Temptation is a spiritual weapon that few people understand. To many people,
temptation is just a simple thing. Many people are ignorant of what temptation is and what it seeks to achieve. Indeed, there are many Christians who think they understand temptation. They see it as something that happens to all people. Indeed, many of them know that temptation comes from the devil, but sadly a lot of them have succumbed to it nonetheless.
All the followers of Christ are called children of God because they have vowed to yield their lives to the direction and guidance of the Father. Anyone who wants to please God must know everything about temptation. Assuredly, we cannot please the Father if we are ignorant of the tricks of the devil. If we are ignorant of the tricks that the devil uses to lure us into a relationship with sin, we will undoubtedly fall into sin.
Temptation is a trick that the serpent uses to trap us into sinfulness. It is a camouflaged spiritual tool that he uses to camouflage his spiritual attacks against us. Anyone who has fallen into a relationship with sin has been hit with the weapon of mass destruction.
There is no weapon that has killed more people than sin. Indeed, temptation is the sugar that the devil uses to coat poison. When you look into temptation, you might see all the good things you stand to gain if you fall for it. You might bite that sugar coat, but the bitter taste of the poison is coming. As soon as you bite the sugary part of sin, you will soon taste that part that kills. Sin might not kill you immediately, but it will surely kill you one day.
Temptation is a spiritual act that the serpent undertakes to hook us up into a relationship with sin. It is an act that wants to dishonour us in the face of the Father. Every child of God is honoured by the Father, the Lord regards us highly. Temptation is a spiritual act that seeks to reverse the favour that we enjoy from the Father. It is a tool that seeks to make us dirty with sin so that the presence of the Lord could depart from us.
It would be quite easy for us to fall into temptation if we do not understand the word of God. The word of God reveals everything we need to know about the devil. It reveals all his clever tricks that he uses to lure us into a relationship with sin. Indeed, the word of God equips us with advanced knowledge of spiritual matters that we will not find outside of it.
For this reason, the serpent will do all in his power to block us from discovery his many tricks against us. He will make sure that we reject God or we do not read His word. In fact, the devil will stop at nothing to make sure that we are ignorant of his evil ways.
The knowledge of the word of God is our first line of defence against the devil. When we know the colours of the serpent, we would be able to spot temptation from a mile away. The devil may change his clothes, but he will never fool us because we would know all the tricks he uses against us.
Anyone who has not discovered the wisdom of the word of God will always come out second best against the devil. The devil is very serious about destroying the children of God, and anyone who is ignorant of the word of God will always struggle to overcome Satan.
Any child of God who abides in righteousness is insulated against the attacks from the kingdom of darkness. The devil is unable to touch anyone who lives in the righteousness of God. The serpent always wants to harm us so that he may hurt our Father who loves us so much. However, the serpent is unable to touch us when we abide in the holiness of God because the presence of the Lord is a ring of fire around us.
Temptation is a strategy that seeks to destroy the relationship we have with our Father. Our God is holy and He only abides in holiness. The only way to move the presence of God from us is to hook us into sin so that sin could make us spiritually dirty. When we are spiritually dirty, our Father would move away from us.
Assuredly, when the presence of the Father departs from us, we would be defenceless against attacks from the kingdom of darkness. Therefore, temptation is a tool that the devil uses to make us spiritually naked. When we fall into sin, we lose the clothes of protection that the Holy Spirit has covered us with. These clothes of protection are the presence of the Lord in our lives.
Anyone who is spiritually naked will not be able to stand against the weapons of the enemy. The presence of the Lord is our shield, it avails for us all the grace we need from the Father. Temptation is a spiritual act that encourages us to lose the protection and favour of God. And due to this, temptation is the weapon that seeks to kill us. If we lose the protection of God, we become the soft target of every weapon from the kingdom of darkness.
The devil is unable to attack any child of God unless that child falls into a relationship with sin. Indeed, we are our worst enemies, because our sinful actions make us lose the protection of the Lord. We may enjoy sin, but no one will enjoy the pain that comes from sin. When we are involved in an abusive relationship with sin, every area of our lives would suffer.
