Monday, April 12, 2021

Overcome discouragement and lies from satan

 


Overcome Discouragement and Lies from satan

One thing that satan constantly tries to do is wear down the saints, satan will lie to people and tell them that they are worthless, that they should just give up, that they should just go back into the world, he will constantly tell you that you have backslidden, that you’re worthless.  And it is one of the ploys of satan to constantly wear down the saints.  Many saints have become very discouraged, any word that comes from the Lord, satan immediately tries to snatch it from them, and instead of it being an encouragement to them to overcome sins, to repent, to listen to the LORD, to have boldness, satan rather lies to them and he says; “You’re not bold, you can’t overcome sin and you are worthless, other Christians hear from the Lord, you don’t hear from the Lord, Jesus doesn’t love you as much…”  And on and on the accusations go.  It is important WHO we listen to and to know that Jesus Christ has given us power over the evil spirits.  He has given us the power to REBUKE satan in the name of Jesus whether he comes against us with lust, sexual temptation or with doubt, with worry, with envy, or with just discouragement. 

Many of the saints that are following Jesus, they are not falling back to sin, they’re not backsliding in the traditional sense, they are not going back to the ugly old habits of the world.  But they are starting to fall to discouragement, and when they fall to discouragement, they can’t get themselves up, they can’t be an encouragement to others and they are just drained.  So, how do we overcome this?  They way to overcome is by the power and the love of Jesus.  We have to stay in prayer and we have to make SURE that we are not listening to satan.  It’s very easy to listen to the devil, and many Christians are giving their ear to satan. 

Every day when we wake up we have to put on the full armor of God; the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the belt of truth and the feet with boots ready to bring the gospel of peace to those that ask.  We have to be fully equipped for every good work.  We have to realize that we are in spiritual combat and whenever the devil comes against us with anything we have to immediately rebuke him and instead of listening to satan we listen to the Spirit of GOD who loves us and who calls us into everlasting life.  I hear from both sides, I hear satan tempting me, I hear from satan trying to discourage me, but also I hear from the Holy Spirit and I choose who I listen to.  Some days it is harder than others to push out satan, but as the Apostle James wrote, we have to resist satan and he will flee, draw close to God and He will draw close to us, and that is what I practice and that is what all of us have to practice if we are going to grow in our faith. 

We have to practice daily resisting satan by having on the full armor of God, rebuking him in Jesus’s name whenever he comes against us, with any lie from the evil side.  And whatever is good, whatever is true, whatever is pure and lovely THOSE things we meditate on and think of.  We think how we will please our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, how we will encourage others.  And the more you practice what is right the better you get at it.  When you start to all to discouragement, the thing is you stop practicing righteousness, you stop encouraging others, you stop listening to the Holy Spirit and you start tuning into satan, and the more you practice at listening to the devil, the better you get at listening to the devil, the more easily you will become discouraged.  But the more you practice speaking about Jesus, speaking HIS name, telling others about Him, the more you practice praying, speaking in your new tongue, the more you sing for the LORD, the better that you will get at those things.  And we want to become experts at singing the Song of the Redeemed.  Not in a prideful way, not that we think that we are better than others, but we need to be very good at singing the Song of the Redeemed, we need to be well versed in righteousness.  Our performance needs to be pushing towards perfection, and when we seek after Jesus with ALL OF OUR HEART, He will perfect us, He will make us perfect.  He will dross us and He will pull everything out of us, He will cut off everything from us that is harming us, hurting us, holding us back, discouraging us.  The more we practice what is right the firmer we will go in the way of the truth and that is what we need to be.

 If we are going to make it in these days, if we are going to overcome satan, we are going to have to be FIRM, our feet are going to have to be rooted on the Rock of Salvation, on Jesus Christ.  I encourage you to push through the accusations of satan, overcome lust, overcome every single lie that comes from satan.  REBUKE him immediately, push it out of your mind and out of your heart.  Tune your spiritual ears to the Spirit of GOD and receive what is GOOD.  PRAY, because Jesus Christ HAS given you the power to OVERCOME.  But YOU have to choose who you will listen to and who you will obey. 

It is not a sin to be tempted, to be tempted in your mind, to have temptations come in, to see things that are tempting, satan will immediately accuse you though and say; “See, you looked at something that was sinful, you lusted, you thought about something that was sinful, you lusted…” But to be temped is not sin, but to dwell upon those things and to start harkening to those things and to give your heart to those things is sin.  So , whenever satan tempts us we have to quickly rebuke him.  Whatever is coming against us from the evil side we rebuke in the name of JESUS and the Spirit of God does give us power over these things if we choose to resist, if we choose to draw close to God, He will draw close to us.  If we resist the devil he will flee.  But we have to continue to resist and we have to continue to walk the path of righteousness, drawing close to GOD.  May the grace of Jesus be with you.