WILES OF THE DEVIL – PART ONE
Thursday – April 6, 2017
The picture is a portion of Coos Canyon located in Byron, Maine (route 17) and is part of our annual trek to view the beautiful fall landscape in the Rangeley, Maine area. There is much residual beauty all around us even in the fallen state of this creation. Just imagine the beauty that awaits us. And again we welcome all of our partners and friends to The Three Minute Word. If this is your first visit to The Three Minute Word you are most welcome as we are excited you have chosen to study the Word of God with us as well. This is an ongoing word by word, phrase by phrase, verse by verse study of the Book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:10-13 (KJV)
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Today I will be focusing on our standing against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11). To stand means that we maintain a battle posture and in addition it means we stay focused on the things of the Kingdom of God and not our circumstances or the things of this world. How we deal with, think about, and view our circumstances is part of the good fight of faith to advance the Kingdom. We must even in the midst of battle cast our cares onto Him even as we deal with them and never ever lose our focus on His things (the Kingdom of God).
Those of you who have been following this teaching day to day know that we have just come through a very lengthy section of Ephesians that deals with the wiles of the devil. None of us have an acceptable excuse for not knowing about, guarding against, and defeating the wiles, the snares of the devil.
The wiles, the ways, the methods of the devil are demonstrated throughout the entire Bible starting in Genesis. So as you can see our little survey of the wiles of the devil will be rather cursory. Satan wants to be my god and he wants to be your god. And we may all exclaim that we would never be a Satan or devil worshipper but the truth is that many if not all of us already are. When we turn our attention to the right or to the left to another god, at its base that other god is Satan. Here in the Book of Ephesians the Apostle Paul really bears down on this issue back in the fifth chapter.
Ephesians 5:2 (KJV)
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Remember our little discussion a few days ago about love, the study titled “Love of God”. At its essence love of God is obedience to the Word of God. So in the text above the Apostle is saying walk in obedience to the Word of God just as Christ walked in obedience to the Word of God. Just as Christ gave Himself for and to us so we are to give ourselves for His purposes and to Him. Next Paul starts listing sins that most of us would be quick to say do not apply to us but I suggest we not be so quick. We have a tendency to look at these things in the natural and not both the natural and spiritual realms. In fact all sin originates in the spirit realm and at its foundation is an expression of fear. The opposite of love is fear.
1 John 4:18 (KJV)
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Where there is fear there is disobedience to the Word of God, whereas perfect obedience to the Word of God casts out all fear. I heard a man say once that he knew (was afraid) that if he got saved he couldn’t chase women and drink beer anymore. I think most of us knew we did not want to go to Hell for sure. I knew I didn’t want to go to Hell but to be frank the way Heaven was taught was not real attractive either, it was the lesser of two undesirables. Each of us have our stories of what kept us out of the Kingdom of God, it was always a lie of the enemy, a fear that “serving God” was a downgrade, and that our fun and satisfaction with life would be over. Just think back to the first sin (not yours, Adam’s).
Genesis 3:1-6 (KJV)
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
The serpent introduced the fear that the Word of God was untrue and unfortunately they bought into the lie and were disobedient to the Word of God violating light, violating love.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