Sin could harm you more than you have imagined. It could take away your life, and leave your body cold as the ice of the Arctic. When the protection of God departs from us, any arrow of death could pierce our hearts. When we die as a result of our relationship with sin, we would have been culpable in our death. Come to think of it, when we succumb to the arrows of the enemy, we would have killed ourselves without realising it.
Temptation is a powerful ambush tool that the serpent uses to trap us into an abusive relationship with him. The serpent is very smart indeed, as he can attack you in your weakest moment. Temptation is a big net that the devil cast into your life. Satan is like a patient fisher, who cast a big net and wait for us to fall into it. The devil may play dead, but he is always lurking around waiting for us to fall into his net. He will not remove the net unless it has caught a prey. We are the prey of the devil as he is always hunting for us. He will most likely attack us when we least expect him to pounce on us.
Many of us would fall into temptation because our enemy is very shrewd. He uses temptation as a proven tool that could hook many of us into a dangerous relationship with sin. Where there is sin, death abides.
The devil will not only make you undermine God and the authority of His word, he will also make you break all the important relationships you have with others.
Life is about relationships than it is about any other thing. The most important relationship is the relationship between man and God. The second most important relationship is the relationship that one has with his own family. Another important relationship is the relationship that one has with those who are outside his family.
A good relationship is a pillar of support, peace, and strength, and a bad relationship takes away our peace. When we have good relationships with others, we could always count on them for support, but when we do not have good relationships with them, we would always be empty of peace, and this will torment us for as long as we do not fix things between us and those who are important in our lives.
The devil knows the importance of good relationships, hence all the important relationships you have with others will come under his attack. When he attacks the good relationships you have with others, he wants you to stand alone without support from those who care about you.
The serpent will always try to break the strong bond you have with Jesus so that the serpent could do as he wishes with your life. Jesus is our existence and life as there is no one who could live without His support. Your relationship with Jesus is the number one target of the devil, as this relationship will determine whether the serpent can touch you or not.
If the serpent could shift you away from the love of God, he will destroy you completely, as this relationship is the cornerstone of all other relationships you have with others. This relationship is the pillar of your life and existence, and without it, you would be dead sooner than you might think.
The devil will make you undermine your relationship with Jesus by making you ignorant of God and His expectations for you. His intention is to empty your heart of the love you have for God. He will dupe you so that you could reject the authority that God has over your life, and to be the master of your own life.
If you are ignorant of the word of God and live your life to please the selfish desires of your body, know that the devil has managed to chase God away from your heart. You might still claim to love Jesus, but this would be a lie. There is only one way to show your love for Jesus. If you incline your ears to the word of God, you do love Him indeed, but when you reject His word, you are rejecting Him.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commands” (John 14:15).
Assuredly, when the devil destroys the good relationships you have with others, he is trying to isolate you from the support structure that you have. When he has isolated you, he will fill your mind with poison and there would be no one who could help you to wake up from your sleep.
Indeed, when there is no good person who could help you to avoid the temptations of the devil, the serpent will destroy you with ease. A good relationship offers you support, and you are also the source of good support to those who are around you. We are one another’s strength, hence we should fellowship together so that the Lord could use any of us to pull up a brother or sister from the brink of temptation.
These are the tools that Satan uses to lure us into a life of sin, and many people have succumbed to them. If you understand these spiritual tentacles that the serpent uses to make us spiritually dirty, you would be careful with your life. Indeed, knowledge is power and ignorance leads to death.
There are many gateways sins that the serpent could use to get a foothold in your life, so that he may sink his crushing teeth into your life. Many people have been destroyed by these sins or vices that bring us into the reach of his hand of destruction.
When the serpent temps you to fall into these kinds of sins or vices, he is not gunning for your life, but he will use these sins to claw his way into your life so that he could one day destroy you completely. Indeed, these sins are the marinade that the devil would use to soften you to more dangerous attacks from his kingdom.
