Don't Give the Enemy A Seat At Your Table by Louie Giglio

Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table

By Louie Giglio

Chapter 1 – Nine words that will change your life

When you’re in a hard stretch filled with conflict and confusion, if you could just get your thoughts in order you could probably figure out a way to proceed, but keeping a clear head is more difficult than it sounds.

Maybe you’re on the wrong side of someone else’s harmful actions or hurtful words. Maybe the conflict comes from within. You feel abandoned. Falsely attacked. Hurt. Defeated. Tempted. Lost. Your mood is low. Your mind is stressed. You’re weary from the endless conversations you’re having inside your head with friends, co-workers, family members, accusers. Conversations where you’re always vindicated and their faults are exposed.

It’s easy at those times for fear or despair to set in. You find yourself constantly looking over your shoulder, wondering if someone’s out to get you. You struggle with your emotions. You snap in anger. You break down in tears. It's not uncommon to give in to those dark thoughts, especially when you’re staring at the ceiling at two in the morning, desperately trying to take control of the narrative and manage the outcome. You feel like your back is against the wall, and paranoia can become your unshakeable companion You keep your defences high.

And you seek allies. You look for someone – anyone – who sees things your way. You gravitate toward anyone who will hear your side of the story and commiserate with you.

I had allowed my adversary – the Devil – to influence the conversation inside my mind.

My struggle wasn’t about fighting with people. People were involved, but the battle I was facing was against principalities and powers of darkness (Ephesians 6 verse 12). My heavenly father wasn’t making me afraid or paranoid. My Shepherd wasn’t putting thoughts of despair in my mind. The harmful thoughts were coming from someone else.

The Enemy had taken a seat at my table, and I was allowing myself to listen to a killer.

Psalm 23 verse 5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

I could see myself sitting at a table, with the Good Shepherd across from me. He had led me through dark valleys to reach the table, and I didn’t need to be afraid, even though the fiery trials weren’t all resolved. My place at the table didn’t mean that my enemies would be removed from the equation. In fact, the table was set right in the middle of my enemies. That captivated my imagination and held my attention.

I didn’t need to vindicate myself. I didn’t need to clear my name. I didn’t need to control this equation or work overtime to improve it. My task was to concentrate on the Good Shepherd, the One who owned the table.

My invitation was to put my trust in the One who prompted me to lie down in green pastures, the One who led me beside quiet waters and restored my soul. The Good Shepherd was guiding me along the right paths for His name’s sake. Dark valleys and hard times were part of those paths, yet he would be with me and see me through every threatening night. The Good Shepherd would anoint my life with his favour and my cup would overflow. My promise – goodness, mercy and love – would escort me every single day of my life.

My destiny was set. I didn’t need to be afraid. The Shepherd was at the table, and he would see to it that I was going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The King of the universe is inviting you and me to sit with him at his table. These 9 words were packed with proven power. They story they conveyed was freeing and had instant application.

It’s the story of a Good Shepherd who sees you and walks with you through the valley. It’s about God setting a table of nourishment and refreshment in the midst of trouble. This message lets you see how you don’t need to let the thoughts in your head run wild. These 9 words are ultimately a message of victory.

You are invited to an intimate relationship with the Almighty. The table he’s prepared for you is one of peace, clarity and abundance. You don’t have to give the Enemy a seat at your table.

The Devil wants nothing more than to crush you. He wants to steal from you everything you value. He wants to kill everything in your life that’s good. Ultimately, he wants to destroy you. If he can claim the victory over your mind, he can eventually claim the victory over your life.

But the message of Psalm 23 is that the Good Shepherd prepares a table for you. It’s a table for 2, and the Devil is not invited to eat.

Chapter 2 – The 23^rd Psalm – Remix

On page after page in scripture, we find people in situations where life has closed in on them. It might seem logical for them to chuck their faith. We wouldn’t be surprised if they turned away from God in the midst of difficulty or if they leaned toward their favourite addiction in an attempt to feel better. Unfortunately that’s what too many people do when the going gets tough.

See, when life turns hard for us, we’re almost always tempted to welcome the Enemy at our table. But when we realise that Jesus invites us to follow him even though life is hard, we discover the foundation truth for winning the battle for our minds.

This is the depth of faith we see throughout the bible. 3 Hebrew young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego worshipped God in an era when King Nebuchadnezzar had commanded everybody to worship only a huge gold statue of himself. The goal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was to be obedient to God’s call on their lives. When the music played (the signal for everybody to fall down and worship the golden statue), Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego remained standing. Because of their righteous actions, they wound up being thrown into a raging fire. What was God thinking? Surely that made no sense. They didn’t do anything wrong. Shouldn’t they be rewarded for their righteous living? Wasn’t God for them and not against them?

The faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t deflate. Instead, their faith inflated. Even on the edge of a fiery furnace, they were able to say to the king “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the god we serve is able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up (Daniel 3 verses 17 and 18). Rescued out of their circumstances or left to go through the fire – either way – they would stay true to God.

Or take a look at Paul and Silas. They found themselves in prison. Their crime? They set free a female slave from demonic oppression. They did the right thing. Even then, the citizens of the city of Philippi gathered in a furious mob and dragged Paul and Silas before the authorities. They were severely beaten and thrown in jail. Paul and Silas were trying to honour God. They’d been on a mission trip and this is what they got? Nobody would have faulted them if they had abandoned the faith, or whined and complained or turned to some sort of an addiction in an attempt to quell their pain. But no. It was midnight. Their feet were fastened in stocks. Their backs were bloody and raw. And Paul and Silas were praying and singing songs of praise (Acts 16 verse 16 – 40). That’s a faith that inflates during difficult times.

The prophet Habakkuk stated it clearly when he cried out:

“Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my saviour.” Habakkuk 3 verse 17 and 18

Notice the 2 phrases repeated 3 times in Habakkuk’s prayer – “Even though ... I will ...” Habakkuk basically said “Even though there’s no harvest, and even though crops fail, and even though the fields are desolate, and even though the stalls of provision are empty, I will still be joyful and glad because the Lord God is my Saviour. I have not lost my faith. In fact, my faith is even greater. I’m still going to rejoice in the Lord. I’m still going to worship God. I’m not going to get sidetracked by attitudes or actions that harm me. When I encounter hard times, my faith inflates.”

Those 2 phrases lay out a powerful cause-and effect relationship as an example for us to follow. Even though bad things happen I will still praise the Lord. Even though bad things happen, I will not let my mind be lost to the Enemy.

Developing this kind of “even though/I will” faith changes the temperature and trajectory of your life. When the pressure mounts, this kind of faith doesn’t deflate. Instead it actually inflates. It becomes bolder. More resolute and undaunted. More robust.

The development of an “even though” kind of faith has a lot to do with where we position our focus. We can develop this kind of faith. In Jesus’ name, and the development of this faith is the foundational principle behind not giving the Enemy a seat at our table. To do that, we need to root our thinking in a well-known but widely untapped biblical promise.

Psalm 23 – this passage depicts God as a personal and attentive Shepherd, One who intimately cares for the sheep yet is tough enough to defend them against attacks. This Shepherd will make sure you are rested and well fed. But He'll also beat back all those who threaten your safety and well-being. In time, we see this Shepherd most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ.

In John 10 verses 1 to 21 Jesus outlined how he himself is the Good Shepherd. Jesus knows his sheep – us. He protects us from thieves and robbers. He laid down his life for us. He guides us and we are able to listen for his voice and know his voice John 10 personifies Jesus as the good Shepherd of Psalm 23. And in Palm 23, the attributes and actions of the Shepherd-God are true of the Shepherd-Jesus. We know this because Hebrews 3 verse 8 states plainly that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Here’s the incredible invitation: Jesus is saying I want to be our Good Shepherd. He is a personal, involved God who wants to shepherd your life Can we just stop and breath in this reality? The Good Shepherd, who also happens to be God, is offering to lead you through every moment of your life.

The key for us, then, is that we allow Jesus to shepherd us. See, all of us are shepherded whether we realise it or not. Your shepherd might not be Jesus. But something is going to lead you. 2 Peter 2 verse 19 says “People are slaves to whatever has mastered them”. So maybe the culture is going to lead you. The anthem of the world is going to lead you. You’re going to go with whatever the social media flow is and that’s going to lead you.

When you allow Jesus to be your Shepherd, he steps into this stressed-out culture and becomes your replenishing guide. He leads you, watches over you and gives you rest. Jesus gives you purpose. He shows you how to deal with your enemies so they don’t tear you apart inside. Jesus gives you a hope and a future and he’ll restore your soul. He’ll give you goodness and love for today, for tomorrow and for every day for the rest of your life. Jesus will even give you an eternity with him in paradise.

When you allow Jesus to lead you, it’s not simply about him giving you good things or doing helpful things for you. In Psalm 23 we see the first way the Good Shepherd is going to lead you will require him making you do something.

Jesus loves you enough to make you do something vital that you are not inclined to know how to do (or choose to do) on your own. But you’re going to like it – because he makes you lie down in green pastures.

When God refers to us as sheep, it’s a reflection of how we are wired, although it’s not necessarily a compliment. Sheep need leadership. God’s not saying that we’re cute and cuddly. He’s saying it’s far too easy for us to have the wool pulled over our eyes. We don’t see with as much discernment as we should. We don’t even rest when we need to. When it comes to making decisions about our well-being, we’re not always uberintellects.

Any guesses why the water that the Good Shepherd leads his sheep to is specifically described as “still”? It’s because sheep lack self-awareness. If a sheep sees a roaring river, it thinks that’s a good place to get its thirst quenched. Never mind that sheep are covered with 5 sweaters’ worth of wool. The sheep gets so jazzed at the sight of any water that he sticks his head straight down into that rushing river. All 15 pounds of wool become soaking wet. The sheep gets sucked straight into the roaring river. Now he’s heading for the rapids, looking back fro a bailout from the shepherd ...

Fortunately the Good Shepherd carries a crook – a long, sturdy stick with a hook at one hand. Whenever we start heading toward things that initially look good but ultimately lead to our destruction, Jesus pulls us back to safety. Provided of course, we let him lead. God doesn’t force us to follow him. Sometimes only our noses become wet in the rushing water and Jesus catches us quickly. Sometimes we fight the Shepherd’s crook and dive straight into the river. We’re in the rapids now, heavy, soaked, and waterlogged, getting dragged under by the weight of our foolish choices. We’ve thumbed our sheep-noses for so long at the Shepherd that the river is washing us away to our destruction. We’re headed out to sea.

Leading us to still water is a foundational activity of a shepherd. In a word, the Good Shepherd is ... good. Because of his great love for us, Jesus always acts with our ultimate well being in mind. The goodness of God can be found in all he is and says and does.

The latter portion of Psalm 23 point to the “even though” type of faith. When we develop this kind of faith, it helps change our lives for good. In Psalm 23 verse 4 we find these words and they set up the context of the verses to come “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil.”

It’s amazing that the Good Shepherd walks with us right through the valley of the shadow of death. God is there with us through real hardship. He’s with us when a loved one gets sick. He’s with us when we bury someone we care for. He’s close when our heart is shattered. He’s close when we lose some sort of good thing we’d hoped for.

We can experience any number of losses in the valley of the shadow of death. Loss is a part of our story as humans. We all walk through grief, disappointment and discouragement. That’s why it’s so key that even though King David walked through such great difficulty, he declared, "I will fear no evil." The Good Shepherd was there to guide and comfort him.

How can you honestly say you are not afraid? The answer is shown in the second part of verse 4. We won't solve all the problems around us. We don't avoid every difficulty that comes our way. Yet we don't need to fear any evil, because the Good Shepherd is with us. His rod and staff comfort us.

God Almighty is with us!

No matter what troubles you are walking through right now, the good news is not simply that God will help you. The message is that God is with you. In sickness, at the grave, when the job opportunity doesn't come through, when you receive hard news, in the chemo ward. He is with you in the storm, in the wind, in the trial, and in the valley. God Almighty - the Good Shepherd - is right there in the midst of the difficulty with you.

This is a game-changing revelation and it shifts your prayer life. Because you don't need to pray "God I'm in a storm, help me." Instead you pray "God I'm in a storm. Thank you for being in this storm with me. You've got my back. How are we going to get through this together?"

Peace and victory and freedom don’t come from sitting around wishing we didn’t have any problems or pain. No, the reality is that we all will be led through the valley of the shadow of death in some way, shape, or form. Jesus promises in Psalm 23 that peace, victory and freedom will come in the midst of problems, pain and loss. That’s how we develop an “even though” kind of faith. We live by knowing that, in the midst of a broken world, God Almighty is with us.

There is a beautiful twist in verse 5 of Psalm 23. Remember how it says that God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies? Surely I would rather it be in God’s presence, not in the presence of my enemies. God has prepared a table right in the middle of the battle. That table is lalden with the richest of fares – and it’s all good food for us to eat – yet that table is set right in the middle of the chemo ward. God has set out the silverware, and he’s invited us to come and dine with him – yet that table is right in the middle of our family being pulled apart. That table is right in the middle of job stress. It’s smack-dab in the middle of relational tension. It’s directly at the centre of the hardships and arguments, the misunderstandings and persecutions, the depression and the death. Whatever we are battling, internally or externally the table is right there in the middle of the trouble, at the epicentre of conflict.

Sometimes the bible uses the term table as a figurative expression for God’s salvation, peace and presence. Every Jewish listener would immediately know the significance of being invited to sit at someone’s table of the Lord. Before Jesus was incarnate and personally knowable as Saviour and Friend, God’s presence was represented in various ways. A cloud. Fire. Smoke that filled the room. As the story of God’s people unfolded, God gave instructions for a tabernacle to be built. This was a place where sinful man could meet with holy God. One of the items to be placed in the tabernacle was a table, and on that table was to be placed the bread of the Presence – Exodus 25 verse 30.

Today, the same holy God invites us to dine with him and the invitation comes at a high price: Jesus. Redemption is completed when rebels are now in fellowship with God, enjoying God’s feast. Isaiah 25 verse 6 says “the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples.” Luke 13 verse 29 says “where people will … take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

All are welcome at God’s table of salvation. But the table described in Psalm 23 verse 5 is the table of fellowship. It’s a table meant for only you and the Good Shepherd. Don’t worry: it’s not exclusive in the sense that only one person is ever invited to this table. Rather’s it’s exclusive in the sense that everybody who is led by the Good Shepherd is invited to dine at this table with God. The Enemy is not welcome to sit here.

Picture this table.  Two seats are placed across from each other. The Good Shepherd stands on one side of the table. You stand on the other. Before you both sit, you first take in the feast that’s set before your eyes. The specifics of your table will look different from mine. It’s the Lord’s table but he is setting the table with you in mind. On the table are all the foods you love to eat. Good food, Healthy food. Bountiful food. More than enough. You don’t have to eat it all – it’s not an invitation to gluttony. It’s a true feast that satisfies your deepest longings. On the table is the kind of meal that makes you feel full and free at the same time.

You are a moment away from diving in but suddenly – while you and the Good Shepherd are still standing behind your chairs – you notice you’re not alone. Nobody is at the table except you and the Good Shepherd, but encircling you is a throng of people. They’re part of what makes this table so unique because your enemies are still in view. The folks surrounding this table are not happy you are here. They are scowling. Calling you names. Criticizing you, saying things about you that are not true. They are out to undermine your efforts. They are filled with hate. Some want to stab you in the back.

They represent your troubles. Your problems. Your stressors. You are surrounded by calamity, pressure, anxiety, addiction, divorce, depression, family collapse, all sorts of pain. And then the unthinkable happens. Right in the middle of all the calamity and strife, the God of heaven calls you by name and says “please sit down.”

At this point you would think it would be obvious that you would take the Good Shepherd up on his offer. But in today’s fast paced life, you and I can’t be sure. It’s more likely that we might stage a great social media photo. We only have time to snap the picture as we grab a cup of coffee and dash off to our next appointment. “Thank you so much Jesus! You are the best. I love you for it. This is all too much, really! I’ve got to go to a meeting but I will definitely catch up with you later.”

Or things go differently. You and the Good Shepherd could both sit down.

“Are you thirsty?” he asks as he fills your glass with the freshest water. Stunned and amazed you try to process what is happening.

