What’s On Your Mind? Part One

 

Why is my language not clear to you?

Because you are unable to hear what I say.

John 8:43

We interrupt this happy, upbeat blog to bring you an announcement:

We are soldiers.

We have an enemy.

We are in a war.

We may not always be aware of the battle. We may choose to stay ignorant of the battle. We may even deny a battle exists.  I admit, when the laundry is caught up, the sun is out and the kids aren’t killing each other, I don’t feel like I’m in a war. But war-denial and war-ignorance does not make the war any less real.

I know it’s not fun to talk about war.  But talk we must.  Because the following war information is a key to your God-hearing, God-discerning problems.

Before we proceed, let me issue a warning.  This post talks about the devil.  And I assure you,  I fully understand devil-talk can get creepy. Those of you who know me or who have read this blog for any length of time know I’m not one to blame Satan for every flat tire and bad hair day.  I mostly avoid Christians who focus on Satan.  I find it creepy, too.

However, the Bible is clear that we need to be aware of Satan’s schemes so that he does not outwit us. (II Corinthians 2:8).

Therefore, never one to be outwitted, I am here to introduce you to your enemy, expose his devices (primarily in how they relate to hearing God’s voice and the attack on your mind), and show you some weapons you have to help you overcome in this area, so that, hopefully, when we are done, you will hear God more clearly than you do today.

Because this is a pretty heavy subject, I will need to discuss it over more than one blog entry.  And also, I will have to interject humor so you don’t have nightmares.

With that, let’s break it down:

1. We have an enemy. I’m not talking about ISIS, the liberal media, Monsanto, or Obama. Your enemy is a spirit and his name is Satan. Actually, the Bible calls him lots of things, which we will see in these next few scriptures, but most people call him the devil. I like to call him the enemy. I don’t know why. I guess I don’t want to grace him with a name, but rather constantly remind myself of his position in my life: He is my enemy.

Some of you may not even realize that there is a battle going on right now for your soul. But it’s true.

“The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.” (Matthew 13:38-39)

“He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:2)

2. His plan for your life is to steal, kill and destroy. He doesn’t want you to hear God, know God, trust God or serve God. He wants to steal all good things from you: All of God’s blessings and promises. Your job. Your health. Your kids. Your marriage. Your sanity. He doesn’t plan on leaving you alone until he succeeds in killing you, and preferably separating you from God. (I know this is getting gloomy.  But don’t worry, God is on your side!)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

3. He does his job primarily through deception–lying to you. He will lie to you about everything. From the first time he showed up on the scene in Genesis until Jesus hurls his sorry behind into the lake of fire for all eternity, he has been lying. He’s been studying you your whole life and he knows what buttons to push. He will tell you people don’t like you. That you are alone. That you’re a failure. That you’ll never be good enough. That God will never forgive you. That God doesn’t love you. Basically, he can’t tell the truth. Lying is the language he speaks.
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

4. When he lies to you, you often become confused and fearful. That’s a big red flag that it’s NOT God talking to you. Sometimes you just may feel general confusion and complication about what God wants you to do. Other times you may experience quick and intense fear. Just remember, God’s voice doesn’t sound like that.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7)

5. He also may accuse you, trying to make you feel condemned and ashamed. This is another big red flag that this is NOT God speaking to you. If you have gone to God, sincerely asked God for forgiveness and turned away from your sin, then God has forgiven you. No one has a right to accuse or condemn you any longer. Yet, some of you, even right now, feel like you’ll never be able to hear God’s voice clearly because of something bad you’ve done in the past.

Lean in close as I say this:

THAT’S NOT TRUE AND THAT’S NOT GOD’S VOICE.

Sorry for shouting at you. I just wanted to make sure you were listening.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10)

(Did you see that?  Even the the voice in heaven shouts it!)

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)

6. Remember, this is a war for your soul. Basically, your enemy wants to keep you deceived, distracted or disoriented long enough to snatch God’s word out of your heart or keep you from hearing it altogether.

“Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” Luke 8:12

7. Your enemy is always looking for opportunity to attack you, so you must always be on guard. This doesn’t mean we look for a devil behind every bush.  It means we understand what is real and what is counterfeit. We become like bank tellers.
As part of routine training, bank employees are trained to identify counterfiet bills. As technology continues to improve, counterfiet money looks more and more like the real thing.  Also, there are countless sources for the counterfiet bills in different areas of the country. So, how does a teller keep up with all the schemes and devices of the counterfiet money makers?

By knowing how to identify the real deal.

Not by learning all the endless flawed markings of the fake, because the teller would never be able to keep up. But by knowing through and through what a real bill looks like. That way, when anything other than the authentic bill passes through his hands, he can identify it as counterfiet.

That’s the way we must be with our enemy. We would drive ourselves insane trying to identify all the enemy’s schemes and devices. To his credit, Satan’s been around a long time, and he’s very good at lying to us. He’s sneeky and crafty, cunning and relentless.

I mean, really, who would believe anything the devil said if he showed up at our front door with a pitch fork and red pointy ears? “Hello, Ma’am. I’m Satan and I’ve come to deceive you.”

No, he shows up in our thoughts, privately, secretly.

He whispers little things, “No one ever says thank you around here.  No one appreciates you. Not your husband.  Not the kids.  This is such a thankless job.” 

Then he sprinkles the lie with a smidge of truth, “Doesn’t God want you to be free?  Doesn’t He want you to be happy?  This mundane work, this marriage, this family…this is not freedom.  This is not happiness.  This is bondage.  You didn’t sign up for this. It can’t be God’s will for you…”

And there you are in the middle of a regular day, suddenly discouraged and confused about your marriage, wondering if there is freedom and happiness elsewhere.  And you’re not sure if God is talking to you or not.

But when we know the Truth (the Word of God) it is easy to identify everything that is not Truth. If we focus on knowing God’s word this will equip us to be self-controlled and alert when the enemy speaks.

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

8. The attack often happens in the mind. Satan can attack our circumstances or our physical bodies, too.  But for this series, we’re just talking about the mind.

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (II Corinthians 10:4-5)

9. God also often talks to us in our minds–hence, the war! But good news, my friend (finally!). God has equipped us with everything we need to effectively fight and win the war.  YAY!

Click Here for What’s on Your Mind Part 2