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INSIDIOUS BATTLING
And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.
Mark 4:15
At some stage throughout your life you will have been robbed and deceived. The Enemy has done it! Jesus revealed this in a parable about the spread of the Kingdom. As the riches of God are invested into you through preaching, teaching and sharing of the Word of God, Satan comes to steal it through deception. Please don’t think that because you are a Christian you are immune to deception. If you do, then maybe I am too late.
Time and time again I have preached, taught, and shared the Word only to see some prefer the lie of Satan. During my ministry I have never stolen anyone’s belongings; nor kissed and hugged anyone else’s wife (or husband for that matter); twisted the Word for personal gain; or tried to get people to do what would benefit anyone other than God and ultimately themselves. Rather I have earnestly tried to love people and share the Word of God (the Seed of God’s riches) faithfully, diligently, passionately and reverently. Yet at times some people have become extremely hostile and bitter toward me. They have slandered, whispered, backstabbed and even conspired against me (just as Paul obviously experienced- Rom. 1:29, and not to mention Christ as well!). Others who have witnessed this have wondered why I haven’t retaliated. But as deeply painful as this has been, I have tried not to be distracted by these Enemy blows and remain faithful to the task of a New Testament Shepherd: to share the Word.
of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
Colossians 1:25Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2Tim. 2:15
So when the Word is shared an insidious thing can take place: the Enemy-of-our-Souls attempts with deception and distraction to steal or distort that Word. When privately reading God’s Word for your daily soul nourishment this Enemy will attempt to unleash all the subtle ferocity of Hell upon you with phone calls, interruptions, dinner ideas, and the like. If this doesn’t work he will then attempt to twist the goodness of God with such lies as, “He doesn’t care about you! He doesn’t even know you exist! In fact, He doesn’t even exist! This is all a waste! You’re not getting anything out of this Bible! You’ve never got anything out of this Bible! Give it up!” and so on.
As a young pastor I was especially bewildered that people could be so hostile towards me for simply sharing God’s Word faithfully with them. But there is an Enemy who steals the Word from hearts and plants his own lies instead.
In Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, there is a great picture of this where Master Wormtongue has cast a spell over King Théoden causing him to lose vitality and any sense of truth. This is indeed what the Enemy does. Jesus said that this would happen any time the Word of God was sown. Not until the Prophet Gandolf arrives and delivers Théoden is he set free to recognise these lies. Jesus also taught that the Word of Truth would set people free (John 8:36).
Therefore, when you sense offence toward the messengers of God’s Word and suspect the possibility of a heart-theft having occurred, stop. You can tell when this happens because the Enemy draws us away from the House of God while Christ draws us in. Ask yourself: am I applying the principles of Ephesians 4:30-32, Galatians 6:6, Hebrews 13:7, 17, or am I justifying their non-compliance?
Jesus taught the person whose heart was tender and open was the one from whom the Enemy was unable to penetrate with his lies. Tenderness of heart is a powerful piece of our armoury against the attacks of Satan.
We must be on guard against this Enemy-of-our-Souls stealing the Word from our hearts through offence, deception, and distraction. For our church to grow we need to be well armed and shielded. May our hearts be tender to the Word which is the Seed of God’s riches.
Dr. Andrew Corbett, December 31st, 2004
Contemporary Issues Facing Christians
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