no bearing on one’s salvation. Well, even though these minors don’t bother God much, Satan will have some Saints fixated on details. I understand why some pastors may TOUCH on this topic. The bible does say in the new testament section that it is shameful for men to have long hair. The bible does say that women should not cut their hair because their hair is their glory and their covering. The bible does say that a woman should not wear that which pertains to a man. (HOWEVER, THAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT written for Jews under the MOSAIC LAW. This is not for the new testament believer, which is not to say that Christians should cross dress like transvestites!)

But I believe you get my point. God is not in heaven pulling his hair out because a Christian male has dredlocks. And to those of the Church of Christ denomination, Jesus is not losing His mind and dejected because a church used musical instruments in praise and worship on Sunday. And to those of the apostolic persuasion, angels are not mourning because a girl got her split ends clipped. So stop losing your mind over minors! And it doesn’t end there, guys. Satan’s mind is on bigger things because if Satan can cause you to major in a minor, he has likely effectively caused you to minor in a major. What I mean is that if you are spending 99% of your evangelism telling a woman that she needs to wear skirts and dresses to church, then that only leaves AT THE MOST 1% of the time for you to witness to her of God’s love and mercy, of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, and of the work of the Holy Ghost in their regenerated soul. THOSE are the majors. Most of your speech in soulwinning and disciple-making should be about LOVE, GRACE, MERCY, FORGIVENESS, TRANSFORMATION, REGENERATION, etc. But you don’t have time for the MAJORS when you’re still spending 90% of your time on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Blogger accounts fixating on how Christians should be Calvinists, or on how Christians should renounce all secular music, or on how Christians should be paying their pastor a tenth of their paychecks. Satan is laughing while you are stuck in the minors. Don’t let him win in this regard!

“T H E S M A L L E R P I C T U R E”

This here’s a good one that gets a lot of Christians upset with God! How many of you have lost the faith or gotten angry with God because of a bad diagnosis from your doctor, the loss of a loved one, or serious, long-term financial woes? Well, you can know that Satan has unleashed a tactic on you that I will refer to as “The Smaller Picture”. This is the opposite of the common phrase, “The Bigger Picture”. When something catastrophic happens to us, most people IMMEDIATELY take on the smaller picture. We think of only ourselves. We get into a pity party – which is totally understandable. We get disappointed, sad, and wonder why God has allowed such tragedy to hit us or our family. Especially if we know that we’ve been doing all we know to do to please the Lord in our lifestyles. We would understand getting a liver failure diagnosis if we were hard drinking every night at clubs. We would graciously accept lung cancer if we smoked tobacco, weed, crack, and meth on a regular basis. We would cope with losing a husband to another woman if we cheated on him every night. But what to do when you’ve been living holy when disaster strikes?

We have to keep sight of the bigger picture when disaster strikes. We have to remember that God lets nothing occur without purpose. I’ve heard of SO many examples of how God has lead people to change laws or begin support groups or sponsor scholarships after a tragedy has hit them or their family. And these people are your average good citizens who suffer in these ways. And instead of wallowing in their pain as they are expected to do, they turn their suffering into a support group and they turn their misery into ministries. This is because they saw the bigger picture. When they lose a daughter to that daughter’s abusive boyfriend, they find a way to change legislation that enforces stricter laws against domestic violence. When they have a son who is shot to death in the streets, they create a neighborhood watch group to meet weekly to protect the streets. When they lose a mother to cancer, they begin to save money for a yearly scholarship for a child who has lost a parent to cancer. Susan B. Komen did not die in vain, her sister Nancy G. Brinker promised her that she would do everything in her might to end breast cancer forever. Komen’s family has raised so much money for breast cancer research and awareness because of their family tragedy.

Now some people will internalize their pain and just feel sorry for themselves until they die. They will refuse to convert their pain into productivity to help save and extend the lives of others. Don’t let Satan do this to you. Don’t let Satan let you trade in the bigger picture for the smaller picture. The bigger picture makes sense of your pain. The smaller picture makes God look cruel. The bigger picture makes you help hundreds or thousands of others who will go through your current situation. The smaller picture makes you suffer in vain. You pain is not without purpose. God trusted YOU and your family with that tragedy. Don’t let Satan make you undependable to God. God really is relying on you to minister to others who have gone through, are going through, and who will go through your pain.

“E X T R E M I S M”/”R A D I C A L I S M” D E C I S I O N-M A K I N G

I’m using these two words differently than the political definition you might be used to. When I say extremism or radicalism, I am referring to someone going too far in the opposite direction because of one painful fact that they have difficulty coping with. For example, if a man marries a man because two women he dated broke his heart. Or if a man refuses to ever work another job because he had a bad experience with a boss/coworker/client. Just because of one, three, or even ten bad experiences, some people will go to the EXTREME and make very dumb decision. This is a strategy that Satan uses on believers and unbelievers alike. I know of two unbelievers who were raised in the church but who – because of this satanic strategy and others – have left the faith. Satan had them going to the EXTREME about things. For example, if they know of ONE pastor who was exposed for raping a child, they would make that one offense apply across the board to all other Christian pastors. They would see a news report on the one pastor and would conclude that EVERY Christian pastor must be secretly molesting children. They might have personally known a pastor who misappropriated church funds to buy a Bentley for his own personal greed, and then they would concur that EVERY SINGLE PASTOR in the world is using the tithes and offerings to buy personal objects. And because of ONE PASTOR, they are willing to go to hell.

Satan will have you living a life to the extreme. He’ll let you have one bad experience and will then whisper in your ear some mess that will have you running off the deep end. If you experience a church hurt, don’t get DRASTIC with your decision-making because of it. For some people who’ve been hurt by a Christian pastor, instead of them logically saying, “Man, that pastor was a bad man. He raped someone./He embezzled church funds. I’m glad all pastors aren’t like that. I will try to find a pastor who lives a life of integrity,” they say, “See, that’s why I don’t go to church. ALL them pastors want is to use their members for sex./ALL them pastors do is spend the members money on their greedy lusts. I’ll never set foot in another church again,” It is basically insane to assume that every pastor rapes women or steals money just because one, ten, or even a hundred pastors raped someone or embezzled money. That is how you can know Satan is at the root of it. God nor logic would ever say that because ONE human did something, every human of a similar occupation will do it. Just because ONE Caucasian police officer is racist against blacks and does racial profiling does not mean that EVERY Caucasian cop is racist. Even if you can name 100 racist White cops does not mean that every single White cop that has existed, that does exist, or that will exist will be a racist cop that racial profiles against blacks. If you believe that, Satan is at work in your mind and it is only a matter of time before he brings you down. Don’t allow him to set up shop in your mind with this foolishness. ONE does not translate into ALL. One hundred of a thousand does not translate into ALL. Let’s be rational and shut the devil up. Just because you know of ONE church/pastor that did wrong does not mean that ALL churches/pastors do wrong.

