The Enemies Tactics 2

 

The enemy and his tactics 2

But first we need to understand the history behind the plan of salvation and how we ended up here…

Here is a brief overview

Mankind was created in the likeness and image of God; “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26) 

From the outset of creation we are taught that God had a plan which included us, in fact it was more than just an inclusion, we were given responsibility to have dominion over the earth; “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” – by this time one third of the angels had rebelled in heaven and made war against God and his regiment, the obedient angels, who had defied Satan and remained loyal to God. Satan and his regiment was defeated and cast out of heaven; “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9) – From this time on Satan and his followers objective was to deceive those whom had been given dominion over the earth, the human race, and it all started way back in the garden with Eve; “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3:1-4) – Satan the mastermind of deception – it’s his deceitful aptitude that will eventuality lead millions, if not billions into the Lake of fire. We can deduce from this engagement that Satan had now executed his plan to deceive, he challenges the Word of God and Eve bites into his lies and for the very first time sin enters the world. God then inflicts a similar punishment and casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden; “therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.”  (Genesis 3:23) – After banishment we learn that we are born into sin and are forbidden to eat from the tree of life; “He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”  (Genesis 3:24) 

Eve’s womb produces a murderer, Cain kills Abel, a fruit of sin and the confirmation of the sentence, death.

 

The story of Job then teaches us many valuable lessons and helps us understand Satan’s objective, which is to get us to rebel against the Word of God and then ultimately curse God and die. Read the book of Job or at least the first two chapter to get a clear indication of Satan’s intent.

 

Nevertheless, from the outset God always had a plan to rescue us from our quandary. The Word then becomes flesh and Jesus is born through the womb of the Virgin Mary, lives a life of sinless perfection, then he dies on a cruel roman cross and on the third day is raised from the dead, opening the door for redemption. The gospel now becomes the only hope for mankind’s salvation, which when implemented correctly mends the breach between them and God. They now become sons of God. The one and only hope we have in defeating Satan’s objectives is to cry out to Jesus; “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” (Romans 10:13) – We must acknowledge that we are sinners and in dire need to be saved from our sin, when this is realised the solution is simple. We must confess our sins asking God to intervene and save us from the shackles that Satan has over us and then look to Jesus for rescue, believing in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead and that he has made a way for the sinner to be saved. We then need to confess him as Lord of our lives and the rest is then worked out over time. The initial transformation must be a radical one, if not something is amiss. If a baby is born through a mother’s womb encapsulated in water. How radical is that transformation as it enters a completely different environment and breaths on its own for the very first time. When a person is "born again" their eyes are opened and for the very first time they receive an intuition to see heavenly truths. We now understand that we have a far greater responsibility than ever before to come God's way. Our lives change as we learn to walk in the Spirit and depend on the finished work of the cross. It’s at this juncture that the light switch is flipped and we are then “born again”. We now realise what is of utmost importance. This is where the real battle begins, and thank God that the work of salvation is a marathon and not a sprint. We will have heartache along the way, BUT GOD will teach us HIS ways as we learn to shed our old natures and follow in the footsteps of our great Saviour. Did you know that an olive is placed between two stones and then crushed to extract what so many covet, olive oil? We will have to suffer in this life to become like our great Saviour, but it will be worth it all; “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1Peter 4:1-2)

 

The Christian has a hope like no other, heaven with all its glory will be ours, and the faithful will receive glorified bodies just like the Lord Jesus’ and we will be addressed by the only true God as sons. God will be our Father and we will be his sons, fellow heirs with Christ, wow! How I long for that day to arrive, even so come quickly Lord Jesus.

 

“Peace to all of you that are in Christ.”

 

Signing off

 

Tyrone