Poking the Bear

 

 Or - what you might experience when you are pleasing to God.

As a born-again Christian of nearly 40 years, I’m well aware how hard the enemy tries at times to pull me away from God, to distract, to frustrate. From small annoyances to major blindsides.

But yesterday was interesting!

A bit of a back story though. I am one of three volunteers who assist a pastor with her online Facebook page, acknowledging or responding to comments concerning her posts. She is quite active, as a singer, writer, and inspirational speaker, and posts minimum four to 6 items a day. I believe her to be spirit-filled and her posts usually align with my understanding of God and His Word, the Bible.  As well, I have a handful of online pastors whom I follow. Two especially after the Asbury Revival began and I became aware of their love of God and passion for true Christianity, its cost, and its rewards. (I'm not using her name her purposefully because of the health issue of one of her volunteers, to respect her privacy).

So back to yesterday – well actually nearly 48 hours ago. I saw a post about how effective and powerful prayer is. I agreed with the rest of the post and made my own comment about how prayer is so much more meaningful than the empty platitudes of “sending good vibes”, or “hugs” or “healing thoughts”. Prayer is an action, and it connects with the Creator of the Universe! It gets results!

That was the first post of note. Early the following morning (yesterday) Pastor Scott Silverii posted a clip about recognizing the enemy and what he is, and is not, capable of. One of the best and most clear “sermonettes” I have ever heard and I commented as such.

I guess by this point I now had the attention of the enemy. In short order, an issue arose within my family over an unintended slight, and could have easily mushroomed into a cancerous bitterness, but my son, wise in his own self, knew enough that it needed to be addressed and was. It was an emotional hour or so with him, my husband, and myself.

Then I received a message from the above mentioned pastor, whom I assist, to say one of our group of volunteers had been taken to hospital and was awaiting an MRI, and that another member of the team was having phone issues and couldn’t connect with the account properly and so was unable to help with monitoring posts. At this point, I’d been having my own computer issues and had to work through updates and reboots to get it to function properly.

Individually, all pretty minor things, other than the health issue of course. And then I was told by the pastor that one of her ministry assistants was in a large department store that day, and went to pay for purchases and found the hundreds of dollars he had on hand – gone!

When I related some of my experiences, combined with what she already knew, she recognized we were all encountering opposition – not the least because she had had issues with an anonymous commenter on one of her posts, who then blocked her so she couldn’t respond.

By the time I finally called it a night it was nearly midnight, but instead of feeling tired, or discouraged, I felt the opposite! Energized and encouraged, because once I put the pieces together and realized the probable source of all these annoyances, I put Satan in his place. Wise, because of experience, to his tactics, whatever he had tried to accomplish with me disappeared like dust in the wind.

I just felt I needed to share this while it’s still fresh in my mind. Because if you have been a Christian for any length of time, and your walk with the Lord is strong, I’m sure you’ve encountered your own situations where you didn’t recognize at first the source of problems that could distract, or even pull you away, from your calling.

And if you’re not a Christian, or don't have an understanding of how the enemy works, I understand your skepticism. You probably think I’m connecting dots that don’t connect. Believe me, I’ve been there, and am so grateful now to have discernment that the Holy Spirit gives me, in order to see through a deceptive camouflage.

God is the All-Powerful One, He is the one I follow, worship, and every day learn more about. Satan is the liar, the counterfeiter, and has already lost. But he doesn’t want to meet his fate alone, the more he can take with him, the better.

Please don’t join him.

In His name, and with love,

Liz

Distraction and Division

Christians - should - well understand that the enemy always seeks to undermine us, to pull us away from God, to take us down with him.

For a long time, I've felt, or been aware, that two of his greatest tools to shift our focus, are division and distraction. On global scale, political, or in the home. And recently I've added another "D" word - deceit. His lies can be subtle, with enough truth mixed in to make it sound right. But I feel like he doesn't have to try that hard anymore, or am I the only one who sees through his blatant attempts to deceive even the elect?

It's all around us and I guess one expects lies and deceit in political circles, but in my opinion, the greatest damage is done when spiritual cancer worms its way into churches. Sometimes right through an open door, but more often it starts small. A bit of gossip, a whisper of slander. Dissension among congregants over a pastor's message if it doesn't fit with what they want to hear. Dividing people over what they believe is correct versus what others believe. The Church needs to be unified, in truth, and under God's leadership. The alternative ...

Conversely, it takes courage for a church member to, respectfully, correct their pastor if he is in error. Church leaders are not immune to deception. And it scares me to see how many are distorting the Word of God, thinking they might have new revelation, or proclaiming that spiritual experiences are more valuable than the words of Scripture. 

If you don't know your Bible, or know God, you are vulnerable. Past experience in my own life has taught me to never wholly follow the teachings of any human, but to always be diligent to ensure what is being taught or preached lines up with what God has already established. 

Prophecy for the end times warns of apostasy and deception - the elect are not guaranteed to escape unscathed. In addition to putting on the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18), I thank God for what I believe is the gift of discernment and I treasure it.

Time grows short - please don't make the mistake of thinking you're not ready, or you still have time. You don't have to understand everything - I know I don't. And that's a button the enemy loves to push. Make me frustrated if I don't understand exactly how God is going to work everything out. All I need to do is to remember, He IS going to work everything out. 

At the end of the day, this is my goal: 

Be discerning, be diligent, be determined - so that you are not deceived by the greatest liar of all time.

Thank you Father, for what You have done in my life, what You continue to do and help me stay the course and recognize deception when it appears.

Amen.