Friday 11 November 2011

UNDERSTANDING THE STRATEGIES OF THE ENEMY – PART 5:

Under Cover of Darkness - Typical of Satan!
Another strategy of the devil is to sow tares among the wheat. Jesus describes this in the Parable of the Tares and Wheat in Matthew 13:24–30. The tares are a type of weed which grow in a cornfield. They look very much like wheat, and it is usually very difficult to tell the two apart until the time of the harvest. In Jesus’s parable, the wheat represents the Christians, and the tares represent the children of the devil. The Darby Bible Translation uses the word “darnel,” a kind of seed hardly identifiable from wheat seeds, which strongly resembles wheat in its immature stage. It says that when men slept (i.e. under cover of darkness) the Enemy “sowed darnel amongst the wheat.” As they grow together, the tares tend to choke the wheat.
In practical terms, I believe that the devil sows tares among the wheat in three primary ways.
First, by infiltration. Satan plants imitators in the church. These are essentially demonic agents who look like born-again Christians but whose mission is to either sap the anointing of God and make the ministers ineffective or in some cases even destroy the minister through sin. They fit in perfectly, looking the part and speaking the language. In some cases they may not even be aware that Satan is using them. This is one of the reasons why we need continuous self-examination to see if we are still in the faith. (See chapter 10 of the book, CRUSHING THE DEVIL, for a detailed look at self-examination!)
Second, through erroneous and false doctrines. Satan finds a minister with an audience and seeks to corrupt their reasoning on critical doctrinal issues, thereby leading many into error. A classic example is that of the Reverend Jim Jones, who founded The Peoples Temple, which was initially structured as an interracial mission for the sick, homeless, and jobless but eventually became a cult. The saga ended in tragedy with the death of 914 members in November 1978.
Third, Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. In the poem “Satan, You’re Under Arrest!” found in the book CRUSHING THE DEVIL, I make the point that the devil is conniving, sly, devious, and brimming with evil. He is able to disguise himself in an attempt to mislead the gullible. The Bible states in 2 Corinthians 11:14, “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the so-called apparitions of the “virgin Mary” commonly reported by the Catholic Church. In reality, these apparitions are nothing but the devil camouflaging and dressing up as a beautiful angel of light! Moreover, there is no basis in Scripture for either praying in the name of Mary or asking Mary (or indeed, any of the saints) to pray for you. The words of Jesus in John 14:6 are crystal clear: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. Furthermore, you have direct access to God through Jesus. First Timothy 2:5 states clearly that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man.
To deal with this strategy of the enemy, we need to be alert. As the Bible puts it beautifully, we need to "WATCH AND PRAY!"

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