A “Word of Knowledge” from Satan - Purity 1472

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Good morning. Today's photo of a tree whose peak and edges are reaching the peak colors of autumn, a bright reddish orange, as the core remains relatively unchanged, comes to us from yours truly as I stopped in my tracks while walking through the parking lot of the Clifton Park Half Moon Public Library on Sunday to enjoy the moment and to capture it, because even though I plan to go back to the library today, this tree will never be the same as it was on Sunday. Well, it's Wednesday, and I share today's photo of peak colors at this tree's peak as a visual representation of our arrival to another midweek summit. Happy hump day. And to encourage us all to be present enough to momentarily practice some appreciation for the beauty that God puts all around us. The state of the world and the headlines and the news can cause us to be fearful and to see the world as a dark and foreboding place, but the truth is that there is more good than bad out there to enjoy, even in this world broken by sin. But we have to be intentional in looking for it and view the world through the lens of our faith to truly appreciate it. That tree and the pleasant day I got to experience on Sunday was a gift from God, uh, but if I was consumed by fear, worry, or negative thoughts, I wouldn't have received it. The state of the world and our own negative thoughts can be hard enough to manage, but unfortunately Satan also plays a hand in stealing our peace and in leading us astray. As hard as it may be to believe, sometimes he reaches into our minds and gives us thoughts that we wouldn't have come up with on our own. Sometimes we can even get a quote-unquote word of knowledge from Satan. Last night I led the Freedom in Christ course that I facilitate online, and the lesson was on session 5, uh, the battle for the mind, which clearly shows from the scripture that the enemy, aka Satan, the father of lies, the tempter and the accuser of the brethren, has influenced people who had a heart for God or were followers of Jesus Christ. The lesson points to David being led to number the nation of Israel in 1 Chronicles 21, Judas being led to betray Jesus in John 13, and Ananias and Sapphira being led to lie about a real estate transaction in Acts 5 as biblical evidence of Satan influencing, quote unquote, people of God. And if Satan can do it to them, he can certainly do it to us. With the possibility of demonic influence and the fact of spiritual warfare established, the lesson asks the participants to examine their pasts and to think back to a time where they suspected that their thoughts were not their own, a time when they believed that Satan or one of his demons sought to deceive, tempt, accuse, or condemn them. As hard as the reality of the demonic may be for the secular world and some circles of supposed Christianity to swallow, it may be considered laughable to those who don't believe in an unseen spiritual realm. Whenever I lead this course, nobody is laughing when they think about times in their past when they were deceived, condemned, accused, or tempted and fallen into sin. Some very bad ideas and impulses have been confessed to in this setting, and although the people sharing don't seek to rid themselves of the responsibility for what they've done, when they think about how alien, bizarre, or evil their, their thoughts were, they begin to suspect that they may not have— that those thoughts may have not been their own. They may have been from a demon. I could share several examples from my own life and the testimonies of others about what the enemy, uh, puts into our heads, but perhaps the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon came from last night's discussion. One of our participants shared that when they were young, their father had a black box satellite dish for television service that allowed them to get virtually every channel out there for free, including adult or pornographic channels. One evening when he was alone in the house, this man, who was only a teenager at the time, decided to take a look and see what he could see, what he would see on the X-rated channels, only to discover that his father had password-protected access to them with a PIN number. Um, as he stood there holding the remote, suddenly a number popped into his head and he tried it. And it worked. However, even though some of us may have been delighted over gaining, uh, access to forbidden entertainment, this young man sensed something evil about the sudden quote-unquote word of knowledge, and to his credit, he immediately turned the TV off and never tried to watch that material again. Satan is real, and he will do anything to lead us into temptation, sin, and bondage. This man spiritually discerned the danger he was in and luckily took God's way of escape. The battle for our minds is real, and when we realize that all the thoughts that pop into our heads don't necessarily come from us and don't need to be obeyed, we can win it. I am not the only one who knows about the battle for the mind, uh, that the spiritual forces of darkness wage against us. Mindful of Christ Ministries' Lauren Roskillie whose Word for Wednesday last week spoke on the subject. So I'm sharing her words on the blog today to warn and encourage us further. Lauren Roskillie encourages us to armor up, and she writes, whether we realize or even believe that the devil is real, he rather very unfortunately is. We can see the effects of Satan and his kingdom in the world around us. And in our own lives. Perhaps you know about his attacks all too well, but there is good news. Well, a lot of good news actually, but in this verse, uh, which was from Ephesians 6, um, the good news, uh, the good news is that we have been given the armor of God to protect us from the trials and attacks of darkness. We can also use this armor to fight against it. Read more about this armor in Ephesians 6:10-20. Know what it is, apply it to your life, and use it. And with God, you can extinguish the fiery darts of Satan that come at you. So armor up and stand firm as a warrior for and with Christ. Amen. Uh, short and simple advice from our sister in Christ in the UK. Um, Lauren's words tell us about how God's armor can protect us from and can keep can help us fight off the attacks of the enemy. But as she states, we have to know about it by reading God's Word in Ephesians 