7. Doubt – Faith is what pleases God. When we are fulfilling the will of God we are active in our faith. The devil often uses doubt as a weapon to get you out of the will of God. Anything that interrupts our faith transaction is likely to fall under the category of doubt. Either we believe God and what He said or we don’t. If we believe 99%, there is doubt. Doubt can obliterate a faith transaction. Doubt is intimidating because doubt gets it’s legs when we begin considering the circumstances… especially when they are contrary to what we think is supposed to be happening. Doubt is an easy weapon to use for the devil. With so much bad news all the time, it’s easy to become cynical, untrusting of people, and negative. All of these things find their origin in doubt. Doubt tells the Lord, we don’t believe Him and what He said. Easy to see how that gets us out of the will of God.

8. Resistance - When we work out with weights, there is a resistance we must push ourselves through in order to become stronger. Why is it when the devil throws at us some different types of resistance do we not attribute it to a spiritual workout for becoming stronger? When we encounter resistance, we need to remember, it is the Lord who is allowing this “thing”. Or is it us allowing the “thing”, the resistance to control us and adjust our course? Rather, we need to acknowledge the resistance and exercise our spiritual muscles to become stronger. A physical workout is intended to make us stronger and healthier. A spiritual workout works the same way. Don’t let the devil use the resistance to weaken and defeat you. Use the resistance as a tool to become stronger. I like to classify resistance as…. this MUST mean I am on the right course and in God’s will. I actually look for the resistance now.

See these previous postings for other weapons

Stress & Timing

Distraction & People

Word of God & Sickness

Continuing our study here on 10 weapons the enemy uses to get you out of the will of God. Here are #5 & #6.

5. Stress – One of leading causes of sickness and death is stress. People worry about stuff to the point of making themselves ill. So concerned about things where they cannot control the outcome. Often times the devil will introduce some jacked up thought… something like what another person may think about what you’ve done or are about to do. You begin playing it out in your mind…. the outcome…. what if this, what if that….pretty much outcomes and reactions which you cannot control. Worry can kill you and the devil knows it.

6. Timing – We all know certain things happen at certain times. We live in a world that uses time to measure things, begin and end things. In God’s will on the earth, certain things ought to happen at certain times. We sometimes make the mistake of saying, “Well that didn’t happen, so maybe it’s not God’s will. There is no “MAYBE” with God. We either know or we do not. It is black and white, that simple. His promises are yes and amen. If He said it, then it is. The devil will use some of his other weapons to get you to miss your scheduled opportunity. For example, if he can delay you long enough to miss a bus, then you’ve missed the bus. Why would this happen? Perhaps you’ve gotten an assignment from the Lord. You know He gave you an instruction and you intend to obey and carry it out. So you begin speaking about it and moving to do it. The devil listens to what you’ve been saying. He’s not a mind reader. He only knows what he hears you say. So the devil will use what you’ve said to get one step ahead of you. If you intend use a certain amount of money to get something done for the Lord, the devil could let’s say send you an unexpected expense that would cause you to delay doing what the Lord instructed you to do. Consequently, we miss God’s will. Then we justify it by, “Well, maybe it wasn’t God’s timing.”

See these previous postings for other weapons

Distraction & People

Word of God & Sickness

Continuing our study here on 10 weapons the enemy uses to get you out of the will of God. Here are #3 & #4.

3. Word of God – The devil knows the Word of God. He will use it against you to see what you know or don’t know. Pretty much it’s a give-away how much Word is in you by what comes out of your mouth. “Woe is me, I’m always sick. I have such bad luck. Why does this always happens to me?” Instead of “I am blessed! I am highly favored! I am the healed of God! The lines fall in pleasant places for me!” The devil knows what we are entitled to say and be. Generally speaking, I have found that most people do not know what we are entitled to say and be.

4. Sickness – Lots of people blame sickness on God. It’s not Him. The enemy knows when people don’t know their Word and the perfect healed body they are entitled to. He can and does send sickness (things not of God). If we are not protecting ourselves and maintaining our bodies according to best health practices, we are subject to certain sicknesses and diseases. Plain and simple. And the devil has no problem introducing you to something that will challenge your ability to function at 100% in God’s will. Let’s face it, when you’re not healthy, you’re just not on your game. Remember… we’re talking about weapons the devil uses to cause you to miss the will of God.

