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Believers don’t like to consider the devil and what he is like.  After all, he invents ways to bring devastation. But while his appetite is to kill and destroy, his greatest damage is inflicted on another battlefield, that of the mind.  The effect is tragic!  He skews our spiritual eyesight so that we can not see the glory of Jesus.  He destroys any possibility for us to be captivated by Him.  He knows that if we’re drawn to the Savior, love and devotion will be the results.  For this reason alone, we should know who he is and how he works against us.  To our peril, we ignore the topic.  

Why?  Let’s consider a couple of reasons. 

1. We’re afraid we will be imbalanced.

There’s an argument that goes like this. ‘To give the devil any thought at all is to be imbalanced, giving him glory that only belongs to God.’ When those in military warfare give thought to the enemy they are fighting, does it exalt them?  No.  It is part of the strategy to …..achieve victory.  The Apostle Paul said, “We will not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”  2 Corinthians 2:11  If he wasn’t, we can’t afford to be.  

2.    We live insulated from overt manifestations of evil.

Middle-class Americans who have lived relatively peaceful lives find it hard to believe that taking the kingdom of darkness seriously is really important.  Perhaps you’ve heard a comment like, “I’ve never encountered a demon or felt attacked by one. So why learn deliverance?  That just seems too radical.”  Sound familiar?

We can’t afford to be ignorant about spiritual warfare. It touches every area of our lives—our families, relationships, church, neighborhoods, communities, and places of employment. There is no part of our existence Satan does not assert his influence.

3. We’ve adopted a Western worldview.

We believe that every effect has a physical cause; if you can’t see, touch, taste, smell, or hear it, it probably doesn’t exist.  We attest that every phenomenon can be accounted for scientifically.  If there is a spiritual realm, it has no impact on the physical whatsoever.

Here’s the biblical worldview.  Angels do God’s bidding; demons do Satan’s bidding.  They oppose God’s kingdom.  Miracles, physical healing, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and exercising spiritual authority are essential to impact the physical and spiritual kingdoms. 

Scripture explains much about the enemy and his kingdom of darkness.  We are inclined to study every topic but that one, but it is to our peril.  Becoming a casualty is the result, and it need not be.   Education is one means of protection. 

Satan was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  John 8:44

Satan is a storyteller and a liar.  His default language is lies which means he speaks it instinctively. Satan lives and breathes falsehood.  In our justice system, someone is considered innocent until proven guilty.  But with the devil, the paradigm is flipped.  

If he whispers his version of my story in my ears, and I believe it, I will be tormented.  He will say anything to put me in dead-end thinking.  He’ll attempt to corrupt my trust in God. “See, your faith is in vain. God can’t be trusted. You’re foolish to believe His promises.  They’re not for you.”  If the relationship is fractured, I am vulnerable to his next set of lies.   

How can I know if I’ve succumbed to the enemy’s re-write of my own story?  I look for the feelings that point to lies: despair, hopelessness, depression, unresolved anger, and futility, these are just a few.  I need to be on guard and remember that life presents one sifting exercise after another.  Thoughts come in ~ I examine them ~ and I decide to keep them or throw them away.

I used to believe that an event or a person could ruin my life. It wasn’t true. They can cause pain, but it will be my interpretation of the event and my interpretation of their words that potentially puts me in long-term bondage. Jesus was never trapped by futility and despair.  Though He suffered more than any human being, He never believed lies about his pain. He knew that everything He suffered was redemptive and led to glory.  

I need to figure out where I’ve been lied to and renounce it.  I will have a list of things to discard.  In prayer, I will be making a confession to Jesus, “I used to believe ‘this,’ but I repent and renounce it.  Now, I believe ‘this.” It’s an exchange of the enemy’s lie for God’s truth.  The devil’s stronghold is broken, the torment from the lie is removed, and peace moves in.  