These five sins or vices are two-edged. They are sins and they are also tools of temptation that would make you sink deeper into a life of sin. The devil uses other sins to hit you very hard, but these five vices are both and an end and a mean to a much more destructive end that the serpent is planning against you and your destiny.
Lust. Lust is not only sexual. It is a lust of worldliness. Sex is just one element of the lust of the world that people have. When the serpent throws a net of lust around you, he just wants to get hold of your life so that he could use you to destroy other people. Not only would he use lust to make you a net of temptation for others, you would also be destroyed in the process of destroying others.
When the devil has used you to tempt other people to fall into a relationship with sin, he will use that lust for worldliness to kill you. When you are no longer useful to the serpent, he will dispose you like a used disposable nappy.
Pride. Pride is also used by the serpent to marinade you for further attacks. The devil is the master of pride, as there is no one who has pride like him. Pride is the most dangerous vice that has killed many spiritually gifted men and women of God.
It is fairly easy to destroy people with pride. Where there is pride lies failure. And when some people fail, they will run to the devil to seek for his assistance. Pride cements the bond of love between you and the devil.
The Lord rejects those who have pride because pride by its own nature make you covet the position that only God could occupy. Any person who has pride will contend with God because the Lord hates pride with all His heart. Anyone who has pride will be humbled by the Lord so that the Father could teach him a very important lesson, God is the only one who is worthy of our praises.
Pride is a vice that the serpent uses to attack you personally. This vice is more directed against you, as it is intended to remove the favour of God upon your life. A proud person is unable to stay in the heart of God because anyone who has a spirit of pride covets to be God. Indeed, pride makes people regard themselves above every other person, and some even see themselves above God.
The devil knows all the conventions of heaven and he knows that humbleness is one of the greatest virtues that will help us to overcome all attacks from his kingdom. Anyone who has a meek spirit would be lifted by God above his peers. Meekness attracts the favour of God because it is a virtue that glorifies the name of the Lord above any other name.
A meek person has emptied himself of any notion of self-worth, and by so doing, He acknowledges that it is only God who is worthy of all our praises. The Lord would fill a meek person with His grace so that all the power of God could work in his favour.
The serpent can smell blood all the time. He is able to tap into our thought process, and he can see the conditions of our hearts. Satan tempted Eve by using pride as a weapon because he knew that Eve had pride. In her heart, Eve wanted the position that God occupies.
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).
Eve ate the forbidden fruit solely because she wanted to be like God, and the devil was offering her a way of achieving that objective. If Eve did not have pride, the devil would have changed his temptation methods so that he could appeal to her other needs or weaknesses. Eve coveted the position of God, hence she did not think twice about eating the forbidden fruit.
The serpent is very intelligent, and he will tailor-made all his temptation strategies so that they could appeal to our weaknesses. Indeed, the serpent will not waste his time by tempting you with your strength points. He would always use our weaknesses to attack us.
It is only the word of God that could cover our weakness. When we are conformed into the word of God, we would have the nature of Jesus, a nature that could overcome all forms of temptations. The devil might know our former weakness, and he might try to attack us in those areas of our lives where we were weak. But if the word of God has given us the nature of Jesus, the serpent would fail to tempt us. When he tempts us, he would use the information he previously had about us, but he would have been overtaken by the word of God, which would have clothed us with the spiritual nature of God.
Any appearance of sin. If you are not careful, the devil would embarrass you badly for something you did not do. He might accuse you of committing sins you did not commit. Your association with sin would give him the opportunity to either embarrass you with something you did not do, or he will try to make sure that you fall into a sin you have an association with.
There are people who are wedded to sin, and there are also those who have an association with sin without committing any sinful act. Those who have an association with a certain sin without being in love with it would fall in love with that sin if they are not careful. Anyone who is close to any sin is playing around the fire, and if they are not careful, they would one day fall into that fire.
