This post is a brief summary of a message I preached last Sunday morning. It is rooted in the thought line that "For every powerful and authentic move of God, Satan has a fabricated counterfeit".
Proverbs 14:12 says "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death".
Satan has the perfect package for you. It is a counterfeit package that gives you a false sense of peace. It gives you a false sense of security. It tells you that everything is fine. It tells you that all is well and life is good. But as the scripture tells us, it may SEEM like its right in our flesh, but it leads to a path of destruction.
Satan is cunning, charming, and an excellent sales person. You are more apt to buy a product from someone that is passionate about and believes in what they are selling. Satan is passionate about seeing you destroyed so he makes his sales pitch and many buy his product!
Two of Satan's purposes I want to mention: 1.) He wants to deny the word of God. 2.) He wants to destroy the work of Jesus Christ.
All throughout scripture and history, Satan has done everything he can to try to prevent the Word of God from reaching people and even personally tried to give Jesus earthly reign if he would only bow down to him. There are many examples of his plan to prevent the connection between you and God.
Here is a great example of Satan's counterfeit. The wheat is sewn. It begins to grow. But there is a problem.....Satan has done some sewing in the same plot of ground. Satan did not sew something that could be spotted easily. He did not plant something that could be separated with ease. He planted something that resembled the authentic grain. The tare resembled the genuine grain! It looked like the real thing! It was not until harvest time that it was separated! At harvest time the authentic was separated from the counterfeit!
We have to always use discernment when making decisions in our life. The enemy would love nothing more than to trick you into believeing that something he fabricated and placed in your life was believed to be the authentic will of God. He wants to give you false peace and false security. Satan wants you to believe everything is ok so he can rock you to sleep. He wants you to become comlpacent with your life and never reach your full potential.
"God’s voice speaking tenderly to our hearts today is the same voice that powerfully called creation into being." AW Tozer
I saw this quote this morning and I had to re-read it several times. Then I read it again.
I think sometimes as we get caught up in our daily routines, God becomes a bit of an after thought. We love him, sure, but we are not fully aware of who He is. I prayed this morning on my way to work. I have had him on my mind throughout this morning, but the depth of who he is has not crossed my mind. I have seen miracles in my life and in my family already this year. We have been blessed and we are grateful. Even still, this great God that we serve is far beyond our comprehension.
We read in Genesis the story of creation and I believe we become numb to the reality of what actually happened in that time frame. We are introduced to the story as children and by the time we are adults it becomes just another story.
The same God that spoke everything we see is the same God that speaks peace into your life when you are in trouble. He is the same God that speaks words of encouragement to you when you fail. He is the same God that breathed new life into you when you were laying at an altar lost with no hope. He is the same God that has met your needs, given you deliverance and set you free from the bondage of sin! From the "BIG" things to the "small" things, he is still the same God!
The verse that comes to my mind is Romans 8:39: "No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NLT)
He loves us and wants to speak to us. No power can separate you from hearing the voice of God. Seek his face and listen as he speaks to you. It is the same voice that spoke to the men and women all through our Bible. It is an honor that he would speak to me. I know that from this day forward I will never take for granted hearing the voice of the God that was, is, and always will be!
