In the last blog, I talked about God wanting to protect us from the things that are destructive to us. Today I want share with you exactly what those things are. I lived most of my life in ignorance to the things that I now know were literally destroying me, and my relationships. Everyone knows the obvious things like alcohol and drugs are destructive to us, but what about all the other things that the Bible tells us not to do. How do those things really harm us?<\/p>\n

First of all, we need to understand that there’s a ‘who’<\/em>, behind the ‘what’,<\/em> that is the destroyer. Jesus said in John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The thief is Satan and his plan is to steal the fulfilling life that Jesus died to give each and every one of us. How exactly does he do that? He does it through deception, by using our weaknesses in us to tempt us to choose sin over God’s ways. The Bible tells us that no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other (Matthew 6:24). <\/strong><\/p>\n

We only have two choices in life, we can choose to follow Jesus, or we can ignorantly choose to follow Satan, by following our own fleshly desires. The Amplified Version of Romans 6:16 says,<\/strong> <\/strong>Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Furthermore, 1 John 3:8 says, He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.\u00c2\u00a0The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>Satan can only work in those who allow him to, other than that, he has no real authority over us. With Christ living in us, we have His power in us to turn away from sin. Without Christ, we have no power to resist the devil’s influence on us.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:1-2 says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Amplified version for the end of this verse says [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Notice how it says that Satan constantly<\/em> <\/strong>works in those who are disobedient to God? To be disobedient to God is to blatantly refuse to obey God and His Word. Obedience is not about perfection. In fact, as Romans 6:16 <\/strong>above says, obedience is what leads us to righteousness. It doesn’t say obedience is righteousness.<\/p>\n

Obedience is our heart attitude of reverence toward God. Obedience is actively pursuing to live our lives each and every day for Jesus, by putting our faith in Him. Obedience is surrendering our whole heart to Jesus, and allowing Him to work His perfection in us. We allow Him to work in us by doing our part and ridding ourselves of the things that are destructive to us, the things that hinder His perfection from being displayed in us.<\/p>\n

Obedience is a daily journey with Christ. It’s about taking one step at a time and following what He reveals to us and teaches us each day through His Word. 2Timothy <\/em>3:16-18<\/strong> says that\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Psalm 19:11 says, By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward<\/em>.<\/strong> Once we know that God loves us and wants to protect us from the one who is trying to deceive and destroy us, we will want to be obedient to God. We’re foolish not to.<\/p>\n

Romans 6:21 says, What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Death is darkness, and darkness makes you blind so that you can not see what is really going on around you. Jesus said in John 8:12 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we follow Christ, we have His light in us to see what is wrong in our life. His light drowns out all the darkness in us. When we choose sin over obedience, we cover that light in us and we become blind to the enemy’s deception and influence in our lives.<\/p>\n

John 3:19-21 says,<\/strong> This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the past, whenever I was purposely disobedient to God, I found myself deliberately not wanting to draw near to Him. I also did not want to read the Bible or listen to a preacher’s message. I didn’t want to stop what I was doing so I didn’t want God to expose it to me. I knew that once I drew near to God, I’d see it for what it was. Now looking back, it seems completely crazy to me, because what I was doing was making me miserable anyways, and I was hurting myself and those around me. I think we just get so stubborn and deceived when we allow the enemy to influence us, that it literally does blind our eyes.<\/p>\n

Psalm 19:8 says, The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes<\/em>.<\/strong> When we turn from our sins and turn to obedience, it lightens the path before us so we can clearly see the enemy’s influence and deception for what it really is.<\/p>\n

When we are disobedient, we can’t see God’s direction and hear clearly from Him. John <\/strong>12:35<\/strong> says that the man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.<\/p>\n

My kids just watched a cartoon recently that portrayed this perfectly. In the cartoon, they showed two men who lived in separate houses next door to each other. Both of the houses were without electricity. In the dark, the men couldn’t see in front of them. They stumbled around, bumped into things, got hurt, made a mess, and struggled with every step they took.<\/p>\n

An electrician then came to both of the houses offering to turn on their power and give them light. One openly accepted him into his home and he received power so that the light drowned out all the darkness in the home. This man was then able to walk freely around without falling, without creating a mess, and without struggling. He was able to clearly see his steps before him.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the other man told the electrician that he could give him power, but he had to do it outside, he was not welcome in his home. Therefore, that man stayed in the dark, because the electrician was unable to give him power from the outside, he had to come into his home. We can only have Jesus’ light in us by welcoming Him into our home, which is our hearts.<\/p>\n

Now just because the one man had electricity, didn’t mean that he could never walk in darkness. He could still chose to turn off his lights whenever he wanted to and therefore, be in the same situation as the man next store that didn’t have any power. They would be living the same, even though the one had power in his home to turn on the light. It is always just a light switch away.<\/p>\n

When we accept Jesus, His power is in us, we just have to use it by turning it on. We turn it on by following Jesus. We keep it on by putting on what Jesus teaches us and putting off what He tells to put off. Following Jesus keeps our path lit before us so we can see where we are going. When we really look at it this way, why on earth would we walk struggling in the dark when we can walk freely in the light!<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 26:17-18<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n**Something to think about this week**<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

I want to challenge you this week to allow Jesus to turn on the light in you by following whatever He teaches you. Rely on Him to help you lay down whatever He shows you that is displeasing in you. It may be hard at first, but as long as you try to do what you can do, Jesus will do what you can’t do. Job 12:22 says, <\/strong>He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light<\/strong>.<\/em> God will show you what is hurting you and He will help you turn from it.<\/p>\n

Here’s a verse to carry with you this week to remind you that God’s light is in you!
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.<\/em><\/strong>
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 18:28 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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**Come back next Monday as I share more of God’s truths and the reasons behind the truths.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

**<\/em><\/strong>Follow me on my facebook page as I share verses and comments throughout the week that correlate with each Monday’s lesson.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

All Bible verses are taken from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last blog, I talked about God wanting to protect us from the things that are destructive to us. Today I want share with you exactly what those things are. I lived most of my life in ignorance to the things that I now know were literally destroying me, and my relationships. Everyone knows the obvious things like alcohol and drugs are destructive to us, but what about all the other things that the Bible tells us not to do. How do those things really harm us? First of all, we need to understand that there’s a ‘who’, behind the ‘what’, that is the destroyer. Jesus said in John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. The thief is Satan and his plan is to steal the fulfilling life that Jesus died to give each and every one of us. How exactly does he do that? He does it through deception, by using our weaknesses in us to tempt us to choose sin over God’s ways. The Bible tells us that no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other (Matthew 6:24). We only have two choices in life, we can choose to follow Jesus, or we can ignorantly choose to follow Satan, by following our Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharingtruths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}