If you are a friend of a thief, you would be associated with your criminal friend, and by extension, you would be associated with the same sin your friend is wedded to.
You may be innocent, but your association with someone who is associated with a certain sin makes you look like someone who is also wedded to the same sin.
The same is true of many sins you may be associated with. People would link you with the sins you are close to. It would not matter in their mind whether you are innocent or not, when they see how close you are to a particular sin, they will accuse you of being in love with it. If you are seen in the company of a prostitute, people would link you with that sin. They would accuse you of sleeping with that prostitute regardless of the truth because their perception would be their truth.
Indeed, the devil is very clever, he might embarrass you for something you did not do. When the devil accuses you of any sin you are close to, all his accusations would make sense hence you need to avoid any appearance of sin in your life. You need to run away from anything that may associate you with sin.
“Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22, KJV).
If you are holding a glass of beer, when someone looks at you, he would think you were drinking beer. It would not matter to that person whether you were holding that glass for your friend. The devil has destroyed many people with false accusations that proved difficult to dispute. You might be innocent, but when you are too close to a particular sin, the devil will associate it with you. It is not only the devil who would do it, anyone who sees how close you are to a particular sin would also accuse you of sleeping with that sin.
When people accuse you of being in love with a particular sin you are close to, you would struggle to set the record straight. In fact, the more you would try to explain yourself, the more guilty you may look. People might say, ‘Why don’t you admit to your sins, instead of defending yourself.’
It is very difficult to make people believe the truth when all facts point to the contrary. God would know that you are innocent of the accusations that are levelled against you, but many people would find it very difficult to believe you. Assuredly, it is wise to avoid anything that might bring shame to your name. You need to be vigilant and play away from anything that might bring disrepute to your name and the name of everyone who is associated with you.
The serpent is very clever, and he is always looking for an opportunity to embarrass the children of God. He would use any opportunity to shame your name and the name of your God. Not only would he try to shame your name and the name of your God, he would also try to embarrass your family.
If you are caught in proximity with a particular sin, you would be accused of impropriety and your family would not escape from all the bad things that would be said about you. Any bad thing that is said about you would also be said about your family and God. When you fellowship at a particular assembly, any bad thing that is said about you would also be said about that assembly. Indeed, any shame brought upon your life would bring shame to the assembly you are attending.
Any disgrace to you is a disgrace for all. We might not be aware of this important fact, but it is the truth. When they speak well of you, they speak well of your God. Any good thing that is said about you, would also bring honour to your family.
Every action has a reaction, and every action has a consequence. The consequences might be good or bad. You need to avoid all the things that would bring shame to you because they would bring shame to everything that is associated with you.
There is no one who is able to spot an opportunity for an attack like the devil. The devil would not only embarrass you with the sins you are too close to, He will try to make sure that you fall into them. Truly, the job of making you fall into the sins you are close to would be very easy for the devil, he has played this game for a very long time. It is easy to tempt someone who is very close to a particular sin than to trap someone who has less exposure to a particular sin.
The devil is cunning, he would trap you to fall into sin, and you would only realise after you have tasted that sin that Satan has overcome you. When you are too close to any sin, there would come an opportune moment to trap you to fall into it. We all have our bad and good moments in life. The snake will use our bad moments to hook us up with sin. As soon as our weakest moment comes, the devil would tempt us to fall in love with the sins we are very close to.
Our spiritual or emotional states undergo changes from time to time. We might be cheerful today, but experience a gloomy day tomorrow. When we are down emotionally, the devil would hook us up with sin. Sin would be presented as a relief to our situation, and we might fall for the trick. It is better to play away from any sin so that the devil could not use our proximity to any particular sin to trap us to fall in love with it.
The famous line that Satan uses to make you close to any sin is to encourage you to pretend to be something or someone. He may encourage you to pretend to be a girlfriend or a boyfriend of a certain person. Or he may make you pretend to be a gay or lesbian. Those who are involved in the arts would act roles that make them close to many kinds of sins. Through acting, these people would be exposed to what is inappropriate, and it may leave a bad taste in their mouth. The devil would say, they are just acting or earning their money, without telling them that one day, he would use their association or exposure to any sin to tempt them to fall in love with it.
