HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 10, 2025 – If you start with the concept that nearly everything they do, they do to kill you, then it all makes sense. They want you dead, though not necessarily physically dead: they want you spiritually dead, which means they want you worshiping the god of this world, like they do.

First and foremost, they want you spiritually dead, and once they accomplish that, what happens to you physically is of little concern to them. When I say of little concern, what I mean is that they want to keep you at least sufficiently functional that you’ll be able to spiritually kill others. That’s your job once you’ve been spiritually killed yourself, to spiritually kill others.

If you start with the understanding that they want you spiritually dead, then everything they do makes sense. There are no “good guys” and “bad guys” among those who are not born-again, there are just dead guys who are out to make everyone else dead.

You can only protect yourself if you truly understand this. And by protecting yourself, I don’t mean that you’re the one doing the protecting; I mean that you’re looking to God to protect you, and to God only, because God is the only one who can protect you.

Jesus well knew this before he started his ministry, which is why he left his family and friends behind and struck out on his own. He understood that even his family and friends were trying to spiritually kill him, though likely they didn’t know what they were doing. And there’s the rub – the devil uses people to get to you because he can’t get to you directly; you’re too protected. So he uses others, and he uses them in ways that appear to be good, even godly. In most cases, the people being used are unaware they’re being used. But you need to be aware they’re being used because that’s the only way you can put yourself under the full protection of God.

The worst thing that can happen to you as a born-again believer is to die spiritually. You must never let that happen to you, not under any circumstance. The devil is betting that he can spiritually kill you, while God is betting that he can’t. The same conversation the devil had with God about Job he’s having about each one of us, with God firmly taking our side, as he did for Job, and setting clear testing boundaries that the devil cannot overstep.

Yet for all his support, God’s not stopping the devil from tempting us; after all, that’s why he keeps the devil around. Tempting us is the devil’s sole purpose, and he’s very good at it, diabolically good, which is why we need God’s guidance and protection night and day. In fact, the devil’s so good at what he does, you don’t even know he’s doing it, he makes everything seem so easy and natural and right.

Our temptations, when they come, rarely look like temptations. They’re so meticulously planned and timed, they don’t appear to come from the devil. If anything, they seem on occasion to be blessings and signs from God, which is why we need to walk our every step with God. We won’t make it through our temptations unless we walk our every step with God. We should do nothing without first consulting God and then unhesitatingly doing whatever he says, like Jesus did. This is how we remain fully protected even while God is permitting us to be tempted by the devil.

If you’re a born-again believer, the world really is out to get you. Still, you don’t need to be afraid of the world or of the devil’s diabolical temptations, not while you’re under the guidance and protection of God. As Jesus reminded us, the most they can do is kill the body. Jesus lived that mindset during his ministry years, which is why he was bold and fearless in every situation, right up to and including the moment of his physical death.

So yes, even though nearly everyone on Earth may in fact be trying to kill us, we should fear nothing and no-one but God.