Give the Devil Nothing Master Your Thoughts

Acts 5: 3-4 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 received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

The devil will use whatever you give him against you. It really is that simple. There are two sides in this life. The side that aligns with God and the side that aligns with the world. The Bible makes it clear who rules the world:

I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, - John 14: 30

Jesus is speaking of the devil here and referring to him as the ruler of this world. There are thus two lines of thought; Godly thinking and worldly thinking. Our thought life is what leads to our actions. Sin always begins somewhere as a thought. While we cannot always control what might pop into our head, we can control what we do with it:

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. 2Corinthians 10: 5

The knowledge of God represents Godly thinking. It is found in His Word. The Bible gives us insight into the thinking of God. It gives us the plans we need to navigate the treacherous world we live in. It assures us of the promises God has made and the covenant we are in with Him. God is His Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1: 1-5

His Word is life and the light that shone into the darkness we were living in before coming into a relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus Christ. The worldly thinking will be contrary then to the Word. They are represented as arguments or pretensions because they are oppositional in nature. They set themselves up against the Word of God. They are not obedient to the Word meaning they are rebelling against it. These are the thoughts which we must make captive to Christ if we are to avoid the pitfalls in this world that the enemy lays out for us.

That is the battle we face every day. The world will constantly reinforce lines of thought that are in opposition to what we should know through God's Word. The argument the world makes may even seem "logical" because the world has moved so far away from Godly thinking. One needs to only watch some prime time television to see what the world embraces. We live in a culture saturated in sex, adultery, violence, greed and all forms of debauchery and that is just reality television! Two thirds of all television programming contains violence and by the age of 18, the average child has witnessed through TV over 200,000 violent acts and over 16,000 murders. Seventy percent of the top 20 shows watched by teens contain sexual content. These are the thought battles we sometimes lose every day.

In addition to the saturation strategy, the devil is more direct as well. Let's be honest, the enemy knows what buttons to push on us. We give him material to work with. Whatever we give him, he will use against us. If you give him pride, he will use pride against you. If you have been hurt he will use that against you. If you give him lust, he will use your lust against you. It does not matter what it is anger, resentment, prejudice, bitterness, hatred, greed, selfishness he will wield it against you in your thought life.

Which bring us to our key verses from the Book of Acts. The story of Ananias and Sapphira. The property was theirs. It belonged to them and the money they made from selling it belonged to them. Their problem was not in wanting to keep a portion but rather in misrepresenting to the Apostles that what they were giving was the entire proceeds from the sale. They were trying to make themselves look better than they really were. Ananias and Sapphira were not only greedy but very prideful. The enemy pounced and used their weaknesses against them. You can almost hear the enemy whispering in Ananias' ear "they will never know. Keep some of it, you deserve it. Look how nice you are to be donating as much as you are!" The key verse shows us this when Peter asks Ananias how it is that Satan has so filled his heart. How? Through greed and pride because that is what he gave the enemy to work with.

These are the thoughts we need to make obedient to Christ. There are multiple Scriptures against using honest scales and the evil of greed. Peter asks Ananias incredulously what would make him think to do such a thing. The answer is simple - the devil. Now, this does not mean "the devil made him do it." But the devil certainly planted the thought. It was his choice what to do with that thought. The devil can't make us do anything. All he can do is suggest something for us to consider. A thought that is not quite in alignment with Godly thinking. We already know the truth:

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

If the Word of God is the truth and the devil is trying to get us to consider a thought contrary to it, then we see Satan revealed as the liar he is:

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

Lying is the native language of the enemy! There is no truth in him! NONE. I do not care how logical or how well-crafted the argument sounds in your mind. If it is contrary to the Word of God then you know it is a lie.

King David is one of the most renowned men of God in the Bible. He has been described as a man after the very heart of God. He penned the majority of the Psalms and led Israel to one of the more prosperous times in history. But David had an issue with lust and power and the devil pounced.

