DON'T ANSWER THE DOOR

Don't Let the Enemy In!

Smith Wigglesworth told a story of one night how, while asleep, he had been having terribly frightening dreams. At some point he awoke aware of a demonic presence and looked around the room. There, near the foot of the bed was Satan himself. With a sigh, Wigglesworth simply said, "Oh, it's just you!" He rolled over and went back to sleep.

At this point, he had a choice – allow the enemy’s presence to rob him of sleep, peace and confidence in God’s ability to keep him. Or, he could simply return to rest knowing that “He who is in us is greater than he that’s in the world” (1 John 4:4). We are often tempted to allow the enemy to have too much power in our lives by giving him attention he doesn’t deserve. He comes bearing “gifts” of disruption when we are focused. He worms his way into times when we should be at peace (Jesus is peace!). He comes to rob us of the joy we experience serving God and others. In other words, he’s always looking for opportunities to kill our peace, to rob us of our joy and to destroy what God is doing in our lives (John 10:10).

How do we stay faithful and confident in God when it seems the “attacks” make some kind of sense? After all, the enemy is a convincing liar or Adam and Eve would never have had an issue in the garden. Right? His attempts to thwart what God is doing in us and through us are very convincing lies; we have a choice to believe the lie and allow guilt and shame and regret to occupy our minds and sow seeds of doubt in our heart. Or, we have the choice to recognize the liar and father of lies for who he is and dismiss his crazy notions that somehow God is reminding us of past failures and clothing us with guilt and a plethora of what-if’s.

When we have a “visitation” like Wigglesworth’s, our response should be similar. Even though Satan himself may not stand at the foot of our bed, his minions can and do attempt to visit us in our most vulnerable times, bearing bucketloads of doubt and shame and reminders of past sins – sins that have been washed in the blood of Messiah.

Our response MUST be to dismiss that which is NOT of God and to refuse to allow the enemy to drag us back into the muck and mire of our failures while we plant our feet firmly on the Word of God:

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). We need to “... prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

James 4:7 says to “submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Flee is defined as running away from danger. Our God is the most dangerous opponent of the enemy – he knows he has no chance in the presence of the Almighty.

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Don’t answer the door when the enemy comes knocking. Refuse to accept those feelings of defeat, oppression, heaviness, and error he brings with him. We are children of the Most High and it is He who dwells in us mightily. We have nothing to fear. We have no reason to entertain the enemy’s offerings – they will only prove to drag us backward when we are working hard to keep our eyes fixed on the finished work of the Cross and everything from which Messiah set us free!