The enemy gets in

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CoffeeDrinker

CoffeeDrinker

Fish Catcher Jim said:
Greetings Friends,
I would like to start this thread a little different.

I am asking you to reply in how you Think the enemy the devil can get into ones life.

What gives him the ability or Right to do so.

Can he devour a Believer?

Then we All can dig in and See What scripture says about this.

Thank You
Blessings
FCJ
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He is so sneaky.. He can get into our lives through the books we read. romance novels are really not any type of book for a christian woman to read. it can cause issues in a marriage even when you think its just harmless reading. even single women should not read these books.

the enemy is very sly and sneaky in this area with women in how we think. the books Fifty Shades of Gray made that author millions and millions and now the movies. There is money in this and the enemy will use it to his advantage to tear down lives and marriages.
 
Smiler

Smiler

This sounds to be a thread which is just the thing I am looking for, and I should really wait to see how it will be treated in a different way, Jim.

I am unsure just how far the enemy has been given permission to get into one's life. That is something we must know if we are to engage in spiritual warfare with any success, and I am sometimes confused as to whether my orders are coming from our Leader or whether I am being got at from the enemy with his cleverly deceitful ways.

I'm more and more wanting to be sure just how we are to interpret the declaration by Jesus that He had overcome the devil "even unto death". It is possible that as a man he had discovered how the devil was working and why He (Jesus) had been given the power to perform miracles and look forward to the resurrection for His own sake. Of course He did His perfect best to tell us all how we could follow His example, and we do try.

But my wonder is whether the devil had, in whatever way, caused the illness or physical lack in those that Jesus cured, and if so, how ? Could it have been by auto-suggestion or a more basic pre-natal interference ? Jesus would have been given the insight leading to the way to counteract and cure the suffering believer.

I shall be interested to learn from friends here, praying for guidance.
 
Siloam

Siloam

Supporter
The enemy (I hesitate naming him without being superstitious about it) will use absolutely ANYTHING to distance the believer from his Lord.

He is not concerned with truth. He is not concerned with being consistent.

If you sin, he may make you think you are unworthy of Christs love. Or, he may make you think that the sin does not matter. Either works to his evil intent, which is to keep you from performing your service to the Lord.

He may take something you love and use it as a wedge, pushing you to look more toward that loved thing than the Lord.

He may just work on your heart to make you more concerned about your daily affairs than to the Lord.

He will attempt to make reading scripture a distasteful duty, when it should be a delight.

He may make reading the scripture an intellectual exercise where you are proud of your intricate understanding, but keep you from making the scripture live in your life.

His success will depend upon your trust in Christ.

If one has truly accepted the Lord, then the Spirit will be dwelling within, and the best (or worse) the enemy can attain is to drown out the voice of the Spirit and keep the child of God from growing.

He is fought by remaining resolute, even in the face of trials. Read and pray, especially if it seems dry.
 
CoffeeDrinker

CoffeeDrinker

The HS has been telling me lately and leading me in cleaning my spiritual home and surrounding myself with more of Him.

Everything around us affects us, which affects our relationship with God.

The enemy is sneaky and tries to lure us in any way he can. I want that hedge of protection built up high. Of course I know I have God's full protection. I am referring to the things around me.
 
CoffeeDrinker

CoffeeDrinker

This thread is in line with everything I seem to be around and hearing lately. My pastor just emailed this out to us. I only copied a small piece of his email which is below.....

Be ever mindful:

The battle is real. We ignore the battle and the enemy at our peril.

Haddon Robinson describes the attack:

When Satan comes to you, he does not come in the form of a coiled snake. He does not approach with the roar of a lion. He does not come with the wail of a siren. He does not come waving a red flag. Satan simply slides into your life. When he appears, he seems almost like a comfortable companion. There’s nothing about him that you would dread. The New Testament warns that he dresses as an angel of light … One point seems quite clear: when the enemy attacks you, he wears a disguise. As Mephistopheles says in Faust, "The people do not know the devil is there even when he has them by the throat." … He does not whisper to Eve, "I am here to tempt you." … He doesn’t come and knock on the door of your soul and say, "Pardon me, buddy, allow me a half hour of your life. I’d like to damn and destroy you.”

