By Wanda Grimsley
We’re preparing to ‘REset’ some things in our lives, thanks to powerful teaching from Pastor Craig and our new Teaching Pastor, Matt Roden.
As you press REset, do you have a network of people around you to help you stay aware? Remember that the enemy of your soul will be searching for ways to disrupt this call to REset any way he can. 1 Peter 5:8 says to
‘Be alert! Watch out for your enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.’Peter doesn’t say satan is a scurrying squirrel seeking its next meal, or a skinny, stray dog. He uses the image of the lion… king of all animals, powerful and ferocious in his ways. When he shows up on the scene, it’s not for kicks and giggles. It is to flat out slay and devour.
This lion, though, also plays a long game. Though you may escape his reach, he won’t turn his attention away for long. He returns to his craft of studying us individually, just out of sight, because my issues aren't your issues, and the stumbling block that tripped you up so badly before wouldn’t even make you blink now. So he customizes a strategy for each of us, based on what he observes both when we are weak and when we’re strong.
Of course…WE WIN! Jesus’ death on the cross sealed our victory for eternity. No one and no thing can undo it. The devil can never win and that is just a fact straight out of your Bible. Read it. He can, however, use any power WE GIVE HIM to harass, accuse, and cripple us, all to make God look bad.
So now, prowling and seeking, he senses something different…the Spirit of God is moving, calling you to REset. As you do, know that he will REvamp and Revise his schemes against you.
Not to be caught off guard this time, consider this: When and where are you most vulnerable? What is the enemy waiting for in your life, that he believes will afford him the opportunity to stop you? Is it when you’re tired and alone or when you’re hyperactively bouncing around in all your busy-ness and many good works? While waiting for God in those difficult roles in your life?
- Disciplinarian to a tempted child or motivator to the underachieving one?
- Suspicious detective in your marriage or caregiver to the parent that failed you?
- Bookkeeper of troubled finances or bankroll to a flashy image?
Is he aware that you’re dreading something else altogether? Something you haven’t forgiven or continue to manage on your own? Remember, nothing we do in the natural realm changes the spiritual things troubling our lives, and our enemy knows that.
What lie would he whisper to make you stop and wonder if God really heard you and did you ever really hear Him? Make you wonder if God is really good, is He really guiding you along your way and do you really know His will? Ask God where you are vulnerable and listen for His answer, because he never leaves us to meander through anything alone.
The call to REset is from God, so God will equip us to do it, with power to identify, cancel and defeat every assignment of every demon along the way and walk in a new level of freedom and victory. Did you identify something? Freedom Ministry and Small Groups are kicking off now. Take your next step and get connected!