This is the picture of “even though/I will” faith. Even though I am surrounded by my enemies, God has prepared a table for me and I will sit down with him.

God’s not chintzy. He doesn’t have a scarcity mentality. He has a generosity mentality and everything tastes as wonderful as it looks. You eat and you eat and you eat and it’s a wonderful meal. It’s an experience that happens continually, moment by moment, for the rest of your life. This meal is at the core of your intimate relationship with God Almighty. He doesn’t promise to eliminate the conflict. He hasn’t removed you from the reality of trouble. But he has promised to prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemies.

In spite of all the delicious food you are diving into, the true importance of this table is not what’s on it. The wonder of this meal is not the food. It’s about who you are at the table with.

The ultimate benefit for us all is not something God gives us. It’s God himself. God is sitting at the table with us. God is walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We are invited to have a relationship with Almighty God.

How easy it is to forget – or never fully know – who our dinner companion truly is. In 1 Timothy 1 verse 17 God is described as “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God.”

That is who is at the table with us.

Romans 11 verse 33 and 36 “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen”

Job described our dinner companion in comparison to the vastness of space, how earth is suspended as if over nothing, how God wraps up waters in his cloud and can cover the face of the full moon. God marks out the horizon and causes the pillars of heaven to quake; he can church up the sea or blow upon the skies so they become fair. “And these are but the outer fringe of his works” “How faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” Job 26 verse 14

The meal’s going great. It’s just you and Jesus. You’re feasting with him and enjoying an unencumbered relationship together. You know that across the table is the Great King and that he and he alone is your true and best reward. You know he loves you. But someone else – your greatest Enemy wants in and is working persistently, stealthily, to sit at this table with you. That person is definitely not invited, but he knows that if he can win the battle of your mind he can destroy you.

Chapter 3 – Mind If I Sit Down

In less time than it takes to snap your fingers – if you’re not careful – the Enemy can pull a seat at the table your Shepherd has prepared for you. Suddenly, it’s not just you and God Almighty at your table anymore.

Now it’s you and God and the Devil.

The Enemy only needs the tiniest crack. A sliver of opportunity. The smallest window of doubt or uncertainty. Just like that, the Devil is sitting at your table, beginning to win the battle for your mind.

We’ve come to accept the Enemy sitting at our table as normal. That’s a big problem. We give him permission anytime we say things like “Oh, that’ just the way it is these days. Anxiety is just part of the equation. We’re all anxious and there’s nothing we can do about it. Life’s just so chaotic today. Of course we’re all strangled by worry. Look at any news feed. Why wouldn’t I be afraid?”

In the same way, we accept the false narrative about our lives that we aren’t worth much to God ... or anybody else, for that matter. We think people don’t get us. Or they don’t value us. Or they are flat-out against us.

Or we flip to the other point of view. We think we deserve more, so we allow envy and greed and comparison to cannibalize our God-given identity. We scroll our way through social media feeds determined to get what other people have – or, better yet, to get more.

More stuff. That’s what we need. More friends. More layers of protection. More likes. Or maybe another table. After al, we all live in a corrupted culture and we know it. Why stress over a little lust here, or a moment or two of pleasure there? Before you know it, you talk like the Devil and think the thoughts he wants you to dwell on.

That’s just the way it is right?

No! Allowing the Enemy to have a say in our lives should not be normal. In Jesus’ name, we can refuse him and all his ways. We don’t need to accept them. He leads us to sins that are harming us and choking the life out of this generation, but they don’t have to stay in our lives. Romans 8 verses 10 to 12 says that the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us. This same resurrection power is available to us. Jesus Christ has broken the power of sin, and God’s invitation to us is to embrace a new mindset and a new way of living. In Jesus’ name we are to think of ourselves as dead to the power of sin. In Jesus’ name we don’t have to let the voice of the Enemy control the way we live. In Jesus’ name we don’t have to give in to sinful desires; we can win the battle for our minds. Thanks to Jesus, we are no longer slaves. We are set free. We are alive. We are children of God.

See, we create a big problem when we grasp only the first part of Psalm 23 verse 4 (walking through the valley) but opt out of remembering what comes next (God’s promise to be with us in the midst of difficulties). Whenever we camp in the valley and stay there, focused on the difficulties in our lives, we are prompted by the Enemy to go another direction. We experience trials or hardships or persecution or loneliness and we think, Well I'm in the valley of the shadow now. God didn't come through for me. I prayed for such and such, and God didn’t answer that prayer the way I wanted, so I’m going to stay in the valley. I was obedient to God, but God didn’t reward me as I hoped. So I’m going to turn to sin in an effort to feel better.

When this unwelcome visitors shows up, he’s often quiet at first. Friendly even. You might not recognise him when he first sits down. The devil doesn’t arrive with a brightly flashing neon pitchfork. He doesn’t sit down with a growl and threaten to gouge out you eyes. No. At first, it’s simply another person seated next to you, helping himself to your brownie, wondering aloud which water glass is his, inadvertently wiping his mouth with your napkin.

It takes only a second. The unwelcome visitor sits down so swiftly and casually it’s hard to discern his true character. He often appears to be on your side at the start. He promises you relief from your troubles. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14 describe how Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” which means that the Devil rarely comes to the table showing his true colours – someone whose sole purpose is to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 1 verse 1). Instead the Devil takes the form of someone who’s helpful, someone who appears to have your best interest at heart, someone who offers you respite from whatever pain you’re feeling.

He might even quote scripture to you. The Devil did that when he tempted Jesus (Matthew 4; Luke 4). Basically, the Devil said to Jesus, Here, check out this one verse taken out of context – it’s the big answer to what You’re going through. Here, this one verse will be just the ticket you need.

Your Enemy will use whatever devices are available to worm his thoughts inside your brain. Maybe it’s a movie you watch, a series of subtly influential memes that flash by on social media or a conversation between 2 people that happens within earshot. You’re not positive how the devil’s thoughts got in your mind, but they’re certainly in there now. He’ll kick you when you’re down Maybe you’re lonely. Or angry. Or tired. Whenever you feel burdened or pressured, you become more susceptible to evil’s influence. 1 John 2 verse 16 describes how 3 big items in the Devil’s tool kit are “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. That means the Devil can take anything the body naturally desires and use it to harm us – that’s the lust of the flesh at work. The Devil can use anything we see and wish for as part of his trap to lead us toward destruction – that’s the lust of the eyes. The pride of life, in this case, is a harmful sort of bragging or boasting or showmanship or ambition that causes us to have too much confidence in ourselves. The Devil will use that too.

Often the Devil appears empathetic. That’s how he worked on Eve way back in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3 describes how the Devil, in the form of a serpent, prompted Eve to question if God was truly good. The Devil showed Eve the forbidden fruit and pointed out how beautiful it was. Surely God is withholding something from you, something you truly need, the Enemy whispered. Soon Eve was agreeing with the Devil, nodding her head, motioning to Adam, bent on convincing her husband and herself that the fruit was indeed “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” (verse 6).

In whatever way the Devil gains access to your table, his goals are always the same. He wants to gain access to your mind so he can destroy you. He wants to get inside your head so harmful thoughts can be planted within you. Those thoughts will grow unchecked and spill out into actions. He wants you to be overtaken by wickedness. He wants to steal everything that is valuable from you. He wants to kill your relationship with God. He wants to cause division between you and the people who care for you. The Devil is not gentle – not in the long run. He was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8 verse 44) and he sets snares that capture people so they do his will (2 Timothy 2 verse 26). The Devil is vicious and cruel and he’s always prowling around “like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5 verse 8).

That someone is you.

With all his trickery, it can be hard to recognise the Enemy’s voice. He was prowling around Eve in the garden of Eden. He was prowling around the night Jesus was betrayed. It’s not up to us to stop his prowling. But it is up to us to keep him from sitting at our table.

Rest assured: you have the power as a son or daughter of Jesus Christ to exercise faith that’s defiant of the Devil’s whisper. You can say, “In Jesus’ name, I won’t entertain your words, your thoughts, your influence.”

How do you know if the Enemy is already sitting at your table? By the predominant, relentless fiery arrows that are flying most furiously from the evil’s arsenal of weapons. We first need to recognise those lies and acknowledge their destructive powers in our lives before we unfold how they can be extinguished in Jesus’ name.

CHAPTER 4 – DEADLY LIES EXPOSED

When you are up against life and death, when your back’s against the wall, when circumstances are poised to take you out and when the Devil is whispering lies in your ear, you need to know there’s an all-powerful Good Shepherd with a rod in one hand and a staff in the other. That’s the Jesus of Psalm 23. That’s why we find comfort in his presence. With that staff, the Good Shepherd can grab you and pull you to safety. And with that rod, he can crush any prowling lion or raging bear that charges toward you.

King David, who wrote Psalm 23, had taken on a lion and a bear and pounded them into the ground (1 Samuel 17 verses 34 to 3). David understood what God said when he promised to be with us through the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus is there in the midst of the pressure with us, and he’s not just standing around with his hands in his pockets. He’s there to rescue us when necessary, to protect us at all costs and to fill our cups to overflowing. We don’t need to watch over our shoulders anymore. God prepares a table for us in the midst of our enemies. Jesus is watching them, guarding us, so we can keep our attention fully fixed on the face of the Good Shepherd – Jesus our Saviour.

Yet, as mentioned, it’s strategic to be able to spot the enemy’s lies – not so you can focus on the lies but so you can avoid them and fix your gaze back toward the Good Shepherd. When you are able to spot the following lies that are coming your direction, you can overcome them and win the battle for your mind with truth in Jesus’ name.

The Lie of Comparison

First, if you’ve heard recently that it’s better at another table, then you can be certain the Enemy is at your table. Jesus’ table, the one he prepares for you, is about life and life abundantly (John 10 verse 10). Any table other than God’s table is about stealing, killing and destroying. When the Devil sits at your table, he often points to another table and talks about how amazing it is somewhere else. He points to a place that’s not the table where God is and says, That, over there. That’s the solution to your problem.

The Devil tells you exactly what you want to hear and shows you exactly what you think you’re looking for. He doesn’t come to the table and announce to you that he’s going to kill you. He comes to the table with an offer to seduce you. But ultimately, he’s not selling you truth. He’s not selling you life. No. He’s selling you lies. He’s selling you death.

Woven into the Devil’s pitch that it’s better at another table is the trickery of comparison. The Devil always tells you that there’s a better table somewhere else. Surely you should run with that other crowd, the crowd that’s not sitting at the table with Almighty God. If you could just abandon all you know to be true and go do your own thing for a season, that’s going to be what you want. Surely at another table – a table without fellowship with God – there’s more life, more food, more satisfaction, more joy, more of what you’re looking for.

Don’t give in to that lie. The Devil loves for you to look at your life and compare it with somebody else’s so you wish you had what they had. He’ll mix in a little jealousy and sift in a little coveting and add a dash of woe is me and throw in a few lines about how God must love that person more than you. Or about how God is blessing that person more than He’s blessing you. Or about how surely God has withheld something you need. Pretty soon the Devil has you convinced that God isn’t good. God hasn’t blessed you. God doesn’t love you. You missed out on something good because God is mean or God forgot about you or God’s been lying to you all this time.

We call this “the grass is always greener” syndrome. If you’re not firmly seated at the table with the Almighty, if your eyes are not locked on those of the Good shepherd, then you’re distracted by the tyranny of comparison. Scanning the horizon around you, what do you see?

The Enemy masterfully paints an inviting picture of freedom. It’s over there – where the grass is always greener. These thoughts that you can shirk commitments and have it your way don’t come from Jesus. He comes to give life and give it to the full.

Are you moving away from what you know is right and good as you’re reading these words? Are you thinking about bailing on what you’ve committed to? Are you close to doing something that you know is contrary to God’s best? Something you know you’ll regret? Or have you already made the jump away from Jesus, and you’re quickly discovered that the “greener grass” is less than you bargained for? If so, the Enemy is at your table.

But you don’t have to live this way. Jesus is calling you back to his table, to your table for two. Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

The Lie that You’re Doomed

Second, if you’ve bought the lie that you’re not going to make it, the Enemy is at your table. This voice tells you that life is hopeless. There’s no way out. May as well just chuck it all, quit and die.

So often when we are asked how things are going, we reply with answers like, “Man I don’t know if I’m going to make it through this season. I’m not sure I’m going to survive this semester. I don’t know if I’m going to get through this time.”

Have you ever heard yourself saying something like that? Where did you get that kind of thinking? Where did you hear those words of gloom and doubt? Not from your Good Shepherd. You likely heard them from the enemy at your table.

See, your God has just told you that even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don’t need to fear any evil. Did you catch the operative word in this sentence through? Your Shepherd didn’t just say you’re going to the valley. He said you are going through the valley. In other words – you are going to make it.

That’s “even though/I will” faith being developed in you. Even though times are tough God’s rod and staff are with you. Even though times are hard, you are not alone. God knows you’re going through a hard time He knows the way is dark. He hasn’t promised to deliver you from the trouble. He’s promised to see you through the trouble. There’s a big difference.

You will not find the Good Shepherd telling you that you’re not going to make it. You will never find the Good Shepherd telling you that life is hopeless, there’s no way out. Why not chuck it all, quit and die? That is not the voice of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd says, We’re going through this valley and I’m going to be with you all the way through. And guess what – we’re going to have a story to tell on the other side.

This is how God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt. He didn’t build a bridge over the Red Sea; he parted the sea so they could walk through it. Oftentimes God’s plan is not to build a bridge over troubled waters. Instead, His miracle plan is to give you the grace and the power to miraculously go through the troubled waters. “Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters – a pathway no one knew was there!” (Psalm 77 verse 19). You are going through whatever circumstance you’re currently in. And your Shepherd is going through it with you

It’s so easy to want to rewrite Psalm 23 so it says we sit at the table in God’s presence only and not in the presence of our enemies too. Christians talk about how they love the presence of God and long for the presence of God and they pray things like, Lord would you just be with us today? But guess what? God has already answered that prayer with a yes. “Do you not realise about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” the apostle Paul asked in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5. We have an incarnational theology, which means that Jesus lives in us. There are moments when we sense that God is around us in a special or supernatural way. But we don’t need to bank on the cloud or the fire that God’s people saw manifested in days of old.

Interestingly, there isn’t one verse in the New Testament that encourages us to seek or to celebrate the “presence” of God. Why? Because God is now made visible (and for the 33 years God was in human skin, tangible) in and through the person of Jesus, who now lives in us through the Spirit I no longer seek the presence of Jesus, I seek the person of Jesus. I’m not after the presence of the Holy Spirit. I want the person of the Holy Spirit and his power. I’m not calling on the presence of God, I have God (Father, Son and Spirit) living in me

And God promises he is with us in the presence of our enemies. Jesus is at the table with us in the fire, in the hardship, in the feelings of hopelessness, in the broken world. God doesn’t eliminate all of our difficulties. He allows us to walk through hardships and he walks through those hardships with us.

Have you ever believed the lie that you’re hopeless? You are not hopeless. Jesus lives in you! Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

The Lie of Worthlessness

Third, if you’re hearing, I’m not good enough, the Enemy is at your table. Now, we’ve got to be really careful about this life, because Scripture calls us to be humble. But as it’s been well said: humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking of yourself less. We easily get these confused by thinking it honours God for us to think less of ourselves. But nothing could be further from the truth. You are made in the very image of God. That staggering reality doesn’t cause us to strut around and grow an “it’s all about me” persona. But it doesn’t leave us wallowing in the misery of “I don’t measure up to anything” either. These two outcomes are where the devil wants to lead you. Either to an overinflated ego or to an underappreciated sense of just how significant and valuable you are.

In this instance, I’d love to encourage you if you tend to gravitate toward the latter camp – you just don’t feel like you’re enough. No matter what you’ve accomplished, or how much truth from God’s word you’ve heard over the years, you just don’t believe you’re enough.

Maybe someone told you you’d never amount to anything. Maybe you’ve always wished you looked like someone else. Or had the gifts that a friend has. Or maybe a dump truck of guilt backed into your story at some point and unloaded a pile of shame on you. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you do, in your mind it’s never enough. And if you feel that way, certainly everyone else must heartily agree. Oh, sure, they’re nice to your face. But you know how they really feel.

