January 5 2018 – Click here to listen
I find myself rarely agreeing with what the current Pope has to say about things, these days, but in a recent television interview he said, “The Devil is more intelligent than mere mortals and should never be argued with, Satan is not a metaphor or a nebulous concept but a real person armed with dark powers. He went on to say, “I’m convinced that one must never converse with Satan – if you do that, you’ll be lost. He’s more intelligent than us, and he’ll turn you upside down, he’ll make your head spin. He always pretends to be polite – he does it with priests, with bishops. That’s how he enters your mind.”
Now that I agree with!
Spiritual warfare is fought in the mind for the most part, and on the surface, it would seem that we are outmatched by superior intellect and dark powers and thus are doomed to losing the war. But, the Bible tells us how to win; we are not to fight the battle alone.
As Jesus was preparing to be arrested and carried away to trial on trumped up charges, He said to His disciples in Matthew 26:41 – “Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For the spirit indeed is willing, but how weak the body is!” Regardless of His warning they kept falling asleep instead of praying and calling on the Lord and as a result deserted Jesus in a panic when the mob came to arrest Him. They lost the war because they relied on themselves alone to combat a superior force.
Paul wrote to the Romans in 7:14 about this same phenomenon: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Skip down to verse 21 and he states: So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
Hmmm… Think about that for a second. The Apostle Paul states that is a LAW that whenever we wish to do the right thing, evil lies close at hand. Evil is always lurking and trying to stop us from doing the right thing.
So how do we avoid acting upon inevitable temptation?
Paul asked the same question: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Paul answered himself in Chapter 8 when he delivered essentially the same message that Christ did: the spirit is willing, the spirit is eager, and a spirit that has been quickened by God’s Holy Spirit, can overcome every temptation!
8:2 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death
8:9 But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you
8:9, 11 the Spirit of God dwells in you
8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
The Pope also stated the following: “But it ends badly if you don’t realize what is happening in time. We should tell him, ‘go away’. “He is evil, he’s not like mist. He’s not a diffuse thing, he is a person.”
Obama would never refer to Jihadi terrorists as terrorists. Deservedly he was harshly criticized for not identifying our enemies so the world would clearly know who our enemies were. The same logic holds true here. Satan is our enemy. Tell him to go away and do so by invoking the mighty name of Jesus. He is terrified of that name. When tempted, do as Jesus suggested, pray! Ask the Holy Spirit to keep you strong, invoke Him to assist in repelling our common enemy.
You don’t have to lose the Temptation War.
1 Corinthians 10:13,
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!