 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ Hebrews 3:10

Sheep follow any leader.  They are easily distracted.  Going astray doesn’t always begin with malicious intent.  The shepherd and the rest of the flock might move on while one lone sheep remains behind to enjoy a good meal.  Whatever the reason, the outcome is always to his peril.  Separation from the shepherd makes him vulnerable to danger.  It’s often predators, or starvation, or the accumulation of eighty pounds of wool that make him immobile.

What started out as a beautiful rescue in Egypt, morphed into moments of both ecstasy and tragedy.  As the children of Israel despaired, then trusted God, they saw Him move in such stunning ways that it made their enemies tremble.  After a Red Sea parted to allow them safe passage, and then proceeded to swallow an Egyptian army into its depths, one would think that a people would hang tight to their Great Shepherd.  He led them clearly; a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Never was a shepherd clearer to light the path in front of them.

Despite God’s kindness towards His sheep in an unkind wilderness, they strayed.  If I weren’t guilty of the same thing, I’d shake my head in disbelief at their behavior but after a lifetime of mountaintops, how many times have I despaired and then left the path to find more promising pastures?  I’ve been distracted.  I’ve followed other leaders.  I’ve been encumbered by the likes of eighty pounds of wool as the weight of my sin made it hard to move forward.  I languished under the wrath of God.  I knew the crushing weight of sin that made me long to see the face of a Savior.

God said that He was angry with His people for going astray. His fury was kindled by their infidelity.  It didn’t take long for them to complain, to feel entitled, and to build a golden calf.  It didn’t take long in their history to ask for God’s resignation as King so that they could crown their own.  God was longsuffering.  The Great Shepherd sent prophets to woo them back.  Because they were blind, He gave specific directions for their return.  Sometimes they listened, many more times they didn’t.

For the children of Israel, their sin was covered over by the next sacrifice.  For us, the wrath of God was poured out on His Son instead of on us.  Our sins were forgiven and eighty pounds of wool were lifted from our shoulders.  His Word, both the cloud and the pillar of fire, make the pathway on front of us plain to follow.  Jesus promises to lead with a clear voice, to know each of His sheep by name, to nurture intimate relationships so that other voices and other faces will be known as counterfeit.  ‘Astray’ begs to be my history, not my future.

As a child of Yours whose heart is full, I love Your voice.  You lead me to green pastures and banquet tables in Your presence.  I do not want and I need You today as much as yesterday to make my path.  Amen

In John Chapter 4, Jesus talked with the woman at the well in Samaria.  He took intentional steps to prepare her heart to recognize and receive Him.  He began by having them talk about mundane things: water, thirst, and drinking.  He then made a segue way to their spiritual counterparts; spiritual water, a spiritual drink, and spiritual thirst.  Jesus crafted this whole conversation to precede the revelation of Himself as Messiah. Before that could happen, she had to get in touch with her own spiritual thirst.  She needed to wake up her hope.

She came alive as Jesus talked and rose to engage Him in animated conversation.  She finally voiced a desire for what He was offering.  “Give me this drink,” she said.  But Jesus didn’t answer, saying, “I am the drink; this is how you consume me.”  Instead, he brought up the subject of her husband, unearthing the most painful topic.  She had been married five times and lived with a sixth man.  It might have appeared as if Jesus changed the subject, but it was only so He could put His finger on the most painful place in her life.  By doing so, His message was clear ~If you want the most profound encounter possible with Me, you must drink of Me where you need Me the most.  Because she didn’t shy away, she received new life. 

What is the worst part of your story? Have you dared unearth the need associated with the memory?  Where does it feel risky to trust God?  What would Jesus say if He sat on the edge of the well with you?  “I saw you at twenty-four when you wanted to give up.”  Or, “When you were little, scared and hiding, thinking no one cared, did you know that I was there?”  In these crises of faith, in the darkest places of unbelief, Jesus calls us to a new awareness that there is such a thing as Living Water.  If we drink of Him, we will never need to look again at fickle sources to give us what we think we need to feel whole.  We will find Him to be enough.  

The Gospel is life-changing only when it intersects with great spiritual need.

