“Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1-2) “…while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
How does it happen?
How does a young believer in the Lord Jesus Christ fall prey to spiritual deception and fall away from their strong position in the Lord Jesus Christ? Many, who undoubtedly started out well including preachers who were called and anointed by God, have been turned out of the way by apostate mentors who departed from the faith long ago. How does a young believer fall into the devils trap?
King Solomon
King Solomon was God’s servant and gifted in His wisdom beyond that of mortal men and yet became a backslidden believer spiritually seduced by pagan women and idolatry. He continued to prophesy even after he had already started to backslide because “the gifts and calling of God go forth without repentance.” At the end of his life his soul was filled with a deep sense of futility and spiritual bareness.
How does it work?
Many of the false prophets and teachers around today may have started out well and at one time been genuinely gifted and anointed by the Holy Spirit but through spiritual seduction are now operating under a counterfeit anointing given by Satan himself. Solomon wrote about a young man who was seduced by a deceitful, seductive and adulterous woman. The physical seduction of this rather naive young man teaches us about how spiritual seduction works. We will now look at the text in Proverbs 7:1-27.
(Vs 1-5) “My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and to insight, “You are my relative.” They will keep you from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words.”
A Call for Wisdom
There is more wisdom in God’s Word than in any other book in the whole world. God’s wisdom is available for those who seek for it with their entire heart, with their entire mind, and with their entire soul and with their entire strength. As Solomon also wrote; “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:1-5)
The Apostle James said that as a believer God would give us wisdom if we ask for it and believe we receive it from God when we ask. He writes; “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts, is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8)
We must resist the Devil
As believers in our Lord Jesus Christ every day we face situations that require God’s wisdom because we have an enemy out there “who goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” and one whom we are to steadfastly resist in faith until he flees from us (James 4:7). When you consider the wolf circling the flock he is always after the young lambs because they have a tendency to wander off or go astray. Today there are well known false and seductive teachers that are household names through television and the internet who are using the Bible out of context to prop up their spiritually seductive doctrines “to fleece the sheep” in order to line their own pockets. They wear very expensive jewellery, stay in five star hotels, fly jets from coast to coast, live in multi-million dollar mansions and all at the expense of the sheep, many of whom give what little they have into the coffers of these mammon loving sharks and shysters “whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron!” It is so important today that we bind ourselves to the Word of God and seek “to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
We must cherish God’s Word
We must cherish God’s Word above all and everything else. The Word of God is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses to separate us from the world the flesh and the devil. It has been said that God’s Word will keep us from sin or sin will keep us from God’s Word. Also an added bonus from the Lord Jesus to empower us to be victorious over Satan’s power is the supernatural language imparted to us by the Holy Spirit that can edify and build us up in our most holy faith as we pray in the Holy Spirit. When we read and obey the Word of God and pray unceasingly in the Holy Spirit we will be kept in the love of God. The blessed Holy Spirit will give us wisdom to discern truth from error. We are to test all things by the Word of God and be like the Bereans, “who searched the scriptures every day to see if what Paul taught was true.” A favourite brother in the Lord Jesus made a comment along these lines. “Some naive and undiscerning Christians when they come to church to worship leave their minds in the carpark!” Only as we value the word of God as we would our closest and dearest relative or as close as a brother or sister will it keep us from being spiritually seduced by wicked and unprincipled men. As wisdom calls to us “Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Biblical wisdom
Wisdom in the Bible is always spoken of as having personality or described as we would describe a person. God’s wisdom in fact is our Lord Jesus Christ of whom it is written; “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24b) For us as believers He is our wisdom from God; “It is because of Him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31) He is the Eternal Living Word of God made flesh and He is called the Word of God (Revelation 19:13).
