Tag Archive | weapon of negative thinking

Exposing the Hidden Enemy

Feb19

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 We have an enemy that must be identified! After horrible tragedies like the one we saw in Parkland, Fl., we grasp at an array of judgements in a frantic attempt to identify the enemy. Tragically, we chase one argument after another, never zeroing in on who the real enemy is. Therefore, the real enemy remains hidden.

   Obviously, Satan is our enemy, our adversary. He is the one who cunningly designs temptations that will steal, kill, and destroy (from John 10:10a).  Satan tempts that part of us that wants our own way and doesn’t like to be told what to do…that part that seeks to exalt ourselves…our fleshly nature. 

Consider the following:

What we think determines how we feel, and what we feel influences our actions. A negative action is often the result of negative thinking. Understandably, if Satan can negatively influence our thinking, then the temptation to act negatively will be hard for us to resist… p. 27, FD 3rd edition

   The weapon of negative thinking or fiery darts, is Satan’s most powerful weapon. But how is it that we as Christians, and even those who aren’t Christians, can be so easily manipulated and deceived? Sad to say, it’s very simple: 

When we don’t spend enough time in God’s Word, our ability to recognize the lies of fiery darts is equally diminished. In the place of God’s Truth, the world’s concept of truth generally begins to define our thinking. p. 43, FD 3rd edition

Of course, for those who have rejected God, it is obvious how they have been blinded to God’s Truth. The world’s concept of truth and their sinful nature defines truth for them and God’s Truth bears little, if any, weight. Satan’s job of manipulation, therefore, takes little effort. p. 43 FD, 3rd edition

   Fiery darts are designed to create a wedge of sin between us and God. Eventually, we will become blinded to the Truth, and we will be deceived into rejecting God’s plan for our lives.

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10b NKJV

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   Thought by thought our lives will take a downward turn. And individual by individual our country will spiral downward, as well. However, there is hope, if we genuinely desire healing for ourselves and for our country!

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Not all temptations are obvious!

May18

Most anyone of us reading this post could define temptations, but how keen are we at recognizing them? For while some temptations are obvious, others are not.

Perhaps we have taken more seriously the larger weapons of temptation:  “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:19, HCSB)   What’s going on in our heads, the thoughts we have though not necessarily evil, aren’t taken as seriously as these larger temptations. For example, the confusion that keeps us from taking a step of faith would not be thought of as a serious temptation when compared to something like the temptation of sexual immorality. p. 25-26, FD

   My prayer and purpose in writing Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice, was to alert anyone who would read it to the weapon of the enemy in undermining the plans God has for us through the subtly of negative thoughts (fiery darts). When we do not recognizing negative thinking as a weapon in its earliest form, we do so at our own peril. 

“Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks. Someone has said very aptly: ‘Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength.’ First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.”  p. 46, FD

   As we pull further and further away from God’s Word and communication with Him in prayer, then our capacity to recognize these early temptations for the weapons they are is weakened. 

   It is glaringly clear that our country’s corporate mind, having been tempted (and having succumbed) to forsake the principles on which she was founded, has lost her ability to recognize those temptations that contradict those principles. Therefore, she is being manipulated to think that government policies, economic policies, or changes in leadership is the key to the problems we face. This has been the pattern of our thinking for much of our past and look where it has gotten us; a country under the judgement of God!

   If our land is to be healed, we must first recognize the fiery darts that have deceived us, then  we must reject them, and, finally, replace the mindset of lies that seems to prevail in our leadership today with the following Truth thought (it’s our only hope):

 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)