If you’re going to take the plunge and prayerfullyidentify the lies and the truths that have made up your perceptions, you must develop spiritual skills that enable you to hear God’s version of your story.   There is no abundant life without knowing how to hear the voice of the only Storyteller who matters.  

He wants to reveal your personalized redemptive version and believe me; you will want to hear it over and over again as you grow older and prepare to meet Him face to face.  Too many voices in this world attempt to nullify it.  

If God’s version of your story is the only one that matters, how do you hear it?   How do you go to the feet of your Father, sit as a child and listen?  I never knew the answer to this question until I was well into my late forties.  So  I’m going to tell you.  You must learn to live in the presence of God.  This is the secret to intimacy.  The secret to abundant life.  The secret to healing and wholeness.

You and I do that through meditation and prayer.  We are near Him as we process our story so that His ‘take’ on our lives is perceptible.  We sense His reactions to our thoughts, feelings, and events so that we have an accurate barometer for our own.  

The concepts of meditation and prayer are so much a part of our everyday Christian language that they risk becoming cliches. It’s hard to feel the impact of their great significance.  We say, ‘Read the bible and pray’ like we might say, ‘Don’t forget to say please and thank you.’  Taking them seriously is hard unless we spend our lives practicing them. 

In the next chapter, I will show you some ways to engage in biblical meditation, because as you live in the presence of God, you will sense His reaction to things as they happen. You feel His joy over praiseworthy things, and His heavy heart over what is dangerous to your peace.  You will discern His displeasure over some activities and pleasure over others. You’ll get to the point when you will often predict His responses ahead of time.

God’s voice will be a rudder, revealing His version of events and correcting other narratives you’ve always believed were true.  Scripture and prayer will re-wire the ways you think.  They will also align your feelings and slowly change you into someone who thinks, feels, and then acts like Jesus.

This is the lifestyle of one who looks to God as their storyteller.  The Holy Spirit of the Rabbi, Jesus has much to reveal.  His version of your story never ends in tragedy.  Senseless pain is never the last chapter of your life if you trust Him for redemption.  While pain is a thread in the plot line, it does not have the last word.  Glory and redemption are what dazzles.  If you can’t see any trace of a redemptive plot, know that you are not yet seeing your life through God’s eyes.  

Consider the iceberg that fatally wounded the Titanic in the Spring of 1912. By the time Murdoch spotted it, there wasn’t enough time to turn sharply enough to avoid it. When they hit, a jagged piece of iceberg under the water ripped part of the hull. 

The part of the iceberg protruding above the waterline was not the most dangerous part. It was what lay beneath. The part visible was small and unimposing compared to what was hidden. Many seafaring novices have been fooled to their peril. 

Let’s think this through further. The part above the waterline is connected to the lower part that catches the currents of the sea. What is visible above water has no power on its own. Is this not a metaphor for the inward life? Beneath the surface of our exterior lies a massive world of beliefs, lies, righteous thinking and erroneous assumptions ~ which are responses to our life’s story. These create a mindset, the very current that takes us on the ride of our lives. What others see and experience on the outside is a shallow and often artificial representation of what is really going on inside. 

It is this hidden world that God wants us to spend time on, to bring it into the Light of His presence. He will affirm what is true, expose what is not, and encourage us to act in faith accordingly. Many Christians believe that the past is irrelevant to the present because they are made new in Christ. While we are new creations, adopted children of our Heavenly Father, and destined for glory, past events still affect us. They have defined us, and the process of sanctification requires us to take each part captive, examine it, and deal with it under the direction of our wonderful Counselor and Healer. 

I am praying for you. Oh, but Jesus is also praying for you. Remember, He will guide you through unchartered territory. 

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Luke 2:14

Greeting card companies have used this quote to promote wishes for peace for all who buy and send their cards. It’s lovely to wish someone we care about a peaceful life, but is this what the angels meant when they announced it? I must look at their entire declaration to understand the meaning ~ ‘peace among men with whom He is pleased.’ 