The Bible is all about Him. It is the Lord Jesus in print. Many today in these apostate mega churches into money, power, numbers and unbiblical doctrines claim to love Jesus but do not love His Word consequently they do not love Him. They have a different Jesus. Many of them say some right things at times as Satan always lays truth and error side by side. Sometimes it is a case of not what they are saying but what they are failing to say. If we do not love and obey God’s Word then we do not love Jesus! Those who refuse the love of the truth will ‘go to Babylon’ and worship the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
The Backslider and seducer
Many Christians attending these mega, mammon loving churches, with their counterfeit and bogus signs, miracles and wonders, are deceived and are not wilfully blind but once they see the truth they need to come out and “flee from Babylon” otherwise God Himself will send them a deluding spirit and they will no longer be capable of loving, believing and obeying the truth even when they hear it. The adulterous woman mentioned in our text represents a backslidden believer or pastor and teacher who was betrothed to the Lord Jesus but has committed spiritual adultery by serving another god or gods whether it is money, power, prestige, sensual pleasures, false doctrines and practices or the god of self- aggrandisement. The backslider personified in the adulterous woman has left her first love and is no longer faithful to her betrothed or husband. She is the instrument in the hands of Satan to seduce others who stray into her path. Jezebel was such a woman who seduced King Ahab. She represents the spirit of spiritual seduction and deception. The devil already has the world deceived and the ones he is after is you and me who worship the LORD in Spirit and in truth.
(Vs.6-7) “At the window of my house I looked down through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense.”
Having no sense of discernment
The simple man spoken of here is not one who is congenitally simple but one who is naive and undiscerning whose senses had never been trained to discern good from evil or about the seductress and her methods of seduction. He represents a young believer, just saved out of the world, who does not have much Bible knowledge and who is easily taken in by his five physical sense gates which the seductress appeals to every time. “He had no sense” we are told. Once again it does not mean that he could not think for himself or be capable of rational thought. What it implies is that he had no spiritual discernment to see the seductress and her wiles. This is why it is important for a new born again believer to be in a sound, balanced Biblical Church where the systematic preaching of God’s Word is faithfully administered every week in the power of the Holy Spirit and where the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate freely and Biblically in that church.
Sadly and tragically many young believers in these mega churches have no spiritual discernment whatsoever because they do not know what the Word of God actually teaches. All they know is the pop-psychology sermons week by week propped up here and there by Bible verses usually out of context. That is all they know. There is no solid exposition of scripture but a string of false prophecies one after another to titillate their senses that circumnavigates their conscience and ability to reason Biblically. Just watch TBN and you will see this insanity! It is imperative that when we come to fellowship we have our minds as well as our hearts open to hear from God and to discern what is being preached. And so we continue…
(Vs.8 -9) “He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.”
The encroaching darkness
The apostle Paul wrote; “But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6) There is a day coming when the Day of the LORD will occur where the Lord Jesus will come back unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, and while people are saying, “peace and safety” destruction will come on them suddenly, like labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5: 2-4) In these last days believers need to stay spiritually alert and sober. This young man we are told was going down the street near the corner of her house. Many a young Christian, lacking discernment, when they started to attend an apostate mega church had heard the loud music and the feel good preaching and the buzz of the atmosphere and like the young man in our text had lingered at the door of the church. The power of spiritual seduction was too good to refuse, the senses being captivated by the euphoria of the moment and of the masses gathered there. Notice our text says “it was at twilight” and the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. In the Bible the night speaks of spiritual darkness in the soul but also of the time of Great Tribulation to come when spiritual darkness will circumnavigate the globe.
Gradually getting darker!
Notice that it was gradually getting dark. There have always been false teachers and prophets around but in the Last Days they intensify and multiply much like labour pains that come one upon another. These false doctrines intensify and multiply until they give birth to spiritual darkness itself. During the time of Great Tribulation spiritual deception will be a conspicuous mark of an apostate church. If you look at the rapid rise of Ecumenism and interfaith associations and Charismania gone mad and the mega church mentality you see the apostasy well under way. In the future the Antichrist will not only be worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem but at the same time in some way will be worshipped in the professing Christian Church.
Hypnotic power
With the TV and especially the internet the spiritual darkness is spreading like gangrene through the Body of Christ and many a young believer is being taken in by the persuasive speech and the hypnotic power of these seductive money, wealth and prosperity preachers with their bogus signs, miracles and wonders. As things get darker young naive and undiscerning Christians are progressively drawn into the web of these covens of spiritual witchcraft. Jezebel was like this with Ahab. Added to this her many false prophets, empowered by the occult, were spiritually paralysing the people of God until God’s prophet Elijah came on the scene. It was only when the people of God saw the real fire fall from heaven, exposing the false fire of Jezebel’s prophets for what it was, that they turned back to God! In the end all the hype and frenzy and mesmerising rhetoric of Jezebel’s false prophets could not bring down the fire from heaven. This is why the Church in the western democracies needs a good old fashioned and totally Biblical Holy Spirit revival based on the Word of God alone! Now let’s continue…
(Vs. 10-11) “Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (She is unruly and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks).”
