Biblical Success - Running Our Race - HeadwindsSample

What is this conflict about? Who are our enemies? What are the weapons? Our enemy is Satan, and his weapons are his crew of demons, devils, and evil spirits. Satan is a spirit being who manifested as a snake in the garden and hissed to Eve that God didn’t really mean what He said about the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Adam and Eve had complete freedom to eat the fruit of any of the other trees but were forbidden just that one. He lied to and deceived Eve and Adam, and disobedience and sin entered the world.

All of the evil and pain that we see in the world today is a manifestation and effect of those first lies and deception. Anything that harms or tears down people or creates hate or racial injustice, or causes mental distortions of reality are downstream of sin entering and attacking the perfect world of Eden. That perfect world will be restored when Jesus returns but until then, the spiritual warfare rages.

Of course, a particular target of a satanic attack is the Christian and the Christian Church. The devil hates Jesus and tried to tempt Him away from and steal His mission and destiny in the desert. The devil used words to tempt Jesus in the desert, but Jesus used The Word of God to resist and fight him off.

The deceiver wants your destiny and mine and uses the same weapons of lies, distortions of truth, temptations, and even twisted Scripture against us. The devil is called the deceiver in Scripture, and his deceptions are not obvious but insanely devious. The deceptions are pressed against us as lies and thoughts that distort or deny the truth. Ideas and untrue thoughts allowed to develop in our minds become a way of thinking or a worldview that pushes back God. “There is a way that seems right to man but the ends thereof are the way of death.”(Proverbs16:25) “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7a) Every sin and every good work begins with just one thought. The number one weapon we have for defense or offense is God’s Word powered by the Holy Spirit.

As followers of Jesus, we are in spiritual warfare whether we like it, know it, agree to it, or not. Satan doesn’t ask our permission to try to deceive us or to enter our thoughts. It’s what he does!