These are just FIVE of MANY of Satan’s devices mind you. Satan has SO many tricks up his sleeve for us! He’s no one-trick pony! He gets creative with his devices. Again, please read the first note for the first six devices that I believe God has been gracious enough to expose to me. And Lord willing, there will be at least two more notes on this topic in the near future. Be blessed, and do not forget these devices!
Six of Satan’s Devices of Which Not To Be Ignorant

For so long, Satan has gotten the upper hand of me. He’s defeated me in so many ways in which I was not even aware that there was a battle. The bible tells us not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices. So that tells us TWO things: 1. Satan has scheme/plots/plans/devices/strategies under his belt. 2. These devices can be unknown/secretive/clandestine/covert.

Just think in the natural world. When a team is playing basketball or football, they have a play book. This book is to be 100% confidential as far as the other team is concerned. The other team should not know the plans of the opposing team. The plans are supposed to be kept secret so that the team can ultimately DEFEAT the competitor. The other team is to be IGNORANT of the schemes in the other team’s playbook. They can know that the play book exists because I believe every professional team has a playbook, but it is the job of the coach to make sure that the play book does not fall into the wrong hands.

The same goes with covert operations in a war. The enemy is not to know what the other country has under its sleeve as far as attacks are concerned. That is a rule in war.

Well that’s how it goes with Satan, but let’s give him more credit than that. His tricks are FAR superior than the schemes and plays of sports teams and armies. Remember, Satan has been studying human nature since the very beginning. I’m talking about the FIRST TWO HUMANS WHO EVER WALKED THE FACE OF THE EARTH were deceived by Satan in his FIRST attempt! He was good at what he did then, and who are kidding, Satan can only have gotten better at it with time. Some speculate that it’s about 7,000 years later since Adam and Eve were around. Seven millennia and billions of people later will give you a lot of time to practice!

I thank God for the bible. The bible records many of Satan’s devices. If you look through the Old and New Testaments, you can see records of how Satan brought people down. Be not ignorant of His devices. KNOW the enemy. Learn his ways. You should be able to see him coming from a mile away. The older I get in the faith, the more I spot him further away. It used to be that I couldn’t see Satan at work until the damage was already done. But God and the Holy Spirit are making it so that I am PREVENTATIVE against his attacks by knowing which situations Satan works best in and by knowing how he operates. We already know that Satan works through our fleshly lusts and desires, but let’s look at some more unforeseen ways that you would not likely suspect. Satan already knows that seasoned Saints already know to avoid alcohol, drugs, parties, secular music, sex without one’s husband and wife, sexual images, profanity, etc. He knows most Christians can’t be outsmarted by those obvious temptations. So he works in other ways to bring down those in the church. I pray that you all are blessed by this note.

D I V I S I O N

Reading the bible has shown me that God loves the number ONE. He likes when we work as one even though we have many “body parts” and many gifts and ministries. Romans 12:4-5 talks of there being ONE body of Christ. Romans 15:6 talks of Christians glorifying God with ONE mind and ONE mouth. 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 and 1 Corinthians 3:3 talk of how there should be no division and that we should be of ONE and the same baptism, “thing”, mind, and judgment. 1 Corinthians 10:17 talks of us being ONE body and ONE bread. 1 Corinthians 12’s chapter talks of how we are ONE body. 2 Corinthians 13:11 talks of us being of ONE mind. Galatians 3:28 say that we are ONE. Ephesians 4:4 talks of ONE faith and ONE baptism. Philippians 1:27 speaks of us having ONE spirit and ONE mind. Philippians 2:2 talks of us being of ONE accord and ONE mind. Colossians 3:15 talks of being of ONE body. I Peter 3:8 tells us to be of ONE mind. God clearly LOVES when we operate as ONE!

All the aforementioned bible verses prove that God wants us thinking and operating as ONE. But for some reason there are at least 33,000 Christian denominations. How does ONE spirit, ONE mind, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE mouth, ONE accord, and ONE body end up in at LEAST 33,000 denominations? Do you think that GOD has anything to do with that high number of division? Absolutely not. Where division is, you can know that Satan is at work. All the talk God gives us of ONE in the New Testaments helps us to know that all these divisions are one of Satan’s devices. When unbelievers hear that Christians disagree in at least 33,000 ways with regards to Christian doctrine, worship, theology, soteriology, and methodology, it makes them mock us. They can’t figure how we all read the same bible that has the same truths and yet can’t agree on the ONE thing God meant in the bible. One of Satan’s devices is division. I’m sure you’ve heard of “divide and conquer”. Well that’s one way in which Satan works. He knows he is POWERLESS against Christ’s ONE huge Christian body. But when it comes to many (33,000?) smaller bodies, he can work well in that. And he has.

W R O N G A G R E E M E N T S

Satan isn’t as powerful as we think. He can’t really do anything to us unless we ALLOW him too. He has to first get us to AGREE with him before he can wreak havoc in our lives. And do we not agree with him every chance he gives us to? He can have an evil spirit whisper in your ear that you’re gay, and without even thinking, you’ll agree with the evil spirit thinking that it’s your own mind telling you something that it’s true. And guess what? You won’t act on something that you don’t agree with. For example, I won’t murder someone unless I first reach an agreement in my mind that it would be a good idea to do so.

