Took me awhile this time, but I finished the book, Fasting for Spiritual Breakthough by Elmer Towns last week. Again, the book is a must-read! Towards the end of the book, the author mentioned spiritual blindness, while explaining the Esther fast. He said, “Satan’s first strategy is to blind your mind from understanding spiritual things.” As I say the following, I am in no shape, form, or fashion saying that I am perfect and have no blame. If I were to say such, it would be in your best interest to not read another one of my blogs, because then I would truly be deceived. Anyways, I was brought up in the church and became a Christian (made a conscious decision to make Jesus Lord and Savior of my life) during my teens years. Since then, I have been able to see how other Christians have been blinded and couldn’t see various truths or lies right in front of them and I could. I would become so frustrated and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t see that their actions were detrimental, that they were lying to themselves about the gravity of their actions (which in my opinion is worse than lying to others, because if you deceive yourself, it only makes it that much harder for you to know the truth), that they were playing Russian roulette, and allowing sin to take them farther than what they wanted to go, stay longer than they intended to stay, and cost more than they wanted to pay. “Satan blinds the unsaved from seeing the gospel so they won’t become saved. He blinds believers from knowing and doing God’s will for their lives. (2 Cor. 4:4) Even ministers can become spiritually blind, denying fundamentals of the faith. Paul warned against ‘False apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! Satan himself transform himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
As I get older and more watchful, I have come to notice that this is the time of year (which I personally attribute it to being because of the Jewish New Year and God wanting things of the old to cease), when there always seems to be a shaking in the body of Christ and something that was in the dark comes to light, especially in mainstream Christian media/ministry. My advice for you is to brace yourself and remember that one, people are fallible and can make mistakes. My former pastor used to say, “Some people are sincere, but sincerely wrong”. This is something that can and does happen to everyone at one point or another in their lives. Two, we are living in a time where people are becoming lovers of themselves and because of that, they throw inhibition to the wind and choose not to consider the consequences even if they have a large following. Just because others are making unwise choices and may be falling to the wayside because of it, shouldn’t cause you to become offended with Jesus Christ or the Christian faith. God is not man that He should lie(or deceive). You can't allow other people's trippings and blindness of God, cause you to stumble and to detour from God's destiny for your life.
So this is my assignment for you all and myself:
1. Examine your own hearts (through prayer and fasting) and ask Jesus to show you something that you are blinded from and He wants you to see
2. Put on the Christian Armor (Ephesians 6:11)
*For the hips-Truth
*For the chest-Righteousness
*For the feet-Preparation of the Gospel
*For defense- The Shield of Faith
*For the head- The Helmet of Salvation
*For a sword- The Word of God
3. Pray for spiritual protection (as should be done on a daily basis- Psalm 34:7; 91:11)
4. Pray (and fast if called) for others who you know personally and otherwise, that their spiritual eyes be opened and enlightened to the truth of God’s Word(Ephesians 1:18)
Until next time...
