We wrote last time about giving the enemy a headache. Well of course we don’t know if that can actually be done, but we do know that we can give him a profound headache metaphorically and spiritually speaking.
This is because the devil was totally defeated and disarmed at the cross, but since he is a liar and the father of lies and half truths AMP John 8 vs 44, his main weapon now is to convince us that God is not as good as He says He is and that we are not totally accepted by Him. He does this work by whispering lies and half truths into our ‘spirit ears’ just as he did literally to Eve in the garden. Genesis Chapter 3 vs 1-5.
When we have a heart to walk with God and please Him, we are often particularly vulnerable to condemnation. ‘You didn’t do that right’, ‘you could have done that better’, ‘you have failed again!!’ We can be going through the day, feeling OK about how we are doing and then Bam!! Something happens and we don’t handle it well. We can feel rubbish for the rest of the day. A far cry from the song we used to sing, a lifetime ago, which went, “ I’m walking in faith and victory for the Lord our God is with me”
Now we know that if we sin, or fall short in some way and we ‘confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ I John chapter 1 vs 9. It’s a done deal. The devil however has a great interest in reminding us instead, of how often we have done that thing, or how bad a witness we were, or that we really need to feel bad for the rest of the week to show how sorry we are.
So back to giving the devil that headache, and yet again the answer is in our decision to break out into thanksgiving. “Surely not” I hear you say, ”isn’t repentance meant to be a heavy duty thing?” Well actually no! In order to stop the devil from making us feel totally condemned, we need to understand that, when he points out our mistakes and failure, he uses half truths and takes us to Sinai and the law, The trouble is he’s probably right about our failure, but it’s only half the story.
When however the Holy Spirit convicts us of the same thing, His is a voice full of hope and He will always take us to Calvary and the price has already paid for our total forgiveness. We can silence the accuser of the brethren Revelation Chapter12 vs 10. And our own internal sense of failure, by turning our hearts, our minds and our voices to thank Jesus very loudly for the complete and total forgiveness that He won for us on the cross.
I have met many Christians over the years who actually believe God loves them, but is somehow disappointed with them or fed up with their slowness to change, and this feeds into the lies of the enemy. The truth is that God ‘knew’ we’d be hard work!!! But He loved us enough to take us on. Furthermore He has already provided for every single sin that He knew we would ever commit. If I was an American preacher, I’d now be saying “I think that deserves a Hallelujah”
Sing, shout or whisper your heartfelt thanks to Him. This will take your eyes off of yourself and will bring great glory to Jesus in the heavenly realm. Jesus suffered all that pain and agony so that we can be completely free and stand before Him, clothed in His righteousness, to the amazement of the angels. Thank Jesus for the cross and all he did for you there and the enemy will not stay around for long.