Remember in the wilderness after Jesus had a 40 day fast in Luke 4:3-13? Satan tried to give Jesus an idea. And if Jesus was like us and agreed with Satan, he would have acted on the temptation. But because Jesus has nothing in common with evil, he of course disagreed with Satan. Jesus was not ignorant of Satan’s devices. So what happened? Jesus rejected Satan’s suggestions and the bible says that Satan departed for a SEASON! Imagine that! Imagine a season in which Satan does not try to tempt you to sin! If you learn his devices well enough, you can possibly be free of Satan for a season! Many of us agree with doctors’ bad reports and say that because our parents and grandparents had a certain disease that we too must eventually get this or that disease. We agree with our haters’ opinions of us and say that we will not succeed in life. We agree with the 50% divorce statistic and say it’s only a matter of time before our marriages fail. And in many cases, it’s only after we AGREE with the enemy that chaos ensues. Stop making wrong agreements with Satan. It’s one of his devices! Look at what happened when Adam and Eve made a wrong agreement with Satan instead of with God about a particular tree:

WHAT GOD SAID: Genesis 2:17 – But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

WHAT SATAN SAID: Genesis 3:4 – And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall N O T surely die:

O F F E N S E

My pastor and first lady blessed me SO with this topic! I thank God for it even today. They taught and preached on it for several weeks. Offense is one of Satan’s most successful devices. Satan can work most effectively in an offended heart. If you are easily offended, I can accurately assume that you have much mess going on in your life between you and your family, friends, coworkers, church members, and spouse. I bet Satan used offense to ruin your relationships. Maybe your husband said that your chicken needed a little more seasoning. Maybe your coworker made you look bad in front of a boss by telling her a mistake you made. Maybe your mother showed favoritism to your brother over you. Maybe your best friend chose someone else as her maid-of-honor.

And maybe this all happened 20 years ago and you STILL are harboring resentment and bitterness about it. Satan likes people like you. If you can hold a grudge, Satan can use you. And he WILL use you. And I can bet your bottom dollar that he IS using you. Satan always works in an atmosphere of unforgiveness. Forgiveness is what God majors on, and so you know that what God loves is what Satan hates. Forgive quickly and thoroughly and watch Satan flee from all of your relationships. He can’t work well in a relationship that is flourishing with forgiveness! The thing about unforgiveness is that you can’t pray for someone you hate, you can’t love someone you hate, you can’t evangelize or preach to someone you hate. So when you are offended by and unforgiving of someone, it’s one of the ways Satan prevents you from being used of God to lead someone to Christ. If Satan can convince you to be offended, he has convinced you not to minister to someone. And so that enacts part TWO of his device. You may be the ONE person God was going to use to lead this person to Christ; but since you now are not speaking to the person and blocked them from your Facebook and Twitter, they may never hear or experience the love of God. You may be the only “bible this person will ever read”.

Proverbs 17:9 – Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

Proverbs 19:11 – Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

I G N O R A N C E/P A R A N O I A/I N S E C U R I T Y/S U S P I C I O N

The reason I put these four words together because they are related because of the fact that all four lack or may lack one thing: TRUTH/REALITY. If you are ignorant of something, it means that you are unaware of the truth of its existence – unaware that it is REAL. To be paranoid is to believe that things that are not real are real. To believe that lies are truth. Paranoid people for example may think that the CIA is out to kill them or that some woman at her job is hating on her and trying to get her fired when that is so far from the truth; suspicion is related because it can make you paranoid. And insecurity is when someone believes that aspects of themselves are causing them to be inferior to others or disliked by others when that is not true. An insecure person may think that she must look bad if she walks in a room and a group of people start laughing. Or an insecure girlfriend may think that everytime her boyfriend’s phone rings that it’s his ex-girlfriend. Or an insecure boyfriend may think that everytime his girlfriend doesn’t answer the phone that she’s with another man. Insecurity has to do with imagining lies as being the truth.

Satan can destroy the trust in a Christian marriage by convincing one spouse that the other is being unfaithful. He can ruin the trusting relationship between a pastor and his congregation by making the pastor believe that some of his members are thinking of leaving his church because they dislike his preaching all of sudden. Satan can cause trouble between a coworker and a manager because at the next meeting, the boss may say there is a new policy on absentees a week after you called in sick on Monday and Friday. And so you get paranoid that the boss is talking about you. Assumptions come from paranoia, ignorance, and insecurity. And these assumptions are not based on truth and so they can cause a lot of trouble in relationships.

Satan is the father of all lies. Wherever a lie is, please and just know that it has started with Papa Satan. He knows that truth sets free. He knows that lies bound and cause grief. So he tells lies. He starts lies. He suggests things that lead to lies. Don’t operate off of lies. Operate based off of truth. And truth is not one and the same with facts. A doctor’s fact that people with your form of cancer are doomed within 6 months. But God’s truth about that same kind of cancer can be that you can be healed in a day with a full recovery. So Satan can sometimes defeat you with FACTS that are not God’s truths. Where lies are being spread, know that Satan is at work with a demonic scheme to destroy. He knows that if the truth got out about everything, then he would be powerless. He gets his powers from YOUR belief in HIS lies. When you stop believing his false reality/lies/attempts to make you paranoid and insecure, he has lost in his tactic against you in this regard.

Romans 10:3 – For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 2:11 - Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

1 Samuel 18:6-9 - And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick. And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

P R I D E

Last but not least, Satan defeats those who love God by using one of his most effective tools/weapons of PRIDE. I cannot stress the importance of humility in the life of the believer. Remember how that even the “best” Jews of Jesus’ time were defeated and damned because they had too much pride to admit their inefficiencies and weaknesses when it came to pleasing God according to His holy standard. They did not receive Jesus because He required that they humble themselves and admit that they were sinners who needed a Savior. Satan can work more easily in a prideful heart than even an offended heart.

An example in how Satan works in this way is when he convinces you to apply pride to your repentance. You can have done a sin and yet be too prideful to repent of it. I knew a guy who was very lustful in his heart and deeds. And when I told him about it, he denied ever being lustful towards his girlfriend even though he and his girlfriend were close to having sex on several occasions. He had a title in the church, and so I suppose he felt that being a minister was incompatible with being horny. So instead of humbling himself and admitting that fault, he instead denied ever wanting to have premarital sex. And because he never humbled himself enough to repent of this sin, he of course never repented on this sin. Therefore, he never received forgiveness for this sin if he has not repented of it.

Pride will cause you to deny any wrongdoing, faults, or weaknesses. And when you don’t admit to having a problem, you never confess the problem. And you never receive forgiveness for something you can’t agree to have done. Satan used pride to keep that young man from receiving God’s forgiveness. I don’t know if he ever repented of it, but if he did not, Satan did a work in his life. God does not allow for any pride in the lives of Saints. He wants total humility from us. Humility is not just a cute word to refer to yourself as. Having humility means that you ask for forgiveness everytime you sin. Having humility means that you never think that you are too holy to make a mistake. Having humility shows me that you ALWAYS run to God for much-needed forgiveness. So conversely, to lack humility means that you rarely if ever ask for forgiveness because you can’t agree that you make mistakes.

It’s so sad to see preachers who are so tough on their congregation be exposed for the wildest sins. I’m talking about being caught having 15 year affairs with a prophetess in the church. I’m talking about molesting five BOYS in his congregation. I’m talking about pastors who kill their wives, chop them up, store them in the freezer for years all so that they can have an incestuous relationship with their daughter. I’m talking about embezzling THOUSANDS of dollars from members “tithes & offerings”. I’ve heard all these TRUE stories and more! It’s crazy how the most prideful, self-righteous people have the most unbelievably secret sins. That’s because pride is one of the best ways to cover one’s sin. If you allow pride in your life, already know that Satan has some BIG, disastrous plans for you and those closely associated with you. Pride destroys. The bible says that by pride, people bring about their own downfall.

1 Timothy 3:6 – Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

I Peter 5:5 – …be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

D I S T R A C T I O N S

Remember the story about the Mary and Martha sisters? One sister was so busy cleaning and being a good hostess that she was missing out on a spiritual blessing from the Messiah. She even tried to get the Messiah to cause her sister to miss out on her blessing! She confused busyness for Jesus for being doing the work of the Lord. Satan can have people so busy singing in a choir, ushering the congregation to their seats, vacuuming after church services, and playing the drums that they forget to minister to others spiritually. This is not to make light of ushers and choir members, but sometimes, God just wants you to evangelize to your family member. But you’re so busy at church that the people who are “sick” are not getting a “physician”, but the people who are “well” are.

I encountered this in my blogging frenzy and my church attendance craving. I would spend countless hours writing spiritual notes for my blog. And so I was ministering in that regard because many people were blessed by the notes. But if someone wrote me a private message asking for prayer, I thought I was too busy with ministry to minister! I would get annoyed and say to myself, “Why don’t she just pray for herself?! I can’t be her relationship with God!” And I would be so busy at times going to church that I wouldn’t even stop to be a loving Christian witness to those in my every day life like friends, family members, and coworkers. I was so busy LOOKING churchy that I had no time to BE the Christian I should have been for God. Satan will have you so busy that you will think that you do not have time to do the things God wants you to do.

There are such thing as church distractions because many of the things we do in church today have nothing to do with the church we read about in the New Testament. The New Testament church and Jesus were out and about ministering to the hurting and lost. Church today seems very into ministering to only those who are saved IN the church’s four walls. Many church folk would rather hold up a hurtful pro-life sign outside of an abortion clinic instead of kindly approaching the expectant mother, praying for her, asking her why she feels the need to do this, and offering her options other than abortion. Many Christians will hold up hateful signs at gay rallies and parades instead of pulling a homosexual to the side, praying for them, and doing spiritual deliverance from the spirit of perversion. Be not ignorant of even this most surprising device.

These are just six of MANY of his devices. I chose these six because they are the six in which Satan won many battles against me. I thank God for informing me of this in order that I might gain the victory over Satan in my life through Christ Jesus! Please read my newer note which lists five MORE of Satan’s devices that he uses quite effectively in the believer’s life.
If You're Good at Making Excuses, You Can't Be Good at Anything Else

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” – Benjamin Franklin

One of Satan’s most effective devices that he uses against Christians is E X C U S E S. And he often disguises these excuses as “good reasons”. If you give me enough time to give you good #excuse, I can talk you out of doing ANYTHING. Just imagine how powerful Satan can be against the Saints if he can just get us to stop doing stuff for the kingdom?

This device of Satan has turned me into the Queen of #Procrastination. Ask me what my dreams are, and I can tell you them all. But then ask me why I haven’t gotten started on them, and soon will come an onslaught of excuses! I hate to keep saying, “The Devil made me do it,” but don’t think Satan won’t do whatever is in his limited power to stop you. He has no problem whispering little excuses in your ear to prevent you from executing God’s will on the earth and even from carrying out your own personal dreams.

Take me for example. I want to be a Christian family and marriage counselor. I love learning and talking about interpersonal communication and relationships. I love watching the dynamics between two persons. I’ve been interested in this for a long time. I love seeing people become more intimate in their relationships with others. So this is one of my dreams.

B U T…

You had to know that an excuse NOT TO DO was soon to follow. When I ask myself why I haven’t begun to pursue my dreams by applying to a college, applying for FAFSA, and taking the GRE if need be, I come up with a lot of seemingly GREAT excuses! I don’t settle for okay, decent, or good excuses, I only want GREAT ones. Here’s some of the ones I “like” to use: #1 If I do become a marriage counselor, who’s gonna want counseling from me? I’ve never been married before!” #2 I’ve been studying tough for the GRE, but that math section has me beat. What’s the use in taking the GRE if I’m just going to fail it? I should only take the GRE if I know I’m going to make a decent score on it. #3 Master’s level programs often require one or two recommendation letters on the application. I don’t know who would want to do a recommendation letter for me! #4 And since I would prefer to go to a Christian university, they will likely ask for an official of my church to write a recommendation letter for me. Well, I haven’t served faithfully in my church, so I have no one to write a letter for me. So the college wouldn’t accept me anyway!” #5 I just signed a year-long lease and the school I want to go to is out-of-town. So that means I have to wait a year before I can get into school anyway. #6 I just got this new job, and I want to pay off my two credit cards before I rack on yet more debt from a SECOND degree’s tuition. I haven’t even paid off my Bachelor’s degree student loans yet! I should wait until I pay off some more debt. #7 I don’t want to waste anymore time in the wrong field. I already wasted four and a half years in a major that I don’t even want to work in. What’s the use of going to school to potentially waste two more years? #8 You know the news had a story about how so many people have graduate degrees and are yet finding that there are no jobs for them in this economy. What’s the use of going back to school then? To get in more debt? To waste more time?

“Several excuses are always less convincing than one.” – Aldous Huxley

You guys, the list goes on and on and on. Just ask my friends and family. They will tell you that I keep on coming up with a very rational, yet very useless excuse NOT TO DO.

Here’s the thing about excuses, guys. After I repeat all seven of those excuses to myself over and over again, guess what? What has all those “great reasons” done for me? Did any of those excuses get me what I wanted? Did any of them change my life for the better? Absolutely not. After I recite my favorite excuses, I’m still left in a career I dislike at a job I don’t want to work at with a degree I don’t need.

