Satan is at war with us, and we have to understand that. We
have to fight the battle. Jesus has won the war. Jesus has already defeated
this enemy. But, every day we are to fight the battle in our own lives.
I believe that this war started from the very beginning.
Gen 1:28 This is at the point of creation of man, the very
first thing that God said to the man and woman He had just created.
“
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the
earth."
Those words that God spoke, subdue, and have dominion
indicate a battle, some work, some striving, that it would not happen
automatically.
The Hebrewword for subdue--kabash (kaw-bash'); to tread down;
to conquer, subjugate, violate:
and for dominion-- radah (raw-daw');tread down, i.e. subjugate;
These words indicate a battle.
I wonder if Adam and Eve really understood this. They were
not on guard.
Adam and Eve lost the first battle. They lost it because they were not on guard
and they were deceived.
Satan’s Lies
Gen 3:1-5 Now the
serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had
made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of
any tree in the garden'?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We
may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, 'You shall not
eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall
you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 But
the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil."
That was not true. It is a deception.
That is the way he ensnared Eve, and that is his weapon
today. Satan came to Eve and lied to her. He twisted the words of God and
caused her to doubt the character of God and the love of God.
This is the weapon he still uses. Satan comes to us, and he
lies to us. We don’t know that it is Satan. We think that its us, our own
thoughts. Sometimes he uses the words of
a friend, a parent, a teacher, a celebrity. The lies cause us to doubt God’s
word, to doubt His character, and to doubt His love for us.
There are many lies that Satan uses, tailor made for the
individual. Satan’s lies are sometimes very subtle, with a touch of truth to
make them more believable. But, the
basis of all of his lies are the same. the big lies that are the foundation for all
the other lies.
God is not enough
1. God is not
enough.
God created the man and woman to be in fellowship with
Him. He was their source, their
strength, their guide, their everything.
Satan came to Eve and suggested that God was not enough. Satan suggested that she could not trust God, that God had
not told her the truth, that God was holding out on her, that there was
something that she needed that God had told her she could not have. He suggested that she could make her own
decisions if she just had the knowledge she needed. Then, she would not have to
rely on God.
Satan made her think that God was not enough, that she needed
more.
The truth is that God is enough. God told Paul, My grace is
sufficient for you. The psalmist said that full joy is in God’s presence.
The covert lie that God is not enough is the lie at the root
of many of our problems.
God is not enough, I need money. God is not enough, I need a
man, or a woman. God is not enough, I need drink….
I am not enough
2. The other
root lie of Satan is You are not enough.
He told Eve, “your eyes will be opened, and you will
be like God, knowing good and evil.” The implication is that, Eve, your not
enough as you are. You are not enough, you need to be more, to know more.
That is the lie behind many of our issues. I am not
enough.
I am not enough, so I need to work harder. I am not
enough, I need to be perfect. I am not enough, I am not worthy of love. I am
not enough, not good enough, not pretty enough, not strong enough, not smart
enough. Fill in the blank.
This lie that I am not enough is the cause of most emotional
problems. It is depressing to have the overwhelming feeling that I am not
enough. It causes anxiety, fear, shame, condemnation.
Because I am not enough, I want to make myself feel better.
That is the start of drinking, using drugs, illicit sex, drive for more money,
eating disorders…
Also, it is the source of a lot of “good behavior” that is
separate from God. The fruit that satan
enticed Eve with was from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. It’s not
all about the evil. The temptation was that she could know evil and good apart
from God. Sometimes good things like
religion, doing good works to earn love, being legalistic, holding to doctrines
above life and love.. Good things that we use to make us feel better about not
being enough.
The lies that God is not enough, and that you are not enough
are the root of our problems. As believers, these lies are the source of the
shackles around our legs that keep us from dancing. We hear Satans lies from
our early years. We don’t know that they are lies. As far as we know, they are
true. We build lives around those lies, we set up behavior patterns, defense
mechanisms, emotional default settings that are based on lies.
So, why can’t we just stop believing the lies, remove the
shackles, and dance?
Help for the battle
Because we are in this battle, we need help. We are not meant
to fight alone.
We are not alone. In
Gen 3, it seems that Eve went into battle alone, never realizing it was a
battle, not knowing that she needed help. Gen
3:6 and ate, and she also gave
some to her husband who was with her,
Adam was there. I don’t know what the dynamic was. Did Adam
just stand there and watch the whole conversation? Did Eve say, It’s OK, I’ve
got this? I don’t know.
But, this shows that from the start there was a factor in
this battle, that we don’t fight alone. We need a team to help us.
This also was part of the creation. God created man, and He
said, It’s not good for man to be alone. God created man to be in community. We
are not supposed to be independent, self made, self reliant folks. That’s hard
for us Texans to accept. We think we have to be big strong capable men and
women who don’t need help. That’s balony. No one goes to war alone.
Eph 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over
this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
places.
Is that a fight you want to enter by yourself?
You know the Bible tells us to love one another, serve one
another, be devoted to one another, accept one another, forgive one another,
encourage one another, confess to one another, even greet one another with a
kiss! Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. The apostle Paul never traveled
alone. We just were not meant to do it on our own.
In this spiritual battle, we
need the strength to endure and to successfully resist our enemy when he
opposes us. Fighting alone, we endanger ourselves when we could and should be
looking for ways to become stronger and the easiest way to do that is to
multiply your forces!
Eccl 4, “Two are better than one…
Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a
threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:9, 12). In our spiritual
fight, why should we unnecessarily endanger ourselves by not calling
reinforcements when we could? When we join
together in the fight against our spiritual enemies, it is then we become
automatically stronger and more able to resist and defeat them!
We NEED each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment