-2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
The spirit of the devils is alive and well. Evil and darkness prevails over much of the land. The devil is all about deceiving the world, and he has been successful to a large degree.
Christianity is no longer sacred. The devil has made inroads into the church and has defiled it. Wickedness seems to prevail throughout the church. Even though Satan has seemingly taken control of the church, the power of God is still able to withstand him, if we just lay hold of it. Many people appear to be religious by setting up a law to pace their actions, but their hearts are far from God. Their laws have become their god, and the law can never save them.
The church holds up men, ideas, and things as high or higher than the gospel. We canonize them (in effect, worship them and their ideas); and as we read the Word of God we already have our minds made up as to what it is saying to us, so we are not truly reading to learn.
Men and women following the desires of their heart will always result in tragedy. People are always looking for something new and exciting, whether from God or from Satan. If exciting things drive you, trouble lies at the door. You will not be able to keep up with it. Consider the fashions, health kicks, new ideas in the church And men claiming their ideas are good. Everything must be from the inspired and finished Word of God.
Deceived and uprooted from faith in God, the urgency to stand up like a man and fight is more than ever. Satan’s attacks will be only warded off by counter-attacking with the sword of the Spirit. People would rather believe a lie than the truth, because truth hurts… our pride. We must be driven by the Holy Spirit. God has caused His law to be written on our hearts.
We find his ‘credentials’ in Isaiah 14:12-14.
Pride is a vice that describes Satan’s character. Satan rears up his ugly head in each one of us. Our sinful nature manifest is Satan’s character coming through. Satan’s initial sin was pride and it is still coming through loud and clear. Pride destroyed him, and it will destroy you.
Attack Stage 1
-Luke 10:18/Revelation 12:8,9
Satan is very clearly God’s enemy and could not abide in Heaven with God. Holiness alone is worthy of the presence of God. Satan having tasted the glories of Heaven, revolted against the Almighty King; and was cast out, banished forever.
Attack Stage 2
The devil has been cast out of Heaven, with no hope of returning, but now he prepares for attack stage two. The battle in Heaven has been fought, and he lost, but now he will focus on me and on you. The idea of Satan is to sabotage God, the Almighty King and His wonderful work of creation.
-Romans 8:22
The world was a perfect environment when it was created by God, but now that Adam, who was the forerunner of all mankind, sinned; the world has since been handed over to the power of Satan. We now have nothing but pain. Catastrophes abound, and though God sometimes gets the blame for these; he is not the cause.
-James 1:13/Galatians 1:4
Satan would utterly destroy any sign of God’s greatness, if he could, but God allows him a little destruction at a time.
This fight is between God and Satan… we are no match for Satan. We are pawns in this fight, but we have the power to say who moves us. Our battleground is like a chessboard that the devil keeps trying to control you side. He will advance his imps toward you while turning the board about to catch you in the open. -Jeremiah 17:17- Our only hope is Jesus Christ, He alone can trump the moves of the devil.
Attack Stage 3
The devil has now moved into the third stage of his attack. This attack includes stage two and adds eroding the foundations of the world. Through evolution, he has destroyed the knowledge that the world was created. He has also destroyed the morals of our society by the belief that we are intelligent animals, therefore our actions become animalistic as we seek to be top monkey. The idea of denying a creator cancels any responsibility towards Him for our actions, thus resulting in chaos for the world.
The Curse of Mankind
Satan doomed the entire human race with a single blow, and now attempts to drive them into deeper sin and destruction.
Till the time of Christ, mankind, when trying to please God, focused on works; which included a six-hundred page documentary of applications to God’s Laws and yearly sacrifices because no one was able to maintain the highest level of obedience to these laws.
Jesus Christ has now come, and we now enjoy being vindicated with Him in spite of our past sins. His death on the cross has paid for our ransom from the hand of the devil and we are now freed from the bondage of sin.
We are at war, a holy war that does not involve human enemies.
-Genesis 3:15-
Adam and Eve faced this enemy and came up short. Our early father and mother conceded defeat and paid dearly for their defeat as all men after them have. They have paved the way for all men to be deceived by their arch-enemy, Satan.
Instead of man’s heart being inherently good like many try to teach us today, Adam and Eve’s defeat points out that even in a good environment their hearts had a potential for wickedness and destruction built into them and us, and because of their defeat we are all doomed to inadequacy in our potential to sin has not changed and this is the cause of the latest sweep of attacks on us as Christians. The change that we have seen in our lives is that we have access to the power of God to keep us from yielding to sin. Christ has now opened the way for all people to come to Him through faith.
The value of a person who has been a Christian but has turned back to Satan is in that Satan has delivered yet another blow to God’s majestic realms. God will never be destroyed by Satan, but will reign on in spite of the blows dealt by Satan. This battle we face is not between us and Satan, but rather between Satan and God. We as humans are avenues for Satan to get revenge.
God can and will give us the roadblock so Satan can not use us against Him; if we allow Him to help us! This is available to us through Jesus’ blood which paid for our ransom. The march of Truth will go on forever.
2 Timothy 4:7,8- “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”
Keep fighting for the Lord! The minute you give up, you have lost. When the devil sifts you like wheat, stand firm and you will come out like gold.
Be vigilant for God, stand up to the devil in the power of God. Satan can only destroy you if you let him, so let your light shine from the sword of truth and blast the darkness away.
As I ponder these thoughts from 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 I am cautioned as to how easy it is to lose our way.
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