Satan makes you think that using his great excuses will make you happier where you are in life. He wants you to think that if you keep applying his excuses, you will be content with your decision not to get into the ministry, with your decision not to go back to school, with you decision not to get training for a different job, with your decision not to apply for the promotion, etc. But this is not true! You’re still probably miserable! I’m not saying that contentment and appreciation for where you are in life right now is a bad thing, but what I’m saying is that no amount of great excuses will make you feel any better about something you already dislike. All excuses do is postpone your dreams. You’re still going to want to achieve those SAME dreams, even if you wait a year to start on them or even a decade. And waiting to begin will only make it harder on you because the things that are easier for a single, childless, mortgage-less, career-less 20 year old is MUCH harder to achieve for a 40 year old married mother of five children who is already ten years into her displeasing career and only ten years into paying off her thirty year mortgage.

Let’s apply this to dating relationships. Satan will give you so many excuses NOT to marry. #1 You know the divorce rate in America is 50% #2 You know they say that so many African-American men have HIV because they are closeted homosexuals who will only use his wife as a cover to make him look heterosexual. #3 You know people aren’t faithful in their marriages anymore. He’s going to probably have three affairs on you after you get old and saggy. #4 Watch him flip on you during the honeymoon. Sure he looks sweet now, but he’s gonna get like Ike on Tina on you soon after you marry him. So don’t get tied to him in a marriage. #5 (Here’s a funny one) The world is going to end in a few months or few years anyway so just stay single and focus on ministry work.

“It is wise…to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.” – William Arthur Ward

I’m not suggesting you rush into a new career or marriage, but I suggest you seriously think about these “great excuses/reasons” you hear popping up in your head. Ask yourself did they likely originate with God or Satan? With insecurity or confidence? With fear and doubt or trust in God? If Satan is giving you fearful reasons not to do, then it is because he is afraid of the success that is to come in your future and so he desires to stop you. Hear are some words of wisdom that I have heard a while ago which I have never forgotten: The purpose of fear is to stop you. It wants to stop you from dreaming, achieving, applying, trying, interviewing, speaking, etc. So one way you can know that Satan’s device is at work is if fear is your motivator. If you’re not going to do something, let it be because it’s the wrong thing to do, because God doesn’t want you to do it, because it is a bad idea/bad decision. Don’t let it be because you MIGHT fail, because you may be embarrassed, because it may cost a lot of money, because it may take longer than you think, etc. EVERYTHING MIGHT fail, is that a reason for everyone to stop moving? Everyone who became a doctor or lawyer had great chances of failing in law school or med school. They had high risk of failing the LSAT, MCAT, and bar exam. But there are SO many lawyers and doctors out there! So what if all of those doctors and lawyers had said in their head, “What if I don’t pass the test or class?” Then we would have a scary world devoid of lawyers and doctors! So scratch that excuse out. EVERYTHING that EVERYONE does has the potential of failing. But some people don’t use that excuse to stop trying, so why do should you think that it is okay for you to use an excuse that did not work for others?

I believe that God will use me in the ministry to a fair extent. I believe that I will lead thousands to Christ as was prophesied to me. I believe that I will give hope to so many people with the messages, insights, wisdom, and revelation God has been blessing me with over the past several years. I am excited about what God is going to use me to do for Him in the ministry. So I’m preparing for whenever He needs me. And so because Satan is threatened by the damage that I can evoke in his kingdom, he is sowing an excuse here and a reason there to get me NOT to do. A reason NOT to get into the ministry. An excuse NOT to go to theological seminary. An excuse NOT to open my mouth and say what God gives me to say. He reminds me that I am a woman and that many Christians don’t want to hear God’s message coming from a woman. He reminds me of my age and that many ministers began preaching a younger age than me. He reminds me of my fear of public speaking so that if I am offered an opportunity to speak, I will try to talk myself out of it. He reminds me that I talk too fast and that in times past I have stumbled over my words and stuttered when I was very nervous. He reminds me that I’m introverted. None of these excuses say that ministry is a bad idea, it just tries to scare me out of ministry.

Let the rewards of reaching your dreams motivate you more than the excuses of how bad failure may feel to you. Refuse to take anymore of Satan’s excuses. For every excuse Satan gives you not to do something, give him two happy reasons why you should. If he tells you that you shouldn’t get pregnant by your husband because the world we live in is so perverted and dangerous, tell him that you would love nothing more than to lavish all your love on and raise a child of your own. That you find it so exciting to raise a child up in the fear of the Lord and help that child to be successful and impactful in this world. Now which sounds more exciting? Not having a baby or having a baby? Yeah, the world is full of child molesters and gun-toting schoolmates, but what does that have to do with the joy of raising a child? Don’t let Satan’s fears prevent you from walking in the rewards of your carrying out your heart’s desires!

“Bad excuses are worse than none.” -Thomas Fuller

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

You Can't Be Spiritually Delivered From Something You Secretly Condone...

Doing my usual talk with God, the topic of demonic oppression came up. And I was just thinking to myself about why I kept thinking I was being delivered from stuff that seemed to reappear weeks, months, or years later. And I feel the Holy Spirit blessed me with the answer to it. Actually there were two reasons. A tweet I read months prior almost hit one reason right it on the nail. The tweet read: “You can’t be delivered from stuff you secretly condone.” I realized that you don’t typically live with people you disagree with. A Black Panther for example would never live with a Klansmen. A Satanic high priestess would never take up residence with a Holy Ghost-filled Christian pastor. So I had realized that I was secretly condoning whatever the unclean spirit I was “living” with was condoning.

The second reason I was not achieving long-term deliverance was because I was being “benefited” my being bound. Sounds strange, I know. You might ask yourself, “How does being demonically oppressed benefit anyone?” And the answer was, “In the same way heroin addiction and Munchausen by proxy benefits someone. I’m sure you’ve watched shows on addicts and asked yourself, “Now, why on earth would this man keep injecting this poison in his veins when it has tore his family apart, cost him his health, and caused him to lose his job?” Well for the addict, the answer is clear. They get a euphoric high that they would never be able to achieve through any other means on this side of heaven. And also, it helps them to temporarily forget painful memories and truths. If it wasn’t for those two reasons, most people would never be addicted to drugs and alcohol. If heroin had no high and no amnesiac effects, no one would use it.

So when it comes to harmful things that we do not let go of, we have to understand that we are in fact getting SOME benefit from it. There is not one behavior that people continue to do that does not benefit them in some way. So when you ask me why I hadn’t yet been delivered from my demons, it was because they were benefiting me.