Here’s the thing: you need to know the “not enough” anthem was composed in the pit of hell. It’s crippling. Debilitating. Paralyzing. Suffocating. It didn’t come from the Good Shepherd. If you’re hearing it and repeating it, there must be an Enemy at your table.

This lie isn’t a reflection of true humility. It’s a club that beats you over the head. This lie whispers to you that you’re useless. You will never have what it takes. Have you been called to lead a small group at your church? This lie insists it can’t be done. Have you been called to lead your family with integrity and compassion and kindness and strength as a wife and mother who follows God? This lie tells you that you’re not good enough; you’re never going to amount to anything, so don’t even bother trying. Do you believe that God loves you because he created you and calls you his beloved child? This lie tries to convince you that you’re a spiritual reject. You’re a worthless sinner who’ll always be a worthless sinner. You’re not God’s child. He hates you.

Instead, look across the table. Lock eyes for a moment with the One whose sitting across from you. Do you see scorn and feel shame, or do you notice the scars on the hands that hold you water glass and the pitcher that’s being lifted to fill it with a refreshing drink? Sure, Jesus is holiness personified, but the Holy One invited you here. Booked the table Prepared the meal. Sat down to join you. And this reservation cost him everything.

In the beautiful comparative picture we have of the Good Shepherd in John 10, scripture tells us Jesus “lays down his life for the sheep” (verse 11). Jesus has put it all on the line to be sitting at the table with you! Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

The Lie of Me Against the World

When you believe the lie that everybody is against you, you are convinced everybody hates you. Everybody at your job hates you. Everybody in your family hates you. Everybody in your church. Your pastors. Your professors. Your parents. Your children. Your friends. Your colleagues. Your neighbours Even the waiter spit in you soup

If you’re hearing a voice that tells you, everybody is against you, the Enemy is sitting at our table. It’s the voice of fear-based illogic, of paranoia, a voice that encourages you to mistrust everybody  in your life,

Certainly there are subtler forms of this lie. The Enemy is great at sowing seeds of doubt, at working to undermine your confidence about what God says is true about you. You might not exactly hear the word hate, but maybe you are hearing yourself say words like this: Well, that person didn’t even look up when I walked into the office – I bet she doesn’t like me. See those people talking over there – I guarantee you they’re talking about me they are out to get me. Look at that friend – I bet she never wants to talk to me ever again. I don’t have any friends. All my friends do things without me. No one ever invites me anywhere. Nobody likes me.

What’s the truth? Well, it’s possible that somebody hates you. Sure. But it’s not likely that everybody’s against you. What’s more likely if you’re hearing that lie is that you’ve got your fist clenched and you’re ready to strike. Somewhere in the past you developed a defensive posture, an untrusting nature, and now it has become your default. Your walls are up. Tall and thick. Some might even call those walls impenetrable. People have hurt you in the past, so you’re not going to let them ever get close to you again. You’ve taken a vow – whether spoken or unspoken – that you’re going to punch people before they punch you. You’re going to leave them before they ever leave you. You’re going to slight them before they slight you. That’s usually what’s behind that lie.

The truth is that you need to let the Good Shepherd lead you by still waters. You need to let him cause you to lie down in green pastures. You need to ask God to refresh your soul and guide you along righteous paths of healing and restoration for his name’s sake. You may be surrounded by pressures and troubles and uncertainties and misunderstandings, but God has set a table for you in the middle of all this. God’s got your back. Jesus is not some noodle-armed weakling, He’s the Lord of all creation. All strength and power and authority belong to him. He’s King of the universe. When God is walking you through the valley you can stop worrying about managing all the outcomes. You can stop looking over your shoulder. You can take the boxing gloves off.

The truth that God is for you and not against you matters greatly. If you don’t believe this, you’re constantly watching over your shoulder. This action of looking over your shoulder begins to create a false narrative, the image of a world in which you constantly play the victim card. You miss the freedom and encouragement of accepting the fact that people do love you. To be loved requires that you eventually agree with God and come to love yourself. It’s a little scary at first if all you’ve ever known is a “me against the world” approach. But you weren’t made to hate yourself. You were made to know that you’re loved.

Sorry but you can’t reflect the bounty of all that’s on your table if you’re walking around with your fists clenched. Psalm 23 goes on to say in verse 5 “You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over”. The oily head part doesn’t make much sense if you don’t know much about sheep. The biggest nemesis for a sheep wasn’t the big, bad wolf (although wolves were a threat, for sure) but tiny parasites and flies. The flies, little harbingers of aggravation, would attempt to lay their eggs in the soft tissue of the sheep’s nose Yuck. Can you imagine trying to breathe with a breeding factory for flies in your nostrils? The parasites would lodge themselves in the wool around the sheep’s eyes and face, causing skin disease and irritation. So the shepherd would cover the sheep’s head in oil. The oil provided a protective shield that prevented these irritants from fining safe harbour in the wool around the sheep’s face and nose. God, through this word, wants to protect you from aggravation, lies and deceit.

But there’s something else. Jesus wants your life to reflect the bounty of your table. He wants your life to overflow. Generosity is the calling card of everyone who dines regularly with the King. You don’t hoard God’s blessing. You pass out steak dinners to everyone around you. Even your enemies! Why? Because you can. You have more than enough on your table. You can lavishly share with everybody – even with those who might hate you. Generosity is impossible with closed fists. You can only give when you have open palms.

The table allows you to change the narrative from Everybody hates me, everybody is against me to God is for me. God’s got my back. The bounty of the table changes you into an agent of love to those around you. You may be rejected by some. But you’ll be surprised how many people around you are also waiting for someone to look up and reach out in love.

The Lord Almighty is for you So everyone is not against you don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

The Lie That There’s No way Out

If you feel like you’re surrounded and there’s no way out, you know the Enemy is at your table.

This is a classic lie of the Enemy. It’s that ultimate lie that combines several of the lies we’ve already addressed. The Enemy convinces you there’s nowhere to turn. Nowhere to run. No way forward No chance you’re ever going to live free again.

The consequences of your bad decisions are closing in from one side, the betrayal of a friend from another Your reputation is toast. You’re gonna lose your job. You can’t go back to your community You can’t trust anyone. You’ve played your last card. The pressure is too great. Give up. Cash out. Get out of town or worse get out of this life.

If you feel like you’re surrounded and there’s no way out, I’ve got game-changing news for you – you are surrounded! But it’s better than you think.

Elijah, revered as one of the most powerful prophets in all Israel, as an anointed miracle worker who had called down fire on the prophets of false gods on Mount Carmel. At God’s instruction Elijah passed on the anointing to young Elisha a prophet and mighty man of faith and he, too, walked in the power of God.

In a season of conflict and war, the king of Aram was bearing down on Israel, trying to take whatever shots he could to wreak destruction on the cities and the people of God. But God would tip Elisha off to the enemy king’s plans. “Time and again Elisha warned the king of Israel), to that he was on his guard in such places” (2 Kings 6 verse 10). The king of Aram was ticked, and he wanted Elisha dead at all costs.

Elisha and his servant had travelled to a town called Dothan. When the king of Aram discovered that Elisha was the one feeding his battle plans to the king of Israel, he sent a massive force of men with chariots and horses to finish Elisha off They arrived under the cover of darkness and surrounded the city while Elisha was sleeping.

The servant didn’t sleep too well that night.  Tossing and turning, every sound outside of the camp unsettled him. Was someone there? Was danger lurking? Was Elisha safe? When morning broke the servant was already awake. He went out to survey the scene and couldn’t believe what he saw. The town was completely surrounded. The Arameans had found Elisha’s location and positioned themselves in a choking ring of assault during the night There was no way out.

The servant rushed in to awaken Elisha “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” (verse 15)

Elisha had a choice. Freak out. Fold. Or look up. Elisha chose to look up and lent into an “even though/I will” faith. He declared, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (verse 16). And then he prayed Not for himself Not for deliverance from the pursuing army. Elisha prayed for his servant. Weird, no? Why would he do that?

Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see” (verse 17).

You might say the servant could see just fine. He could see well enough to recognise horse-drawn fighting chariots from a hundred yards away without corrective lenses. He could size up the hundreds of men and surmise that there was only himself and Elisha to stand against them. He could see well enough to know that they were boxed in, cornered.

What did he not see that prompted Elisha to pray this prayer?

He did not see that the army surrounding the city was itself surrounded by the angel army of the living God!

“The Lord opened the servants eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots f fire all around Elisha” (verse 170. They were surrounded, all right. Surrounded by God-forces blazing with his glory and might.

The same is true for you and me. It may be true that circumstances are closing in. Enemies have taken up their position in the night. Your whole world is surrounded by threats, accusations, missiles, and hate. But here’s the thing: that’s only half the story. The half you’re getting from the adversary sitting at your table. He wants you to believe you are doomed That there is no way out.

But the Spirit of God is interceding for you: Lord, open her spiritual eyes; Father, let him see with they eyes of faith.

God has everyone and everything that’s surrounding you surrounded. Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

Jesus didn’t send a message or a messenger to tell you how valuable you are. He came himself. He paid the price He is the prize. He’s waited an eternity (literally) for you to join him And he’s sitting across from you telling you that he thinks you are worth it.

When the Enemy tells you you’re not smart enough, you’re not strong enough, you don’t have the right background, you’re not pretty enough, you don’t matter enough ... look up and lock eyes with the King. Hear him say, daughter – Son- there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at this table with you. His words are the words of life (John 6 verse 68). His voice thunders from heaven (Psalm 68 verse 33). His voice drowns out every enemy lie. By his grace, you can start taking authority over the voices at your table and kick the devil out of your inner party. He has to flee in Jesus’ name.

CHAPTER 5 – SPIRAL OF SIN

You were created in the image of God. You were called to greatness. You are God’s workmanship, a child of the King and God wants to set you free from anything that’s holding you back. God wants you to live in the fullest potential that he has for your life. It’s time you got serious about victory now that God has given you the opportunity to ask, How is the opposition coming against me? What is the Enemy doing to me? What adjustments can be made? You can win the battle for your mind.

It’s adjustment time. Soberly and honestly examine if you’ve given the Devil a seat at your table. Consider what Psalm 23 has promised you: Jesus has prepared a table for you in the presence of your enemies. The pressure of life is all around you, yet your Almighty God has invited you to sit and dine. Whenever you allow the Devil to sit, he worms his way into a dinner party that belongs to you and God alone. The Enemy begins to devour the abundant life meant for you. He’s eating your lunch, so to speak. You start heading down the pathway toward sin and death.

Death, in this sense, is spiritual death – not eternal condemnation for believers, but the destruction of the close relationship you are meant to fully and deeply enjoy with God. Scripture is clear that nothing separates you from God’s love (Romans 8 verse 38 and 3), yet followers of Christ can still grow distant from God if they so choose. If the Devil sits at your table, sin can fill your mind and sour your conscience and ruin the intimate harmony you enjoy with the Lord. With sin in your life, you lose your peace, effectiveness, confidence and cheerfulness. Relationships are strained. You don’t live to your fullest God-given potential.

Complicating matters, your own thoughts and feelings can combine with sin and temptation in a spiral that goes around and around. Maybe you’ve noticed a tendency for people to repeat the same sins. Maybe you’ve noticed that in your own life. Sometimes the spiral is generational, where the harmful patterns of your grandparents’ behaviour and attitudes were passed along to your parents and now you see them showing up in your own life and in the lives of your kids. Other times, the spiral is personal. When life gets tough, we return to our familiar sins, even though we know they’re harmful. Either way, the spiral needs to be broken. That’s why it’s helpful for us to be aware of how this spiral works so we can combat the Enemy’s schemes (2 Corinthians 2 verse 11).

The spiral begins this way: a temptation or thought that’s not from God comes into your mind. Stop right there. Identify that reality. If a harmful thought enters your mind, it’s not from God. We must be awakened to this. Those thoughts are from the Enemy, who often uses our own desires against us. How? James 1 verses 13 to 15 describes the start of the spiral this way: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

We are “lured” and “enticed” by our own desires. That means the Enemy has a plan for your life and mine, and his plan is to bury us. You and I aren’t living in a vacuum, making neutral choices. We live on a battlefield. We’re stamped with the image of God and targeted by the Enemy who uses our own desires against us, as James says. Our Enemy hates God and wants to destroy everything he can that bears God’s image. Be aware of this! The Enemy wants to kill your dreams. He wants to bury the purpose God has placed inside of you. He wants to steal your sense of self-worth and confidence and hope. He wants to destroy your marriage and erode your relationship with your kids. He wants to ruin your good reputation and slander the name of Christ to the process. He’s got all kinds of time and no mercy. The way he’s going to start you down this road of destruction is by putting a thought into our mind that’s contrary to God’s best for your life and letting it entice you and fester.

Despite the Enemy’s malicious intent, I don’t want you to be fearful or paranoid. 1 John  verse 4 says, “Greater is He who is in you that he who is in the world.” That’s a verse you need to remember. Don’t become overly obsessed with the Devil, thinking every bad thing that happens in your life is coming directly from him.

Yet you also can’t go through life with blinders on, thinking the world is a neutral place. You have a real Enemy and he’s putting harmful thoughts into your head all the time, with the ultimate goal of wiping you out. One of the biggest ways he works at doing that is with unchecked thoughts. That’s what needs to be stopped. That’s why we need this halftime adjustment.

Sin can look so good at first. Helpful even. We’re apt to believe that the tempting thoughts in our minds are a solution to the pressures we face. But watch out.

We know from Ezekiel 28 verses 12 to 17 that Satan was originally a high-ranking angel who rebelled against God and was cast out from heaven. Isaiah 14 verse 12 describes how Satan was cast out of heaven like a star falling to the ground. Your foe is somebody to take seriously – and his nature is deceptive and misleading. Genesis 3 verse 1 describes the evil one as “more crafty” than any other created thing. That means he’s cunning, deceitful, fraudulent. He runs the spiritual equivalent of a shell game – showing you where the little ball is hidden at first, then slip-sliding the cups around so you always come up losing.

The Devil never rolls through the front door of your life announcing he’s going to destroy you. He doesn’t show you a picture of yourself 18 months from now living alone in a rented room because you’ve lost your mistrusted relationships. He doesn’t direct your attention to a PowerPoint presentation of clear, step-by step plans of how he’s going to bring you to your destruction. Instead, he slips through the side door. He lures and entices you. It’s like fishing.

We have constantly to watch out for the Devil’s lures. When that temptation or harmful thought comes our way, it’s probably not going to look bad – not at first. Initially it promises something good. Sin offers a solution. Sin guarantees relief. If you’re down, sin brings you up. If you’re stuck, sin shows the way out. If you’re miserable, sin promises comfort. If you’re outraged sin offers the perfect justice. If you’re lonely, sin becomes your best friend.

All lies.

All that feigned goodness, all those false solutions, all the relief, all the comfort, all the justice, all the camaraderie. All those promises are meaningless. Sin is not your pal, and sin is not our buddy. Sin is not on your side. Sin doesn’t have your back. Sin is never the magic elixir it claims to be. Sin is a mirage, always overpromising and underdelivering.

The Enemy works in your life by luring and lying. He promises things he can’t fulfil. He challenges God’s truth. He attacks God’s character and intentions. The Enemy says things such as, Surely God’s holding out on you – you can’t trust him. He essentially told Eve, if you eat from this fruit, your eyes are going to be opened, you’re going to be like God. The Enemy appeals to your basic human needs. We all have the need for acceptance, worth, satisfaction, fulfilment, and happiness. The Enemy constantly holds out a lure and offers a lie: Hey, this will satisfy your needs. Take a bite. You deserve to be happy.

Mixed with this, the Enemy often uses other people to encourage our hasty choices. Sometimes we need to change our circle of friends because they’re in the habit of rolling out the red carpet for us when it comes to doing dumb things. Maybe you’re in the elevator with the wrong people. Instead of taking you up to God things, they take you down to the basement of defeat because that’s where they’re living. Misery loves company. And miserable people have a way of wanting those around them to fail, not succeed.

Don’t fall for the lies. Don’t chase the lure. Don’t give the Enemy a seat at our table.

