The enemy rarely attacks what he’s after, he breaks something that matters less to break something that matters more. You can’t always control what gets broken, but you can control, if you allow what’s broken to break your soul. We won’t always have preventability, there are times we have no control over a situation, however, we have responsibility. How we respond to what’s been broken determines whether or not what’s been broken breaks us.
What Satan attacks is rarely what Satan is after. The enemy often attacks what matters less so he can get to something that matters more.
In the case of Adam and Eve, Satan wasn’t after fruit. He was after their faithfulness. He knew if he could get them to doubt God he could separate them from God and from the garden itself.
Genesis 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
We now arrive at the moment of humanity’s greatest loss, the true and lasting consequence of sin. Adam and Eve were banished from God’s physical presence to a life characterized by pain, frustration, difficult work, and eventually physical death.
Let’s look at a man named Job.
What Satan attacks is rarely what Satan is after. The enemy often attacks what matters less so he can get to something that matters more.
In the case of Adam and Eve, Satan wasn’t after fruit. He was after their faithfulness. He knew if he could get them to doubt God he could separate them from God and from the garden itself.
Genesis 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
We now arrive at the moment of humanity’s greatest loss, the true and lasting consequence of sin. Adam and Eve were banished from God’s physical presence to a life characterized by pain, frustration, difficult work, and eventually physical death.
Let’s look at a man named Job.
Job 1:6-12 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
With Job, he’s upright and blameless. Satan has a conversation with God about where he has been and God says what about my servant Job? Satan didn’t ask about Job; he's recommended to Satan by God! God‘s getting ready to introduce him to someone he can’t break. The highest level of trust is to be trusted in a crisis. Satan says I have considered him, but you have a hedge around his household and everything he possesses.
God didn’t tell Satan He had a hedge of protection, Satan told God he had a hedge. How did Satan know that there was a hedge around Job unless Satan had been trying to get to him.
How many things do we not even know about that God protected us from?
Satan said, remove the hedge and Job will curse you to your face. So God tells Satan He will remove the protection but Satan can’t kill Job.
Job 1:13-22 13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Have you ever felt like you barely caught your breath from the last hit and another one punches you in the gut?
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
All those devastating tragedies happened from the enemy …. but that’s not what Satan was after. He wasn’t after Job’s health or his resources or his relationships. He was after Job’s commitment to God.
It was the same with Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness by Satan.
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
It was at the end of 40 days, Satan showed up with some stones to be turned into bread. Satan didn’t want Jesus to break bread, He wanted Jesus to break the fast. It was at the moment the man of God needed spiritual strength the most that Satan wanted to break the connection.
It's the same case with you and me. What are your attacks? What is the enemy trying to break in you?
Does he attack when you are weak or strong?
The “thing” isn’t what he’s trying to break. He’s trying to break your soul.
We throw that word soul around a lot in Christian circles, generally speaking when the Bible says, soul it refers to when God created Adam, he breathed into him life. God gave Adam a soul.
Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
You can lose something superior by chasing something inferior. You can gain the whole world and lose your soul.
Your soul can be thought of as your mind, your will, your emotions, and most importantly at times your imaginations. God will spend the rest of your life trying to save our mind from our own wild thoughts.
The “thing” isn’t what he’s trying to break. He’s trying to break your soul.
We throw that word soul around a lot in Christian circles, generally speaking when the Bible says, soul it refers to when God created Adam, he breathed into him life. God gave Adam a soul.
Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
You can lose something superior by chasing something inferior. You can gain the whole world and lose your soul.
Your soul can be thought of as your mind, your will, your emotions, and most importantly at times your imaginations. God will spend the rest of your life trying to save our mind from our own wild thoughts.
Some of our will has been worn down my emotions. Our emotional life can be erratic, we make decisions based on how we feel. Jeremiah tells us the heart is deceitful.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hears and examine secret motives.
Emotions will allow you to feel strong about something, or somebody that is wrong for you. casting down vain imaginations, taking every captive thought. Fear and worry and faith and optimism come from vision, One is imagining the wrong thing, the other is imagining the right thing.
The enemy wants to break your soul in order to malfunction the things that God has given us, for us, to be used against us. He wants our life to work against us, same with emotions and imaginations.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hears and examine secret motives.
Emotions will allow you to feel strong about something, or somebody that is wrong for you. casting down vain imaginations, taking every captive thought. Fear and worry and faith and optimism come from vision, One is imagining the wrong thing, the other is imagining the right thing.
The enemy wants to break your soul in order to malfunction the things that God has given us, for us, to be used against us. He wants our life to work against us, same with emotions and imaginations.
One of the greatest tools the enemy wants to use to break your soul is relational injury.
A great example is from the book of Nahum. Nahum gives us insight into how to manage our soul with injury. God brings comfort through a prophetic word from Nahum, not to Israel, but to his enemies of Assyria. The Assyrians were known for psychological warfare; they would decapitate their enemies and put their heads in public places as a warning, and reminder of what they would do to people who got out of line. Israel was a broken people. They were feeling hopeless and I'm sure struggled with anxiety and depression. I think it's safe to say they struggled with crisis of identity and no doubt a crisis of faith.