I was in church with my notepad and I began to write down and think of the ways my demons kept me safe – or feeling safe rather. How can one think that ruthless, merciless, hateful demons are keeping them safe? How can spirits of unforgiveness, bitterness, hate, timidity, depression, rejection, grief, control, and pride provide me with any benefits? You’d be surprised.

While in that church service, I was thinking to myself how I had been shy most of my life. I would hide from people. I would avoid men. I would shy away from public view sometimes. Even when there was clearly no threat to me, I would keep this shy attitude/mindset. So in that church service, the word “safe” came to mind. I realized that by holding onto this spirit of fear and nervousness, I was able to be safe from people’s opinions and potential hurt. People who are extroverted have many more chances of being hurt and rejected than shy people. Outgoing people befriend people – some of which will turn down their offer. But shy people NEVER get rejection. Extroverts do things that draw attention to themselves – some of which is negative attention. Introverts don’t draw half as much attention – including that negative attention. Being shy kept me safe. Safety and security is definitely a benefit.

How about the spirits of unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment? How do they provide one with benefits? How about they erect a huge, steel wall between you and persons that you perceive as dangerous? If you never forgive your rapist, or negligent father, or estranged husband, you don’t have to worry about them ever hurting you again. If you forgive your dead-beat dad, that means you lowered or removed the wall for him to potentially hurt you again. But if you keep the wall up high with bitterness, future hurt is totally removed from the equation. Protection from future hurt is safety and security.

I’ve also gotten benefits from the spirit of pain and infirmity. I’ve gotten pity and attention. I wanted attention from my mother, and holding on to my diseases certainly got me attention with her taking me to different doctor appointments and treating my ailments. And the pity! People feeling sorry for the poor girl who was diagnosed with junior rheumatoid arthritis from the tender age of 12! People also admired me for having the pain and stiffness and yet still praising God as if nothing was wrong. So I got three benefits from holding onto arthritis even when I had many anointed men and women of God pray for my healing. I would feel no pain for a while, but as soon as I subconsciously saw an opportunity to get pity, attention, and admiration, the symptoms would come back.

Back to the first reason I could not stay delivered, another reason the arthritis seemed to keep reappearing was because of negative agreements I was making with the Enemy. For example, I would open the door for pain, inflammation, swelling, and stiffness in my joints during stormy days, wintry weather, and when I drank and ate certain foods. It was like I would shut the door on arthritic pain on good warm days when I was fasting or eating healthy. I would make no allowance for it whatsoever. But as soon as I drank a Coca-Cola, I would literally brace myself for pain to arise in my joints. Now some of you might be saying, “Well, Mistye, if you have an allergy to something, that’s not the same thing as you opening the door to demonic pain.” But I feel that in my case it was. Maybe not for a 89 year old woman, but for a pre-teen through 20 year-old, it is very abnormal to have joint pain. I truly believe it was spiritual in nature.

With regards to the making negative agreements with wrong spirits, I was thinking to myself also that you cannot live with someone you disagree with. You can think of this way. Would you marry a man with whom he only agreed with the first half of the traditional marriage vows and you only agreed with the second half of the traditional marriage vows? If you all don’t agree on the same contract, you wouldn’t marry. If you agree to pay $700 a month in rent and your roommate wants to pay half of the rent but only agrees to pay no more than $50, you and her will not at all share a lease. The same applies to spiritual covenants and agreements with demons. If you are being tempted by a spirit of unforgiveness to hold a bitter, unforgiving resentment against your molester, if you agree with him that unforgiveness is a great idea, he will enter in or oppress you. But if you say to the spirit, “Yeah, I could never forgive that man, but the bible says if I hold a grudge against him God will not forgive me and I can’t go to heaven. Besides, unforgiveness will not at all change what happened. So I choose to forgive him,” then you already know it will flee. Resist the devil, and he will flee. Agree with him, and he will come in and live (and wreak havoc) in your life. If you agree that you can date an unbeliever when you are a Christian, then you will keep dating your unbelieving boyfriend. But if you agree with Apostle Paul who said, “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers,” then you will dump him. You cannot live with someone you disagree with on certain issues. And the same goes for evil spirits. They go about like Satan going to and fro seeking who they can devour. I was a revival/conference some weeks ago where the prophetess said she heard something a man taught about how evil spirits come in. He used the acronym “H.A.L.T.” The “A” stood for “anger”. One thing evil spirits look for in people they can easily possess is anger. Anger can be tied to unforgiveness. That’s why the bible says not to let the sun go down on your wrath. In other words, don’t go to bed angry. You shouldn’t let that kind of fire rest in your soul. You don’t want to wake up angry and bitter. Demons will be drawn to you like magnets. They know that they can possess or oppress an angry man quicker and easier than an easy-going and forgiving man.

When they see you angry for a long time, they begin to plot and scheme against you. They begin devising strategies in how to bring you down. Like if an adulteress woman sees that you have marital problems, she will see you as an easy target and if she likes you enough, she will go for you eventually. If you show any interest in her, she will pounce. Spirits of unforgiveness work much the same way. They don’t have enough time to wait on forgiving folk to agree with them; they have plenty of unforgiving people who will quickly and easily agree with them therefore letting them in. A Klansmen will agree with spirit of hatred quicker than a philanthropist, so who do you think has a spirit of hatred? Every klansmen has this spirit until he disagrees with racism and discrimination. And then the spirit flees to another fool. Now I won’t say all spirits leave that easily. It’s not just about agreements, it’s also about authority in Jesus’ name. Spirits aren’t scared of mere mortals, but they hate and fear Jesus and acknowledge His authority. But in this note, I’m just focusing on not letting the spirit in in the first place – I’m not trying to tell you how to cast it out. But later I will share my testimony in how I was delivered from spirits. I won’t say for sure that I was possessed with all of them, but I was surely oppressed.

