This weekend, our stop was in Sandy, OR. Is it just me or does every place my family visits carry a spiritual theme? Last week, we saw a mural about a prodigal dog who went home to his owners and now, the mountain lookout is talking about “The Devil’s Backbone.” I’ve heard awhile back that the only time the devil will attack the believer is if we are walking in the opposite direction. It makes total sense because if we are walking with him in the lead, he really won’t have a problem with you. As a matter of fact, he enhances the situation so that you’d never want to leave.
Talking about enhancing the situation, he wants to keep us entangled with sinful thought patterns and habits that prevent us from fulfilling what God tasked us to do and render us defeated. This is his ultimate goal for every believer.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10
If we continue to do work for God and we are not in right standing with Him, He will not bless it because the pull of the flesh taints the motive. Some feed the addiction for people’s likes. The Social media engineers knew it could exploit this area of human weakness for less than noble reasons to satiate their greed. Some want fellowship with other professing Christians and could care less what kind of warped theology one might hold. This is legit. After all, God does allow the wheat and tares to mix until the harvest (Matthew 13:27-30). To them, as long as people profess Jesus, everything is gold. This platform is tricky because you will never get to know what someone truly believes until you remove them from all the cover (reblogs and other materials they are forwarding) and get to really know what they personally believe.
I don’t have a problem with people choosing to believe in different things. Each of us will all have to separately answer to God for them and also for the souls of those we lead astray, but it is good to know up front what I’m dealing with (Revelation 3:15-17). We could all come to an agreement that absolutely no one likes pretenders. Being one would be like practically piggybacking on the devil’s backbone. That’s quite a miserable place to be in. If you have been truly bought by the blood of Jesus, the longer you choose to stay there, you are inviting God’s discipline (Revelation 3:19). Jesus bought you at a price and with that comes the power to jump off from the devil’s backbone at the next stop.
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7
“Some want fellowship with other professing Christians and could care less what kind of warped theology one might hold.”
I have dealt with some professing Christians who were defending false doctrine because the other person said they believed in Jesus but their teaching is scary. One has to be careful because not everyone who claims to be a Christian is one and Satan will use them to confuse a true believer with erroneous doctrine.
Exactly. Not everyone who claims to be one is actually one.
We must be vigilant and always in the Word to know when false teaching is being preached