Satan slides in. He slithers. He comes to deceive, accuse, tempt, condemn.
Don’t listen! Recognize his schemes! Resist his attack! Fight the battle in Christ’s strength!
 
Siloam

Siloam

Supporter
Fish Catcher Jim said:
Keep your thoughts coming.
Perhaps Monday Night we can begin to look in the Scriptures.

Thank you Everyone
Blessings
FCJ
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Given the subject of this thread, and particlarly the use of the word "consumed" in the initial post, I couldn't help thinking of C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" and his companion short "Screwtape Proposes a Toast".
The premise of these are that a supervisor level demon is writing a series of directive letters to a subordinate temptor. The point from their view is that lost souls are feasted on by demons. So the 'purpose' of temptor is to provide sustenance for their feasts by guiding them away from God.
Reading these missives provides insight into how we are drawn away from fellowship with God. Demons who fail at this task are themselves consumed. Survival of the strong at the expense of the weak is their way.
I admit I had much of this in mind as I wrote my prior post above.
BUT,
Although this kind of fanciful fiction can be useful in highliting some dangers in an enjoyable and sometimes comical manner, I always took most of the demonology as an improvisation rather than an attempt to depict them as they are.

Looking forward to your leading us in a look at the scriptures to get a more reliable look, while we must remain with our Lord as our central them.
 
F

Fish Catcher Jim

Siloam said:
Given the subject of this thread, and particlarly the use of the word "consumed" in the initial post, I couldn't help thinking of C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" and his companion short "Screwtape Proposes a Toast".
The premise of these are that a supervisor level demon is writing a series of directive letters to a subordinate temptor. The point from their view is that lost souls are feasted on by demons. So the 'purpose' of temptor is to provide sustenance for their feasts by guiding them away from God.
Reading these missives provides insight into how we are drawn away from fellowship with God. Demons who fail at this task are themselves consumed. Survival of the strong at the expense of the weak is their way.
I admit I had much of this in mind as I wrote my prior post above.
BUT,
Although this kind of fanciful fiction can be useful in highliting some dangers in an enjoyable and sometimes comical manner, I always took most of the demonology as an improvisation rather than an attempt to depict them as they are.

Looking forward to your leading us in a look at the scriptures to get a more reliable look, while we must remain with our Lord as our central them.
Click to expand...

I will add even though their is chaos within satan's kingdom, there is a pecking order from little imps on up.
Each has their own task to do and have no real authority within their kingdom.

Blessings
 
CoffeeDrinker

CoffeeDrinker

Siloam said:
Given the subject of this thread, and particlarly the use of the word "consumed" in the initial post, I couldn't help thinking of C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" and his companion short "Screwtape Proposes a Toast".
The premise of these are that a supervisor level demon is writing a series of directive letters to a subordinate temptor. The point from their view is that lost souls are feasted on by demons. So the 'purpose' of temptor is to provide sustenance for their feasts by guiding them away from God.
Reading these missives provides insight into how we are drawn away from fellowship with God. Demons who fail at this task are themselves consumed. Survival of the strong at the expense of the weak is their way.
I admit I had much of this in mind as I wrote my prior post above.
BUT,
Although this kind of fanciful fiction can be useful in highliting some dangers in an enjoyable and sometimes comical manner, I always took most of the demonology as an improvisation rather than an attempt to depict them as they are.

Looking forward to your leading us in a look at the scriptures to get a more reliable look, while we must remain with our Lord as our central them.
Click to expand...

I love that book, The Screwtape Letters. It really makes you think.
 
CoffeeDrinker

CoffeeDrinker

Fish Catcher Jim said:
I will add even though their is chaos within satan's kingdom, there is a pecking order from little imps on up.
Each has their own task to do and have no real authority within their kingdom.

Blessings
Click to expand...

I enjoy watching this Born Again Christian Rabbi on TV, I record all his programs. One program he was discussing about discernment and discerning the thoughts we hear in our head at times. He was saying how demons walk around us and whisper in our ears, etc. It was quite interesting and now when I pay attention, I can completely understand that and see how it happens.

