The Bible says to use the shield of faith to extinguish ALL of the flaming arrows of the wicked one. (Ephesians 6:16). Every single arrow of his is to be shielded and extinguished, not one is to come through. One of his main arrows is accusation. He stands before our God night and day accusing the brethren. (Revelation 12:10-11).
Even after these arrows have been shielded, extinguished, and fallen to the ground, if you go pick them up to examine them, there is still potential to harm. There are thoughts and words associated with these arrows. When the serpent got Eve to examine and ponder his words, it caused doubts of God's words within her thoughts, and ultimately she acted on those doubts, which caused disaster. We are to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Words contain power, even after spoken. God's words contain the ultimate power. His written words can be picked up, examined (meditated on), believed and spoken, and the power in them remains. Yet even the accusatory, deceptive words of the enemy can bring harm if picked up and pondered, just as an extinguished arrow (or poisonous one) can still hurt you if you accidentally cut yourself with it. Pondering / examining the words of the enemy is a dangerous thing that could poison you with deception, opening the door for an influx of guilt and shame, causing you to attempt to self-justify rather than trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses you. (See 1 John 1:7-10).
Just as a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough, receiving any of the enemy's words will bring evil in some way. Poison that is sugar-coated will still kill you. We must have discernment from the Holy Spirit to recognize lies that are sprinkled with a little bit of truth. Only if we seek the Lord and press in to Him, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to our heart if necessary, will we get the pure truth. Consider this, do we repent based on the accusations of the enemy, or the truth of the Holy Spirit?
Again, our enemy is an accuser and accuses us before God night and day, yet he will make accusations directly to you too. Once you recognize an accusatory thought as coming from him, discard it. Don't act on anything he says, even if it's "partial" truth. (Although there is no such thing as partial truth—true Truth is 100% pure. This is why I often ask "If truth is not spoken in love is it still truth?" But that's another story.)
The purpose of the enemy's accusations is not to get you to repent and walk closer with the Lord, they are to bring condemnation any way possible. He wants you to turn away from the Light in shame, hiding yourself in a place away from the Lord, away from His cleansing and forgiveness. We don't need the enemy to tell us when we sin. If we want to be pure and holy people, we don't listen to the words of the enemy. We don't ponder his accusations. We don't receive the guilt that they bring. We don't attempt to justify ourselves through our own efforts, and then receive his condemnation when we fail at self-justification. No. Instead, we extinguish every one of his fiery, accusatory arrows as soon as they come. We draw close to the Lord and listen only to His voice. We walk in the light with Him, having fellowship with Him, and the blood of Jesus continually washes and cleanses us. We confess our sin to Him and He forgives. He is not holding our trespasses against us, but flowing with forgiveness as we remain in fellowship with Him. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, 1 John 1:7-10).
No comments:
Post a Comment