I need to clarify that when a harmful thought or temptation first enters your mind, that is not sin – not in and of itself. Jesus was tempted. The Enemy sent harmful thoughts His way. The Devil actually spoke to Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4 verses 1 to 11) and Jesus heard the Devil’s words, yet Jesus never chose to entertain the Devil’s voice. See, when a harmful thought or temptation comes into our minds, we have a choice. We can either discard that thought or entertain it. If we discard it, good. But if we entertain it, that’s when the Devil sits at our table. The sin happens when we keep hold of that harmful thought and let it take root in our minds.

Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount. All sorts of folks were entertaining unhealthy thoughts, although they weren’t acting on those thoughts. They figured all was well. But in Matthew 5 verses 21 and 22 and 27 to 28, Jesus came along and blew this up. Hey, He told them, you think you’re doing fine because you’re not actually murdering people. Well, guess what? If you simply hate somebody enough to want them dead . That’s as bad a murder. You might think you’re fine because you’re not actually in bed with someone you’re not married to, but guess what? If you’re merely imagining yourself in an illicit relationship with someone, that’s also wrong. You’re committing sin with that person in your heart.

Entertaining a harmful thought is as bad as doing a harmful deed. That’s key because it’s far too easy to think we’re not sinning merely because we’re not acting on a sinful thought. Here’s the fact: the thought itself falls short of the glory of God. When we entertain it, the thought muddies our relationship with the Lord. The thought itself occupies our mind and has the power to knock us off course. Romans 12 verse 2 gives this stiff warning: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

The frightening reality is this: once we let a harmful thought pitch a tent in our mind, eventually that temptation is acted on.

Sometimes people insist that harmful thoughts don’t always lead to harmful actions, but I disagree. Harmful actions always begin with harmful thoughts, and harmful thoughts, harboured over time, always lead to harmful actions. Those thoughts must be stopped If those thoughts are entertained long enough, they will win the battle for your mind.

Sometimes we will actually do the harmful thing that we’re thinking about, while at other times the shift is simply that our attitude toward the sinful choice changes. We slowly warm up to sin. Either way, the harmful thoughts have led us to being negatively influenced.  

This why the Enemy’s lures are so dangerous: sin usually feels good. Just for a moment. We often skip over this part of the story in church, but it needs to be told if we’re to be aware of the Enemy’s schemes. Sin can be fun – at least for a little while. Proverbs 14 verses 12 and 13 lays this out plainly, “there’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again – it leads straight to hell. Sure those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.”

Moses grew up as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He had all the opportunity to enjoy the privileges of life in the Egyptian palace. Yet Hebrews 11 verse 25 says that Moses chose not “to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin”. He went the other direction. The pleasures of sin are enjoyable, but they are not lasting pleasures, and they are certainly not pleasures that honour God. Sinful pleasures don’t provide peace or fulfilment. They lead to harm, separation, disappointment and shame.

That’s how it works. The Devil shows you a lure. You bite the lure, but it doesn’t deliver what was promised. Instead, you end up in a downward sin spiral into shame, separation and destruction.

Sometimes people say they hate going to church because church makes them feel guilty. But people don’t feel bad because a preacher tells them to. They feel bad on their own. God has created us to be like him, and when we miss the mark, a negative effect happens in our souls. When we sin, we feel frustrated. Guilty. Ashamed. It’s because we are falling short of what God intended us to be. The frustration often lies within ourselves. We grit our teeth mutter, “Man, I can’t believe I did that again. I can’t believe I went there again.”

It’s that crazy spiral at work. We started out by feeling some sort of loss or experiencing some kind of trouble. We didn’t feel great. We sought relief. The Enemy was nearby, moving quickly. We spited the forbidden fruit he offered us. The fruit didn’t look bad we mulled over the idea for a while, and maybe we wondered why God withheld that fruit from us in the first place. Maybe God didn’t love us after all. So we acted on our thoughts and it into the fruit. The fruit tasted good for one brief moment. The chunk slid down our gullet and then we realised we were naked. We were ashamed of what we’d done.

So were right back where we started. Feeling some sort of loss. Experiencing some kind of trouble. Not feeling great. Only now, that misery is compounded by shame. We feel worse than we did before.

If you’re feeling lousy and you sin in an attempt to feel better, whatever pain you’re feeling right now will still be there tomorrow morning, only worse.

In that one moment of misery, one more turn of the spiral usually occurs. After sin happens, and when we’re feeling miserable and ashamed, the Enemy shifts tactics. All the way up until now, he’s been whispering to you, See the fruit? Take the fruit. The fruit looks good, doesn’t it? God has been denying you this fruit. God never said you shouldn’t have this fruit. I promise you, if you eat this fruit, this is going to solve your problem. But as soon as you eat the fruit and hit guilt, shame and frustration, the Enemy changes roles. He shifts from being the enticer and promiser to becoming the accuser and the condemner.

Now he’s all over our case. He’s telling you that you’re the dumbest person he’s ever been. If there’s ever a Christian who didn’t get it, that’s you. You’re hopeless. A complete failure. Man, you really messed up this time. God hates you. He’s angry with you. You idiot. You’re so far gone, you’ll never get back, Let’s watch a replay of what you just did, okay? It’s hilarious because you’re so pathetic.

Far too often we let him accuse us. We know we’ve done wrong, so we just mumble our agreement right along with the Enemy. The same Enemy who once enticed us with a promise is now crushing us with an accusation – and we agree with him. That’s right. I messed up again and I know it. I know I’m pathetic.

Instead we should be screaming, “Shut up! You are the one who tried to convince me this was a great idea. I’m done with you. I am a child of God, a new creation and even when I sin those facts don’t change.” See, if the Enemy can accuse you of sin, he can condemn you, and this is the ultimate low. When he reaches the point of condemnation, the Enemy has just pronounced a judgment on you. You’re unworthy. You’re finished. You’re a complete failure. You have no more value. You have no more worth. You have no more future. Have you ever noticed how government officials condemn buildings before they smash them to the ground?

That’s what the Enemy wants to do to you. He wants to flatten you to rubble. If he can accuse you, he can condemn you. And if he can condemn you, he can destroy you. The little feeble Christian just sinned again, he whispers, rubbing his hands in glee. Bring on the wrecking ball.

Here’s good news: one huge difference between God and Satan is that the Enemy will condemn you, but God will convict you. There’s a world of difference between the two actions. Condemnation is done from a posture of hate. Conviction is done from a posture of love.

When we struggle with sin, God does not take our sin neutrally. He convicts us of our shortcomings but he only does so because he cares about us. He loves us so much he doesn’t want us to continue down a harmful path. If you feel the need to pivot in your thought life, you’re feeling the need for repentance, and that prompt is from God. God longs to restore you. But if you feel that you are worthless and may as well drop out and quit, that you’re hopeless and a complete failure – that thinking came from the Enemy. You need to be careful to listen to the right voice. Here’s what those 2 voices look like:

Condemnation comes from guilt – conviction is born out of grace

Condemnation leads you to conceal your sin – conviction urges you to confess it

Condemnation results in remorse (feeling bad about what you did) – conviction calls you to repentance (turning to go the other way)

Condemnation prompts you to rededicate – conviction demands full surrender

Condemnation is a path to future failure – conviction is a highway to real change

Far too many Christians check out of church right there. Faith didn’t work, so I’m going to abandon my faith. God didn’t change me, so forget God. At the bottom of the spiral, we find ourselves vulnerable, weak, and isolated. We feel empty and desperate So we hide. We hide from our friends. We hide from God. Our unarticulated goal (and it’s nothing new) is the false hope that we will become invisible to God. He’s walking in the cool of the evening in the garden of Eden, longing to talk with us like he’s done in the past, but we’re going to hide ourselves with fig leaves in a frail attempt to avoid him. If God’s walking one way, we’re going the other direction.

Hiding is one of the worst things we can do. If you’re hiding from God, you’ve fallen for another ploy of the Enemy. He’s at your table, and he’s eaten most of your meal by now. You’re feeling all the symptoms of malnutrition and starvation in your emotions, your relationships and your spirit. The unmet longing that got you into the mess in the first place is exposed again. You need love. You need peace. You need understanding. You need worth, significance, purpose and fulfilment in your life you’re right back where you started. That’s when the Enemy places his shiny fishing lure in front of you again and says, Hey, you need some pleasure. Remember how good you felt – at least for a moment – the last time when we went down this road? Let’s do it again. Here comes the same harmful thought trying to pitch a tent in your mind. No, the solution is not another rededication.

The solution is surrender.

Surrender comes when we raise our hands and say, “God obviously I can’t do anything to change this situation. But Jesus, you can. I’m not going to hide from you anymore. I’m going to open my heart up to your love and your solutions and to the investigate and restorative work of the Holy Spirit. I’m going to follow you and your leadership, Jesus. You have finished the work on the cross, and you have ultimately won this war. There might be battles left for me to fight, but you’ve established a beachhead of victory for me on the shore. Thanks to your victory, I can go forward. I’m going to open myself up to the hard work of having you create the change in my life. I’m going to pray this in the power that God used to raise you from the dead. That’s what I want, and I surrender my life – and this particular problem – to you.”

This is resurrection power at work, and this is how God invites us to victory. It’s fantastic news! Jesus makes it possible for us to reject the spiral of temptation and sin. God’s promise to us is found in 1 Corinthians 10 verses 12 and 13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Think about that for a moment.

God. Will. Provide. A. Way. Out.

That’s bedrock truth. A promise to you from Almighty God. We don’t need to allow the Enemy to pull up a seat at our table. We can live lives of victory. We can win the battle for our minds.

Chapter 6 – Freedom Revolution

Many of us are floundering in poor choices; for years we’ve battled against the spiral of sin and temptation as though it were quicksand, but it keeps sucking us down. We keep struggling, but we can’t seem to climb onto solid ground. In desperation we panic or lapse into spiritual exhaustion. It seems no matter what we try, we can’t free ourselves and it feels like we’ve reached the point where we can’t fight anymore. We’re an inch from giving up. But guess what?

You do not need to be swallowed in the quicksand of sin.

You have victory in Christ. This is not mere preacher-talk or church rhetoric. Jesus has already won. He’s seated in the place of victory at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12 verse 2). When eternity unfolds, Jesus won’t return to earth to fight sin again. He’ll return as the ultimate victor. Because Jesus has already won the victory over sin, you have access to this victory too. You are freed from sin’s quicksand by living in your new identity. Sin, temptation and a poor thought life don’t need to hold you down. The power to live freely comes from your close association with Christ and his victory.

To be clear, our battle isn’t won because the pressure lifts from our lives or because our circumstances change. We will still walk through dark valleys throughout our entire lives. We will still sit at a table that’s surrounded by enemies. The battle isn’t won because the pressure let’s up. No. The battle is won because of who walks with us through the dark valleys and who sits at the table with us when we’re surrounded by troubles.

What does it mean to be associated with Christ and his victory? Let’s unpack this concept. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 says we are “in Christ” and a “new creation” and Galatians 3 verses 26 to 28 says we are “clothed” with Christ. It means that Jesus makes us brand new, and we’re completely enfolded by the righteousness of Christ. Colossians 3 verse 3 talks about how our lives are “hidden with Christ”. Imagine a hidden room in a house, or a hidden pocket inside a coat. When something is hidden, it’s both concealed and secure. Train your mind and heart to believe that you are a new creation. Your righteousness is safe because of Christ.

There’s more. Ephesians 2 verse 6 says “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.” That means we are united with Christ in victory. Since Christ was brought up from the grave, we are brought up together with him also. We are that closely connected with Christ. Whatever Jesus has won, we have won also. God Almighty took on the form of a human who took the full weight of the world’s sins on the cross. Jesus suffered and died and was raised to life again. That is what has won the battle. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57 says “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Train your mind and heart to see yourself as victorious in Christ.

When temptations threaten us, we first become free by changing our perspectives. Instead of floundering in the quicksand of sin and temptation for the rest of our lives, we change how we think. We take responsibility for what happens in our minds and say, “I am in Christ and Christ is in me. I am a brand new creation. Christ is the victor and I can adopt a mindset that sees me walking in all the victory Jesus has won for me.”

Your new mindset tells you that God is faithful. You remind yourself of this truth. You remind yourself and remind yourself again. That constant reminding begins to change the old patterns that led you to defeat. Sin is not the end of the story anymore. You faithful God promised a way out of temptation. True to his promise, he provides the way out, so you can and will escape this temptation. True to his promise, he provides the way out, so you can and will escape this temptation. You can walk through dark valleys, and you can sit in the presence of your enemies with a different way of thinking about what God has for you. 1 John 5 verse 4 says, “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world.

How do you refuse the Enemy a seat at your table? You must start from this place of identity. You remind yourself that Jesus has already won your struggle. And because you are joined with him, something powerful has already happened. Whatever he has won, you have won. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Since Christ has victory, you have access to that victory right now. You’re not fighting the battle against sin in your own strength. You’re tapping into the huge, all-powerful engine of God’s resurrection power (Philippians 3 verse 10). This is that engine for change we hinted at earlier.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

It’s that straightforward.

God is faithful.

When you rely on him, he will provide a way out.

Whenever you face temptation, it’s like you are staring a big closed door. The door is unlocked and on the other side of the door is sin – some sort of harmful living. Many believers stare at that big door and don’t think they have any power to keep the door shut. They believe they must open the door marked Temptation and walk through it. They don’t feel like they have a choice. Part of the reason for this faulty thinking is because we have flawed identity theology present in today’s church.

Here's the big revelation. We are not simply sinners saved by grace. We must change this distorted thinking. We are not simply beggars helping other beggars find bread. We have not simply come to the cross with nothing to offer. This may be the starting point, but this is not the whole story and is not our true identity if we are in Christ. We are not just a big bunch of sinners. Yet the problem is, too often, we hear this – and variations of it – over and over in today’s churches.

When we walk up to the door marked Temptation we need to preach to ourselves equal parts Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 and 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. That’s the full gospel. We were sinners saved by grace at the start of our salvation experience, as Ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9 points out. Yet that’s not the end of the story. That’s why you can’t pitch a tent in the sinner campground anymore. Your new identity is a sinner saved by grace who is a brand-new creation, as 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 points out. The old has passed away. The new you has arrived. You were born again to a brand-new life, and in Jesus Christ you are not the same as who you were before you got saved.

Christians often point to Jeremiah 17 verse 9 and say “Well, look. It says right there that the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. So that’s who I am. That’s me. I’ve got a deceitful heart and I’m desperately wicked.”

What some may have missed is how the bible uses that verse to describe an unregenerate heart, a heart that’s still far from God. But Jesus has ushered in a new era. True, after we begin to follow Christ, our hearts are still capable of sinning, yet Jesus has made them brand new. In Ezekiel 36 verse 26 God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” That means our hearts are not desperately wicked and prone to deceive anymore.

We get confused on this issue because even after we are new creations, we still have the capacity to sin. No one needs that sermon; we know it too well. Yet we must continually tell ourselves that “sinner” is no longer our identity. So when we stare at the door marked Temptation, we need to remind ourselves that we were crucified with Christ and don’t need to live the way we used to.

The life you now live is by faith, and you live because Christ lives in you (Galatians 2 verse 20). When you became a believer, you were baptized into Christ Jesus – which means you identified with his death, burial and resurrection. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, you too “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6 verse 4). That’s who you are today! You don’t need to go through the door marked Temptation.

In short, you remind yourself you’re a saint. Does it surprise you that the bible calls you a saint? Maybe you hear that word and think, Nah, my grandma is a saint. Me on the other hand? That’s a little dicey. But it’s true. This is how you are referred to in scripture. The word saint simply means that you are a “holy one”. There are more than 40 verses in the New Testament that call us saints. In Christ, you’re forgiven of all sin – past, present, and future. You have a righteous standing before God. You are clothed by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Don’t walk through the door marked Temptation. You’re a saint.

Romans 6 verses 1 and 2 “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

The statement is emphatic. By no means! Paul was tough on this practical issue. Should we just keep going through the door marked Temptation, Paul asked, around and around in a circle so we can experience the wonderful grace of God? Is that the way we should live? More sin, more grace, more sin, more grace? No way! He shouted, to answer his own question. “By no means!” He went on to explain how “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6 verse 4) This is where the victory starts: by immersing yourself in the truth that you are a new creation. You are no longer a slave to sin. God will provide a way out. You have the victory in Christ. You do not have to give the Enemy a seat at your table.