God has been teaching more and more about getting deeper into discernment. I do have the gift of discernment and I do utilize it, but sometimes I get weary and second guess myself. I need to stop doing that and walk in what I know to be true. I can completely see how these things say things to do us and mess us up, get in our thoughts, get us to do simple little things that turn into big things, etc....
 
CoffeeDrinker

CoffeeDrinker

This comment is a bit of a different thought.

A coworker gave me an Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas. I was scared to set it up because basically Amazon does store all your information on a Cloud for all your future uses, and I am sure, for their uses in marketing to you, etc.

Is this appropriate, or is this too intrusive into our personal lives? Are we too far along in technology, or is this a great new product? I am very torn in how I feel about it. I set it up today after church. It plays all the christian music I love.
So far it's great. Is this a new way for the enemy to get into our homes.. behind the doors.... into our very Essene with our families, etc.? Are we too comfortable with giving our information and who we are away?

Is this another avenue for the enemy to use against us, get deeper control of us? I have to admit I can do a lot with this little thing. I can listen to anything I ask Alexa to tell me. It's kind of weird, but then it's not that weird at all considering technology today.
 
Phoenix111

Phoenix111

I think the enemy uses our past mistakes to slowly discourage us. This pushes us away from Christ slowly. He does it subtly at first and uses the most "insignificant" things such as movies, books, even something as simple as watching the news. You have to constantly guard your mind. The moment we lapse in an area of our spiritual life he takes full advantage.
 
C

Cturtle

Phoenix111 said:
I think the enemy uses our past mistakes to slowly discourage us. This pushes us away from Christ slowly. He does it subtly at first and uses the most "insignificant" things such as movies, books, even something as simple as watching the news. You have to constantly guard your mind. The moment we lapse in an area of our spiritual life he takes full advantage.
Click to expand...

One gentleman said that every mind needs a bouncer at the door... lol :whistle:
How very true
 
C

Cturtle

CoffeeDrinker said:
This comment is a bit of a different thought.

A coworker gave me an Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas. I was scared to set it up because basically Amazon does store all your information on a Cloud for all your future uses, and I am sure, for their uses in marketing to you, etc.

Is this appropriate, or is this too intrusive into our personal lives? Are we too far along in technology, or is this a great new product? I am very torn in how I feel about it. I set it up today after church. It plays all the christian music I love.
So far it's great. Is this a new way for the enemy to get into our homes.. behind the doors.... into our very Essene with our families, etc.? Are we too comfortable with giving our information and who we are away?

Is this another avenue for the enemy to use against us, get deeper control of us? I have to admit I can do a lot with this little thing. I can listen to anything I ask Alexa to tell me. It's kind of weird, but then it's not that weird at all considering technology today.
Click to expand...

As long as it's used for God's glory and for edifying your (our) spirits... consider it created from God, and a blessing.
 
J

JohnC

I think it's very important to acknowledge that our adversary the slanderer does in fact come in and attack us....

How - many many ways.... Too many to number.....

But he does.

The bigger picture isn't about us though... It's about God and His plan... Our adversary is trying to thwart God.... To steal what is not his - The kingdom of God... And he does this by trying to set us against God and trying to set God against us...

Part of this ties in to "Why was Jesus taken up into heaven?" Why? I mean we need him here on earth... He is the Prince of God's armies - and the first war occurs in heaven... And once Satan is cast down to earth and goes to war against God on earth - Jesus comes back to earth to fight satan here....
 
Siloam

Siloam

Supporter
while we are in ganeral agreement regarding the deviousness of the enemy, we can't really say that we are not responsible.

The scriptures identify three wellsprings of temptation and rebellion:

(1) The Devil
(2) The old sin nature within us each individualy (the flesh)
(3) The world (what mankind has built and maintains corporatley)

Notice that two of the three are none but ourselves.

For sure, the enemy uses the flesh and the world but it is our own nature that provides him with those tools.

If the enemy were banished and bound our sin nature would still need the blood of Christ.
 
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