Feel good Philandering
Peter wrote about false teachers who are past masters in spiritual seduction and sensuality who do not have the Holy Spirit. Peter describes them as those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority, being accountable to no one. They are bold and arrogant; slandering those in heaven and blaspheming in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct following the desires of the flesh that go unchecked. They are carousing in broad daylight and in some cases having affairs on the side with women in their fellowships while preaching from the pulpit. Some, having the audacity to trade in their wives for ‘a younger model’ as it were while continuing in ministry.
These enchanters are dark blots and blemishes, reviling in their pleasures as they live in the lap of luxury at the expense of the sheep. They have eyes full of adultery as they captivate weak willed women with their charisma and charm. They never stop sinning and seduce the unstable. They are experts in greed, driving around in Limousines, staying in five star hotels and living in mansions. They are an accursed brood! They have left the narrow way that leads to life and have taken the broad way that leads to destruction and are taking many naive and undiscerning Christians with them on the downward path to hell! They love the wages of wickedness and are bedfellows with Balaam son of Beor who also loved the wages from wickedness.
With crafty intent
From God’s perspective they are dressed like a prostitute and have crafty intent to get what they can from others to satisfy their insatiable appetite for power, gold and glory! They can never stay at home in God’s Kingdom but wander about seeking gullible Christians. They are everywhere today in the Church and gaining momentum with their pernicious doctrines from the pit of hell! They are springs without the water of the Holy Spirit and mists driven by a storm of inordinate passion and desire. They cannot deliver what they promise just like Jezebel’s prophets on Mt Carmel! Their prophecies never come to fruition. They are feel good philanderers for whom blackest darkness has been reserved for them! (See 2 Peter 2:10-17). Let’s continue…
(Vs.13-15) “She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: “Today I fulfilled my vows, and I have food from my fellowship offering at home. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!”
Sensuality and seductiveness
Peter also writes that these false prophets and teachers plaguing the Church mouth empty and boastful words about dreams and visions that are not from God but from out of their own imaginations as they borrow stories from each other. They entice and seduce naive Christians who are just escaping from the world by appealing to the lustful desires of the sinful nature. These false prophets and teachers are slaves to depravity themselves and like the brazen prostitute who kisses the young man on the lips and entices him to go home with her. There is no sense of shame! These seducers knew the Lord Jesus at one time but have now forsaken Him, having loved this present world and the things of this world, having become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They are worse off than they were at the beginning. They have forsaken the Word of God and like a dog that returns to its own vomit, a filthy and unwashed breed of spiritual reprobates! (See 2 Peter 2:18-21).
Twice dead!
As Jude writes that these demonically inspired enchanters are in fellowship without a conscience regarding their behaviour and blown along by the latest wind of doctrine such as we have seen with the laughing revival, Pensacola or Lakeland or the Purpose Driven agenda or Charismania gone mad! They have no spiritual fruit and have been uprooted and twice dead. They were once saved and have died again spiritually never to be revived! Their words are like the tempest of the sea stirring up the people with swelling words devoid of spiritual life and power. They are like shooting stars, here today and gone tomorrow while society still plunges headlong into the jaws of hell! (See Jude 10-13).
Playing the Prostitute
Such are the TV faith prosperity and mammon worshipping idolaters and spiritual seducers. With brazen faces they throw out seductive kisses with their words to the masses in their churches and on TV and the internet pretending it is love but in reality it is an appeal to sensual pleasure enticing the spiritually unstable and the undiscerning to practice covetousness and having it good in this world! Through their slick programmes and carefully constructed worship services they entice young impressionable and unstable souls into their fold to make them twice as much the children of hell as they are themselves. Just watch TBN and some other Christian TV Networks to see the truth of this matter. Even good ministries are prostituting themselves by broadcasting on these apostate networks that are producing and promoting spiritual seduction by the hour and round the clock!
(Vs. 16-19) “I have covered my bed with coloured linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.”
The enticement
In the Bible Egypt is also used as a metaphor for the world and Pharaoh a metaphor for the god of this world Satan. Notice that the woman had perfumed her bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon all ingredients used in embalming the dead. Spiritually speaking once in bed with the enemy death is assured. Those who persist in physical adultery will never enter the Kingdom of God unless they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus for salvation. Scripture is clear that promiscuous sex will bring judgement. Of course God is not against sex and erotic lovemaking within the bounds of a marriage. As it is written; “the marriage bed is undefiled.”
