THE ENEMY (cont'd)
The devil has not yet won
the victory; he has merely opened the door for the temptation. So
how does the devil tempt Eve? Next the devil must change the direction
of the source of information. When we have things ordered properly
in our lives; our soul, which is the seat of all decision making (the
will), gets its information from our spirit and then tells our flesh
(bodies) what to do. The devil here gets Eve to consider the information
that her flesh/body is providing. He does so by saying, “Yea,
hath God said?” This weakens the strength of the information
being supplied by Eve’s spirit. Then the devil tells Eve of
all the good that the fruit of this tree will do for her. The devil
now has Eve getting her information from the flesh. Notice how well
what Eve considers matches the worlds input. First Eve notices that
the fruit is good for food – the lust of the flesh, then she
saw that it was pleasant to the eyes – the lust of the eyes,
and finally agrees that it is good for obtaining wisdom – the
pride of life. It’s all over but the crying now. The devil has
the hooks in, the bait has been taken, and Eve takes a bite of the
fruit and sins. James 1:15 tells us that, “Then when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth (gives birth to) sin.” Once lust
or desire has formed, sin is sure to follow. It’s too late at
this point, the point to stop from falling to sin is at the beginning
by keeping as our source of information the spirit which is in constant
communication with the Holy Spirit in all Christians.
The strategy of the devil never changes. It is always to first get
our attention through our flesh so that our soul (the seat of our
will, the decision maker) listens to the information coming from the
body instead of the information the Holy Spirit is giving our spirit.
It is clear what God would have us to do here. Galatians 5:16-17 tells
us, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall NOT fulfill
the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the
other: so that ye can not do the things ye would.” Walking in
the Spirit, getting our information from our spirit which is in communication
with the Holy Spirit, is death to the flesh and a guarantee to victory.
After all, we are at war and winning is the only option. Our flesh
and our spirit are at war with each other and we know from previous
lessons that the key to keeping the spirit in control is to constantly
feed on the Word of God.
The devil not only has an unaltered strategy, but his tactics remain
the same as well. The tactics of the devil are always centered in
three areas. These areas are the direct attacks by the devil or one
of his minions, the attack by the world, or the most common which
is the attacks by our flesh which is still awaiting transformation.
Direct attacks by the devil and his minions do not occur very often
but they do occur. Remember the story of Job? Job was attacked directly
by Satan. Paul also was attacked by a messenger of Satan. Paul in
regards to this attack in II Cor. 12:7 tells us, “And lest I
should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan
to buffet me.” Notice that even though it’s a direct attack
on Paul by a messenger of Satan that the strategy is to approach Paul
through his flesh, “thorn in the flesh.” Direct attacks
do occur and often at major crossroads in our life.
Just as the devil and his minions are an external influence so also
is the world and we are constantly being bombarded with its influence.
We live in a real physical body that is strongly attached to this
present world. Things would be fine if the world was a righteous place,
but it’s not. I John 5:19 says, “And we know that we are
of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Television
is constantly hitting us with sexually oriented material, commercials
for food (most of which is not good for us), pressure to buy the most
current products (cars, TVs, tools, clothing, etc.), and philosophies
that are counter to the Bible. If that wasn’t bad enough, the
advertisement world has seen to it we get hit on the way to and from
work. Then there is always the pressure of those we work with and
rub shoulders with all day. Even our loved ones can be a source of
difficulty. Even though the world is an external source, it must also
work strategically through the flesh. Remember I John 2:16 tell us,
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but
is of the world.” These are the tactics the devil used on Eve
to get to her through her flesh. We simply must do all we can to minimize
the attacks of the world.