They, like us, were dealing with a broken soul. God sent a message through Nahum to convict the Assyrians, and bring comfort to Israel.
Nahum 3:18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. 19 Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?
When God says your wound is fatal, He’s saying, It’s over! It’s a revelation of God‘s faithfulness to His word and a commitment to keep His promises. God doesn’t just speak a thing He watches it to make sure what He spoke comes to pass.
God told Israel no weapon formed against you will prosper. He will watch over that word because God doesn't lie. He intervened for Israel and He will intervene for us too.
God is letting Assyria know it’s over but he’s also letting Israel know, it’s over. To Assyria, your terrorizing days are over! To Israel, your season of being terrorized are over.
Gems I believe God is reminding us today, it’s over! The demons you're fighting, the insignificance of your feeling, the fear you're dealing with, it’s over!
The ending for Syria is a new beginning for Israel. It was a declaration of restoration for Israel, not their stuff, their soul.
Frequently in a season of loss, we become obsessed with recovering the stuff we think is important.
I lost my client so I have to get more clients. I lost my money so I have to get more money. I have to get another place to live or work, I’m not saying these things are unimportant but you’re focusing on what you can see and not what you can’t,
David says in Psalm 23, He restores my soul. Sometimes we think we're waiting on restoration, and we are already in it. We just don’t have it prioritized the way God does on what needs to be restored.
We could be looking at our reputation, which is not God‘s priority because our destiny is not in the hands of those who misunderstood us or talk bad about us. When God restores our reputation, It will be restored in the minds of those who are critical for our destination!
If they’re mind doesn’t change about you, it means their opinion has no bearing on your destiny.
God is letting Israel know they are about to be delivered and now He will deal with the damage. God‘s work doesn’t end with deliverance, His work continues and deals with the damage.
We can’t go through manipulation and not have any damage to our soul. We can’t go through betrayal and not have any damage to our soul. We can’t go through trauma and not have any damage to our soul. We can’t go through abuse and not have any damage to our soul.
Just because the damage hasn’t hindered your success outwardly doesn’t mean it’s not undermining you inwardly. The enemy is not trying to stop you from winning, He’s trying to stop you from flourishing.
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Let me remind you, You CAN be “winning” and not flourishing. You can be bitter and winning, you can be unhappy, insecure, and territorial. You can look successful and be suicidal.
Mark 8:36 For What does a man prosper a man to gain everything and lose his soul.
One of the things we won’t get without God is the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control, you can have peace with or without a partner, with or without a home, with or without a job with or without food. But you can’t have peace without the healing hand of God.
Some of us have been in pain so long we settle for not hurting. Once the pain is more manageable we confuse not hurting with thriving, but God wants to deal with the damage so we can thrive.
Healing requires our participation. We have to silence the shame and the embarrassment. Embarrassment can show up internally, why did I do that? Why did I take that? Why did I allow this to continue so long? Why did I lower my standards to be with that person?
Genesis 3:21 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
You have to let the voice of shame submit to the voice of Jesus blood, because His blood covers all shame. You also have to surrender sorrow..jpg)
Even though we are happy, for a time, to be over where we were, we’re still sad that it happened. I have things that I know God has worked out for the good for me physically and spiritually, but I still didn’t like it. It still really hurt. We still have to deal with that pain, we need to bring all those emotions to God.
Even though God promises to bring good from it, even though it may not hurt anymore, we can still be sad that we were hurt, it’s called grieving.
Grieving is the pathway to healing. There is no reaping joy without sewing and tears. We must surrender the sorrow.
We can become paranoid for a while after a tough season. We can’t be subjected to any kind of trauma and not deal with any type of PTSD. You can be out of “it” and "it" not be out of you. The residue shows where there’s more work to do.
David says in Psalm 23, He restores my soul. Sometimes we think we're waiting on restoration, and we are already in it. We just don’t have it prioritized the way God does on what needs to be restored.
We could be looking at our reputation, which is not God‘s priority because our destiny is not in the hands of those who misunderstood us or talk bad about us. When God restores our reputation, It will be restored in the minds of those who are critical for our destination!
If they’re mind doesn’t change about you, it means their opinion has no bearing on your destiny.
God is letting Israel know they are about to be delivered and now He will deal with the damage. God‘s work doesn’t end with deliverance, His work continues and deals with the damage.
We can’t go through manipulation and not have any damage to our soul. We can’t go through betrayal and not have any damage to our soul. We can’t go through trauma and not have any damage to our soul. We can’t go through abuse and not have any damage to our soul.
Just because the damage hasn’t hindered your success outwardly doesn’t mean it’s not undermining you inwardly. The enemy is not trying to stop you from winning, He’s trying to stop you from flourishing.
