God using the Enemy

Patterns. I love patterns of life because they speak. Many of these patterns, if not all?, are lessons from God for our teaching and molding. I once heard Nate Elarton say, Learn the lesson or retake the course, it’s that simple. Here is a lesson that I have learned through repeated patterns. I have to wonder, is it God using the enemy for our purification? I pray it blesses you –

If we have: begun to seek out the Lord, repented of a situation, came into a deeper revelation, and/or if we are about to be used by God.. or in other words, if we will be a hindrance to the enemy’s plans for us and others (to kill, steal, and destroy), then the enemy is now attacking.

This has happened to me personally many times. I.e. I’m in sin and I repent. I’m immediately attacked, sometimes within a day or 2 and other times within hours/minutes. Sometimes it’s a distraction away from the Lord’s joy and peace, and other times it has been a direct attack on the item I repented from.

Through this pattern, I started to warn people that were coming to the Lord, seeking, knocking, and asking. “You are now a blip on Satan’s radar. He had no concern for you, but the moment you started to seek after Him, his principalities of darkness were launched against you. This isn’t meant to scare you, but it is meant for you to stay watchful so that you know when these things happen. That’s not to say that all trials and tribulations are 100% from Satan because if you’re in sin, God may use the enemy to attack your sin so that you may repent.”

(This can be difficult to discuss and I’m just going to get some ideas out there for right now. Please interject if you’d like to drill down into scripture with me on this.)

For instance, one man I spoke to, he was in a sinful relationship. As I said the above-mentioned, the Lord laid on my heart that the first place for the attack was the relationship. I almost said, “..and your relationship may very well be first.” I knew in my heart the Lord wills the sinful relationship to end. But I held back because I didn’t want to scare him. I just asked him to be watchful. This was around 10p at night. At 5a the next morning, he called me – “The attacks started. We broke up last night.”

God uses the enemy. It is plastered everywhere in the old testament as well as examples in the NT, i.e. Satan’s request to sift Peter, the request for Job, God using the Babylonians, etc. So even though there are attacks in our lives, I fully believe that God is ultimately in control of everything. Thus, in the above example, I believe the attack on the relationship is righteous because the man was in sin.

Hmm, I really need to dwell on this further. Because when I look at the attacks in my life, they seemed like attacks at the time. They were rough, very terrible at the moment, but.. praise God, I was being strengthened so that I may help the brethren (i.e. Peter’s situation). For instance –

Jeremiah 22:25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

The Lord did this so that a remnant may remain. In my life, when I was burned, a piece of me remained that was pure. It didn’t feel good to go through the trial and tribulation, but praise God, praise God, it molded me more into the image of Christ.

James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Surely we have an enemy and it is the enemy attacking us, but I believe God is in control of all. So really, what are these attacks? Sure, they are terrible when they happen, but are they not blessed if they move us closer to God, mold us, put us into alignment with His purposes for our lives, etc? If <x> happens and it brings us closer to God, is it just a thing that scars the flesh, but builds the spirit? The purification process will surely sting the flesh. In reality, how bad is it? Is it not the flesh getting burned and the spirit built up?

I’d love to have some interjection on this. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Peace be with you, always.

Edit: Interesting.. I wake up this morning and the first daily devotion I read is one from a yesterday that I haven’t read yet: Remember to Say Every Day: God Is Good and He Is in Control

Edit 2: God is surely good. Another confirmation: The next devotion I read this morning is on the same topic, here is its main scripture – Romans 8:17-18 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Haha, before I posted the 2nd edit above.. I figured I better not push the updated post out until I’m done with my daily devotions. My next devotion: God can take the most tragic circumstances in our lives and turn them to his glory. He is in charge of this world, and no enemy of the church can destroy it. Praise God for his powerful hand and his almighty providence. Prayer: Lord God, I am encouraged to know that you are in charge of this world and everything that happens. Amen.

God is amazing. 3 confirmations, back to back to back. It is very obvious that God has responded on this matter. He is in control. So really, what is the problem? There is only a problem when our eyes are upon ourselves and the situation. But when our eyes are on God.. there is nothing but peace and trust in Him.

Careful little eyes what we see.. What I look at is what I get. When trust in God, I get peace, joy, contentment.. I get the things of God. When I trust in the things of the world, I get things of the world, anxiety, stress, depression, turmoil, etc. We can keep our eyes on Christ and walk on the water like Peter, or we can look at the things of this world and sink into them. Our choice. Choose wisely…

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