God is always faithful. He is always true. Thanks to the promise of 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, we might get tempted but we don’t have to sin.

There’s always a way out.

What might the Way Out sign look for you?

Well the most effective way you can avoid sin is to not walk through the door marked Temptation in the first place. The main way out is to stay out. Don’t go through the door. This means you build safeguards into the way you live and these safeguards keep you far away from temptation. You don’t stray anywhere near that doorway. Romans 13 verse 14 invites you to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

When you “make no provision for the flesh” it means you live wisely. You live with discretion. You err on the side of caution. You make environmental modifications – no matter how radical they might be. It’s hard to do this alone, so you should be accountable to a few close friends and talk about real struggles and temptations with them.

Suppose you do open that big door marked Temptation. You go through and find yourself heading toward sin. Watch closely. There are smaller doors marked Way Out all along the way.

If you want a way out, God is faithful. The Holy Spirit will give you a way out, and the Holy Spirit will give you another out and the Holy Spirit, in his mercy, will give you another out after that. The doorways might become smaller and smaller the further along you go. The way out is more difficult to take because you’re further along the pathway, and the potential consequences if you opt not to take the way out become more serious.

But look closely: opportunities to take the way out are still there. The first doorway out is a regular-sized door you’d find in any house. The second doorway out is a pet-sized door that folks cut for Fido to get out. The third doorway out is a teeny-tiny Barbie house doorway that only your phone will slide through. But you can still win the battle. You don’t have to give the Enemy a seat at your table. You can still get out!

The other main way to avoid sin is simply to stop gazing at the door marked Temptation. Go a different direction entirely. Exchange the door marked Temptation for the door marked Invitation. Focus on a different door, the door of Christ. Hebrews 12 verse 1 and 2 says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

See, at its core, the gospel message is not “Don’t sin”. That message is often preached because it lands with lots of punch. Don’t sin! Don’t sin! Don’t sin! But the message of the cross is far less about “Don’t sin” and much more about “Come, walk with God.” The gospel message is that through the work of Christ our sins are forgiven. We are new creations, and we can step into a relationship with Almighty God. Jesus offers us an abundant life that is life to the full (John 10 verse 10). Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 8 said “Now we really live.”

Go back to Psalm 23 and John 10 verses 1 to 18 and imagine life as a sheep with Jesus as your Good Shepherd. The point of those 2 passages is that God promises to guide you. Just as sheep can learn to recognise the voice of their shepherd, you are given the ability to hear the voice of Christ. You can see what the Shepherd is doing. You can rest in the Shepherd’s care. You can move in step with the Shepherd. As you live closely with Jesus you discover that you can trust God. You can look back on your life and see times he carried you, times he pulled you close, times he kept you out of danger, times he navigated you through. Intimacy with God is the way to true fulfilment. How do you keep the Enemy from sitting at your table? You keep your eyes on Christ.

Adam and Eve. Before the temptation came, there was an invitation for both of them to continue walking with God. Immediately after the fall, in Genesis 3 verse 8, when Adam and Eve heard God “walking in the garden in the cool of the day”, they recognised the sound because they were familiar with it. God had walked and talked with Adam earlier, when Adam named the animals. God had made Eve and “brought her to the man” (Genesis 2 verse 22). They knew what it was like to walk with God. They were made in the image of God, and they knew what it was like to have a relationship with God and do God’s work on earth – with God.

That was the larger gospel as Adam and Eve understood it. There was a definite command: Don’t sin. Don’t eat of the fruit. But there was larger good news that said, Come and enjoy God. That larger gospel is extended to you today. You’re saved, yes. But has God ever been more to you than a command not to sin? Is God larger to you than a ticket to heaven when you die? Sure, it’s good you’re saved. Sure, it’s good you’re forgiven. Sure, it’s good you’re going to heaven. Yet beyond that truth, God is greatly interested in you knowing him, right now, today, long before you ever get to heaven. How well do you actually know God?

When you’re on the pathway to knowing God, it means you set your heart, purpose and mind in that direction. When you begin to learn his word, the bible, you get to know him and his character. When you walk with him in continual prayer, you learn his ways. His words and character fulfil the needs in your life. Do you have a need for worth? For significance? For purpose? For love? For acceptance? For satisfaction? For peace? For the closest kind of companionship? For calm in the midst of a storm? Jesus fulfils those needs.

Those are the same needs the Enemy is exploiting. When you feel down, it’s usually because needs of yours aren’t being met. That’s when the Enemy comes along and whispers, If you want to feel better, then just go through this door marked Temptation. I’ll give you a thrill. I’ll give you a jolt of dopamine. I’ll give you a rush of adrenaline.

Nothing can satisfy your heart like God. Nothing keeps you from sin better than keeping your eyes on Christ. When you walk with God, you discover your true identity, worth and purpose. That’s where you discover you can trust God.

We looked at James 1 verse 14, where “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” James went on to describe a greater context: “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (verses 16 and 17)

Sin gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived about that fact, James said. Going through the door marked Temptation leads only to sin and death. Nothing on the other side of that door is going to help you. Sin might feel good for a moment, but it’s always less than God’s best for you. Instead, go through the other door, the one marked Invitation. That’s where you find every good and perfect gift. Those gifts come to you from Christ. What you’re looking for is found through the other doorway. And the real reward isn’t even about the gifts Jesus gives you. It’s about walking through that doorway and getting God himself.

Have you ever considered the tremendous benefits that exist for us on this side of Eden? Yes, we’re living in a sin-stained and corrupted world. We’re not in Paradise anymore. But we’re also living with the knowledge of how far God Almighty will go for us. We’re living with a knowledge of God’s love that Adam and Eve didn’t have. When the serpent said to Eve, Maybe God is holding out on you, Eve had God’s word at that point. She had what God had told her and Adam about himself. She had a perfect environment to live in and enjoy. But she had little actual experience to back up God’s promise.

We have experience. We have the death, burial and resurrection of Christ in our story. We can point to the cross and say, “Actually, God’s not holding out anything on us. That’s what God’s heart is like. God loved me so much he sent his Son to take away the sins of the world. That’s a heart that scales any mountain. Kicks down any doors. Relentlessly pursues us down darkened alleyways. God will do anything to reach me with his love – including sending his only beloved Son to the cross and raising him to life again. Thanks to Jesus, I am a new creation.” Even didn’t know what we know. She did not know how far God would go. But we do.

God wants you to know him without a doubt. All the Enemy does is lie. The Enemy wants to lead you astray so he can destroy you. But Jesus wants you to learn God’s voice, to recognise God, to trust God. The quicksand has no more power. The door marked Temptation has no more appeal. You are set free. You can win the battle for your mind. You are invited to deeply and closely know God.

As part of that process, there’s one more specific prayer that you can pray. When it comes to not giving the Enemy a seat at your table, this prayer – and all the freedom and invitation it brings – is perhaps the most powerful.

 Chapter 7 – Take Every Thought Captive

Perhaps the Enemy has convinced you that you can’t move from where you are to where you want to be. You’ve listened to the voices of fear. You’ve been caught in the spiral of sin and temptation You’ve convinced yourself you have no value. Your mind is clouded by worry and uncertainty. The Enemy has accomplished this by sitting down at your table, but you don’t need to let him stay there and get comfortable. You do not have to entertain the Enemy’s voice. Through Christ, you can move to a place of victory in your life.

This happens when you learn to win the battle for your mind. The Enemy knows this. One of his main ploys is to go after your thought life. He’s patient too. In the garden of Eden, the serpent didn’t shout his temptations to Eve over a loudspeaker. He planted seeds in her mind and waited. He prompted her to question God’s goodness. He coaxed her to wonder if God was withholding something good from her. Eventually Eve relented and let those seeds take root. Eve acted out what she had been thinking about.

That’s how the Enemy works. If he can win the battle for your mind, then he can win the battle for your life. In Numbers 13, when Moses dispatched the 12 spies to explore the land of Canaan in preparation for Hebrew conquest, 10 spies returned with a fearful, faithless report. “We can’t attack those people” the 10 spies asked, shaking in their boots. “They are stronger than we are … We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (verses 31 and 33)

Hang on. How did the 10 spies know what they looked like in the Canaanites’ eyes? Did the spies ask their enemies, “Hey what do you think of us? How small and puny do we look to you?” No, a seed had been planted in the spies’ minds. They tended that seed and let it grow and acted on it, and as a result, they wandered in the desert for the next 40 years. They never tasted the promises of God for their lives.

It didn’t have to be that way, in the wilderness never tasting God’s promises – not for them, and not for you and me today. Victory can be yours. Right here. Right now. Victory is about examining the seeds that have been scattered in your mind and not letting them take root. It’s about pulling up and throwing away the thoughts that do not coincide with the heart of God. It’s about changing the way you think. And one prayer helps in particular.

Maybe one of the seeds planted in your mind is doubt. You don’t know if any of this teaching is going to work for you. You’ve tried other ways to change before and none of them worked, so why should this? Or maybe some change will come, but it won’t last because it’s never lasted before.

Already the Enemy has influenced your mind. Seeds can be scattered in your mind anytime, anywhere. Before the truth can set you free, you need to see the lies that are holding you hostage. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you which lies you’re believing. Ask him to be specific. Are you having any of the following thoughts?

·         I’ll never change

·         I’ll feel better if I sin

·         The gospel doesn’t really work

·         I’m not worth much

·         No one loves me

·         No one believes in me

·         I deserve to be bitter

·         I deserve to be filled with rage

·         I am my failure

·         I am my addiction

·         I’ll always be this way

None of those thoughts came from God! Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd of John 10 and Psalm 23 did not tell you that you’re a failure. He doesn’t prompt you to worry. He doesn’t provoke you to fear. He provides clarity, not chaos. He doesn’t stick your nose in the vomit of sin. He provides green pastures and dry wastelands. If any of these things are in your life – fear, worry, temptation, feelings of worthlessness, feelings of confusion – guess what? The Enemy has shown up and dropped a seed in your thinking. He knows that if he can lodge a deceptive thought in your mind that goes unchecked, it will eventually take root and settle into your heart. If you harbour a deceptive thought and let it take up residence within you, in time, you will act on that thought.

All the thoughts we entertain in our minds eventually get played out. Either our attitudes will reflect those deceptive thoughts’ or our behaviours will “As he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23 verse 7). One way or another, those thoughts will harm us.

That’s why it’s so important for you to step into your new identity in Christ immediately. Jesus is already in the story of victory and he has invited you into this story with him. The way you step into that story is by reminding yourself of these truths:

·         I was a sinner saved by grace who is now a new creation. I do not have to sin.

·         I am in Christ and Christ is in me. Christ has all victory and his victory is mine too.

·         God is always faithful. He will always provide a way out I can always take the way out.

Stepping into these truths changes your mind. All 12 of thee spies knew that the promised land was good. They all viewed the abundant milk and honey. They all saw a single grape cluster so big it took 2 men to carry it on a pole (Numbers 13 verse 23). But 10 of those spies didn’t believe they could get to the promised land.

Do you believe you can live in victory? If the answer is no, the deceiver is winning the battle for your mind. He’s real and he has a real plan. He’s circling your table, ready to sit. So keep this in mind: the stakes are high. This is your life we’re talking about. This is your now. This is your future. This is your family. This is your sanity. Your peace. Your success. Your calling. Your destiny. This is everything God has made you to be. The Devil wants to destroy you. He has no mercy and he has all the time in the world.

Fortunately, any seeds the Enemy scatters in your mind don’t need to remain for more than a millisecond. Seeds do not need to take root. Any new seeds can be immediately removed. Even seeds that have been there for years can be removed. And it’s not about you using your superpowers. I want to drive this point home. Victory is not about something you do. That’s not the message here. The message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s about what Jesus does for you. Jesus won the total victory himself. God makes the way.

So how do you live in victory?

The word victory in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57 is the Greek word nikos. It specifically connotes victory that has come about due to a conquest. In the New Testament, the word is always use to describe the conquest provided for the believer by Christ. He conquered all the powers of darkness and sin. Believers are in Christ and Christ is in believers. The powers of darkness and the powers of sin cannot win the victory over any believer. The overall battle has been won. Jesus said on the cross “It is finished” (John 19 verse 30). In other words, “What I’ve come here to do is accomplished. You have been liberated. The victory is yours.

Picture the victory you own as if you were standing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day Plus 1. Do you know what that means? D-Day was June 6, 1944 so D-Day Plus 1 is the term given to the day after D-Day – June 7, 1944.

Historians agree that D-Day marked a decisive turning point in the war. Thanks to actions taken on D-Day, the outcome of World War 2 shifted significantly. The destiny of the entire wold had changed. So imagine you’re there on D-Day Plus 1. You’re standing on one of the beaches on the day after the huge bloody invasion. The overall war has been decided. Hitler’s power has been broken. There’s no way he can win now. From this beachhead of victory you can push forward and keep going. Why keep going? Well, even though the way in Europe is over, Hitler will still operate from a place of defeat for a while. He’ll keep fighting even though he’s been crushed.

In your spiritual life, Jesus gives you the nikos. He gives you his accomplished work on the cross, the defeat of sin. He has established a beachhead of victory so you can move forward. From this foundation of victory, you now fight. That's your mindset to prayerfully embrace today.

It all leads up to this. The one huge prayer that holds the promise of winning the fight for your thoughts stems from this passage of scripture:

“Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and ever pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 to 5)

The weapons you fight with have divine power. Those weapons are outlined in Ephesians 6 verse 1 to 18, the full armour of God: the righteousness we have from Christ, the full gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the word of God, and prayer. Those weapons have the power to demolish anything that sets itself up against God. With those weapons you don’t need to let any harmful thought that floats through your mind settle down. In Christ, you do not need to let the Enemy sit at your table. How? The basis of the prayer is found right there in the text,

“God, help me take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

It sounds paradoxical, but it isn’t. These 2 truths work together as one: Christ does all the work, yet you need to lean into that work by prayer and decisiveness. You must agree with Jesus.

In Christ, you have been given the opportunity because of the beachhead of victory to move forward, fighting in power. The power comes from Christ. The victory comes from Christ. Yet you must agree with Christ so you don’t live in the double-barrelled message of defeat. Nobody else is going to take your thoughts captive on your behalf. Nobody is going to climb into your head for you and get up into your thoughts and take captive everything that’s coming against you. It’s time for you to step up and take responsibility, to partner with Christ in your destiny and your future and your victory.

If you don’t take a thought captive, the failure lies with you. The failure is not because of your mother, or your stepdad. It’s not because of any trouble that has come against you. If you are living in defeat, it’s because you are allowing yourself to live in defeat. If you are losing the battle of your mind, it’s because you are not willing to step up and say, “There’s a fight to be fought and I’m going to fight the battle to win my mind because I have the power of the finished work of Jesus.”

So you must decide right now, today, to change the story of the battle for your mind. You do that by prayerfully taking every thought captive. How does that specifically work?

First, you identify any deceptive thought in your mind. This sounds so basic, but it’s amazing how many people do not do this. You must see that thought for what it is: a harmful lie. It’s far too easy to coddle the thoughts that enter your mind. You are far too agreeable with your thought life. I know I am.

So a thought enters your mind. Hey, it will feel better if I sin. If I overeat. If I run to lust. If I Iash out in rage. (Whatever your weak point is). And you coddle that thought. You pamper it You host it. You entertain it. You give it shelter and sustenance, You think, You know, that’s right. I will feel better if I sin. Life is super hard right now, so I deserve this. I felt horrible after I went to this familiar sin last time and that’s going to happen this time too. But I’m okay with feeling horrible in the long run if I can just feel better for a little while. Boom. The Enemy has just sat down at your table.

Shout “No!” at this. Harmful thoughts must be identified for the lies they are. You have to examine that thought and say, “Hey before you pitch a tent in my mind, let me take a good, hard look at you. Because when I look at you, I don’t think you’re congruent with the Word of God. And if you’re not compatible with what God says, then God didn’t send you my way. Get out!”

