What kind of temptation must we
watch out for? We don’t know. That is why a country and its army have spies.
They don’t know what the enemy’s next move is going to be or what threat the
country faces in terms of terrorism and crime. Satan and his subjects work
undercover and in darkness and they need to be sniffed out, so to speak, which
is why we are commanded to watch.
We need to be constantly alert. On
the front in a warzone the soldiers expect anything from their enemy, so they
are constantly on guard. Guards are posted at the base and landmine detectors
go ahead of the vehicles searching for landmines. There is no such thing as everybody
having a leisurely time in the canteen after a day’s work or a relaxing drive.
“Be self-controlled
and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. Resist
him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout
the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings,” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
Satan’s primary purpose is to “to steal and kill and
destroy” (John 10:10) so that our relationships with the Lord and each other can
be affected. For example he doesn’t want the Kingdom of God to grow. If he
therefore could rob us from our security in Mammon, so we can worry and put our
own needs before those of the Lord, he succeeded in hindering us to first seek God’s
kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) and managed to make us
ineffective.
In another example Satan knows that Jesus
said in John 13:35: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if
you love one another”. Therefore if
he can succeed in messing up relationships between Christians and by
that causing them to be selfish, the world would lose interest in Christianity since
to them these people, serving a so-called loving God, are no different from
them.
He is out to kill our passion for
Christ through the busyness of our lifestyles, our self-centred approach to
life and our need to be self-sufficient. He destroys our efficiency by tempting
church entities to become religious and man-centred, resulting in millions of
passive Christians warming the pews on Sundays as they listen to adorable preachers
who seem to conveniently ignore the commands in God’s word to obey what He
tells us to do, and therefore not preach it and make it happen – all these are
temptations.
Can you see the subtlety of these temptations?
So what is the solution? The solution is to hear from the Lord, to walk daily
in the Holy Spirit – to watch and pray. In our previous message we likened the
Holy Spirit to a satellite that can see where we cannot. He watches on our
behalf and we just need to be in the control room to receive the information
that the Holy Spirit relays through to us.
I have been in a position where I
lost a lot by being tricked by my flesh into making disastrous decisions, which
I thought at the time was right. The Lord, however, has seen it coming and ahead
of the crunch gradually gave me passages from the Bible that would create faith
in my heart and give me a solution in the situation. When the crunch came I was
settled in the Lord and knew why it had happened, what new direction the Lord
sent me into, and how He was going to care for us. Because I walk by the Spirit
daily, I picked these up in my spirit and made it my portion. I did not panic
and ran to Mammon for help, but silently humbled myself before the Lord,
repented of my foolishness and once again surrendered my life to Him. This
sounds very super spiritual, but I am far from that and am learning daily to
surrender more of my time and resources to Him.
There are much more to temptation
than the obvious, for there are so many areas in which we can be hindered to be
what the Lord’s heart’s desire is for us as individuals.
Holy Spirit, I want to be tuned into
you so I can receive the information regarding temptations that you relay to
me.
Thank you Lord that your Word went
out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you
empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which
you sent it.
Please pass this on if you think others may
benefit by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment