James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you.
Come near to God and he will come
near to you. Wash your hands, you
sinners, and purify your hearts, you
double-minded.
Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your
laughter to mourning and your joy to
gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord,
and he will lift you
up.
Working from home has been quite the
experience- a daily assortment of work, unexpected interruptions, swinging
emotions, impossible moments and very rarely, rest. In this mix I find the
children’s uninhibited impulses and dialogs to be the most poignant. My son,
after watching cartoon versions of Mr. Bean, insists on following me as I go
for my daily ‘quiet-time’ walks. To be clear though, he does not actually follow
me, and neither are my walks quiet. Instead he keeps walking into my path as he
gives a word for word running commentary of the clips he has watched. I am not
quite sure why it is important for him to narrate the whole thing, so I pretend
to listen. But I also marvel at how he can keep all that information in his
head.
My daughter on the other hand
just turned eight. As with many girls (I suppose) she had been reminding
us of her upcoming big day for at least three weeks. Not that I mind, but she
has also been sliding into my arms at the most unexpected moments and asking, “When
will I GROW BIG dad?”.
I kept wondering for a few days
why she wanted to ‘GROW BIG’. After all, many girls today want to grow
small! Finally, I had the presence of mind to remember that sometimes the
best answer to their questions is another question. So, the next time she
mentioned it I asked her why she wants to ‘grow big’. Well, it turns out that
her biggest concern in this era of corona thoughts, loans and jobs is to get to
13 years so that; “I can have dreadlocks and pierce my ears!”.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I love children, and from them I glean simple wisdom for fruitful living. You see, my kids’ thoughts in all their innocence, flowing freely and unfiltered, often results in questions or words ranging from the wise, to the fanciful and right up to the bizarre. Their thought processes are for all intents and purposes like an open field with no fence. Anything can
As adults we fight many battles,
but the greatest victories are first won or lost in the mind. Many of our
mind-battles are first fought in the unseen world of God, angels and devils. Turf
wars come to us regardless of whether we are willing participants or not. It is
therefore of great importance to keep the mind safe.
The bible tells us that we have
an invisible enemy intent on either disabling or killing us off completely.
Jesus called him a murderer and an irredeemable liar (John 8:44). He is also
wily and strong. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion,” wrote Saint Peter and he is “seeking someone to devour.” 1
Peter 5:8
If you let him, he will devour
you. Each time he finds a potential victim he resorts to his time-tested
methods which almost always begin with a siege around the mind. An unhealthy
focus on the negative, depression and infirmities follow in short order.
If he finds that you are not a
good candidate for sickness and depression, then he will lie to you. Now I very
often hear Christians shouting, “The devil is a liar!” However, I suspect that
many do not understand what it means to be lied to by the master of lies. For
Satan, the art (and science) of lying is not just a gimmick he plays on hapless
people, it is a war strategy with eternal dividends.
If you are the worldly type, he deploys
the (social) media and the hoods (Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood,
Riverwood etc.) to waste your time and hence shield you from having any
meaningful time with your creator. This way he knows you will never bear spiritual
fruit. In the final analysis it is your fruit that will matter to God (John 15).
For the zealous (but bible
averse) individual he sets a false agenda that progressively drives them far
from the plans of God. Via false teachers, pompous prophets and comfortable church
fellowships with zero spiritual value he helps them run a race not marked out
for them.
Politics, academia and traditions also play a
key role in his nefarious agenda of clouding the minds of men from the light of
Christ.
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the
minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of
the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ,
who is the exact likeness of God. 2
Corinthians 4:4 (NLT).
Do not be one of them!
The times also show that he has
been busy mastering social-engineering techniques dependent on emerging
technologies such as big data analytics, algorithms, AI, IoT and the like. The
mind-games will become ever more sophisticated and will be deployed on ever-increasing
swathes of the world’s population. The undiscerning will eventually pay a price for their complacency.
The bible predicts that in the
not-so-distant future, Satan will consolidate his position culminating in a
world environment that will either dupe or force many into abandoning the one
true God and savior (Matthew 24:24, Daniel 8:25).
God has but one word on all of
this; “Resist the devil...”
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