July 20, 2019
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-12
Have you ever taken dominos and carefully stood them up in a row and then knocked over the first one? If you have then you know that the next domino will be knocked over and hit the next one beside it and the process will repeat itself until the last domino falls.
That is how the devil’s schemes work. He is described as being very crafty and he uses his craft to carefully set up his schemes in our minds such that once the first domino is knocked over it will trigger a series of thoughts that yields the result that he wants.
The results that the devil wants is to kill, steal and destroy relationships and to cause all manner of attacks on our bodies and souls.
What would happen if after the scheme has been triggered if I were to remove one of the dominos down the line? The scheme would end without knocking over the rest of the dominos.
Not all of my thoughts are actually my thoughts. We live in a spiritual environment where deceiving evil spirits are at work to get me to believe their lies. Those lies will always have some element of attacking the nature of God our Father, our Father’s view of us or our view of other people.
Once a scheme is triggered I can either be one of the dominos that falls or recognize what is going on around me and remove a domino and stop the scheme. I can do that by taking captive every thought that stands against the truth of Jesus and then by the power of the Holy Spirit speak words that are life giving rather words that harm someone.
Social media can be a tool of setting up and triggering one of the devil’s schemes because it is so easy to respond to something I disagree with without testing my own thoughts before I respond.
If I will test my own thoughts I can then be part of removing one of the dominoes rather than being knocked over and then striking my neighbor domino.
Blessings,
Kevin