Here are weapons #1 & #2 talked about in part 1.
Distraction & People

Whether we believe it or not, there is a devil. His role during your life is to get you out of the will of God. Why? Because he knows that God loves us and has arranged for us to spend all of eternity with Him. The devil is still ticked off that he got kicked out of Heaven and will not get to spend all eternity with our Maker. So he wants to prevent people from spending eternity with God. He uses different tactics to accomplish this.

1. Distraction – The devil tries to distract you from what you ought to be doing and who you ought to be being. When we know God’s will and operate in it, we are blessed and prospered. Simply said, the devil knows if he can distract you, you will have lost your focus. When you lose your focus, you lose direction and go off course. Consequently, out of the will of God.

2. People – The devil can’t make anybody do anything. We do what we do because we choose to. Some circumstances are provided to us without our consent. However, we always have a choice how we will function or respond. When others get “enthusiastic” about their own motives, ideas, and projects, they can say and do things that are not necessarily in the will of God. This may affect us. What do we do? As I said, some circumstances are provided to us without our consent. Generally these circumstances will find their origin in people out of the will of God. The devil is all for planting “out of the will of God” ideas. If it takes root in someone, then the devil has succeeded and the person doesn’t even know they are being used in an evil way.

What is the absolute truth? What is the standard by which folks believe things? A truth is this day and age is a generally accepted piece of information that most people agree on. But what if we’re wrong?

Simple stuff seems ok to believe because it may not threaten or challenge us directly. For example: It is the truth that fish live in water. Most of us are ok with this truth. Our own experiences have informed us, even if no one has ever told us specifically, that fish live in water. Our own experiences really make the truth our truth. We end up owning it because we know that we know that we know.

Now that we’ve come into agreement with that truth that was still a truth even before we knew about it, we ought to ask, “Who established that truth?” The same procedure ought to apply on the more complex issues of truth in our lives. Our own experiences pretty much establish our truths. But at the same time others can present some pretty convincing arguments as to why we should believe this that and the other thing. Often times we measure that “idea” or “truth” against our experiences. The less experience we have, the more inclined we may be to believe that person or group. We evaluate the source and decide if they are reputable. We make a judgment on the information. Then ultimately we decide, “This is true or the truth.” And we believe that “truth” until we get some conflicting evidence or experience that causes us to question our belief system. We change our mind and position on that matter. That seems like a very unstable way to live.

How do we know what the real truth is? What is the real standard to measure all things by? Even at court, they say, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” And yet people still lie. So how do we live by non-negotiable principle # 5 – Believe only the truth, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else? First we must find a source that has an effective standard of measurement. I have searched high and low and every place. The Lord God is the source and what He says is the absolute truth. I have experienced this for myself. As you begin to understand His truth based on your own experiences, you do begin to change your mind and replace previous truths with new truth. He is a source worth checking out. Even if you don’t believe He is who He says He is, please find out why you believe that. Have your own personal experience so that you’re sure what you believe is the truth and not really a lie in disguise.

God makes it plain as to what is ours to have and what is not. He wants us to simply receive what He has to offer. His offerings are eternal. So often we seek to have things that have no lasting impact in eternity. We must get our focus off of the things that we cannot bring to Glory with us. At the very least get them in the right perspective. Money simply gives us more options. Having a car is having a tool. Most things we want are a tool. The question is are we having the tool for our own personal enjoyment or personal gain? Or are we using the tool to change the outcome of Heaven? My writing gift: I love having it but it is just a tool I use to change lives and advance the Kingdom of God. One of the by-products happens to be ‘gain’ but just as I was writing when it gave me no personal gain, so do I write now…. not for personal gain. I write knowing that eternity is changed forever. “Have only what He says is yours.” In all my having, I have my writing. I own it. It’s mine and I love having it.

4. Give away who you are and what you have as much and as often as you can.

If we be who we are and know what we have is ours, we are connected with the eternal source from which it came. And with an inexhaustible supply of resource for who you are and what you have, you never run out. The supply is never exhausted. It’s like the brilliance of the sun, the staying power and effectiveness is super abundant. If you are tired of being “who you are”, might I suggest you’re not actually being who you are, but instead you are attempting to be someone else, who you are not. EVENTUALLY, this will wear you out. There will be this dark cloud following you that says, quit.

Personally, I never tire of writing. I tire at 9-5 desk jobs. It’s just not who I am. Make sense?

This is not try your best. This is not just do what you can get done. This is not step up to the plate if no one else volunteers. This is ONLY do what only YOU can do. If you are the expert, even if you’re not, if you are the only who can put something in motion, then your responsibility to mankind is to make it happen. For example: No one else can write what is in me to write. Only I can do it. Anyone can do my laundry. So I ought not major in that thing. It should not occupy the majority of your time. No can write for me. So I ought only do what only I can do.

