Second Corinthians 4:4, the apostle Paul writes, satan, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ.

We live in a world that is much like a matrix. We move, we live, we exist. And we act as if everything is normal, but behind the scenes, the Bible says that this world is under the control of darkness, in Ephesians 6:12, Paul says that we wrestle and are at war with satanic forces. That rule our world from high places, that satan and the angels who rebelled against God are currently influe ncing the world as we speak, therefore, we must be vigilant and aware of every lie that comes our way from this kingdom of darkness. And today we are exposing one of the biggest falsifications of Satan.

When troops go into battle, it is often said that as long as you know where the enemy is, you can attack him. You can flank him and defeat him in world war two. That was often the situation on Omaha beach, no matter how much gunfire, the Nazis poured upon us troops, once they were able to identify their enemy, they were then able to flank around the enemy and eliminate the enemy that was harder to do in Vietnam. You see a nom, the us forces faced an enemy who was unpredictable and often unseen. He would usually pop out of bushes and sometimes will pop up from under the ground to ambush the troops. And that led to many deaths and defeats.

Well, that’s the type of enemy that’s Satan and the forces of darkness are

Satan is the type of smart enemy who wants to hide the shadows and even convince you that he is not there. In fact, Satan has worked hard to convince the world that he does not exist. Why Because again, the daily, his enemy is the one that you can’t see. The one that you don’t believe is there. And this is why daily more and more people are turning away from God and turning towards the world of darkness. And aren’t even thinking about their eternity. In fact, people nowadays are even mocking God and making fun of those who believe in God and follow Jesus just as the Bible said, would take place before the return of Christ. And so, as you can see, Satan’s cunning nature has ingeniously convinced the world that he is not here, that he is not real, which makes the world very easy prey for deception.

And so perhaps the biggest lie that Satan has devised to the world is that he is not real. However, we as believers, we’re not going to fall for that lie. We, we know he’s real. We have seen the reality of Christ in our lives in many ways. And now we are in his kingdom. We are children of God. And so we know Satan’s real. He’s not going to get us with the lie that he’s not real. So then what is the biggest lie that Satan will try to come at us with Well, before we identify that, let’s take a look at what happened when Satan tried to confront Jesus and let’s see what we can learn from that encounter.

So after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the holy spirit led him into the wilderness to fast. And during that time, Satan tried to tempt him. And as he was trying, he found that he wasn’t much of a match for Jesus because when ever Satan would try to lie to him, Jesus would respond with the truth of scripture. And eventually Satan just left him alone. However, when Satan tries to approach you and me, he would have a lot more lies to bring to us. You see, Jesus was perfect. He had never sinned. He never made any mistakes. And so when Satan approached Christ, he didn’t really have much that he could come at Jesus with, to beat him down with, because Jesus is perfect, but us who we make mistakes all the time we sin, we, we do things we regret. And so when Satan tries to come to us, what do you think he would try to attack us with

You guessed it, our mistakes, our sins, and our shortcomings. And that’s what he does. You see now that you are in the kingdom, a child of God, an ambassador of Christ and someone who God is going to use in a profound way for his glory. You have become an immediate threat to the kingdom of darkness because when you became awake and began to see the light and know the truth, you are now able to infiltrate the system of Satan and wake others up. And so Satan can’t have that. And so he wants to destroy you. He knows that he cannot destroy you through his satanic system of sinful bliss anymore because you’ve been awakened, you know, the truth. And so the only way that Satan can try to destroy your purpose now is to try and make you feel so bad about yourself. That you fail to have faith.

If God can still use you. And so I would say that one of the biggest lies of Satan that he will try to come at you with is that you are not good enough to be used by God. He would try to make you feel as if God is done with you. That’s one of the biggest lies to jeopardize your purpose. If he can get you to believe that you see, this is what happens. Sometimes you, you sin, you make mistakes. We all do. We’re human. And when you make a mistake, you, you have the holy spirit in you. So you feel bad about it. You feel guilty. And so what Satan does to kick you down is trying to say things like, like this, he will come to you and say, oh, look at you. You’ve sinned. You’re not a child of God. You’re not worthy of his grace. You’re not going to go to heaven. You’re nothing you thought you could be a Christian give up. You can never be like Christ. Look at you. You haven’t even prayed in a long time. And now you’ve sinned again. What are you going to do Ask for forgiveness for the 50th time. You might as well just give up and forget this God stuff.

Now, as I was saying that, how bet some of you were like, wait, that, that sounds familiar. And it should, because that’s the lie that Satan tells us all. He tells us all that we are unworthy of. God’s grace. He tells us all, when we have sin that we might as well give up and that be fallen away from God’s mercy. And if the holy spirit is no longer in us, we’ve all heard the same lie. And so when you get those ideas, remember those ideas that they’re not coming from God, they’re not even coming from yourself. These are ideas and fabrications from the evil one. And so one of the biggest lies from Satan is that you have fallen away from grace, and aren’t good enough to be used by God and are worthless to God. You see the enemy wants you to believe that you are worthless to God so that you will become worthless to God, because whatever you believe about yourself, you end up becoming.