Once adultery is entertained and committed the persons involved step into a trap that will eventually destroy their lives and the lives of others. Once there is a spiritual apostasy there is no turning back to the way of life. Once a believer gets into bed with the spiritual seductress of false and unbiblical doctrine spiritual sickness sets in culminating in spiritual death. The spiritual seduction in false teaching has truth and error lying side by side. It is much like eating a beautiful gourmet sandwich filled with nutritious ingredients but laced with small doses of arsenic, the slow acting poison that eventually brings about death. False unbiblical doctrine is like that. Peter calls it “secretly introducing destructive heresies” (See 2 Peter 2:1-3). What is the enticement that Satan uses most today?
The worship of worship itself
Much of the worship conducted in most of the mega-churches today is the worship of worship itself with an endless run of Choruses with repetitious lyrics that enchant and hypnotise unstable and Biblically illiterate souls to enter into the enticement and the euphoria of worship which in some churches actually promotes sensuality and a “feel good” atmosphere, especially once the people have been psyched up to swallow what is being preached. A famous preacher once said; “a ship in the water is alright but water in the ship isn’t.” In other words the Church in the world is okay but the world in the Church is not. The world will always put on a better show than the Church at any time. The Church was never meant to compete with the world but to be separate from the world.
God is not a ‘kill-joy’
Now there is nothing wrong with contemporary singing and music in the Church provided the lyrics are Biblically sound. In the Temple worship all kinds of instruments were played and at times the praises of the people “lifted the ceiling” as it ascended into the very throne room of God! Even David danced before the ark of God and it was accepted as pure worship by the LORD! There is nothing wrong with the abundant manifestation of spiritual gifts in a local fellowship provided they are exercised in a Biblical manner. God is not a kill joy. Does not the Psalmist say; “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing” (Psalm 100:1-2). Does not the Apostle Paul say; “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (Ephesians 5:18-21)
Lucifer
When Lucifer was created, before he fell and became Satan, he had within him “the workmanship of tabrets and of the pipes in the day he was created.” (Ezekiel 28:13) Tabrets refer to tambourines and pipes to flutes. In other words Lucifer was in charge of worship in the Eden of God before he fell and was a familiar face to Adam and Eve in the garden. His power to produce mesmerising music that leads to emotional euphoria is clearly seen in loud rock concerts and especially in Heavy Metal bands we see today. Music in the hands of the Holy Spirit is a very powerful instrument to build up a believer’s faith and confidence in God and enable them to worship God in Spirit and in truth and with enthusiasm and even exuberance. There is nothing on earth like Spirit filled music to lift us up into the spiritual realm where God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit resides, not to mention the unnumbered myriads of angels and spirits of justified men and woman made perfect in Christ who are also there.
Mammon loving deceivers
Now notice that the seductress says to the young man that her husband has gone on a long journey and that it is okay to engage in an illicit and unlawful relationship. Remember when Moses was up in the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments and had delayed his return that the people rose up to play around the Golden Calf which they had enticed their leader Aaron to make for them. The phrase used for “to play” in the Hebrew language is the phrase “to laugh” and the behaviour pattern around that golden calf was much like the so called Toronto laughing revival of recent times. Money was always involved as it is in all of the faith prosperity mammon loving deceivers and conjurors of the occult.
The Golden Calf Syndrome
Moses was a type of the Lord Jesus who ascended to heaven and as yet has not returned. The people of God in Moses time were like multitudes in the Church today that are yielding to the enticement of the Golden Calf Syndrome, being lovers of money and encouraged by their pastors in many cases! They have risen up to laugh and to play the harlot around the Golden Calf of money because the Lord Jesus Second Coming is delayed. This is the true state of the mega church syndrome raking in millions upon millions of dollars from hard working sheep, many of whom do not have much money. What an accursed and greedy bunch they are! Some of these mega church pastors are not satisfied with having a personal jet they have to get a bigger and better one to use in their ministry. Words are inadequate to describe these brazen harlots kissing the mouths as it were of naive and undiscerning Christians. No wonder our Lord Jesus drove out the money changers from the Temple of God who were “profiteering on the Blood of the Lamb!” It is the same thing going on today! When the Lord Jesus comes back the whip will be out again! He will not be coming back at noon but at night when He is least expected and He will catch out all those who are in bed “sleeping with the enemy!” Let’s continue…
(Vs.21-23) “With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.”