Here comes another thought into your mind: Boy, am I pathetic. Are you going to entertain that thought? Will you let it sit in your mind for a while? Or do you see it for what it is?

Ask yourself, where did that thought come from? Did it come from God? Does that thought line up with what God says in the Bible? Does my heavenly Father think I’m pathetic? No way. My heavenly Father is a good Shepherd, and He leads me to green pastures. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. That doesn’t sound like someone who’d call me pathetic. Oh yeah, and I remember that in Colossians 3 verse 12 I’m called “holy and dearly loved”. So it’s certainly not God who’s calling me pathetic. If it’s not God, I know right away this is the voice of the Enemy. I’m not going to entertain this thought. Get out!

So you’ve identified the thought as a lie. The next step is to bind the thought in Jesus’ name. Look at the terminology in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5 “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. When you take something captive, you arrest it. You seize it by legal authority and put it into custody You put handcuffs on it. You forcibly detain it. You take it captive so it will be stopped from hurting you or anybody else.

When thoughts are bound in Jesus’ name, that’s a prayer where you and Jesus agree that the Enemy has no place in your mind. You’re saying “God Almighty, I bind this thought in the name of Jesus Christ. I take captive this thought because You commanded me to. I’m using the power that’s available to me because of the Holy Spirit and with that power I’m choosing to live in agreement with you. This thought is taken captive. The thought holds no power over me. The thought is out of here. The thought is carted off to jail.”

The prayers you make are to God. Yet sometimes I think it’s good if Satan or his evil bunch actually hear our prayers. The spirit world is real and all around us, even though we don’t see it. Scripture gives us no indication that Satan is omniscient. He doesn’t know everything, everywhere, and at all times as God does. So I don’t believe that Satan hears the thoughts in our minds. When I come against him in prayer, sometimes I’ll want to speak the prayer out loud. I always do this in the tone of verse 9 of Jude. The archangel Michael was contending with the Devil and used these words “The Lord rebuke you!” It means that I’m acknowledging that Jesus has the power and that Christ is in me.

Why do you specifically pray or rebuke Satan in Jesus’ name? Because the power doesn’t come from you. It comes from Jesus. Because you need to use the name of the One who has all power and authority (Matthew 28 verse 18) Because all you do, “whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3 verse 17)

What’s crazy is agreeing with the enemy that he can pitch a tent in your mind. What’s crazy is you agreeing with sin. What’s crazy is letting the Enemy sit down at your table. What’s crazy is letting a murderer and deceiver influence you. Do not let the evil one win the battle for your mind!

When a questionable thought enters your mind, ask yourself if that thought lines up with the righteous character of God or what’s stated plainly in Scripture. If it doesn’t bind that thought in the name of Jesus Christ. Speak that prayer out loud, or pray it in your mind to the Lord. Use this specific, deliberate prayer to prohibit that thought from taking root in your mind:

I bind this thought in Jesus’ name!

Your goal, as 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5 points out, is specifically to take the thought captive “to make it obedient to Christ.” When a thought is obedient to Christ, it either aligns with Christ or is rejected by Christ and by God’s teaching found in Scripture. See if a thought is not taken captive by you in Jesus’ name, that thought will take you captive. You will bind the thought, or the thought will, in time, bind you. So you better think quickly because something’s getting bound. Use the name of Jesus with authority. Bind the thoughts that don’t come from God and that don’t match the Word of God.

Have you heard what happened with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed? Before Judas led the Roman troops up to Jesus and betrayed him with a kiss, Jesus was praying in the garden. It was a time of great intensity and agony. Jesus’ sweat fell in drops of blood to the ground. The night was so difficult, in fact, that Jesus prayed 3 times that God would not have him go to the cross (Matthew 26 verse 39, 42 and 44).

In preparation for doing the greatest thinf that’s ever been done on planet Earth, Jesus was going through the greatest testing first (As a sidelight – if you want to do something great foe God, then get ready to be tested greatly first. You’ll be tested greatly so you can be trusted greatly).

Ultimately, Jesus surrendered his own struggle with taking on our sin to the Father’s desire to make us holy. Even Jesus took captive his thoughts and made them obedient to God Almighty. Jesus ended his prayers by saying “Not my will but yours” (Luke 22 verse 42). Even in this strongest of temptations, Jesus did not sin. This is the perfect model of taking thoughts captive! The pattern was set by Jesus himself.

First you identified the harmful thought. Second you took that thought captive in Jesus’ name. Now third, you change the narrative of you story with Scripture. When times of troubles come and you want to jump into sin, this is how you change the trajectory of your story. You do this, primarily, by knowing Scripture.

Yes, you memorize scripture and then replay scripture in your mind. You exchange the deceptive thoughts for thoughts of truth. You familiarize yourself with what the bible says, and then repeat God’s truth to yourself again and again so you know without a doubt what the truth is and so you can stay on the path of truth.

If you want victory you have to be ready to fight. If you’re not ready to fight, you’re not going to win Once you lose the battle for your mind, you are done. Defeated.

You can start winning the battle of your mind right now. Renew your mind to the truth. Set your mind on that truth. Remind yourself often, and watch God set you free.

 

Have you ever considered all the bible verses that instruct you and me to place scripture firmly in our minds?

 

Psalm 119 verse 11 tells you to store up God’s word in your heart so that you might not sin.

Joshua 1 verse 8 tells you never to let God’s word depart from you. You’re to meditate on it all the time.

Colossians 3 verse 16 tells you to let God’s word dwell in you richly.

Matthew 4 verse 4 says you’re to live by God’s word like it’s food for your life.

Hebrews 4 verse 12 describes God’s word as living and active.

John 15 verse 7 says you’re to let God’s word abide in you.

Deuteronomy 11 verses 18 to 20 encourages you to put scripture into your heart and mind, writing it on hands and foreheads, teaching it to our children, talking about it at home and when you’re away , thinking through scripture when you lie down and get up.

Psalm 19 verse 7 says that you’re to dwell on scripture because it helps restore your soul.

Psalm 119 verse 32 encourages you to run in the pathways of God’s commands – for he sets your heart free.

 

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, how did he refute the enemy By quoting scripture back to the evil one. “It is written ... it is written ... it is written.” That’s the winning tactic for us as well. Scripture needs to be wrapped throughout your life. It needs to be before your eyes and in your ears and all through your mind. It needs to be in your home and in your locker and on your computer and on your mirror and at your desk. It needs to be talked about and sung about and permeating the music you listen to. Scripture can keep you from sinning (Psalm 119 verse 11). It can help you overcome worry (Philippians 4 verse 6). It establishes your faith and helps you mature in the Lord (Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7). It helps you discover God’s good and perfect will for your life (Romans 12 verse 2). When you fill your mind with Scripture, you get to control he playlist of your mind.

You become the DJ of your own thoughts.

Finally, the Bible indicates that you can play offense with your thought life. It’s so easy to slip. It happens all the time. You start identifying harmful thoughts, binding them in Jesus’ name and memorizing scripture, but you’re tempted to return to your former way of life. The past always looks better in hindsight than it actually was when you were living through it the first time. Oh, man, remember how I used to retreat into that fantasy? Remember how I used to escape to that way of thinking?

After the children of Israel were released from bondage in Egypt, they actually dreamed of returning. Numbers 11 verses 5 and 6 records how they sat around complaining about manna, the perfect food that God had provided for them in the wilderness. Instead of going forward in victory, the remembered with fondness the “cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic” of Egypt. How crazy was that! The Israelites must have really like onions. They liked onions so much they were willing to trade their freedom for onions. Oh sure, let’s just go back to Egypt and become slaves again so we can eat onions.

Philippians 4 verse 8 offers a different route for us. It doesn’t give us a step-by-step guide so much as a compass. It doesn’t tell us specifically what to think, but it does offer various categories to think about. That’s how to play offense. Instead of playing defense with the harmful thoughts that come your way, you take action and deliberately place helpful thoughts into your mind. Here are the categories to think about as found in Philippians 4 verse 8.

Whatever is ...

True

Noble

Right

Pure

Lovely

Admirable

Excellent

Praiseworthy

 

Think about these things. Memorize Philippians 4 verse 8 and then think through each category as outlined in that verse. Ask yourself, What are truthful things I can think about right now? What are noble things? And so on. Go all the way through the verse. Maybe the thoughts that come into your mind will be kinked to specific verses. Or maybe the thoughts will simply honour God. You’ll think of how much you love your family. You’ll imagine a perfect sunrise. Of going on a walk with your husband.

Here’s one great way to change your narrative: go on the offensive by thinking about these things first thing each morning. Carry them with you through each day. Don’t stop telling yourself these truths until you fall asleep at night Or another approach is to think about one category each day, all day. One for each day of the week. Imagine the results if you concentrate on thinking about admirable things for a whole day. Or grab hold of a specific scriptural truth for the day, such as these:

Monday: My God knows my name (Isaiah 43 verse 1)

Tuesday: My God goes before me (Deuteronomy 31 verse )

Wednesday: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4 verse 13)

Thursday: My present suffering pales in comparison to my future glory (Romans 8 verse 18)

Friday: No weapon formed against me will prosper (Isaiah 4 verse 17)

Saturday: I am a child of God (Romans 8 verse 16)

Sunday: The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me (Ephesians 1 verses 18 to 20)

 

I do want to acknowledge the reality of Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2, that there are sins that so easily entangle us. If you sin, are you immediately sunk? If you let the seed of a thought take root in your mind, if you let the Enemy sit at your table, is there still hope? Yes, great hope – because of God’s abundant grace.

Chapter 8 – Grace that Silences Shame

After all your prayerful, grace-fuelled efforts to turn the Enemy away, what happens if you give him a seat at your table anyway? Is God finished with you, or are you disqualified from having a relationship with God or from serving him? The simple answer is no. The essence of the gospel is that God forgives sin through Jesus Christ and makes you brand new. The requirement for you is confession, admitting to the Lord that you have been entertaining the Enemy’s thoughts or acting on those thoughts. When you repent, God wipes out your sins. God forgives you and cleanses you. God ejects the Devil from your table. Proverbs 28 verse 13 points to the strength of confession “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounced them finds mercy.”

Yet even after we confess, 2 outcomes of sin often remain: guilt and shame. Often they get lumped together, but they’re actually different. Sometimes people use those words and concepts interchangeably, but it’s important to see the distinction.

Guilt is the position of being accountable for sins and shortcomings. It’s a legal term that points to remorse. Within a framework of spiritual justice, you must take responsibility for choices you make when those choices fall short of God’s standard. You have done or thought or said something improper, dishonourable, false, ignoble, reprehensible, impure or unlovely. You've given the Enemy a seat at your table. The gavel comes down. The verdict comes in. By your actions or attitudes of the heart, you have fallen short of the glory of God and you are responsible for it. You are guilty.

Shame, on the other hand, is the feeling of being defined by your sin and shortcomings. Shame acknowledges guilt, yet it intertwines the sin with your identity. Whereas guilt is a legal and spiritual state, shame is an emotional and mental state. When you experience guilt, you admit that you did something wrong. You say, “I have done something wrong” or “I have thought or said something bad.” Yet when you experience shame, you take the sin upon yourself. You say, “I am something wrong” or “I am bad.”

I want to address both guilt and shame because they are separate – even though they have the same solution. The pathway to freedom from both guilt and shame is the story of grace. Certainly in a legal and social framework there may need to be restitution made or apologies given or time served or fines paid or justice restored – and these can be part of the solution, sure. Yet the ultimate solution is always the grace of God. Many of us walk around carrying the weight of guilt and shame. These prevent us from walking in the freedom that was purchased for us at the cross. It doesn’t need to be this way. We can have victory.

The pathway to freedom is open to all people in the covering of grace. Grace isn’t some ethereal, flimsy, milquetoast kind of thing. Grace has grit, backbone and muscle. Grace is the left hook that destroys the power of sin.

So let’s first see how grace destroys shame. Shame is a powerfully destructive force. It causes you to feel as if you’re unworthy of God’s love, acceptance, purposes or plans. Shame causes us to feel marred so strongly that we feel damaged beyond repair. When you feel shame, you’re prone to hide. You try to hide from God behind denial or by trying to keep out of his way. Or you hide from people behind layers, walls, titles, busyness or accomplishments. You don’t want anybody to know you, so you keep people away at arm’s length Or you don’t want anybody to know what happened to you. Shame imprisons you and me to the past.

How very telling that when God created Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the bible says that “Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame” (Genesis 2 verse 25). Before the fall, everything God created was described as “good” and being naked and unashamed was part of he goodness of Paradise. Yes, the garden was beautiful. Yes, there were plants and food and animals. Everything was in pristine condition. And note that the ultimate description of goodness in Paradise was a lack of shame.

Then came the fall. Adam and Eve made disastrous decisions that resulted in huge consequences. Earth broke apart as a result of their choices. Both guilt and shame entered into their story – and into ours too. One minute Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed; the next minute they were hiding from God, desperately trying to cover themselves with fig leaves,

Fortunately even back in the garden, God formed a rescue plan. With Adam and Eve, God sheltered and clothed the two humans in garments of animals skin that he made for them. God pointed to the future and to the cross, when the serpent would harm Jesus by striking his heel, but Jesus would gain full victory by crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3 verse 15). In other words, God would destroy sin and death and fully reconnect people to the purposes and personhood of God.

Thanks to the work of Jesus on the cross, you and I can live free from shame. Don’t let that truth pass you by. Shame does not need to be part of your story!

Second, let’s look at how grace is also the solution to guilt. The grace of God moves into your story and through the work of Jesus on the cross, the grace of God cancels your spiritual guilt and sets you free. Grace positions you rightly before God. There is a penalty to be paid for wrongdoings, yet Jesus already took the penalty of sin for you. Jesus has set you free.

We see hints of grace you and I enjoy today even in the Old Testament. God was continually patient with his people, constantly waiting for them to respond to his holiness. Isaiah 6 records the prophet Isaiah seeing a vision of the Lord and heaven. It was a beautiful and powerful vision and when he saw this vision, Isaiah didn’t say “Oh wow, that’s cool”. He was guilt stricken. He cried, “Woe is me! ... I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (verse 5). Isaiah felt completely shattered before God. Isaiah saw God and instantly saw the gap between who he was and who God is.

Isaiah’s response points us to the finished work of Jesus on the cross. You can step into that finished work by the act of repentance, when you say the equivalent of Isaiah’s words: “Woe is me. I’ve fallen short of God’s holy standard. I’ve fallen short of what God intended. I’ve fallen short of God’s best for my life. I admit it. I take responsibility for it. I realise that I am accountable for my choices and my sin before Almighty God.” This is simply true – I am accountable for my sin – whether or not I admit it or respond emotionally.

Repentance is not a negative thing. Your act of admitting guilt opens a doorway called grace, and God comes to you through that doorway and does for you what none of us can do for ourselves. Grace is what was extended to Isaiah. The great news is that verses 6 and 7 tell of an angel who flew to Isaiah with a burning coal in his hand. Imagine yourself in Isaiah’s shoes. He saw a seraph, an amazing six-winged celestial being, rushing at him through the air. The angel was carrying a blazing coal from the altar of God. I bet Isaiah assumed it was all over; he was finished. Isaiah expected to be exterminated. Instead, the angel touched Isaiah’s mouth and said, “See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (verse 7). That was great news for Isaiah because it meant he wasn’t wiped out. Isaiah’s repentance opened the door way of grace. God came through that doorway and in essence said, “No I’m not going to exterminate you. I’m going to exterminate your guilt. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for.”

When we fast-forward the story to the New Testament, we see another live burning coal has come down from heaven, the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ. He gave his innocent life and took on our guilt on Calvary’s hill. Through his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus rang the bell of our freedom. Jesus was pure and innocent, and on the cross a great exchange took place in heaven’s courthouse. You and I were guilty of our sins and shortcomings, but God took our guilt and placed it instead on his innocent and righteous and willing Son. Then God took the innocence and righteousness of his Son and made it available to us. To everyone who repents, God proclaims forgiveness in the same way that the seraph said to Isaiah, “Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for.” Through Christ, you are innocent. You are righteous. You are set free by a holy and righteous God. All your guilt was taken by Jesus. You are made brand new.

