Sometimes thoughts of low self-esteem start swimming in our minds. Waves of self-pity, frustration, and lack of accomplishments can toss you around from side to side, causing the feeling of a stagnant life. It can cause you to take a plunge into the pit of Satan’s suggestions about your identity. It’s not that you don’t know who you are. The problem is that you may have allowed yourself to get weak physically and spiritually. Then, your mind goes adrift.
During those couple days a war is taking place within you. You try to stay afloat while demons kept using circumstances to build a case against the promises of God in your life. No one around you may have any idea what you are going through. You may know how to disguise it to avoid confrontation. You don't feel like talking to anyone while dragging yourself out of this demonic slum. Isolation is one of the devil’s tactics. It’s easier to defeat a lonely prey. Besides, this kind of separation clouds the day even more, and darkness intensifies. That’s where you may find yourself, except for a ray of light at a far distance (John 1:5). But in your weakness you can't find the strength to walk toward it.
You may not be afraid of physical darkness. When all is well within your spirit, the night can draw its blackness veil, but you’ll not be shaken. A strong, well-determined mind can face the dark as a meager slice on the clock of life. It’s not so when the Light of this world (John 8:12), the Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2), is absent. No wonder Jesus calls hell a place of “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12). When He’s not present, darkness creeps in with its claws of illusions. If we allow ourselves to be engulfed by it, we are doomed to a rapid descent into the chambers of a miserable life.
There is a verse in Job 14:7-9 that reads, “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its roots grow old in the earth, and its stump dies in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.” I praise God for the beam of light above me during my darkest moments. The Holy Spirit quickens in me the words of God to Adam, “Where are you?” and “Who told you that you are naked?” (Genesis 3:9-11). These questions make me realize I had been listening to the wrong voice. Then, Bible verses about my identity in Christ start to come back to me. The scent of His Word, like a laser beam of light, strikes the right nerve in my soul and positions me standing again.
With my focus redirected, I open my mouth, speaking words of victory and counteracting every lie that assaults my mind. I dive into the Word from morning to sundown. Refreshed and fortified, I soar on God’s promises. When it happened, I decided to study Satan’s scheme to destroy me. I know he came to steal, kill, and destroy, but I wanted to learn the tactics of my enemy. I don’t want to be oblivious to his strategies (2 Corinthians 2:11). I want to learn to fight and to defend what is precious to me from every attack.
Satan has no power whatsoever to harm us or to halt any blessings prepared for our lives.
He cannot stop our healing because it is written, “…by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
He cannot defeat us because we conquered him by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11).
He cannot keep us down because God has set our feet in high places (Psalm 18:33).
He cannot overpower us because God has given us strength (Isaiah 40:29).
Satan cannot do anything because he is on a short leash (Luke 22:31; Job 2:6).
So, how come so many believers live in bondage? How come it already happened to me too, and I slipped into his snare?
Stay tuned for Part 2 and find out how the enemy can use your mind as a GPS for your soul.
--Jaqueline Assis