The Enemy

It begins with a thought. It enters our mind and we have two paths to choose. One is to ignore it and keep trusting in Jesus’s love or we can entertain it. To entertain it, gives it strength and it grows. It feeds on you now, the thought has grown into a desire. It becomes a craving as your body anticipates the fulfillment of that desire. Another thought enters, what about God, he'll be upset with us. Condemnation starts to take hold as well and even as the desire has yet to be fulfilled, you stand condemned by your own mind. You try and reason with yourself as the desire's intensity increases. Thoughts like, "Go ahead and do it, it'll make you feel better. You can ask for forgiveness later. You can't say no, you don't have the strength to say no. Your weak and God has abandoned you." All of these thoughts and more flood your mind and the battle between wanting to do good and the body's desires takes a heavy toll until it breaks you. 

Thought, desire, fulfillment. You sit there weakened as the fulfillment brings you temporary pleasure yet you loathe yourself. You say, not again Lord. I'll not do it again. You ask for forgiveness and move on. Pretty soon it all plays out again, this time you have been praying for those desires to be taken away but the more you pray, it seems the more you think about it and the more times you fall prey to it. It's now become a habit. You need it now to get any kind of happiness or numbness in your life. You drown those words, "What about God?"and replace them with, "God doesn't love me. I'm too broken for Him to love me." Now your heart is full of self inflicted pain as a cage of hate is built up around your heart. Life becomes unbearable and one habit replaces another as all you want to do is drown out the world along with God and those that say they love you. It's now come to the point where love is a foreign concept and the mention of the word, let alone someone loving you, brings about a violent reaction.

 The enemy has now won. From a single thought compounded with another then another then succumbing to them and so on, the enemy has pulled you so far away that love makes you feel pain. The very thing that brings our soul happiness is now the enemy. Extremely sad. 

We blame God for all of this, yet we never blame the enemy for the whispered thoughts. Instead we blame God for sending the temptation,  we blame Him for not helping, we blame Him for our weakness and then we hate Him in the end. 

Let's look at the other scenario. The thought comes as the enemy whispers it into my mind. Immediately I realise it is not holy or from God. I then say this, "Lord I know this isn't a good thought and I know if I follow that thought to fruition, it would cause a division between us. Lord, you love me so much that you sacrificed yourself for me. Lord I know you love me and your will for me is to be close to you. So, I can't follow this thought Lord because our relationship means more to me than a desire. Lord I now lay my life down for you so our relationship will endure forever. I love you too much to leave you." Then say this, "Not today Satan. I love God way too much to be drug through your house of terror. Now leave me alone." Then go and praise God, "Lord I thank you for your Son, I thank you for your unconditional love. Lord I thank you that you want to get to know me. You are awesome and I love being your son." 

The outcome is dependent on where we go with that thought. This applies to all thoughts and all desires. Filter your thoughts through the Holy Spirit. He will give you an instant conviction if it's not good. As soon as something pops in and it isn't good, His conviction is right behind it. That's why the relationship needs to be healthy between God and us. If we stray too far, the Spirit's conviction cannot be heard as our hearts can become too hardened. 

Do not, and I mean never, ever condemn yourself for any thoughts that may be unholy. If you condemn yourself for them, it opens up a path for the enemy to walk right in and take over. The enemy will try and condemn you for them. They put those thoughts in there then condemn you for having them. Instead, the thought comes, you rebuke it, praise God for His love, then never count those thoughts against yourself. You walk away and move forward and never look back. 

We often think it's God's job to keep us away from temptation, then if we are tempted it's up to Him to give us the strength to turn from it. Nothing is further from the truth. Temptations will always come. They are there to refine you and to prove your dedication and love. Christ's dedication and love for the Father took Him all the way to the cross. It was temptations that proved He loved the Father more than Himself.  Now if Jesus says, pick up your cross and follow me, then we cannot say, "God keep us from temptation." Rather we must know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God's love is more important than the fulfillment of that temptation. Hence, we walk through the fire of temptation and come out the other side unscathed. 

We cannot ask for something God has already supplied. If we ask for strength or for the ability to make it through the temptation, it's like asking someone to give you what you already have. God has supplied us with the Holy Spirit, He has seated us in Christ Jesus in heavenly places and we are His sons and daughters. He has given us all things to do battle with the enemy. When we ask for God to give us strength, we are saying what He's already given us is not enough. We are doubting His provisions. Instead of asking say, "God you've given me the strength to endure and I thank you for that. Thank you for giving me the power and might to walk through this trial or temptation Lord. Thank you for loving me and calling me a Son." Those words need to be backed up by faith. 

Faith is the key. You can't be in a battle without faith. It takes faith to say I am the son of God. It takes faith to say I am loved by God and I have the ability to say no to temptation. We do not need to walk in fear of failure anymore. We instead walk in confidence with God as our Friend and Father, with Jesus as our Brother and Holy Spirit as our mentor, guide and teacher. As long as we say, They love me and we have faith in that, we can walk through the hottest fire without being burned. We are loved, we are loved, we are loved. Let those words become your battle cry. Because I am loved, I can love them. Because They loved me first, redeemed me, called me by my name and set me in Christ, I can walk in love now without condemnation. 

God, I pray that anyone reading this post realizes how loved they are by You. I pray that they can feel Your love in their hearts and in turn love You to the point that they never want to go astray again. Lord, I pray that they never look back or condemn themselves, for they have been forgiven by You. Lord I pray they desire You, sacrifice for You and walk with You daily. Let them seek You, find You and stay in You.

To God be the Glory!