Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Acts 5:3

Good Afternoon,
This morning was filled with 'things' and a Bible study. At the Bible study one lady said that demons don't put thoughts into our minds. Well, you all know me; that had to be corrected :))).
I said that I disagreed and then explained what I meant. So I thought I'd cover this topic today.
Most of you know how I feel about warfare, but here's a refresher course because we sometimes forget about the demonic world that's there, but we can't see.
So, I thought just a few verses to help us understand better what that dark world wants to try and deceive us with. Keep in mind that negative things don't come from God. He builds up, and Satan tears down.
The first one is Acts 5:3: "Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you have received for the land?"
You all know the story, if not read about Ananias and Sapphira and join me.... If we put on our critical thinking hats, we ask questions like: how does Satan deceive us? By people telling us untruths? By him standing in front of us and telling us directly? By thoughts that include our fleshly desires?
Well, I've never seen him directly, but I've heard untruths, and my thoughts are sometimes not of my own making. I'm sure there are more ways and maybe you can think of them, but that's not my focus now.
2 Corinthians 2:11 is talking about forgiveness for the sinner and it says that we need to forgive and love, but 11 says: "in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. " Satan can't 'out wit us' without our minds being engaged. That means our thought life.
Don't get me wrong, our flesh can do damage all by itself. But thoughts that come sometimes by seeing or hearing something will trigger a memory and down that slippery slope we go. But, the demons know what buttons to push and they use what is in our history of desires to temp us. What we do with these thoughts turns it into sin if we run with the thought/action.
The last verse is 2 Cor. 11:14: "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." Paul is talking about false apostles/teachers. They are so deceiving because what they teach is so subtle that if we don't know the truth, we fall for the lie. Again, the brain is engaged. That's where Satan gets some of his power, because we don't know truth from lies. We hand him the power by not knowing.....
Now, are all thoughts that are bad from Satan? No. Our flesh is a busy little bee if we allow it to be. But, as thoughts come in, filter them by the Word of God to see if they need to be active, or killed. 2 Cor. 10:5 tells us to take every thought captive. This takes self control, which is a fruit of the Spirit. If we don't have self control, we are missing some or all of the other fruit because they are a package deal. That's another blog....:)))).

Searching the Word,
Sandy

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