2. Be only who He says you are.

A lot of who we are is defined by finding out who we are not. Process of elimination applies here. And while it’s admirable to improve yourself with other character traits that don’t come so natural, don’t get so jammed up that you’re not even being who you are.

For the sake of easy reading. Parts 3 & 4 are in a separate post. As is #5.

This is true in smaller companies, although not as much. But in big corporations, this is a major problem. The Word says, “Don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing” when it comes to our giving. But certainly we cannot take this scripture out of context when co-operation is the order of the day.

I once was part of a team at a large corporation (no pun intended… “co-operation”) that was involved in doing a “fish-bone” analysis….. the end result? We determined our INTERNAL MARKETING was weak. Now granted, we were a bunch of IT (Information Technology) folks (computer geeks) in an IT department. The IT personality is far different than the Sales personality.

A Salesman personality is relational in nature, many times quite extroverted. They go out of their way to talk and connect with folks. The IT personality is typically analytical in nature, often times more introverted. They hide out in the IT “dungeon” or keep pretty quiet in their cube.

True Sales folks come by internal selling naturally because it’s just who they are. IT folks and other Operations/Production type roles need to work harder at their “selling”. It definitely takes an on purpose plan for a non sales type personality to do internal marketing/selling.

Introverted type people can seem cold at times when really they are just minding their own business. Idle chit-chat…. warm and fuzzy conversations…. these people do not really care about.

The extroverted sales person loves idle chit-chat. They love relating. They love talking to strangers. They love using lots of words when they speak. They understand the importance of this “go out of their way to build relationships”.

Non-sales people don’t be discouraged. Just know that you need to put forth a reasonable uncomfortable effort to build relationships you may need in the future. You do not come by this naturally, like the salesman. It will take some work on your part to get out of your comfort zone.

I can say from experience…. a little genuine idle chit-chat and relating to people in your organization will go a long long way.

There really is two parts to forgiving. One part is the forgiving. The other part is the forgetting or maybe said like this…. wiping the slate clean like the offense never even happened. We can say we forgive someone and then deep down inside we hope we never have to interact with that person ever again. Is that really forgiveness?

True forgiveness is handling the offense and restoring the person to the status the person prior to the offense. It’s kind of a like an infant that breaks something having some value. We let it go. We forgive. The child isn’t even aware they caused an offense and have been forgiven. And we go on loving them like it never even happened.

This is how the Lord deals with us. He forgives us in such a way like the offense/sin/the missing of the mark… never even took place. How could someone love me that much? A grown person can consider this logic. An infant doesn’t worry about it. They move on in their forgiveness easily without reservation, without guilt, without mental anguish. They know who they belong to and that they are still loved. The infant doesn’t disqualify himself because of his wrong doing. Why do adults disqualify themselves? God says unless you are like little children, you cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

Infants don’t suffer from guilt, self-condemnation, nor ongoing consequences of having done something that seems unforgivable. We must be like a little child, an infant. God is quick to forgive and forget. We are quick to disqualify ourselves and want to keep reminding the Lord that we “deserve” punishment for offenses He’s already forgiven and forgotten. Why do we complicate the simplest process?

Forgiving others is hard to do but the freedom and peace that comes from actually doing it pays eternal dividends.

Many people think the “devil” is God’s enemy. This is a common misconception. However, the enemy is not God’s enemy. God has no enemies. Nobody can fight Him. He’s man’s enemy. His job is to get you to function in life led by your particular selfish desire and using your own strength on a particular issue.

God brings you into situations where you must exercise your confidence in His strength and His desire.

The enemy is aware of God’s will. The enemy has made it clear that he is familiar with the Word of God. Why would the enemy read and know the Word of God? He can’t get God to change it. The enemy knows whether or not we know the Word of God. Why? Because he knows the Word is for us and our standard to live by. He can get us to believe it wrong… just like he did Eve and Adam in the garden.

God doesn’t need His Word, He has Himself. We need His Word. It was written for us. The enemy wants us to miss the bulls-eye. The bulls-eye is God’s will. Temptation is to get us out of or missing the will of God.

If we know His Word and His will, life is designed so that we hit the bulls-eye every time. The Lord wants us to do His will. He’s brings the testing so we’ll pass the test. Passing the test makes us trust Him more. The enemy brings all kinds of methods to cause us to miss the bulls-eye.