This phrase is connected to another time in the life of Jesus when He was being baptized. His Father said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”  So to whom does peace come? To those with whom the Father is pleased. The conditions for pleasing the Father are to love and accept His Son and to embrace Him as Savior and Lord. For every one who does this, there is peace with God.

This sentiment from the angels cannot be misconstrued to mean that in the coming year, the world will be a more peaceful place. It probably won’t. Times here will only prove more perilous as end times play out. God’s plan moves along according to God’s timetable, leading us to the day when Jesus will reign on earth, and we will enjoy peace – internally and externally – for the first time.

For every one of us who has made peace with God through Christ, peace is ours now. We needed Jesus to bear the Father’s wrath in our place. And because He did that, we can rest in the peace of forgiven sins. We must rest in the peace that exists between us and the Father.

Peace with you is my greatest treasure! Thank you. Amen

When [they shepherds] had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. Luke 2:17
 
What a person experiences after a spiritual mountaintop is often withheld from a storyline. After the shepherds saw the heavens open, and after they found Jesus, and after they witnessed what they saw, what happened next? Did they continue to believe? Did they keep track of Jesus until his parents took him to Egypt? We’re not told. 
 
But we know the nature of faith and the nature of mountaintops and valleys. We know that not all the shepherds would have gone on to worship God with their lives. Holy moments dim with time. Daily living consumes.  Holy moments are rare.  Holy men who experience them and then go on to finish well are even rarer.
 
My own storyline has been dotted with more God moments than I deserved, and yet, they didn’t always carry me through the dark times.  There were moments I still doubted and battled hopelessness. It wasn’t that I didn’t remember the mountaintops. I did. But I couldn’t connect with them like I did just after they happened. 
 
We’ll never know how many shepherds were on the hillside. We’ll never know if all of them left to go to Bethlehem. We’ll never know if they were all equally impacted by the baby in the manger. And we’ll never know how many went on to live changed lives from that time forward. But some did. God picks who will be privileged to witness the supernatural. For some of them, it will be the defining moment that forever changes the direction of their lives.
 
Take me back to the moments I need to review to be strengthened and re-purposed. Amen

Nearly every time the Apostle Paul gave a defense for the Gospel, he didn’t start with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  Since most of his accusers were Jewish leaders, he was intent on showing them that Jesus was connected to their scriptures.  The Torah, which they embraced and knew front to back, had predicted his coming.  Why was this important to the Jews?  Because it’s hard to leave everything familiar and embark on something new. 

And it wasn’t necessary where the Jews were concerned, though it might have felt like that.  As they held the Torah and the writings of the prophets in their hands, they needed to know that it was the revelation of Jesus Christ.  To believe in Him was to complete their faith, to be like Abraham, looking ahead for the Lamb of God and finding Him in Jesus. The revelation of Jesus in Bethlehem was connected to the plot line in Eden when Adam and Eve sinned.  Everything in between followed God’s storyline.  May I not be like the Jews who failed to recognize Jesus when He stood in front of them. 

I give up all my doubts for faith, my logic for Your wisdom. Don’t let me miss You.  Amen

When an ancient king from the east made a trek through a desert landscape, the way was prepared beforehand by his people.  The road was inspected, repaired if needed, and all that would harm or obstruct his journey was removed.

Jesus came to prepare the way for His flock to walk the path to His kingdom.  The little Shepherd who napped in the manger would be the One who would make crooked paths straight.  He would be the caretaker of the inside world of those He loves.  He would expose sin, the sin that destroys us.  He would inspire repentance, the deep apology and heart change that restores life.  He would point to each crooked place in the human heart in order to make the paths straight without painful detours.  He would cheer on those who limped. He would pick up the lame until they could walk again.  He would help the feeble, working within each nuance of their emotional and spiritual limitations.  This little Shepherd would shepherd perfectly.  No one would be overlooked and not one under His care would have a reason to live in shame and dwell in hiding.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.  Isaiah 40:11