Now the enemy knew full well that was NOT what God had said but remember, he is a liar and his goal here at the start was not to deceive as much as to engage in a conversation. The real deception could wait until after his prey was engaged in a conversation. Let me be clear -- we have no business to discuss with the enemy! There is a reason why he is called the enemy! Once he has that foothold he seeks to expand it by broadening the pretension:
"You won't die!" the serpent replied to the
woman. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat
it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil." -- Genesis 3: 4-5
(NLT)
God specifically said that they
would die and the devil calls Him a liar. We read this sometimes and we think
that is so obvious, how could Eve fall for it, but we do the same thing every
day. Every time someone commits adultery they believed a lie of the enemy that
goes against something God has said. Every time we see Christians struggling
with anxiety, depression, drugs or alcohol, or any other number of issues they
have bought into a line of thinking that is contrary to what God has already
said to us in His Word. Remember, the devil and his minions are good at what
they do because they have been doing it since human history began. That is why
the Corinthian verses emphatically state that we must take captive these rogue
thoughts and make them obedient to Christ -- we must match them up with the Word
of God and decide who we are going to believe! For every lie the enemy wants
whispered in our ears there is a promise in the Bible that assures us he is a
liar and it is always our choice who to believe. If we engage however in a
conversation with the enemy and start to consider what he has to say, we can
end up like Eve:
The woman was convinced. She saw that the
tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it
would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to
her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. -- Genesis 3: 6 (NLT)
The woman was fooled? No. The woman
was tricked? No. The woman was convinced.
The enemy played to her flesh and her flesh answered. He does the same thing to
us today. Why change tactics when we stay so predictable?
Having set the backdrop for the war
we find ourselves in, let's turn to the key verses today and discuss a favorite
topic amongst evangelical circles -- deliverance. We always seem to be talking
about revival and deliverance. There are separate prayer meetings strictly for
deliverance. There are entire ministries set up as deliverance ministries. What
are some of the typical things we need deliverance from these days? Certainly
abusive patterns -- alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, spousal. These
are all stronghold patterns of thinking where the enemy has taken up residence
in the mind of the believer and changed some of how they think. Instead of
Jesus being sufficient they need a pill, or a hit, or a drink. Instead of
believing they are fearfully and wonderfully made they stay in an abusive situation
because of some worldly definition of love that does not match God's definition
found in Corinthians. Realize that the underlying causes of the stronghold are
demonic attack just as the earlier Scripture explained. That is the war we are
in. The enemy and his minions whisper in our ears until we believe we cannot
get by without the drink or the pill. People can also need deliverance from what
the world refers to as mental illness issues. Where the world will provide the
box of depression or anxiety to stuff someone into, as Christians we must
understand that it is demonic in nature. It is the enemy and his spirits that
whisper into our ears about how we don't feel right, or get us to overly focus
on everything negative and avoid giving any credit to anything positive. These
are just several examples of things we find ourselves in need of deliverance
from; even as Christians.
The key verses start with the person
being delivered as the evil spirit leaves them, stops harassing them, and moves
on. For whatever the reason, the person was delivered. We all probably know
someone like this or have gone through it ourselves. We are finally able to
stand on God's Word and beat that addiction, leave that abusive relationship,
or overcome our negative feelings. But being delivered and staying delivered
are two different things entirely. We may also know or have experienced
setbacks, relapses, or reoccurrences of what we thought we had been able to
beat. What we thought God had delivered us from. Smoking is the easiest for
many to relate to. How many of us know someone who quits all the time, but
inevitably always goes back to it? That is because of the truths found in the
key verses:
Then it says, "I will return to the person I
came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order.
-- Matthew 12: 44 (NLT)