And some people have a spirit of immaturity. I say immaturity because I can’t find the right word for what I mean. But people with that type of spirit rarely accomplish things in life. They always need help. They always play the victim. Who would dare hold on to this spirit? How does being a failure at life benefit anyone? How about it gets people constant help, lets them continue being lazy, continue making excuses, and never have to grow up. I remember when I moved out of my mom’s house after I had graduated from college. And within me, I heard a small voice say, “But who’s going to take care of me?” And it was kind of creepy. This was about 2 years ago, so I was about 24 years old. And this random voice asked this. And I began to get teary-eyed. And I realized that for those two years or so that I was living with my mom and stepdad, they fed me and my mom would somewhat baby me if I got sick. And I loved the attention because I’m a middle child with a sister a year older than me and a sister a year younger than me. So I had to constantly compete for my mom’s attention. And so when I got out of college (both my sisters were still in college), I got all their attention. And it was as if the unclean spirit that was oppressing me tried to scare me out of branching out and living alone. I had had many roommates in college, but had never lived alone. And I was the first female in my immediate family who ever had. In addition to that spirit of passivity, I had realized something related to it. I never wanted to cook when I was in Memphis where my mom lives. I didn’t mind it so much in college in Knoxville, but in Memphis when living with my mom, I lost probably ALL desire to cook and learn how to cook. And I feel as if they Holy Spirit revealed to me that it was because I didn’t want to grow up. In my mind, as long as my mom was cooking for me, I was still a child. I was still being babied. And babies and children never cook. And so cooking for me represented adulthood which I did NOT want to do yet. Adults don’t get as much attention or pity as children. I remember telling my mother and stepfather how much weight I had lost from not cooking once I had moved out. And they would pity me and cook for me or buy me groceries. So those were my benefits of this unclean spirit.

I used to just feel sorry for people who were being afflicted by spirits, and of course I still do. But I said I used to JUST feel sorry. I thought they were just 100% innocent people walking around minding their own business when a spirit just JUMPED down their throat possessing them. But now I see that we are somewhat responsible for the spirits we get. Truth is, if it was up to Satan, wouldn’t parent have a spirit of hatred? Wouldn’t every child have a spirit of rebellion? Wouldn’t every banker have a spirit of greed? Wouldn’t every politician have a spirit of control? Absolutely. But unclean spirits can’t just get whoever they want. They have to get unsuspecting victims who are willing to agree with them. For example, most homosexuals agree that they were born gay. They all likely have the same spirits of perversion that tempted them to agree with them that they were born gay. If a spirit tempted you to engage in homosexual acts, you only have two options – agree or disagree. If you told the spirit “no”, then you aren’t a homosexual. If you AGREED with the spirit, then it enters into this negative agreement, this lie, and binds you AS LONG AS you agree with it that you are gay. But as soon as you disagree and stop obeying its voice, you will loose its hold. You do know that you don’t have to obey everything unclean spirits tell you to do. And when you let it in, it takes control. So whereas in the beginning, you ha a choice, once you let it in, you do not have control.

Your words – usually spoken aloud – are what draws evil spirits to you. Trauma, tiredness, hunger, anger, being out of fellowship with others, and agreeing with lies. Lies are basically ideas and concepts that God disagrees with. If God doesn’t agree with it, it is a lie. So if Satan finds out that you are agreeing with his lies (and they’re all his lies because He is the father – the originator – of all lies), he will come to you to tempt you. Be careful what you say! Be careful what you do! Be careful where you go! Be careful who you hang out with. The bible says to be careful. Be vigilant against your adversary the devil because he goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. He’s looking around for an unwary, unsuspecting prey to agree with him. If you’ve ever watched shows on the Animal Planet channel where the camera man was observing the dynamic between a predator and his prey, this will help you understand more of how Satan works. If we are in a group of wary people, at least one of us will spot the lion and will run to safety. But if you are on the fringes of the group and not a very fast runner, you will be the prey that day. And lions are vicious and ravenous when it comes to eating. They show no mercy to their food. How much mercy do you show a cheeseburger on your plate? You devour it as ruthlessly as a lion devours a deer. Satan’s no vegetarian! So like a lion, he has his eyes on the weak, slow-running deer that can’t keep up with the others. Make sure you are strong in God. Make sure you are prepared for escape. The bible says there is no temptation so great that God has not provided an escape from it. But if you are so clueless, you will not see the exit sign and will fall right in the trap.

And another extended metaphor that will help drive this point home is this. The Christian walk is a battlefield. We’re in it to win it. This is not a game. We’re soldiers on the battlefield, and we’re fighting for the Lord. Satan is not playing with you and neither are his minions. They’re serious about their jobs and positions. Their job is to destroy you. You are on the other side and you are their enemy because your commander is their enemy. They hate God and so they hate you. Now imagine being a soldier who’s taking a nap IN THE MIDDLE OF COMBAT! A soldier texting on his phone with his “boo-junt” on the enemy’s side. Another soldier is cleaning his gun while the enemy is aiming at him. You have to come armed and prepared and focused. The spirit of anger is not texting. The spirit of perversion is never resting. The spirit of rebellion is not rolling his eyes at his commander. The spirit of infirmity is not arguing with the spirit of death. They work together because a kingdom divided itself cannot stand.

And because we are not focused on fighting or winning this battle, we keep letting the enemy in our camp. We even sometimes let them give us our marching orders. Our commander-in-chief tells us to shoot this enemy down in our lives, and we second guess it. And we second guess our deliverance because of the benefits we get from NOT shooting it down. God says, “By Jesus’ stripes, be healed from arthritis,” and I receive the healing by faith. And the symptoms all go away. No more pain, swelling, inflammation, and stiffness in my joints. But then I begin thinking to myself, “Man, before I got healed, I got to skip work. My unemployment check was more than my paychecks! My husband’s not babying me anymore by helping me down the stairs in the morning. My mom doesn’t check up on me nearly as much to see how I’m doing. And I had the best excuses for not going exercising with my best friend. Man, sometimes I think I was better off with that disease.” And next thing you know, the spirit of pain is back with all its “benefits”.

You can’t be delivered from something you secretly condone…

Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Hebrews 4:12: How to Best Win a Hardened Soul

The bible says in Hebrews 4:12 that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. There is nothing sharper or more cutting than the Word of God. If you apply God’s word to a situation, things cannot help but to change. This same verse says that with the Word of God, you can pierce to the dividing of one’s soul and spirit, joints and marrow. You can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart with God’s word alone.

So what better instrument to use to bring down a hardened heart than with the Word of God?

But anyone knows that an instrument that is not correctly put to use is useless. What use is a closed book? What use is a knife that remains in a drawer? Unless someone applies the Word, it is futile in soulwinning. So it is important to ask oneself, how should one apply the Word of God to bring down a tree?