When we were in the world, the grace of the Lord has always operated in the background to save us. The devil would always resist the effort of saving those who are lost in sin. He would never permit heaven to save us, and he would do all in his power to keep us to himself. Anyone who has not been saved by the blood of the Lamb is a prisoner of the devil, as they worship him. The blood that was shed on Calvary is the gift that God gave to all those who have been shackled by the devil. It is grace that seeks to destroy all the chains Satan has put on those who are wedded to sin.
Those who have responded to the grace given to them by God have renounced Satan and his evil kingdom. They have rejected sin for the righteousness of God, which they received through the blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lamb cleansed them of all unrighteousness and it made them right before the Lord. The salvation we have received through the blood of Jesus has set us free from all the bondage of the devil.
The serpent will always try to protect his kingdom by making sure that it keeps the children of God in bondage forever. Satan will try to counteract the grace of salvation by always fighting against any effort to free us from the bondage of sin. When we get saved by the blood of the Lamb, it means the Spirit of the Lord has succeeded in wrestling us away from the kingdom of darkness.
After we have been born again, the devil would increase his attack on us so that he could win us back to his evil kingdom. The devil uses different strategies to attack us. He will use different strategies to attack those who have not found their way to the heart of God, and he would use different strategies to fight those who belong to the heart of the Master.
The devil knows us very well, as he has the history of anyone born of a woman. He knows our weakness as well as our strong points. When the serpent attacks us, he would attack us through our weak points. Before we were saved by the blood of the Lamb, sin has made us weak in more ways than one. It has compromised our character and made us lustful of all the bad things of the world.
Satan knows what could overcome us, and he knows the sins we are likely to fall for. He knows all the actors who played a role in our lives. Not only does he know all the actors in our lives, he knows which actor he could use to destroy us. His net of temptation has everything we used to love. The devil would throw this net of temptation towards us so that it could win us back to his kingdom.
We were saved because the blood of Jesus has overcome the devil. Indeed, we were saved because all the shackles that the devil put on us have been broken by the blood of the Lamb. The process of saving us cleansed us of all unrighteousness, and it made us spotless because the blood of Jesus has taken all our sins away.
Our salvation is a threat to the devil, as it makes his kingdom to have fewer slaves. The devil will do all in his power to win us back to his evil ways, and he would cast out a big net of temptation towards us. This net has all that we used to love. It has all the actors of our lives, and it also has all the sins we used to do. When the devil throw this net, we would not be aware of it. Assuredly, our sins would be forgiven by the Lord, but the net that has been set before us would have all the sins we use to do. Our sins would have been taken away by the blood of Jesus, but the net of temptation will remind us about the past sins we were in love with.
This net of temptation would be cast in our mind. The devil will make sure the history of our sins is firmly planted in our minds. The Lord has saved us and he has blotted away every sin we have committed, and He has also taken away the guilt that resulted from our sinfulness. Satan will fight against this by making sure that we remember all the sins we were married to. He wants us to remember the bond we have with sin so that he could trap us back to the life of sin.
We could counteract this trap of temptation by being prayerful and by reading the word of God daily. Not only must we be prayerful and study the Bible, we must abide in the righteousness of God. By praying and reading the Bible daily, our minds would be focused on heavenly things, and because of this, no temptation would prevail against us.
However, if we do not pray, read the Bible and abide in the righteousness of God, the devil will hook us back to sin. He will use that net of temptation to reintroduce us back to sinfulness. The devil would lure us back to a life of sin through the sins we used to love. Those who loved alcohol or drugs would fall into the same sins again and the same is true for those who had pride. The fornicators and idolaters would also be trapped back into these sins. Our past sins are the bait that the devil would use to win us back to the kingdom of snakes.