If you believe that you are worthless to God, then you won’t have the faith that it takes to operate in the power of the holy spirit. And so therefore your worth for the kingdom would be lacking, but we’re not going to let that happen. So what do you do when you are in a spiritual attack When do you do so that you do not buy into the lies of Satan Well, let’s look at what our role model Jesus, our great savior did. Let’s see how he responded to the enemy. And Matthew chapter four, when Satan was trying to attack Christ, he didn’t last long because Jesus knew the scriptures. When Satan tried to convince Christ to break his fast, by eating bread, Jesus responded with scripture and said, man does not live by bread alone.

When the Satan tried to convince Christ to jump off of a cliff, Christ responded by saying, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Basically everything Satan came at Christ with Christ was able to refute with the truth of scripture. And this is exactly what you and I must do because it’s going to happen. We are humans. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to find times where we slip up and may sin and Satan will try to accuse us. This is why revelation chapter 12. Verse 10 says that Satan is the accuser of the brothers and sisters in Christ. Why Because he accuses you. He wants to kick you when you’re down so that you don’t get up. And so when your journey as a child of God, if you stumble and sin and make a mistake, which I should say, when you do, because we all make mistakes, yes, Satan will come.

He will accuse you. He will say, you are not a child of God. He will say that God does not love you anymore. He would try to convince you of this, but just like Jesus, your response has to be with the words of God. And so when Satan says that, God does not love you anymore. You tell him nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, when Satan says, there’s no way you can go to heaven. Now you’ve sinned. Again. You tell him if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us, our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And at this point, Satan make you a little frustrated and may come at you and say, well, the reason you keep sending is because you don’t have the holy spirit in you anymore, and God has abandoned you. And to that, you can just respond to him that you have been chosen according to the fore knowledge of God, the father, through the sanctifying work of the holy spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood.

That scripture is loaded. It’s huge. And for many reasons, for one, this scripture says that you were chosen, okay According to the forward knowledge of God, this means that before you were even born before the world began, God shows you to receive him, to receive his spirit and be sanctified by it. What does it mean to be sanctified It means to be made holy and essence. God shows you before the world began to one day, receive the holy spirit and be made. Holy. This means that you were destined to be holy. And so when Satan comes at you and your present moment of mistake and says, you can never be, holy you remind him that you were predestined for holiness. And even on days, when you slip up, you are still on your journey to holiness. And even in those moments that you do fall and stumble and sin rather than sinking. And self-pity for you will soar in God’s grace, because as it is written, you can always approach God’s throne of grace with confidence and may receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need. And as you respond in this way, the accuser who have no choice, but to flee,

You see why this is such an important topic, because I know so many people, who sin, who slip up and wonder, you know, do they, do they have the holy spirit anymore And these aren’t people who live a lifestyle of saying, these are people who are on fire for God. They want to do God’s will. And sometimes they find themselves committing sadness that they are ashamed of. And they’re just, they’re worried. They wonder do I is the holy spirit even still in me anymore. So when people are wondering right now, you may be, one of them has got left me, can I even please him anymore And so when someone is wondering if the holy spirit is still in them, and they’re worried if they’re going to even make the heaven because they send again, to you, my friend, I, if you even have that question and have that concern, yes, yes.

The holy spirit is still working within you. How do I know this Because of the holy spirit had left. You guess what You wouldn’t even feel bad about sending anymore. If the holy spirit was not within you, who you would say, forget this Jesus stuff. And you would just go back out to the clubs. You would go back down to the drugs. You would go back to the stealing and you would just live that life and wouldn’t feel bad about it at all. But the fact that you feel pain, sadness, grief, and frustration. When you sin, that’s evidence that the holy spirit within you is grieving inside of you. And he is still convicting you. He is still in the process of molding you into Christ likeness. And so remember in this life, it’s tough. You know, we have a physical body that craves evil.

We live in a evil, satanic matrix of a world where sin is everywhere. But God knows that he understands the struggle. This is why Jesus himself had to live the perfect life. He had to die for you so that you could be covered by his blood. So that even on your worst day, when God sees you, he sees the righteousness of Christ covering you because he knows you need it. If you couldn’t be perfect, you wouldn’t need a perfect savior. So I know it hurts when you fall and disappoint. God, we’ve all been there, but my friend don’t give up because the journey of holiness is a process. It’s a life long process of becoming more like Christ. So continue the wall, continue seeking God, keep resisting sin with all you have to keep fighting to do what’s right, because you’re not alone. And when the enemy tries to come at you again, you remind him of who you are, who you are destined to become. And that’s a righteous child of God. And you’re in, will not be safe. You’re in, will be holiness because you are his beloved and there is nothing that will separate you from his love.

 

Thanks to https://www.aocnetwork.org/