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NO-ONE BUT GOD
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.
ON ZOMBIE SINS AND THE GREATEST SEDUCTION
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 1, 2024 – Jesus was a man before he was a eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake, and a carpenter before he was the Messiah, and the brother of his siblings before he was our brother, and the son of Mary and Joseph before he was the Son of God. That’s not to say he wasn’t a man while he was a eunuch and a eunuch while he was a man; that’s just to say that before the signal was given and the switch was flicked, one took precedence over the other, though both realities co-existed in the one body and soul of Jesus throughout his time on Earth.
We, too, as born-again believers, were also men or women before becoming spiritual eunuchs, and labourers in some field before becoming ministers of God, and the brother or sister of our siblings before becoming Jesus’ brethren, and sons and daughters of our parents before becoming children of God. In these things, we are like Jesus; in these things, we follow our leader, as he said we would. And yet, underneath, we’re still men or women, labourers in some field, siblings of our siblings, and children of our parents. Those realities don’t change, though the other reality – the spiritual reality – takes precedence since our rebirth.
But in one thing we differ from Jesus, and that is that we were all born with the spirit of the world and were guided and informed by the spirit of the world before becoming born-again and receiving the Spirit of God. Jesus never had the spirit of the world in him; he had only God’s Holy Spirit from the get-go, from the moment of his conception. In this he differed from us, but in all the other things, he was the same.
The spirit of the world and the Spirit of God cannot co-exist in the same body and soul. When one goes in, the other goes out.
Scripture tells us that Jesus was tempted in all things, as we are. A temptation is exterior from us, body and soul. It is a lure and a bait, aiming to catch us, usually unawares; aiming to seduce us. Seductions can come from God or from the devil. When I was still a slave to sin, I was lured by God and seduced by God and that’s how I became born-again. It is the greatest of all seductions to say “Yes” to God for the very first time. If you’re genuinely born-again, you, too, were lured and seduced by God, so you know what I’m talking about.
Jesus was tempted in all things. We know of the temptations he had in the desert, but they didn’t stop there. He was tempted right up until the instant when his soul left his body, as we will be. He was tempted while he was awake and he was tempted in dreams.
God permits us to be tempted of the devil. This is a great comfort to me, knowing that God permits these temptations, because I also know that if God permits them, he’ll give me the strength and the means, through his Holy Spirit, to withstand the temptations, whether I’m awake or asleep. We should never fear temptation; we should never bring it on to us (or to others) or entertain it, but we shouldn’t fear it. Temptations are tests that, when successfully passed, take us up higher in the Kingdom.
Never having had the spirit of the world in him, Jesus had no sin, and he remained that way throughout his time on Earth. That is to say, he had no memory of sin because he never sinned. We, on the other hand, had to be purged of our sin at our rebirth, though we remember it still and at times it seemingly comes back to life to haunt us, that is to tempt us. Like a zombie sin, it reanimates and rises up, usually in dreams, borne of our memories. It is not real sin but the memory of sin, though it can still very much catch us and bite us and drag us down.
We need to be careful of the zombie sins because they are the most powerful of all the seductions, next to God’s. The rose-tinted memory of what we once had is stronger than the desire for what we never had, which is why God had to lure us to him in the way that only God can, as only God knows everything about us. We continue, even now, to be lured by God and tempted of the devil, being children of God while also still children of our parents.
This will continue until we arrive Home.
ON PROVOCATIONS
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, June 18, 2023 – Our example on how to deal with provocations (also known also as tests or temptations) is always Jesus.
Jesus knew precisely how to respond.
When provoked, he didn’t engage: He instructed. He didn’t invite a response to his instruction, he simply left it there for the recipient to chew on.
And when he wasn’t directly or personally provoked, he ignored the provocation. It wasn’t his business.
Provocations are designed to test your spiritual mettle. God permits provocations because he wants to see who really wants what he’s offering and who’s just saying they want it. He also wants to give us a chance to move up in his Kingdom by giving us a larger share of his Spirit. Many Christians say they want what God’s offering, but most of those fail when put to the test. In other words, they may claim to want what God’s offering, but when provoked show they’re not actually willing to do what’s required.
Jesus was tested on a daily basis. The most famous of these provocations took place in the desert after his 40-day/40-night fast, but Jesus faced tests every day during his ministry years. We read about those in the Gospels. Sometimes he was tested by his sworn enemies, sometimes by his own followers, and sometimes by strangers. In every instance, God permitted the test. When God said that he was “well pleased” with Jesus, he was stating his approval of Jesus’ test results.
Like Jesus, we also are tested on a daily basis. The tests may not look like Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, but they come from the same tempter and are meant to trip us up. Here are some of the standard everyday provocations employed by the devil and permitted by God:
- Temptation to be outraged by something.
- Temptation to break the Commandments.
- Temptation to express tolerance for something you know is wrong.
- Temptation to condemn your enemies rather than to pray for them.
- Temptation to “name and shame” your enemies rather than to pray for them.
- Temptation to protest.
- Temptation to focus on end-times “spiritual porn’.
- Temptation to be sustainedly curious about demons.
- Temptation to complain about your circumstances.
- Temptation to blame others for your circumstances.
- Temptation not to forgive (hardheartedness).
- Temptation to think or speak uncharitably of someone.
- Temptation to put someone or something before God.
- Sexual provocations.
- Financial provocations.
- Temptations to misuse or misallocate resources God has put into your care, including your God-given talents.
Obviously, this list of provocations could go on for pages, and I’m sure that even off the top of your head you could easily rattle off a few dozen more. My point in listing them here is to hammer home the reality that nearly every minute of every day we’re tempted to act in opposition to God. Provocations are not a one-off thing or a rare event but an ongoing process of spiritual refining. This process involves learning, testing, failing, relearning, retesting, etc., a specific spiritual principle (e.g., pray for your enemies) until we get it consistently right and it becomes our default position.
All born-again believers are immersed in the refining process from the instant of their rebirth. We can’t avoid it. In fact, if we genuinely want what God is offering us, we welcome the provocations because when we successfully pass them, we gain a bigger share of God’s Spirit and so move up higher in the Kingdom. A higher position in the Kingdom means moving closer to God. Without successfully passing our tests, we can’t move closer to God.
We should never pray to avoid being tested. The only temptation we should pray to avoid is the one Jesus explicitly told us to pray to avoid, which is the test of the tribulation. We should pray not to have to go through that, but every other test we should patiently accept, knowing it’s for our ultimate benefit.
Provocations are a test of our spiritual mettle that, when successfully passed, bring us closer to God. I don’t know about you, but I want to be as close to God as I can be. So while I’m not foolishly going to say to the devil: “Bring it on!”, I will pray for the strength and guidance to respond like Jesus did to whatever provocations God does permit.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 