I was watching YouTube the other day and an advertisement came across my screen that was pure blasphemy towards God and His bible, His Word. This made me angry to see such blatant disregard and disrespect for my God.
Realizing that the one who created this ad is falling for the lies of Satan, that he or she is in bondage.
I understand that it’s the devil’s plan to confuse and deceive as many as possible in the relatively short time he has. So, in this article, I just want to talk a bit about the dangers of falling for the traps of Satan and also talk about turning to, or in some cases, returning to God to be set free.
Related: What Does It Mean To Surrender To God?
So many aren’t concerned about getting right with God now, because they feel that they have seventy more years or fifty more years or whatever to do so. This is a huge deception of Satan.
Think about the person who has a freak accident or a heart attack. For them, they lose the chance to turn to God. One can only hope they had accepted Jesus at some point prior to this. If we go on thinking that we will be able to play this game of chance as we try to perfectly time Christ’s return, we risk losing everything.
God won’t be waiting for anyone on this day when He returns. The bible tells us that when the gates are closed, that’s it; no getting in.
Being prepared is the best method
“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, 4 but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. 5 When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’
7 “All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. 8 Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’
9 “But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. 11 Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’
12 “But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’
13 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.
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Too many are turning away from God’s call
I know that living in this world is difficult. There is pressure all around us and there is sin all around us. For a believer, unless that person is well-rooted in God’s teachings, what chance do they have of sticking to their faith?
We risk moving into a condition the bible calls being lukewarm. We are told that God doesn’t like people who are divided or lukewarm in their beliefs and practices. As we believers spend time around non-believers, we can effectively take on their beliefs and practices. Yes, we are called to witness to non-believers, but we are also warned to not be misled by non-believers.
“Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for ‘bad company corrupts good character.’”
“Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?”
When we are deeply rooted in bible scripture and prayer each day, we are fresh in mind and spirit, and we can easily draw on God’s strength to get through our days. We are more aware of what’s going on around us and we can see how the enemy is working through people and the systems set in place.
We must maintain our position in the world as we still need to work and pay bills and get groceries and stuff, but we are wise to not participate in the things of this world as they are sure to corrupt the work God has already done in us.
Worshipping other gods leads to death
“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
You must not have any other god but me.
You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”
Surely, we have all heard of the Ten Commandments of God? It must be quite true that God doesn’t want our hearts divided from Him as He set this as the first two commands, even before murder.
The book of Revelation has many warnings to non-believers and idol-worshippers about where they are headed; Hell, Hades, Lake of Fire, the Fiery Furnace…
This is an eternal punishment for those who refuse to submit to the Will of God. Even with all these warnings, even with all the churches around the world and all the missionaries, the bible also tells us in Matthew 7:13 that the way to Hell is broad and many find it but the way to Heaven is narrow and only a few will find it.
What is a few?
From the beginning of time until current day, the few that believed and found the way might seem like many if put all in one area, but it’s likely a very small fraction of the many from all years past until now who kept to the broad path.
The broad path to Hell is the easy path. It’s the flesh-pleasing path that has no limits or boundaries. Yes, God’s way does have boundaries and we must deny ourselves certain pleasures, but we are told that our reward in Heaven will be great. Who can truly fathom how great? Not me, but I know it will far surpass the rewards of Hell.
Evil spirits are everywhere
“Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”
Also, in Ephesians, chapter 6, we are told that this battle we have is not a physical one with flesh and blood, but a spiritual one with light and darkness, good and evil.
Satan himself doesn’t go everywhere causing harm, as he isn’t omnipresent like God is, but instead, he has an army of evil spirits, or demons, who go about in many forms causing harm. The enemy’s purpose is to prevent anyone from knowing God and finding Salvation as we are told in John 10:10. His plan is to break us down in mind and spirit and get us to such a low that we lose our fight or to bring us to a place of opposition towards God where we turn away from Him.
This doesn’t stop all throughout our lives. Satan is a smooth talker, subtle in his ways. Unless a person is full of the Spirit and on their toes, they are likely to miss all the subtleties of the enemy. Even if watching certain movies, and some nudity comes across the screen, one might reason that we are all adults and that we’re responsible enough.
The adult industry is massive and is a huge money-maker these days because men and women alike have at some point reasoned that they could handle it. A person trapped by the snare of pornography is hard pressed to simply walk away from it. It’s a pit that keeps getting deeper. The bible shows us many times that God is strongly against sexual immorality.
Satan is counting on us to reason with seeing such images because this opens a door. Not only does it put an image into our memory, in time, it starts to desensitize us to such things. How many Christians are trying to follow God while being chained to pornography, or some other fleshly desire? I believe we would be shocked to know the true number.
A call to surrender
In this article, I didn’t want to write only about the negative things in this world. However, they are very present to all of us. This article also wants to show that God is in control. Even though we might feel powerless, God isn’t.
I will share a couple of verses here that show that we can call on God and draw on His power to send the enemy away from us.
First, James 4:7 says:
This is telling us that we, those who call on the Lord and trust Him, can stand up and resist the attacks and temptations from the devil. Satan is powerful to those not protected by God’s Spirit. We must read the first third of this verse; “So humble yourselves before God.” Other versions say, “Submit to God.”