This is stated clearly in 1 John 1 verse 9. The apostle was addressing new believers helping them understand the power of the gospel and he wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That means that the action of your confession is vitally important. When you confess, you admit that you are responsible for the sin in your life. You are saying “I did it, and it was wrong.” But here’s the biggest news of all: if you do sin as a Christian, you confess your sin, to clear the air in your fellowship with God. Because of the cross you are already forgiven. Jesus isn’t going back to the cross and dying again. His forgiveness work is finished. So you say, “Father, I’m so sorry I sinned. I confess it. Thank you that in Christ I am forgiven. I receive it and want you to give me the grace and power to walk in a different direction.” You confess both your sin and his forgiveness. That’s great news, a real reason to celebrate!

Yet the Enemy will not go quietly on this one. He’ll do all he can to keep you on a guilt trip indefinitely. Do you recognise his voice of dread? Well now, I see that you’re a Christian I see that you believe you’re going to heaven when you die. Well that’s just great. But I’m going to make sure your life feels like hell right now by pointing out to you everything wrong you’ve ever done, everything wrong you’re doing right now and everything wrong you’re going to do in the future. That’s right – I’m booking your tickets for a one-way cruise. You’re going on a guilt trip and I’m the captain of that ship, mister.

It’s far too easy to jump on that cruise. The enemy remembers everything and he’ll bring all the ugly details back to life. He’ll work hard to convince you that if you keep your sins hidden, all will be well. If you just press those sins down hard enough, or maybe if you just party it up hard enough – that’s what is needed to feel good.

No. That never works. Time to jump ship. Your guilt is never removed when you hide. It’s only when you bring your guilt into the spotlight of Christ’s grace that your sins are atoned for and your guilt is removed. In Jesus’ holy, loving and kind presence, you can say “Lord, I confess that I’ve done some wrong things. I also want to let you know that some wrong things have been done to me. These things have made me feel marred. Damaged. Hurt. I’ve been both a perpetrator of sin and a victim of sin. But I want your forgiveness and your freedom. I don’t want to hide from you. I want your eyes to see all that I’ve done and all that’s been done to me. By your work, the effects of sin are cancelled. By your stripes I am healed.”

Grace not only cancels guilt and shame but also redefines you and me. The biggest change in definition is from “failure” to “family”.

God changes your identity. The Enemy wants to define you by your scars. Jesus wants to define you by his scars. The grace of Jesus removes your old identity and replaces it with a brand-new identity. 1 John 3 verse 1 says “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! That is your new identity. You are a son or daughter of God. You are child of the King. You are written into God’s will and you are an heir of everything God has. You are a beneficiary of the lavish love of God, which has changed you from failure to family. Grace not only cancels guilt and shame; grace redefines you. You are a beloved family member of God and because of that you are given a seat at the table with Almighty God.

Consider the life of the apostle Peter, and how God changed him from a failure into family. His name wasn’t even Peter at first. His original name was Simon, but when Jesus first met him, Jesus gave him the name Peter. Peter tended to act first and think second. So when Jesus met this rough-and-tumble fisherman, Jesus nicknamed him ”the Rock.” Peter’s bold personality came out in many places throughout the Gospels.

On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus threw a dinner party for his 12 closest followers. It was revealed that someone was going to betray him that night. The disciples couldn’t believe it. Particularly Peter. He was especially vocal, full of indignation and well-meaning boasting. Not me! He said. Maybe some of those others guys will flake out, but not me. I’ll never betray you. I’ll never bail. You can count on me, Jesus I love you more than all these guys. I’m ready to go with you to prison and to death.

Jesus looked at him and said, “Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny 3 times that you know me.” (Luke 22 verse 34).

The Last Supper concluded. The disciples went to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed in great earnest. Judas led the Roman soldier to Jesus, and in the dim torchlight Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Jesus was arrested. For the rest of the night Jesus was shuttled back and forth between various government entities in Jerusalem. Jesus was mocked, scorned, questioned, spit on, and beaten. We don’t know where all the rest of the disciples were yet we know that Peter followed at a distance. At least his good intentions got him that far. But then came Peter’s crunch time.

Far into that unholy night, Jesus was being questioned at the home of the high priest Caiaphas.  The night was cold, and Peter stood outside in the courtyard warming his hands by a fire. A number of folks were standing around, and a young woman began to question Peter. She recognised him as Jesus’ followers but Peter said no, she must have been mistaken. Someone else recognised Peter as being one of Jesus’ followers too, but again Peter denied it. About an hour later, another person recognised Peter as a Galilean and asked if he knew Jesus. This was Peter’s moment. The full pressure was on. He was afraid. By that time of the night, he must have been hungry, lonely, tired, and fearful. Yet a third time, Peter denied knowing him.

Isn’t that the essence of sin right there. You and I get into those times and places where we are pressured. We feel hungry, lonely, tired, fearful, or angry and we face the opportunity to take a step toward Jesus or a step away from Jesus. In those times of pressure, it’s easy for us to say, “I don’t know Jesus. I don’t want anything to do with him. No, I’m not following Jesus right now.” But it’s far better for us to run toward Jesus and refuse the Enemy a seat at our table.

With Peter’s third denial, the rooster crowed. Peter realised what he had done. He’d sinned mightily. He had sounded so strong in his love for Christ during the Last Supper, yet when the pressure was on in the courtyard of Caiaphas, Peter had crumbled. He knew this. The bible says he was remorseful and wept bitterly (Luke 22 verse 62). The story continued and Jesus went to the cross as scheduled. (As a side note, can we just celebrate the fact that even if we deny Jesus, God still moves on with his plans? Even if we’re faithless, God is still faithful). Peter might have bailed on the mission but Jesus didn’t.

So the death and burial of Jesus took place. Early on Sunday morning, 2 women went to the tomb, but the tomb was empty. The women hurried back and described the scene to the rest of the disciples. Peter ran straightaway to the tomb. He saw the strips of burial cloth lying by themselves and tried to make sense of it. Eventually Jesus appeared to the disciples several times but Peter and Jesus didn’t interact much during those first few times, at least not that we’re aware of. Then we fast-forward to the encounter recorded in John 21 and all the cards are laid on the table.

The story unfolded in Galilee. Peter and six of the disciples had gone fishing. They had fished all night but hadn’t caught anything – and then Jesus showed up. Incidentally, some scholars think it’s no big deal that Peter and the disciples had returned to fishing The guys had bills to pay. They had to get on with their lives. But I see the act of returning to fishing as a negative. Why? Because think back to what you know of Peter’s original commission 3 years earlier “follow Me”, Jesus had said then, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4 verse 19). In other words “Follow me because I have a plan and a purpose for your lives.” But now Peter had returned to his old job, to his former way of living. He’d ignored his new commission. He’d gone fishing for fish again. I think Peter knew he was wearing the identity of “three-time betrayer” on his chest, and he didn’t believe a three-time betrayer had any place in the plans and purpose of Jesus anymore.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. He addressed the disciples in the boat familiarly, asking if they’d caught any fish (John 21 verses 4 and 5). Jesus already knew the answer. In the English language we miss the nuance. When Jesus called to the disciples in the boat, his statement implied a negative response. Translated more literally, Jesus said something more like this: “Guys, have you caught anything? No I see you haven’t.” In today’s vernacular, Jesus was saying, “How’s that working for you?” In other words, you’ve been out all night and it’s been a long night of nothing. How’s that working for you? You’ve forgotten your original commission. How’s that working for you? You’ve returned to a familiar, convenient place, but I have so much for you than this familiar, convenient place. How’s that working for you?

Jesus was behind the declaration. Peter and the disciples were given the opportunity to follow Jesus’ voice. It was as if Jesus was saying to them, and particularly to Peter, “Follow me. Even now. Even here. Even when you’ve gone back to your old ways.” Isaiah 30 verse 21 extends a similar call: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it.” That’s the voice of God. Are you listening?

Fortunately Peter and the disciples followed Jesus’ voice and their nets instantly became full. They were about a hundred yards from shore. Peter got so excited that he jumped into the sea and swam to land to see for himself that it really was Jesus. The other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the full nets. When they got to the shore, they saw a charcoal fire and fresh bread. Jesus welcomed the disciples to join him for breakfast with some of the fish they’d just caught. Jesus wasn’t there to interrogate Peter. Jesus simply invited Peter to breakfast on the beach.

How does Jesus restore you and me after we fall? The way Jesus responded to Peter is key for us today. Peter had denied Jesus during a time of Jesus’ great need, and now Jesus had every right to shame him. To identify him by his sin. Nobody would have been surprised if Jesus had said something like this: “Hey Peter! I heard that you denied me 3 times. Are you for real? I hate to be a told-you-so, but I told you so. Why did you let me down at the most critical moment of my mission? Are you even sorry? You’re worthless, Peter. Useless. You’re a hypocrite. Get out of here!” No, he didn’t say anything like that to Peter and he doesn’t say anything like that to you and me. He simply said to Peter “come and have breakfast” (John 21 verse 12). In other words: “Come close to me. I bet you’re hungry. Here’s some warm baked bread. Here’s barbecued fish fresh off the grill. I bet you’re tired, cold and wet. Come by the warm fire. Sit and rest awhile and dry your damp clothes.”

What do you think Jesus will say to you when he takes you for breakfast? Often we adopt the voice of the accuser in our own lives. We absolutely should call sin what it is, to recognise sin as far short of God’s best for our lives. But after we sin we add on words of accusation and heap them on ourselves. We tell ourselves we’ve done for. Useless. Finished. Or we imagine Jesus saying those things to us. Yet Romans 8 verse 1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Jesus gave us such a perfect picture of that verse in his dealings with Peter. Jesus offers us similar kindness.

After the meal, Jesus had some more kind words for Peter. Sometimes we imagine Jesus and Peter walking down the beach by themselves so they could have a private conversation, but John recorded those next words, so he must have been within earshot. I believe this conversation took place around the campfire, with all the rest of the guys there. Jesus asked 1 question 3 different ways. Essentially, he wanted to know, “Peter do you love me? Do you love me more than these boats and nets and fish and these things that you’d give your life to but that I’d called you away from?”

When Peter affirmed his love for the Lord, Jesus replied “Feed my sheep” (John 21 verse 17).

Right there, Jesus did more for Peter – and more for us – than we can imagine. Jesus was telling Peter that he wasn’t finished. Peter was going to be the rock on which the mission of God would be established and carried forward. Jesus was telling Peter that his identity wasn’t going to be a denier of Jesus. He was going to be a hero of the faith and a legend in the church. In fact, Peter would one day very soon preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and 3000 people would be saved that day (Acts 2 verses 14 to 42).

Sure, there were consequences to Peter’s denial of Jesus. 2000 years later we’re still studying the story. Peter’s denial didn’t get swept under the rug or erased from the memory bank of humanity. There were consequences for Peter, just like there are consequences to your decisions and my decisions too.

Yet Jesus never focused on the failure. He focused on the restoration. Grace removed Peter’s guilt and grace also removed Peter’s shame. Peter’s useless. Peter’s life was no longer marked by shame. Grace redefined Peter as a friend and family member of God Almighty.

That’s what the grace of God does for you and me too.

It’s so easy to feel the effects of guilt and shame, to wallow around in them for a long time, even for a lifetime. Whenever we wallow in guilt and shame over our sins we are stamping ourselves “damaged goods”. Or if something bad happened to us and we’re affected by sins of others it’s easy to walk around with the labels of “abused” or “hurt” or “harmed”. But that is not who you are Jesus says, No, that is not your identity. Sin is what was done to you, or sometimes it’s what you did, but sin is not who you are. You are family. You are a daughter of Almighty god, or a son of Almighty God. You are an heir to the King of the universe That’s who you truly are.

When Jesus invites you to breakfast on the beach, he simply asks you if you love him. If your answer is yes, Jesus proceeds with the restoration. He says, That’s great My grace covers your guilt. My grace changes your shame. I want you to become a leader in my church I want you to fees my sheep. I want you to be a part of my mission. I want you to love God and love other people in my name. You do not have to sit in the back row for the rest of your life. You do not have to live in the shadows. You don’t have to build protective walls around yourself. You don’t have to hide from the people who love you and care for you. They’ll help love you and restore your integrity and your call is to help take my name to the world, and I want you in the front row on that mission. You are my chosen instrument to carry forth the plans and purposes of God. You are not going to live defined b shame or guilt. You are going to live defined by me. Since you love me, let’s not go backward. Let’s go forward, together.

The Enemy wants to twist that. He wants to keep sitting at your table, chatting it up with you. The Enemy wants you listening to his voice. The Enemy wants you losing the battle for your mind. The Enemy wants you to look away from the Lord. But Psalm 34 verse 5 points you in a different direction: “Those who look to him (the Lord) are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” Do you think of yourself as “radiant”? That’s a powerful image and the opposite of shame If you’re looking to the Lord, you are radiant. Your face is reflecting the light and love of Christ. You are never covered with shame.

It can be hard to forgive yourself. I get it. Yet your new identity doesn’t spring from you letting yourself off the hook. Your new identity springs from the realisation that Jesus forgives you. Jesus lets you off the hook. Your new identity forms when you agree with Jesus. He says you’re a son or daughter of God. Jesus says you’re forgiven. Do you agree with him?

If Jesus says you can go forward, you can go forward.

Chapter 9 – Staggered by the mountain

Why did God set the table for you in the presence of your enemies? Why do they get ringside seats at your table?

Wouldn’t it make more sense if the table was simply in his presence? Why not vanquish the foes? Change the circumstances? Get rid of the cancer? Bring back your loved one? Shutdown the voices spreading the lies?

To uncover the answer, picture the table again. You have been invited to a feast. The table is covered with all the things that satisfy and sustain you. Yet you’re not primarily interested in the size of the strawberries or the steak that’s grilled perfectly to your liking. You’ve started to realise that the power of this table is not what’s on it, but who’s at it. You are sitting with the King. Not just some run-of-the-mill earthly king. You are dining with the King of the ages. The God of the cosmos. You’re at the table with the wisest, kindest, most loving, most creative, most joy-filled, most interesting person in the universe.

In the midst of the battles that are raging he is near. The Good Shepherd is available and accessible. He has invited you to go as deep in your relationship with him as you desire. Let that sink in for a moment; the King of the universe wants to spend one-on-one time with ... you.

The invitation is staggering. Yet it’s not simply an invitation to know more facts about the Almighty.

There is a God of infinite greatness, and he has invited you to know him deeply and closely and richly. The invitation is to sit with him. To experience him for yourself. To be in his presence. When you realise the magnitude of this possibility, you see there is nothing in your life more valuable or rewarding than your full-on pursuit of knowing him.

That's important because one of the strongest things we can do to prevent the Enemy from sitting at our table is to be completely transfixed on the Host who is sitting at our table with us. Oh sure, we know the Enemy is out there. He’s prowling around like an old roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Yet our gaze is transfixed firmly on the God of glory. We’re captivated by who he is and all the goodness he has for us. We win the battle for our mind by focusing firmly on Jesus.

To truly know God you have to learn to linger with him.

Lingering with the Almighty is the best defense against the enemy who’s trying to get at your table. You stop looking at the Enemy and you start looking at God. Sure, there is strategy in knowing the Enemy’s tactics, in learning how to keep the Enemy from sitting down. Yet there is even greater strategy in exchanging the defensive for the offensive, the negative for the positive. As we wholeheartedly focus on God and seek his face (Psalm 27 verse 8), great things happen. Yes, wonderful things flood your life when you cultivate an incredible desire to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34 verse 8).

As C S Lewis pointed out, so many people are focused on lessening our desire for worldly things, yet “it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

How do you get to know this Almighty God? You come to him through the word of God and the person of Jesus Christ, who said “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14 verse 9). You come with the help of the Holy Spirit, who guides you into truth (John 14 verse 26). You come to know God by discovering his attributes. As A W Tozer said “An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of himself.”

