When the enemy comes in.....
What enemy? The devil, his minions, and the kingdom of darkness.
Comes in? Where exactly does he come "in"?
Into our time and space...trying to affect me..influence me...wanting to stop me in my tracks from believing and following hard after this Jesus.
The devil is a master of human nature. After all, he's been observing us since the garden. You can say what you want to, but basic human nature has not changed at all.
Our nature is to cheat, manipulate, lie, steal, look to self rather than others. I could go on and on but you get the picture.
There are those in society who believe in the goodness of humanity. While we do possess the capability to do good deeds, we still struggle with that old nature that causes us to hold grudges, refuse to extend forgiveness to others, and to relinquish control of our lives over to the care of God.
I came under one of his attacks yesterday, and its beginning was so subtle that I did not catch it at first. For some reason, I began to doubt myself, what God has called me to, and my ability to teach the word of God. It began with a single thought..."Maybe my time is up...maybe I have outlived my usefulness....maybe I should hand over my meetings to someone younger who has more energy and a fresh vision. And then the kicker came.."Maybe I just need to quit all of this!" The list went on and on, until it almost became an avalanche that completely swallowed me in its path.
I knew that I had a Bible study to teach at Rapha later in the day, but I was feeling like "What's the use!" The devil was actually trying to keep me from going out to Rapha and teach God's word last night. I went anyway. I didn't feel as though anything had changed, I just knew that I had made a commitment to teach, and I was going to honor that commitment. Turned out it was one of the best Bible studies we had since I've gone back on Tuesday nights.
Did the devil not want me to teach? Probably.
Was this in fact his way of taking my mind off of Christ, and turning my thoughts and vision inward to what a mess I perceived myself to be? I think maybe yes.
As I walked back to my car after the Bible study, it came to me as to what actually had taken place. I am a bit slow if you want to know the truth. Where I thought all of this was just me, God revealed that it was the enemy trying to stop me. My initial reaction to seeing this clearly was "What a dunder-head I am!" I was grateful that I had not given into the string of dark thoughts that had followed me during the day. I was glad that I had stayed the course and did not allow the dark thoughts become dark deeds. So just beware when your thoughts turn South and grow dark. Realize exactly who is behind what you are experiencing. Your enemy the devil is trying to stop you from following after Jesus.
One last thing...
The verse from Isaiah 59 is a powerful declaration. At the time it was written ( I may be wrong about this) there wasn't any punctuation assigned to the writing. I can't prove this, but I think maybe they put a comma in the wrong place.
Now the verse reads as follows:
When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
I believe it should be this way:
When the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
Funny how a simple comma changes everything.
Funny how Jesus in my life changes everything.
Think on these things.
God on you...
mbb
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