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2Samuel 11: 1

This is how the story of David and Bathsheba starts. God never wastes a lesson in His Word beloved. The road to David's sin started with him not being where he was supposed to be. As king, he should have been off at war but instead he stayed in Jerusalem. Often times this is how our sin issues can start also. We put ourselves in a position we need not be in. I have heard the argument about what is wrong with a Christian spending time in a bar? It's not as if they intend to be drinking! Then of what business do you have there? There is nothing of God there. All that is there is temptation. If you have an issue with over-eating you shouldn't spend time at all you can eat buffets. If you have issues with lust, you should not be surfing the Internet without a filter. You are begging to be tempted. And the devil does not need you to beg. He will gladly feed your issue:

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, - 2Samuel 11: 2

David is not where he should be and the devil tempts him. David is still in control though. He can look and move on with his life as king, blessed bountifully by God. But instead, he loses the thought war to Satan. He sends someone to get the scoop on Bathsheba and finds out that she is married to one of his men, who is off at war. Even now David can choose but his lust is winning the arguments. You can hear Satan whispering in his ear "you are king, everything in the kingdom is yours!" So David sleeps with Bathsheba and in the process becomes an adulterer. Of course sin always has consequences we never considered and Bathsheba becomes pregnant. David sends for her husband to try and get him to sleep with his wife, so he will think the child is his. You can almost see this on a modern day soap opera! But Uriah is a noble man and will not sleep with his wife while his comrades are still off at war. Not even that is enough to prick the conscience of David though and he eventually sends him back to war and instructs his commander to place him at the front lines so that he can be struck down. In doing so, David now has become a murderer. This is the progression David is where he should not be the devil tempts him with what his weakness was David reacts and becomes an adulterer and then a murderer. David is a man of God. He knows what the Word says about adultery and murder yet he fails to take his runaway thoughts into captivity. He gives the devil his lust and his power and the devil uses them against him. His kingdom would crumble, his son would rebel and his child would die. God restored David but the heartache he had to endure because of his sin is immeasurable.

Where did David lose the battle? Where did he fall? Certainly with the acts of sleeping with Bathsheba and sending Uriah to be killed but go deeper. He lost the battle when he considered these actions as plausible options. He lost the battle in his thoughts. The devil got a foothold in his mind and kept expanding it. Where did Ananias and Sapphira lose the battle? Certainly when they actually committed the lie but deeper we see it was really when they had the thoughts and did not make them obedient to the truth they already knew. The devil will always give you something to consider. It will always be in opposition to the Word of God. It will always be a lie. The Bible describes him as:

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1Peter 5:8

He is looking to devour you through your thoughts to get you to consider a course of action that is contrary to the Word of God. We often quote this verse but neglect the beginning of it. Be self-controlled and alert! The King James says to be sober. What is the first thing that is impaired when you drink too much? Your judgment your thoughts. This verse is imploring us to be vigilant in our thought life because the enemy is prowling around to see what we will be willing to give him to work with. David gave him lust and power. Ananias and Sapphira gave him pride and greed. Moses gave him a reactionary nature and he ended up killing the Egyptian. Peter gave him fear and he denied Christ three times. Saul of Tarsus gave the enemy a sense of superiority and the enemy used him to persecute the early church.

But what the enemy uses for evil, God can turn around. Moses would lead Israel from Slavery and into the Promised Land. Peter would preach the Pentecost sermon and 3,000 would be saved. God can take a Saul of Tarsus and make an Apostle Paul out of him. When our thought life is right and we are not conforming to the worldly thought patterns God can do anything through us. Moses' thinking was rife with uncertainty as he was always thinking in terms of his own human frailties not what God could do through him. Peter's thinking suffered from fear and the devil used it against him. As Saul, pride permeated his think but as Paul, his thinking was embodied in pure humility.

King David was able to be restored. Ananias and Sapphira were not. There are always consequences for our behaviors but we must realize that those behaviors start as thoughts for us to consider. The enemy will always try to get us to consider something that is oppositional to what God has already said just like he did to Eve in the Garden. We know the truth it is all in the Bible. We just need to wield the truth against the lies Satan is trying to sell us. Give him nothing to work with. Then you will be the master of your thoughts instead of your thoughts mastering you; and leading you astray from God.

Reverend Anthony Wade July 7, 2010