On my way to work, I noticed the trees to the left of me. And I was thinking about how the lumberjacks brought down the trees as they do. And God gave me this amazing insight about how one can bring down the toughest of sinners with the sharpest – God’s word. If God’s word can’t convince you, if God’s word is not wise, then what is?

There are THREE things one needs to bring down a tree with an ax.

1. The ax must be sharp(ened).
2. The axeman must swing with the appropriate amount of pressure.
3. The axeman must have the right aim and angle.
4. More than likely, the axeman will need to be willing to spend some amount of time on the tree.

Without those three in order, the tree will not come down. Here are the issues that often come to those who are missing even one of these points:

Some people make the mistake of quoting a bible verse at an unbeliever, and thinking that the Word alone will drive them to their knees in repentance. Some people make the mistake of attacking people with the Sword of the Word, and wondering in confusion as to why the person runs off offended or spiritually wounded. Some people make the mistake of attacking the wrong issues of a person without aiming at what matters, the heart. And some people may only be willing to spend a couple of minutes to lead one to Christ and are surprised when no repentance takes place.

I’ve done a lot of soul winning in the past few years. And I’ve made a lot of mistakes too! The bible says that he who wins souls is wise. I’m not sure if that bible verse means what we take it to mean today (for those of use who read KJV), but it is true either way. If you can win a soul to Christ, you must be wise! And when I first began soulwinning, I was definitely very foolish. I’ve misapplied each of the 4 points. Here is what happened:

Regarding number one, I did not have my Sword of the Word sharpened. I did not know what the bible had to say. I had a very small sword being that I knew SOME of what the bible said, but I did not know enough. The sword alone is sharp, so if you know the Word, it will be effective. But many Christians do not know the gospel. They go out trying to win souls and can’t even answer unbelievers’ simple questions biblically. Please know that many unbelievers know the bible fairly well. And they will beat you with your bible. And soulwinning of course is not about a battle of the wits or bible trivia. But if you are trying to win the soul of an Orthodox Jew, knowing the bible very well will go a long way. Remember that the early church was Jewish. They knew the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. And so it was easy for some bible scholars to identify Jesus Christ as the Messiah the Old Testament Messianic prophecies were prophesying about. But if you don’t know what is written, how can you tell a Jew who does know that he is wrong about certain things? Know the gospel!

Concerning number two, I would sometimes not apply the right amount of pressure. Sometimes I would apply the pressure too lightly. I was afraid of offending, so I would purposely not mention certain bible truths that would definitely be helpful, but that I feared would make the person angry with me. You cannot bring down a tree by tapping it with a razor. You must apply pressure. They must feel the severity of what you are saying. Don’t just apathetically say, “Jesus died for your sins.” But let them know that this is serious. A real innocent Hebrew man died an excruciatingly painful, humiliating death on a cross for some ungrateful, sinful men. Make sure they get that message across! Jesus died for you sins will not move a hardened man an inch. So I had to learn to let them hear the sincerity in my voice. Do not play or joke about the gospel. It is the MOST serious matter there is. Souls in hell is nothing to take lightly, but yet many soulwinners do it daily.

But sometimes I would go the extreme and apply TOO much pressure. Whereas this would not be a problem an axing down a tree, it is a common problem in soul winning. A popular quote says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” You cannot go up to an enemy that you’ve mistreated all their life of knowing you and then tell you, “You heathen! You are going to burn in hell unless you repent of your wicked sins! The bible says it! And if you don’t like it, then that’s just to bad because you will burn!” Do you see how offensive that is? Would any person in their right mind respond to that soul winning technique? No! Not likely. It’s okay to apply a lot of pressure to someone you’ve known and treated well for a long time. It’s okay to say to your twin sister, “Mae, I’ve known you all our life. And so you know I care about you. You know I’d do anything for you. And so please understand that when I tell you the gospel, it is because I do not want to spend an eternity without you. I do not want to see you go to hell. I love you too much. And because I love you, I have to tell you the truth of what the Holy Spirit has been asking me to share with you about your lifestyle and how it is unpleasing to God. And He wants to warn you before it is too late…” (So forth and so on.) I’ve told perfect strangers that they were going to hell unless they believed in Jesus. It was a true Word, but it was too much pressure to apply to a stranger.

The third point talks of having the right aim and angle of holding the sword. You have so many different angles you can swing an ax. Holding the ax at 180 degrees through 360 degrees is a waste of time. An angle too close to those is just like skinning the tree. You want your angle to be close to a 45 degree angle or even 0 degrees. to get your aim right. Your goal is to get straight to the heart, not to skin the tree. It’s to get the tree down as fast as possible so that you can get to the next tree. Time is of the essence. But sometimes, I would allow an unbeliever to sidetrack me when I was aiming at soulwinning. I’d approach them with the business of soulwinning, and within a few seconds, we’d be talking about is God real and who made the universe and even one person tried to sidetrack me on is Jesus just Julius Caesar’s son! And it is important to know that you lead the conversation, because wherever they will try to lead it will not lead to soulwinning. A conversation with a tree will not lead to you chopping it down. If trees could talk, they would give you a lot of reasons to try to talk you out of chopping them down! Everytime they try to sidetrack you, redirect them back to the issue of their unrepentant, unconfessed sins needing to be forgiven sooner rather than later. Let them know that there is only One who can save them and that He requires obedience, love, and service. God did not ask you to convince atheists that He exists and that He created the world and that humans did not descend from apes and that the bible was not written by power-hungry white men. He told you to be witnesses of Jesus and to make disciples of the nations.

Last but not least, you must be willing to invest time into the lost soul. Oftentimes, the last factor that goes into winning a lost soul is TIME. Anything worth having is worth spending time upon. Quickly quoting a bible verse is not usually enough to send people to the altar giving their lives to Christ. When someone is hardened against the truth, you have to pray and ask God for wisdom to remove layers off of them to get to their sensitive heart. And sometimes when you do lead a soul to Christ, it is because you are simply building off of someone else’s hard labor. Maybe someone has been witnessing to them for years, and their pastor has been giving them the word. And so when you come along with a warning that they must give an account to God one day when they die on a date they do not expect, they may be ready to give their life to Christ. And you may be the one that God needs to sow the seeds while another person “reaps” the soul harvest many years later. It’s usually not too late until the person is dead. So give them more time!

So remember. The Word of God is the instrument of soul winning. You will not win a soul to Christ without first using the truth of the Word of the gospel. BUT, you must know how to wield the Sword of the truth to pierce (convict) the heart of the sinner.