7 December 2008
In my opinion the average Christian gives the devil more credit than he is due. I also think they give him more power than he has. The only power the devil has is deception, if he possesses any other powers it is because the Christian gave them to him. I think the average Christian has made the devil into a small god and they fear him and his powers. If they would only listen to what they say they would realize how wrong they are.
We tend to blame him for everything instead of taking the blame for ourselves. Well, the devil tempted me. Or, Satan whispered in my ear. I don’t believe any of that non-sense. Satan is not omni-present. He cannot be in more than one place at one time. So what makes a person think they are so special that he’s going to take time out of his busy schedule to whisper in their ear? That is just ridicules to me. Satan is much more worried about ruling this world than he is whispering in some schmuck’s ear.
What people are dealing with is their own flesh. We have been given over to sin. We are born with a sin nature. It is in our nature to sin. So folks need to take this responsibility for themselves. The Bible says that God gives us over to our own flesh. It is our flesh that we battle, not Satan. The Bible tells us we battle our own flesh, it tells us to follow after the Spirit and not the flesh. We must put our flesh to death every day, we must deny our flesh. It is our flesh that we are dealing with, not the devil.
Can people be possessed or oppressed? Sure they can, but I think this is the exception to the rule. I think somebody like Ted Bundy must have been possessed because no normal human being would do the things he did. I think if a person were possessed they would be a lot worse than just battle little whispers in their ears. I mean, look at Hitler, now what that man did was definitely demonic. But again, he was an exception to the rule. It’s not every day we meet folks like these people.
Christians seem to think that the devil is hiding behind every door, around every bend. And he just is not. So I say stop giving him all this credit. He’s not some god he has no power over you. Your struggles, your battles with sin are nothing more than your will against the Spirit’s will. It is your flesh that is tempting you. Sin is pleasurable, no where in the Bible does it say otherwise. It starts out pleasurable, that’s what makes it tempting. But then you fall prey to it and it has you hooked. But once you’re hooked who are you battling the devil or your flesh? Why it’s your flesh of course. Your flesh has had a taste of something that it not ought to have had. But once it tasted it, your flesh enjoyed it and you aren’t satisfied you want more and more. You’re battling your flesh, your sin nature, not the devil. Take the blame for yourself and stop passing the blame.
Look at Adam and Eve in the Garden. Adam blamed God for his sin. He said well, it was the woman you gave me that made me sin. And then Eve blamed the devil saying he deceived her. Well, this may be true, he did deceive her but it was her flesh that gave in to the sin. She looked at the fruit on the tree and saw that it was pleasing to the eye. So, it goes all the way back to the beginning. It is human nature to blame somebody else when in reality it is our own sin nature we ought to be blaming. We must die to ourselves daily.
I think if people read Romans chapter 7 and paid attention to what Paul was saying they would see my point. Paul says he does the things he doesn’t want to do and doesn’t do the things he wants to do. But no where do we read that Paul is blaming the devil, no, he’s blaming his flesh, his sinful nature. It’s time we take responsibility for our own sins and stop making the devil something that he is not.
So, for now…
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