Illusionists

 

 

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light--2 Cor. 11:15

 

 An illusionist is a person who makes something appear to be real or true but is quite different from what it seems to be. Satan is the world's greatest illusionist!  He is an expert in using the triple temptations of fleshly desires, pride of life and lust of the eyes making them appear to me what they are not (1 John 2:15-17).  Understand this. Satan has access to us every waking moment and he knows our strengths as well as our weaknesses. He is our enemy! He is an opportunist and looks for any little foothold we will give him and every area of our life that we fail to constantly guard, he will seize upon it. The warning in 1 Peter 5:8 to be sober of spirit and be alert should be taken seriously by each one of us.

 

In our fight against this powerful enemy, it is essential that we put on the whole armor of God, gird ourselves with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, shod our feet with the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation and take up the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (Eph. 6:10-18).

 

We all have bibles, in fact most of us have several. What is the condition of those bibles? Are they covered with dust? Do they just sit on a bookshelf with a lot of other books? What do they look like? Are they marked up, pages crinkled, dog eared, maybe some torn from use? If the bible (word of God) is not used, it might as well be a million miles away. Satan will do everything he can to convince us that we have time to do everything under the sun but no time to study God's word. My friends, we had best make the time to let God's word fill our hearts, mold our thoughts and guide our lives (2 Pert. 3:18; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Phil. 4:6-9). The life robbed of God's word will be one of ignorance when there should be knowledge. It will be a life of uncertainty where there should be certainty. It will be a life of confusion where there should be peace, weakness where there should be strength. It will be a life that places it's trust in man when there should be trust in God (Acts 17:23; 1 John 5:13; Phil. 4:7; Eph. 6:10; Prov. 3:5; Matt. 15:8-9).

 

The battle against Satan will not be an easy one but as  a faithful child of God we will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world (Eph. 6:16; 1 John 4:4).

 

Charles Hicks