HEDGED ABOUT

HEDGED ABOUT
A few days ago I received a call from an Evangelist who was in town, inviting me to attend his meetings. In the course of conversation, he told me he had suffered a heart attack since I had last seen him. He said, "The devil gave it to me."
I chuckled over the phone, and told him that who gave it to him was a matter of opinion. He became very quiet, and soon he had to go.
Our teaching about the devil have not enhanced our popularity in Pentecostal circles.
In Ireland, the IRA is glad to accept responsibility for all bombings, and what have you. They are aware of the fact that each time they claim such responsibility, whether or not it is true, it contributes to the sum total of fear in the hearts of the people.
The devil is smarter than the IRA. He is "tickled pink" when we Christians blame him for anything that goes wrong in our lives-- Spiritually or physically. It adds to the sum total of our fear. He is, already, bigger than God in the minds of many Christians, and he is "going for broke."
We don't read our Bibles nor pray like we should, so we "fear" being deceived by the "devil". It is no one else's fault but our own if we get deceived. If our motives are pure, the Lord Himself stands guard.
If we have inherited a weak body, our sicknesses are all the fault of "the devil". Not so. "That which is flesh is flesh."
We have not arrived at "the redemption of the body" yet. We do have "the gifts of healing", but God is not in the business of healing "all of our diseases" yet. Coming, but not yet.
Our society, as a whole, is in rebellion to God, so our weaker ones are afflicted with "none (all) of those evil diseases of Egypt". Deut. 7:15. They are a part of the curses God, not the devil, promised to put on a society which would not obey Him.
THE INDIVIDUAL WHO IS AFFLICTED IS NOT, NECESSARILY, THE ONE GUILTY ONE.
Society is to blame for many of our difficulties.
Church going Christians are almost as rebellious to God as our non-Christian neighbors. We flock to Him for the blessings, but we balk at the "obedience" factor.
But we CAN contribute to our own troubles.
If we don't eat right, nor get enough rest and exercise-- "the devil" gives us a heart attack or diabetes. Or, worse yet, tuberculosis or hypertension.
How absurd we have become, and how it pleases our enemy for us to give him all the credit.
He knows what the score is whether we do or not. He knows he was bound in chains of darkness when Jesus gave up the ghost on Calvary. He knows how he tried to keep Jesus off the Cross, knowing that his defeat was sure if Jesus offered Himself for the sin of the world.
Hebrews 7:27 -- for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God--
Friends, it was not the devil who put Jesus on the Cross. It was Religious leaders that did it.
Further, let me tell you that if the devil is "on the attack" in your life, you need to take inventory.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Consider how he complained to God when challenged about the faithfulness and uprightness of Job. Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?
Job lived long before Calvary. Did his relationship to God exceed the relationship which Jesus purchased for us? Would He hedge Job, and leave us prey to the common enemy? Read Romans five to see how "much more" we have today.
Let me quote to you I Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
A quick look at Strong's (#3525) clearly defines to us that we are to watch our own relationship to God-- not our relationship to the devil. A proper relationship to God is the only protection we need.
Let's work more on that, and watch our attitudes toward the vicissitudes of life change.
There is no call for the "booby trap mania" that is so prevalent in Pentecostal circles.
The Word says that "He scourgeth (lit. flogs) every son whom He receiveth."
Stop ascribing the workings of the Holy Spirit to the enemy. Jesus had something to say about that, didn't He?