Whatever version you are reading, God is telling us first that we must submit to Him. It doesn’t tell us to first resist the devil, then to submit to God. Satan must obey commands given to him in the name of Jesus Christ. As Christ is head over everything, Satan must listen and leave when ordered to do so.
It is possible for us to have much faith in God and His power in us whereas we can pray with power and cast out demons with power, and it’s also possible for us to spend time with God while having little faith whereas we can’t resist the devil.
If the enemy see’s that we are weak in Spirit, he won’t listen. We must speak to him in the authority of Jesus, believing that Jesus’ name is all powerful and Holy.
How do we build such faith? By studying the scriptures; by reading stories of faith from the Old Testament and in Hebrews 11 where we can see how God was faithful to protect and provide for His followers of that time. We are also told that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8), and cannot change. This means He will be faithful to believers of today, too.
“People, including myself at one time, are (wrongly) under the impression that we are just too bad for Jesus to forgive.” Click To TweetAnd, second, Luke 10:19 says:
These two verses show that we have power to move away from the enemy and to God. If you are struggling with sin and bondage, turn to God in surrender, as you are, and ask Him to help you and save you. He is a faithful God.
Neil T Anderson has helped many people to break free from the bondage of sin. His books Victory Over the Darkness and Bondage Breaker are powerful to help you to break free from negative thoughts and bondage. Also available on DVD (Victory Over the Darkness), and DVD (Bondage Breaker)Jesus accepts all
People, including myself at one time, are under the impression that we are just too bad for Jesus to forgive. Some of us can get ourselves to believing the lies of the enemy that tell us that God won’t save us and even if He would, that we would just mess up again anyways; so, what’s the point?
The devil uses questions like this to throw us off guard and to get us questioning God Himself. I will talk about discernment in a moment, but first I just want to remind everyone, in every situation, and in every level of sin, that Jesus is able and willing to accept you right now.
Jesus understands sin better than anyone. In fact, God is all-knowing, and knows all the sin we will ever commit. If Jesus didn’t become the atonement for our sins once and for all on the cross, we would be doomed for sure, as we all struggle with sin. However, even though we sin, yes, Christians too, we are forgiven when we submit to the Will of God, confess our sins, and repent from them. This is because of God’s grace.
Before we come to know Jesus in our hearts, we are full of sin. After we come to know Jesus in our hearts, we are still susceptible to sin. But when we accept Jesus into our hearts, God see’s in us, the righteousness of Jesus, and for this reason, He forgives us and accepts us.
If you happen to be reading this and don’t have a personal relationship with God, I encourage you to accept Jesus’ invitation to you right now and give all your sin to Him. He will not only forgive you, but He will forget those sins (Isaiah 43:25) and give you a new lease on life!
Using discernment to stay on the right path
As we go about our days, we are wise to study God’s Word so that we can be fresh in knowledge of scripture. It is our knowledge of scripture that will help us discern what is truth.
If we consider the story in the bible where Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days and nights, fasting and praying, we can see how knowing scripture pays off. Satan was trying to tempt Jesus, even using scripture towards Jesus, albeit out of context, Jesus was able to use scripture in the right context to shut the enemy down (Matthew 4:1-11).
We are wise to memorize scripture and become very familiar with the true teachings of the bible, the Word of God. If we don’t, we risk someone who is a deceiver, who knows the Word of God, coming against us and drawing us away from God into another belief or religion. This happens in the most subtle and inconspicuous ways.
“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.”
If someone comes along and is trying to entice you into a new belief or a new group who is following a certain teaching, remember that you are to be in a position where you can test them and understand the deception. The Holy Spirit in us will teach us and equip us with wisdom and discernment, but we must hone this skill through daily scripture reading, meditation and memorization, and prayer.
As we walk close in the Spirit, we will grow more accustomed to the voice of God in us. When a deceptive spirit, or a temptation comes along, the Spirit of God will prompt us with a feeling, an intuition or gut feeling, or an obvious knowing within us.
The Bondage Breaker(TM) DVD Experience: 12 Powerful Sessions to True Freedom in Christ DVD edition by Anderson, Neil T. published by Harvest House, is an awesome resource for your family. Neil gives it to you straight and helps you learn how you can break free from negative thoughts and bondage in this 12 part video series.
Conclusion
I realize this article alone won’t cause all to stop evil in their lives. I write these things because I was trapped in bondage for so many years in certain addictions and habits. When I finally surrendered to Jesus wholeheartedly, that’s when I started to wake up to the deceptions of the enemy. Now I see them everywhere and in many ways. Satan can even use good against us. Remember the saying, “Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.”
God wants us to have great things in our lives and He wants us to have high ambitions and dreams. However, we must be careful that Satan doesn’t use these things in a negative way where he makes them so important to us that they become idols of worship. Examine your own life today; is there anything that is on your mind more than God? Is there any known sin in your life that you just can’t seem to break free from?
Give it all to God and trust Him to strengthen you and deliver you.
If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, you can follow this link (Prayer for Salvation) to find out how. Also, if you need prayer for your life or your family, feel free to fill out a private prayer request in the provided prayer box in this article. My wife and I would love to pray for you.
Take care!