6, apply it to our lives, and to use it. And we need each other to encourage each other in the fight and to share the strategies we have used that have given us success in the past. Lauren is in the process of publishing a book, uh, that will tell us how to do just that. Her latest book will be titled Battle Strategies for Spiritual Warfare, and according to her, is coming very soon. So keep an eye out for Lauren Ross Killey's book, and in the meantime, don't forget to take every thought captive into the obedience of Christ and keep on walking and talking with God. He will keep you safe, show you the way of escape, and lead you in the way you should go. Today's Bible verses come from, to us, from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section section on forgiving others. And today's verse is 1 Corinthians 13:5, and the word of God says, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Today's verse falls under the 9th point of our counseling reference resource section on forgiving others. That 9th point is love keeps no record of wrongs. Today's Bible verse tells us what love is and is not to help us to know what love is. Do you want to know what love is? Do you want me to show you? Do you want to feel what love is? Do you know I can show you? Well, maybe I can, but don't listen to that 1984 hit from Foreigner, I Want to Know What Love Is. To find out, read God's word. Read 1 John 4:8 and 16, which tells us that God is love, and read 1 Corinthians 13, which teaches us how true love is expressed. True love according to God is not self-seeking, doesn't dishonor others, and is not easily angered, and keeps no records of wrongs. True love forgives and seeks to serve others. So let the love of the Lord instruct us all to keep no record of wrongs, and to be more like him when we seek to love our neighbors as ourselves. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotion, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture And today's chapter is 1 John 1, and from that, uh, chapter he shares verse 1, which says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. And Stephen Alford writes, the human being possesses 5 senses: sight, smell, taste, feel, and hearing. Of these 5, 3 are particularly useful for making contact with a person. One would hardly smell or taste a person, but one would certainly hear, see, and handle a person. Thus, John uses these 3 in particular to illustrate the intimacy of this relationship with the Lord Jesus, proving, of course, the fact that Jesus Christ was Jesus, human, and one with whom real spiritual and human fellowship was enjoyed through these three— same three, but now spiritual senses. Christ may still be made real to me through spiritual vision, sight, and faith, hands and hearing. And Stephen Alpert ends by praying, heighten my spiritual senses, Lord, that I might have true intimacy with you. Amen. Amen. And so yeah, we can, we can know what love is, and we can know what Jesus is, and, uh, you know, who Jesus is. And we can, we can see him. We can see him in the eye of our imagination when we read the word of God. We might even have some sort of miraculous vision of Jesus, perhaps in a dream or in real life. So, you know, that's what happened to the Apostle John, so it could possibly happen to us. Um, who's writing this. And, um, you know, so he knew before and after his death. Okay. Um, yeah, that's knowing Jesus. And he saw him spiritually in the Book of Revelation, you know. He saw, saw Jesus, uh, on the Isle of Patmos in a, you know, apocalyptic vision. Um, so yeah, he got to, got to see him before, after, and, you know, before and after his death. And so, so can we? Well, we can't see him before, but we can, we can see him too. Well, we can imagine what his life was like from the accounts of the gospel, and we can hear his word by speaking it. And, you know, we can grab hold of the Lord, you know, in our hearts, if not with our hands. But yeah, and it's a tactile, you know, we can have feelings of the Lord's goodness and his righteousness when we decide to walk with him. And that's why we ask the question always, have you fully surrendered to God? You know the love of the Lord. Um, you know, when you know the love of the Lord and surrender to his will, amazing things happen in your life. He'll guide you in the way you should go, and he'll lead you to a new abundant life that you never knew possible without him. And one of the things he's led me to do is lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which is a Christian recovery and discipleship group that just happens to meet tonight. And we invite anybody in Upstate New York to come on out. And join us at the K-3 classroom at Star Point Church at 6:30 this evening. However, if you're not in Upstate New York and can't get to our meeting, uh, we invite you to check out our teachings on YouTube, uh, to find or increase your freedom in Christ. We have teachings on Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and, uh, our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship group, uh, of course. And, uh, We invite you to check those out. And we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? Being empty for Christ just means being available for the Holy Spirit to fill you and empower you for service and life in the Spirit. And if you are empty for Christ, we say keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we advise that you go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to reveal himself and to make Jesus your Lord and Savior and to, you know, commit your life to following him. And that's why we pray. It all starts with a prayer and continues in prayer. So we pray every day. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you've done for us in our lives, Lord, to lead us out of the darkness into the abundant life that you've given us. Lord, we pray for anyone listening today, that you come alongside them and their prayer request, that you would lead them in the way they should go, that you give them a good word of knowledge and how to follow you, and, um, that you would, you know, bless them. Lord, we also ask that you bless us today by going before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go, because we all want to represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and, uh, we definitely need help with that. So we're asking for you to help us today. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.