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Let me remind you, You CAN be “winning” and not flourishing. You can be bitter and winning, you can be unhappy, insecure, and territorial. You can look successful and be suicidal.
Mark 8:36 For What does a man prosper a man to gain everything and lose his soul.
One of the things we won’t get without God is the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control, you can have peace with or without a partner, with or without a home, with or without a job with or without food. But you can’t have peace without the healing hand of God.
Some of us have been in pain so long we settle for not hurting. Once the pain is more manageable we confuse not hurting with thriving, but God wants to deal with the damage so we can thrive.
Healing requires our participation. We have to silence the shame and the embarrassment. Embarrassment can show up internally, why did I do that? Why did I take that? Why did I allow this to continue so long? Why did I lower my standards to be with that person?
YOU CAN’T HEAL & HIDE
The devil wants to use shame as a weapon of destruction. Adam and Eve dealt with inward shame. They tried to handle it themselves by covering themselves with fig leaves, but we see God even in the book of Genesis, giving a foreshadow of how God used sacrifice and blood to cover shame, and guilt.
Genesis 3:21 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
You have to let the voice of shame submit to the voice of Jesus blood, because His blood covers all shame. You also have to surrender sorrow.
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Even though we are happy, for a time, to be over where we were, we’re still sad that it happened. I have things that I know God has worked out for the good for me physically and spiritually, but I still didn’t like it. It still really hurt. We still have to deal with that pain, we need to bring all those emotions to God.
Even though God promises to bring good from it, even though it may not hurt anymore, we can still be sad that we were hurt, it’s called grieving.
Grieving is the pathway to healing. There is no reaping joy without sewing and tears. We must surrender the sorrow.
We can become paranoid for a while after a tough season. We can’t be subjected to any kind of trauma and not deal with any type of PTSD. You can be out of “it” and "it" not be out of you. The residue shows where there’s more work to do.
You are never as healed as you think you are. The devil wants you to be deceived about where you are in your healing journey. You never try to get to where you think you already are.
You can’t go through all of what you’ve been through without something being left in you.
Lastly, you have to receive the restoration. There’s no way there’s total healing without divine intervention.
Depending on the severity of your trauma. You can give self-care, see a therapist, find coaching or mentoring, but there still may be places where your wound is so deep that in addition to all those things you need a hand that’s long enough to reach your soul to the places man Has not reached. God says in
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.
The Lord will bring something to our remembrance that has affected our ability to grow, a trigger if you will. We may deal with symptoms and at times not truly know where the sickness came from, God will deal with our heart issues, BUT we have to be aware that the devil wants to wound us when we are vulnerable. Remember he tempted Jesus after 40 days of fasting
Your wound isn’t random. It’s strategic whatever that initial wound is, the enemy will use people to poke at that wound.
People will say this is just the way I am, but the truth is it’s the way the wound made you. God can put us back on the potter's wheel and reshape us.
Gems next time you get a sneak attack and feel that poke in your wound remind yourself and the enemy:
You can’t go through all of what you’ve been through without something being left in you.
Lastly, you have to receive the restoration. There’s no way there’s total healing without divine intervention.
Depending on the severity of your trauma. You can give self-care, see a therapist, find coaching or mentoring, but there still may be places where your wound is so deep that in addition to all those things you need a hand that’s long enough to reach your soul to the places man Has not reached. God says in
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.
The Lord will bring something to our remembrance that has affected our ability to grow, a trigger if you will. We may deal with symptoms and at times not truly know where the sickness came from, God will deal with our heart issues, BUT we have to be aware that the devil wants to wound us when we are vulnerable. Remember he tempted Jesus after 40 days of fasting
Your wound isn’t random. It’s strategic whatever that initial wound is, the enemy will use people to poke at that wound.
People will say this is just the way I am, but the truth is it’s the way the wound made you. God can put us back on the potter's wheel and reshape us.
Gems next time you get a sneak attack and feel that poke in your wound remind yourself and the enemy:
YOU CAN BREAK MY BANK ACCOUNTS, MY RELATIONSHIPS, MY JOBS, MY PLANS BUT YOU WON'T BREAK MY SOUL."
God says:
I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I am God’s masterpiece, I am made in the image of God, I am forgiven, I am redeemed by God, I am called by name, I am a new creation, the old is gone, I am greatly loved by God, I am His child, I am an heir with God and co heir with Christ, I am a member of God’s family, I am blessed in the Heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing, I am chosen to be part of a royal priesthood a holy nation set apart for God, I am His treasured possession, I am precious to God, I am being built into a spiritual house.
God says:
I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I am God’s masterpiece, I am made in the image of God, I am forgiven, I am redeemed by God, I am called by name, I am a new creation, the old is gone, I am greatly loved by God, I am His child, I am an heir with God and co heir with Christ, I am a member of God’s family, I am blessed in the Heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing, I am chosen to be part of a royal priesthood a holy nation set apart for God, I am His treasured possession, I am precious to God, I am being built into a spiritual house.