The attributes of God can’t be exhausted, because God is infinite. Here’s an easy example: God is love. This truth is reflected throughout Scripture, but particularly in 1 John. God is not some nebulous force of energy in the cosmos. He’s actually a God of personhood, and that includes full will and full emotion. And the thing that drives his will and guides the emotion of God is love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3 verse 16). God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5 verse 8). When you look into the love of God and study the love of God and meditate on the love of God, then you come to know love as one of God’s most extraordinary attributes. You see the heart of God as love. You see love for people as one of his biggest motivators. As you see God as a God of love, you begin to truly know God.

When it comes to knowing God, he invites you not to settle for surface knowledge. He invites you to a deep and personal knowledge of him where you can explore his grace, his love, his mercy, his immensity his purity, his holiness and his omnipotence. You can know how he helps you. How he cares for you. How he provides for you. How he never fails you. How he works things out for your good. How he’s full of wisdom. How he’s rich in counsel.  How he never changes. How he is always everywhere, yet can love you individually. How he’s full of justice. How God is kind. How God is gracious. How God is infinitely beautiful and powerful and glorious.

God wants to be known by you and you can know as much about him as you have the appetite and desire to know.

Let’s look at two of God’s attributes in depth. These attributes aren’t all God is, but they’ll whet your appetite to know more about him. And getting to know your Shepherd in this way will help you not give the Enemy a seat at our table.

First, God is holy and second, God is full of glory. These 2 attributes are neighbours in the package of truth that we know of God. They’re in proximity to each other a lot as they’re presented in scripture and in the person of Jesus Christ.

OK, God is holy. What does that mean, why should that matter to you and why would you want to know more about the holiness of God? God is full of glory. Same question. You can see God’s glory on display throughout the universe, yet what difference does it make to you and me to know about God’s glory?

In Isaiah 6 we learned how the prophet saw a vision of God and how Isaiah, responded by acknowledging his humanity and receiving the mercy of God. Isaiah’s guilt was taken away by the live coal. But let’s go further into that same text, because there was plenty we skipped over initially. Namely, that God gave Isaiah a revelation not just about himself but into himself. In the text, God is shown as seated on a magnificent throne. He is high and exalted, and the train of his robe fills the temple. Six winged angels called seraphim are flying above him, and the seraphim are covering their faces and feet with sets of wings as they fly. They’re calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6 verse 3).

This passage gives us a very personal glimpse of God. We see similar glimpses in the books of Revelation and Ezekiel. These glimpses are small peeks into heaven where these amazing spirit beings, angels, are simply blown away by God – they are so awed that they can’t even look at him. In honour of him they cover their feet. And what attribute of God do these angels call out? They’re not calling “strong, strong, strong”. They’re not calling “faithful, faithful, faithful.” They’re not calling “transcendent, transcendent, transcendent.” They’re not calling, “immutable, immutable, immutable. Even though God is all those things and more, the angels have a laser-like focus. They’re not tripping up on words. They’re not trying to debate theological concepts. They’re not searching their bible software for an inspirational quote. No. They camp on the holiness of God. They’re calling “Holy, holy, holy.”

What is holiness? The angels are directing us to the perfection of God, the purity of God, the sinlessness of God. But even those words don’t fully convey what holiness is. The word holy comes from the Hebrew word qadash (Pronounced kaw-dash). The word conveys two closely related concepts “sacred” and “set apart”. That’s what the angels are crying out: “You are sacred and you are set apart! You are sacred and set apart! You are sacred and set apart!”

When we say, “set apart” that means God is in his own league. He’s on his own playing field. There’s nothing and no one like him. So in light of that, when you say, “I want to put the Lord first in my heart” that’s right on. God can’t be relegated to second or third or fourth place. Whether we acknowledge it or not, he is always first, tops, the winner and he’s uniquely in that position. He isn’t running a race with anybody else and he didn’t beat out Jo-Jo at the tape with a lean. Jo-Jo isn’t even in the same race. No one is in that race. Nothing is on that race. God is holy, sacred and set apart. In Exodus 15 which includes the first song of praise after the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, we find this lyric in verse 11.”Who is like you – majestic, in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” That’s our God.

What is God’s glory about? We think of glory as fame, or the glory of a city or making it to the cover of a magazine. But that’s tinfoil praise. God’s glory is far different. God’s glory isn’t fleeting. His glory isn’t measured in a headline. The Hebrew word for glory is kabod, again conveying 2 concepts: “weight” and “worth”. God has incalculable substance and incalculable value. He is full of magnitude and he is priceless. That is God’s glory.

In the Hebrew, if a word or superlative is repeated, it essentially doubles in emphasis. Very few times in Scripture is a word or superlative tripled for emphasis. In Isaiah 6, the idea is that “God you are sacred and set apart. Your weight and your worth can’t be measured. Times all that again, and times all that again. God. You are not only holy ...

“You are holy, holy, holy!”

The choice to know God more fully is yours. Thanks to Jesus, there are no barriers to you knowing God. It wasn’t always that way. In the Old Testament, there were limits. People had to look ahead in faith, believing that the barriers sin created between them and God would one day be broken down through the work of a Saviour.

Jesus made a way for us to come into the presence of God. To actually know him without limit. Paul described this in 2 Corinthians 3. The ministry of God used to be written on stone tablets, but now that ministry is written on our hearts. Paul went on to say, “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away” (verses 12 and 13). The result now is that we all, with unveiled faces, behold the Lord’s glory, and we’re being transformed into his image. The cross and the Spirit have brought us freedom. And what is this freedom? To come boldly into his presence. To come as high as we want on the mountain of God.

That’s what Christ has done for us. When angels announced his birth, they said, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2 verse 14). The greatest weight and the greatest value have come to earth in Christ. It’s such a staggering truth for us today. Jesus opened the way for us to come into the very presence of “holy, holy, holy” God. When Jesus died, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27 verse 5) Thanks to Jesus, the separation between God and man does not need to exist anymore we have access to the Father. Hebrews 10 verses 19 and 20 lays this out for us explicitly: “We have confidence to enter the Most holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.”

God invites us to climb all the way up his mountain, yet it’s far too easy to stand with a pinch of dust’s worth of understanding at the base. Your invitation is to climb higher, to go all the way up. As you climb the mountain you find God has infinite power. Infinite love, infinite beauty. Infinite majesty. Saint Augustine said “Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in thee.”

So you want to know how to keep the Enemy away from your table? Hike up the mountain of God. Sense some of the weight of the worth of his majesty. In the process you will be changed. Scripture clearly tells us that we become what we worship (Psalm 115 verse 8). When we set our gaze on the Almighty, we change into that likeness of the one who has captivated our souls. And we reflect his glory.

Remember the truth we saw earlier in Psalm 34 verse 5 “Those who look to him are radiant?” When you set your gaze on Jesus, your countenance changes. Literally. Hope begins to shine in your eyes. A smile emerges where there was once a downturned expression. So can you see it? You’re sitting with your King in the middle of the conflict. Your enemies have ringside seats. God has moved them from the upper deck and given them a close up vantage point. What do they see? Do they see you witling under the pressure or glaring back at them? No, they see you glowing as you stare into the face of majesty?

This gets us to the heart of the question – why put the table in the middle of the enemies? Because the story we’re in is about the greatness of our God. We get the benefits of being led by the Good Shepherd. But Jesus gets the glory as being the greatest Shepherd of all.

God’s glory matters more than anything. If people don’t know how great and gracious and good he is, how will they not choose something of lesser value? How will they know he’s better than everything else if they don’t see him on display in someone like you?

The table is in the presence of the enemies because God wants you to know that you’ll always have enough for every moment, every struggle. He’ll sustain you in very dark night. And God wants the enemies to watch you shine Why? Because in time they will stop gawking at you and turn their attention to the One who has the ability to keep your face beaming (Romans 14 verse 11; Philippians 2 verses 10 and 11).

Lastly, the table is in the presence of your enemies so they can hear your song. With your eyes locked on Jesus, your worship will be uninterrupted. And your worship will become your weapon. Not only will God be exalted, but chains will break as you fight with this declaration; it may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by you, Jesus. Everything shifts when you exchange a teacup-sized knowledge of God for an oceanic understanding of who he is.

It will be hard for the enemy to crowd in on your newfound relationship with God. How do you win the battle for your mind? Keep your mind on Christ. Period. There’s no way the Enemy will get a seat at your table.

Chapter 10 – The Garden of your Mind

The battle of your life is fought and won in your mind. God wants you to take control of your mind, in Jesus’ name, through the power of his Holy Spirit. You can think your way into changing your life for good. God is in the story with us, and because he's in the story with us, we're ultimately in a story of victory. Yet we can get sidetracked and tripped up along the way. We can give the Enemy a seat at our table. But we don't need to.

Romans 8 verse 6 gives a great summary of how we don’t need to let the Enemy sit down. In the New American Standard Bible the verse says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but he mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. “ Other translations use the phrasing “controlled” or “governed” as in “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” But I like the imagery of a mindset on the Spirit. We can have a new mindset, with a new way of seeing ourselves and a new way of thinking about life.

So how do we set our minds on what the Spirit desires?

We need the mindset that leads to life and I want you to know that your mindset can be different. Your thoughts can be different and your life can be different because your mind is set on Christ. God is with you He is on your side. He has established a treatment of victory through Christ. But the rest is up to you.

How does this all work in actual life? The way you go about stopping the enemy from sitting at your table is by winning the battle for your mind. Winning the mind battle means replacing old, harmful thoughts with new, life-giving thoughts. The thinking of these new thoughts will result in doing different things – changed behaviour. Victory begins in the mind. One of the big ways to gain victory in your mind is to think less about the Devil or about the evil you’re trying to avoid and to think more about God and the truth you’re aiming to embrace. One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is the ability to memorise scripture.

Imagine that your mind is a garden. Seeds can float in on the wind or be dropped by birds or be scattered in your garden by any number of things. But you as the gardener are responsible for what grows there. You have the power to water the good seeds and cultivate the good seeds and pull out any weeds that come from seeds you don’t want.

How do you cultivate, weed and water the garden of your mind? Romans 12 verse 2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Whatever you give shelter and sustenance to in your mind is ultimately what will grow in your garden. You’re going to reap what you sow.

The way you renew your mind is to wrap your thoughts around Scriptures. You can take control of what you think about. You deliberately plant the good seeds/thoughts of God in your mind. As these thoughts take root and grow, they will help remove the destructive weeds that the Enemy tries to plant in your mind.

Start small. Realigning your thinking with God’s thinking is a process. So take one step at a time. Take one thought each day. Dwell on that thought and memorize the scripture. By the end of the week, you’ll be well on your way to cultivating the garden of your mind. Or maybe you just want to take one thought and verse each week for 7 weeks. Either way, plant and begin to cultivate these 7 thoughts in your mind now. Personalise these statements for yourself, and memorize these verses.

1.    I am in God’s story

The story of who you are is part of God’s larger story. The story is bigger than you. Ultimately the story is not about you. You have been invited into the story of God’s great glory and grace. It’s all about him. But you have a seat at his table.

Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, God knew you. Jesus the Good Shepherd guides you always and the Lord makes firm the steps of those who delight in him (Psalm 37 verse 23).

So plant this thought in your mind by memorizing this verse: “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29 verse 11)

You matter to God. But ultimate meaning won’t come from putting the spotlight on you. Your life will have the greatest significance when you choose to make it about the One who welcomes you into his never-ending story.

2.    I am fearfully and wonderfully made

You weren’t born by a random act of the cosmos. God made you with intention, and God made you wonderfully. God has redeemed you and knows your name (Isaiah 43 verse 1).

So plant this thought by memorizing these verses “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139 verses 13 and 14).

You are not the maker. You are made. God is not created in your image, how you might think he should be You are created in his. He decided that he wanted you in his universe. He imagined and fashioned you. You are not accidental. Nor incidental. You are divinely crafted.

Plant this seed every day. In time, you’ll have an oak providing shade for you and those around you. You’ll begin to believe that you are who God says you are. Unique. Special. Valuable.

3.    My life has purpose

You were born for a noble reason. God has good things for you to do. He has called you to live for what matters.

So plant this thought by memorizing this verse: “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2 verse 10)

Random things are random. Evolved things are void of specific meaning. But created things have purpose. There is just one you. You have a unique calling, a reason for being. Something to do in God’s great story that is important and needed.

Don’t buy into the lie that you are expendable. You’re not. God put you on earth for a purpose. Your life matters, to him and to those he is positioning you to serve.

4.    The cross has the final word

The work Jesus did on the cross defines your life. It gives you victory over death. You are identified with Christ. You are a brand-new creation. You are not unwanted, unlovely or worthless. You are wanted by God, made in the image of God and worthy of Christ’s love because he has chosen to place worth upon you. Your identity was born in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

Don’t let anyone try to convince you of anything that wasn’t demonstrated to you when Christ gave his life for you. You are forgiven. Made right. You are holy in Christ. You are born into a new family. Woven into divine plans and purposes. Your guilt is gone. You are free.

So plant this thought by memorizing this verse: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5 verse 17)

5.    I serve at the pleasure of the King

The work of Jesus transforms your work. You don’t merely work at a job. You serve Jesus Christ, the King of kings.

In light of this truth, here is a new personal vision statement, one you can remind yourself of each day: I am dispatched by the Holy Spirit, on kingdom assignments, to be light in a darkened world, so others can see Jesus.

Plant this thought by memorizing this verse: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2 verse 9)

6.    Jesus is Lord and Jesus is my Lord

Your God is stronger than anything, higher than anything, and worthy of all praise. Your God is the Great King. His kingdom is forever; his plans are unassailable and sure.

Plant this thought by memorizing these verses “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2 verses 9 to 11).

7.    My God turns evil into good

Life doesn’t always work out as you hope. You’re living on a broken planet. But no circumstance can hinder the seeds we’ve just discussed from being cultivated in your mind. No hardship or disappointment or disease or divorce or darkness or desert can stunt the growth of godly thoughts from becoming mighty trees in your way of thinking.

So plant this in your mind: “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8 verse 28).

Start there. God has spoken these truths in his word. Now its up to you to plant those truths in your mind, and keep tilling them and nurture them until the word takes root and grows and produces a crop.

Let the pictures we’ve drawn illuminate truth for you: the garden is your mind, where you’re growing a transformed person by planting God’s word. That person is sitting at the table, the place of fellowship with the Good Shepherd, where you don’t want to give the Devil a seat; you want to enjoy the meal with your Lord. The mountain represents the grandeur of the Lord himself, and your privilege is to ascend higher and higher in getting to know him. All these pictures are about the deep and deepening relationship with the God of the universe that you are invited into. Don’t be scared. Jesus the Good Shepherd guides you every step of the way.

Scripture is clear: Jesus lives in you, and when Jesus lives in you, your slate is clean. You are set free from condemnation, and you are given a new life and placed into a new family. You have a relationship with God through Jesus. Christ’s work on the cross got you out of death, so now your life can be lived fully surrendered to him. You are alive in the Spirit, alive by the Spirit, alive for Christ, alive in Christ, to live the life of Christ so that he might be glorified. This is not a negotiation. This is a call to surrender completely to Jesus. You are completely open, completely available to him. He has given you a new identity. Your call is to make him known in the world.

Too often we want to see miracles first, before we take a step. We’re like, “Ok God, do something great, and then I’ll take the step. Give me all the right words first, and then I’ll take the microphone Give me all the money first, and then I’ll start what you’ve called me to do”. But the fullness of the life that Jesus provides becomes evident to us often when we move, when we act on his leading, when we open our mouths and speak. The steps we take in faith activate the power of the Spirit.

That’s your call today.

Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table. You can win the battle for your mind. Don’t give in to sin, despair or darkness. Take every thought captive. Bind every thought in Jesus’ name that doesn’t come from God. Fill your mind with the goodness and richness of scripture. Memorize scripture and become the DJ of your mind, letting thoughts of God consistently fill your heart and life. Surrender your life completely to Jesus. He will lead you to green pastures and quiet waters. He will lead you through dark valleys, but you don’t ever need to fear. You will not be in want, because Jesus will restore your soul. Jesus will lead you to a table in the presence of your enemies, but here’s nothing to worry about, because your head is dripping with anointing, your cup overflows with abundance, and goodness and mercy are following you all the days of your life.

The Good Shepherd is sitting at your table. Jesus has invited you to all the abundance he offers. It’s a meal for the two of you. He himself is the feast.