Our Ancient Foe

Friday, February 01, 2013, 4:42 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with this hymn:

A Mighty Fortress is Our God / Martin Luther

A mighty fortress is our God,

a bulwark never failing;

Our helper he, amid the flood

of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe

doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great,

and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,

our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side,

the Man of God's own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabbaoth, His Name,

from age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,

should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed

his truth to triumph through us:

the Prince of Darkness grim,

we tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

for lo, his doom is sure,

one little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,

no thanks to them, abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

through Him Who with us sideth:

Let goods and kindred go,

this mortal life also;

the body they may kill:

God's truth abideth still,

his kingdom is forever.

The hymn

This is an awesome hymn! I hope you will take the time to read through this carefully and prayerfully and just let its truths sink into your heart and mind. This hymn is also so fitting with the passage of scripture that I read for my quiet time with the Lord today. I prayed, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” and then I read Isaiah 36 (NIV 1984): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2036&version=NIV1984

…The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah,

“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have strategy and military strength—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. And if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

“‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”

…Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

“Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? …How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”…

An Allegory

The Lord Jesus helped me to identify who the main characters in this story represent:

1. The King of Assyria – Satan
2. The King of Jerusalem – Jesus Christ
3. Jerusalem – the true church; the redeemed of the Lord; the saints of God
4. Assyria – Satan’s kingdom where Satan has his throne
5. Isaiah – the Lord’s servants and witnesses

As we know from scripture, not only is Jesus Christ described in terms of a lion, but Satan is also described as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Yet, he disguises himself as an angel of light and he can appear as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, i.e. he can be warm, affectionate, and playful, too, which gives a different kind of image from the roaring lion, yet the roaring lion and the wolf in sheep’s clothing are one and the same. We have to remember that he is the great deceiver, and his main goal is to deceive the minds of believers in Jesus Christ, and to destroy the true church. And, he works through human beings, too, including through religious (church) and governmental leaders.

Satan, I believe, has conquered the governmental kingdoms of the world now, and so he now has his sights set on conquering the saints of God – all true followers of Jesus Christ. Satan and his false teachers and false leaders of the people are master manipulators, deceivers, liars, unholy, unfaithful, charmers, playful, witty, fun, sexually immoral, and filled with all manner of evil. When they feel threatened because we are preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, they will come after us like a roaring lion seeking whom they may devour, but they may do it in a way that tries to make us feel as though we are the ones in the wrong, that they really care about us, and they just can’t understand why we won’t listen to them, and why we won’t believe them, but they can’t be trusted, because they have a snake’s bite.

The Bible warns us against such men (read Jude) who infiltrate our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. Yet, we won’t recognize them if we are not walking closely with the Lord Jesus so that we are given a spirit of discernment to identify who they are.

The Words of Satan

As I read through this passage of scripture I saw so vividly how the king of Assyria was Satan and how the things Sennacherib said to Hezekiah and to the people sounded so much like what Satan says. The king of Assyria said:

1)    “On what are you basing this confidence of yours?” – Satan tries to get us to doubt God, to doubt God’s word and his voice to us, and to doubt our relationship with Jesus Christ.

2)    “You say you have strategy and military strength – but you speak only empty words.” Satan likes to try to make us feel weak and helpless and to convince us of such in order to get us to not obey the Lord.

3)    “On whom are you depending that you rebel against me?” – Satan likes to try to make us question our dependency on Jesus Christ and to even suggest we are listening to him instead of to Christ.

4)    “Look now, you are depending on Egypt.” – This might be the truth. The church in the U.S. today is depending on the U.S. government. – Satan will say some things that are true, but he will mix lies in with it and will twist and distort the truth.

5)    “If you say you are depending on the Lord our God – isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar?” – Satan will try to show us that belief in Jesus Christ and the true gospel, which removes idolatry from people’s lives, is “legalistic” and that he can provide a church and faith that is “fun” and free from the guilt of sin.

6)    “Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria” – Satan will try to get us to compromise our beliefs and convictions by trying to shame us into a compromise. He will try to convince us to bring ourselves back under the slavery of sin and of men, when Jesus Christ came to set us free.

7)    “Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me…” Whereas it is true that the king of Assyria was God’s divine instrument of judgment against Jerusalem, it was not true that he had a personal relationship with God to where God spoke to him. Satan will try to convince you that he hears from God and his followers will even pretend to be believers in Christ.

8)    “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!  Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord.” Wow! Satan tries to tell us not to put our trust in the Lord Jesus but to put our trust in man. He preys on our weaknesses and tries to convince us that we are helpless and that we need him.

9)    “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me.” Wow! This is the voice of Satan telling us not to trust in the words of the Lord but to trust in the words of man instead, and to let men give us the counsel and direction we need and to let man be our gods.

10) “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’” I see this both as Satan trying to convince us not to believe in the promises of God nor to believe the Lord’s servants when they tell us those same promises of God.

When Satan throws his fiery darts at us, and he will use human beings as his instruments of his deceptive messages, we must know the truth so that we can put on the full armor of God. Satan’s messengers are charmers, sweet talkers, liars, manipulators, wicked, abusive, sexually immoral, dividers of the people, plotters of evil, always doing their evil deeds in secret so that no one can see what they are doing. But God sees. They prey on those who are emotionally weak and who doubt themselves, so we must remain strong and we must put on the truth to counteract their lies. They will try to convince us that we are weak and powerless, but we are not. We are children of the King.

They will try to pull us away from doing the will of God and from sharing the gospel and will try to convince us we are crazy and/or that we are hearing from Satan. Know this! - They said the same things about Jesus. They said he was crazy and they accused him of being of Satan, but he refuted that lie by telling them that Satan does not drive out Satan or else his kingdom will fall. Satan is not going to be giving out the gospel and calling people to repent of their sins and to turn to faith in Jesus Christ. He will try to make you believe you can go to heaven and still live in your sin because of God’s grace. And, that lie is going to send many to hell.

I believe the day of evil is upon us, that judgment is near, and that the lion has come out of his lair and he is out to attack, kill and destroy believers in Jesus Christ. His greatest weapon is deception and manipulation, charm, smooth talk, i.e. he will try to make you feel like he is your best friend. He may look like a warm and cuddly puppy, but he has the roar of a lion, and he is bent on devouring each and every one of us. So, we must resist him, and we must daily put on the armor of God so that we are not led into the devil’s trap. The voice of God says “Repent of your sins and believe the good news!” The voice of Satan says, “Have a good time” and he says that those who are preaching messages about repentance, obedience and judgment are crazy and need to be put away. The Lord gave me a picture of the beheading of believers in today’s world – lock them up and drug them up so that they can’t think, pray or witness for Jesus Christ, and they are beheaded. Oh, how I pray and believe the Lord Jesus for deliverance from the evil one.

Consider this: http://digital.nationalpost.com/epaper/viewer.aspx: “Ward 4 Councilman Alan Halberstadt said pregnant women locally need to be advised of warnings of potential harm in preparing infant formula with fluoridated tap water. He described as ‘paternalistic’ the idea that the community has to be ‘medicated’ without their consent in order to treat against tooth decay.” And this: 23 Executive Orders: http://anothervoicerev184.blogspot.com/2013/01/23-exectutive-orders-33-days-after.html

If they can do this with fluoride, what is to stop them from playing the role of parent (Big Brother) in medicating the American people in other ways? We live in troubled times.

Seek the Lord / An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you,

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

http://originalworks.info/seek-the-lord/