The Consummation
In the book of Proverbs we are told that, “the power of life and death are in the tongue.” (Proverbs 18:21) Words can heal or hurt, they can affirm or condemn and they can produce appropriate or inappropriate behaviour. Words can affect nations. Words can start wars. Most breakdowns in relationships often start with words. The Lord Jesus Himself said that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” in other words what is in the heart in abundance will be expressed with words. If you listen to someone speaking you will eventually be able to discern what is in their heart in abundance and what engages their thinking most of the time. Words can also be seductive. This young man followed the adulteress to her bedroom and there they took their pleasure for the rest of the night. The Bible says that “the pleasure of sin lasts for a season.” It also says; “There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is destruction.”
A story of two kings
There is a story told of two kings who were after the same throne. One invited the other to dine with him and during the meal offered him a cup of sparking red wine that looked so enticing and hard to resist. His guest took the cup and tasted the contents and liked it so much that he gulped it all down. When he looked into the empty cup at the bottom there was a carving of the fangs of a snake. He had been poisoned. He at first sipped and it tasted good then he drank and died a horrible and excruciating death. Spiritual deception unchecked inevitably leads to spiritual death. In the end it does not pay to deal with the devil!
Spiritual contamination
Now concerning the man who sleeps with a prostitute the Apostle Paul said “Don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” (1 Corinthians 6:16) There are emotional and psychological and even physical ramifications when a man sleeps with a prostitute. They become one flesh in that there is a fusion of their minds, their emotions and their wills. The sexual act is the means by which this fusion comes about. It is the same principle in the spiritual world. Once the enticement has been offered by the false teacher the next step is the consummation with the false doctrine. Once this occurs spiritual contamination happens and if not dealt with spiritual deception and death will most definitely ensue. There is the lingering, followed by the enticement and then the consummation. This is how spiritual seduction works.
(Vs.24-27) “Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.”
The Affirmation
The heart is the control centre of a person’s life. As the Lord Jesus said; “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. These are what defile a man.” (Matthew 15:18-20a) In our text in Proverbs we read the term; “my sons” and it now refers to more than one. The “sons” represent all of those born again by the Spirit and a part of the Body of Messiah. God calls them His sons. Wisdom is speaking as a person with knowledge and insight but in reality the wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who is called; “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24)
The whole Armour of God
Believers are told to put on the whole armour of God and to take their stand against the wiles of the devil, especially to take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. All of the fiery arrows of the evil one are aimed at the heart and the mind but it is the shield of faith covering that breastplate of righteousness that extinguishes those fiery arrows from the devil. Of course the helmet of Salvation guards the mind when it is under attack. When one is strong in the LORD, and in the power of His might, and taking their stand against the devil, he will eventually flee (See Ephesians 6:10-18). The Sword of the Spirit for the believer is the Word of God itself. When Satan sees a believer coming at him clothed in spiritual armour and swinging the Sword of the Spirit back and forth he takes a wide birth! He knows what that sword can do and will do if he gets in the way of it!
Submit and resist
In God’s Word we are told to submit to God and to resist the devil and to keep up that resistance until he flees and then to draw near to God to regain our spiritual strength and He will draw near to us (See James 4:7-8a). Sometimes the devil will press home his attack and the temptation will be most severe and prolonged and at such times we should pray and not give up! Usually the downward path to spiritual seduction starts when the mind is assaulted with false teaching. At first it is not always apparent, as the devil always lays truth and error side by side, and this is why we are told that our minds need to be renewed and the only instrument the Holy Spirit uses to protect and renew our minds is the Word of God (Psalm 19:11). When the Lord Jesus was tempted three times to fulfil the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life He said to the devil each time; “It is written.” He used the Word of God to resist the devil. We also need to use that Sword of the Spirit to drive the devil out of our affairs and the way to do this effectively is to speak out the promises of God and pray in the language of the Holy Spirit. In this way we will drive off the devil especially when temptation to sin lurks at the door of our mind and our heart. Sadly and tragically the long history of the Church is littered with unnumbered multitudes of those who were at one time “contending for the faith once delivered to the saints” but through spiritual seduction forsook the highway to heaven and put themselves on the highway to the grave leading down to the chambers of death.
Epilogue
May all of us who love the Lord Jesus take His words to heart; “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God…To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.” (Proverbs 2:1-5, 16-18) Selah!
