Your Adversary the Devil

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV)

*This was written on October 31, 2024. The Lord has been having me write these devotions weeks ahead now.

As followers of Jesus Christ we are to be humble servants of the Lord who give God all the glory and praise for any good that he does in us and through us for his glory. We should never take credit for what we know was done in the power of the Holy Spirit and not in our own flesh. And we should not be people who exalt ourselves, but who are exalting the Lord Jesus and the good that he has done for us and is doing for us and through us. But we can give testimony to what God is doing in us and through us for his praise.

But humility goes beyond just giving God praise and glory. It also has to do with us submitting our lives to God’s will and purpose for our lives and us bowing before the Lord in surrender of our lives to him in walks of obedience to his commands, daily denying self and dying to sin, by his grace, in his power at work within us. No longer are we living to please self and the flesh, but now we are living to please our Lord. That does not make us perfect people, but lack of perfection is never to be used to excuse deliberate sin.

Now we live in troubled times on this earth. War is just about everywhere you look. Rebellion, lies, liars, manipulators of truth, deceivers, adulterers, and mischief makers abound. False teachers and preachers, false governments, false news media, the false church, and false gospels are prevalent all over the place. Fakery is everywhere. And anything can be faked and altered and photoshopped to make it look like one thing while it is another thing entirely. So we cannot even trust what we see with our eyes.

Honestly, in the USA, left and right politically are a mirage. And the mirage (the play) is put on by skilled actors who are out there to deceive as many people as they can, and to provide distractions so we don’t see what is happening “behind the curtain,” and in order to get the people of my nation fighting one against the other, even “Christians” against “Christians.” For the de facto government of the USA is a small group of the Elite of this world who are the ones truly running what is going on in the world presently.

And all of this is leading up to the rule of “The Beast” (of Revelation 13). All of this is heading us, the people of this world, into a one world order under a tyrannical one world government and religion (of the Beast). So please understand that Satan works through politicians, government heads, the news media, doctors, lawyers, preachers, pastors, and teachers of the Word of God, etc. And he disguises himself as an angel of light, and his servants masquerade themselves as servants of righteousness. So don’t be fooled!

Satan is not going to come after you looking like a red demon with a pitchfork in hand. He is going to come to you looking like one of the “good guys” (a hero) who is there to help you and to do good for you, and to rescue you from the “bad guys”. But just know that all this can be faked. That is why the Scriptures warn us against “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” i.e. those who play duplicitous roles in order to deceive the naïve and the gullible, and even some very smart (intelligent) people. Don’t be fooled!

I see a lot of people on social media (on the internet) just regurgitating one or the other particular political platform’s beliefs, practices, and sentiments. If it comes from that particular side (either side), they just repeat it as though it is fact. And a lot of what is repeated is meant to incite the other side and to get people at odds with one another. But as Christians we need to be testing these spirits in prayer and in the study of God’s word and in doing diligent research to make certain what we are believing is the truth.

Now I am going to say something here that is not going to gain me any popularity. But let me first state this. I believe very firmly that abortion of unborn babies is murder, which I wrote about 4 days ago. But I also believe that porn addiction is adultery, and so on and so forth. But only God can change people’s hearts on this subject. And voting in favor of abortion or against abortion is not necessarily going to change people’s hearts or their actions. So we need to be sharing the truth of the gospel which can change human hearts. People need the Lord, and then hearts will change.

We need to be teaching the people that Jesus Christ died on that cross to take our sins upon him in order to put our sins to death with him, and in order that, by God-persuaded faith in Christ, we might now die with Christ to sin and walk in obedience to his commands. For Jesus said that to come after him we must deny self, die daily to sin, and walk in obedience to his commands (in essence). For if we hold on to our sinful practices, and if we do not obey our Lord, we do not have eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

And we need to be telling them the truth about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. For it isn’t just that we must die daily to sin and walk in obedience to his commands, but that when we do, we are going to suffer for the sake of the gospel and for our faith in Jesus Christ. Satan and his hordes will be “hot on our trail” trying to bring us down, trying to get us to fail and to fall, and trying to dishearten and discourage us to the point to where we will give up the fight and back down and retreat from our Lord.

We need to be prepared for this so that we are not taken back by it when things get much worse, which they certainly will. And we need to be armored up (Ephesians 6:10-18) with the amor of God – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted ready to share the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication, keeping alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

Only Hope

By Jonathan Foreman

There's a song that's inside

Of my soul..

Sing to me of the plans

That you have for me over again

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours 

I know now you're my only hope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads