The Diminishing of the Devil

This is North Way tape number 469. This message was presented by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community on Wednesday, February 5th, 1986. Ephesians chapter 6, for the sake of time I'm just going to read a few verses. You're very familiar with this passage if you've been in your Bible for more than a few months. Paul the Apostle is writing to his church at Ephesus and he's saying some very important words. Some estimate this church is 100,000 members. Unbelievable, isn't it? Couldn't have been very spiritual though. Talks to children and parents, verses 1-4, and then slaves and masters. I just want you to notice that, 5-9. Then verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Can I read that verse 12 again, please? For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, husband or wife, brother or sister, boss or worker, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. But I don't know if we fully realize how dangerously we live. I believe one day God is going to show us the times in our lives when He intervened to spare us from an assault of the enemy, not just in the physical that might have taken our life, but in the relational and in the kingdom arena in which we live as children of God. I believe that more than we realize, there is a constant battle being waged for your loyalty and your allegiance, and for the very thing that Dan was alluding to of your finding your place in the purpose of God. That battle is something that I think we radically underestimate. We many times take for granted that somehow, well, we've made it this far, so we must be doing some things right, and sometimes we just begin to presume upon that. I was shocked as I read an interesting article that appeared in Forum magazine. I didn't read it. I saw the article. I know what you're thinking. You know the little forum? Is that what it's called? It's the Playboy Pocket edition. I read this article, a condensation of the article that appeared in this periodical I get. It was saying that a person who had been offended by Jimmy Swaggart's overt condemnation of pornography and the abuse that it brings in the lives of people, a prostitute had gotten so upset about this that she decided to bring Jimmy Swaggart down. She went to one of his crusades and determined that she was going to bring Jimmy Swaggart into sexual sin. But, because of all the activity that surrounds him, she couldn't get to him to even try to seduce him or entice him into some sort of an entrapment situation. But she did manage to find a worker who was one of the row captains that she was able to write a note to and say, I really need some counseling after the meeting. She got him to come into her room and was able to seduce him and he fell into immorality with her. And she wrote about it in this article and the therefore of the article was, and this just goes to show that all the work with Jimmy Swaggart and I'm sure Jimmy Swaggart himself are all charlatans, fakes and hypocrites. And of course it was in the midst of all that extolling the glory of being able to cause one of these to stumble. Now, I don't know if that surprises anybody. It's the same kind of thing that I think the enemy tries to do in a lot of subtle ways in many of our lives. I want to tell you this, the more responsibility you bear in the kingdom, the more likely you are to come under that kind of an attack. And I cover with all my heart your prayers, church. And I believe that it's because many of you pray for me and the other elders and pastors that we have been spared that kind of a situation. And if you're here today and you have any ministry whatsoever, even if it's just a ministry of holding somebody's hand in a bedside situation, you're going to be under attack because the enemy hates anything that's done in Jesus' name. And he hates you for doing it. But that kind of overt thing happens probably more than we know. And it's symbolic of what's happening all the time in one way or another that's descriptive of Satan's attempt to bring down the work of God and the people of God. You say, well, I don't know. I mean, I've been a Christian a number of years and most of the people I know are still doing okay as individuals and most of the marriages that I know are still together. I want to ask you a question, though. How many of the people that you know well would really say, if they were on us tonight, that they're doing well, that they really feel inside that they are moving in the fullness of what God has for them? I asked that question in a roundabout way a couple Sunday mornings ago and a very small percentage of people said that. They really sensed that they were in the fullness of God's purpose. How many marriages, if you really get past the, oh, praise God, we love each other. How many marriages do you feel are really communicating the grace of God and the love of God back and forth in a profound, supportive, communicative way? Right now, somebody's heart's breaking because on the outside, everyone thinks you're okay, but your marriage is really, really hurting. The Lord just spoke that to me. And that's not a condemnation. That's a calling out saying to you tonight, that God knows your situation. And what appears to be on the outside, beloved, is just a shell. The real reality underneath, the depth of the person of who God wants you to be is what He is trying to bring out. And Satan has set himself to rob you of God's best. And the word that the Lord put in my heart all through the day, and I just kept going over it, going over it, going over it, was diminish, diminish, diminish. That Satan has set himself, if he cannot kill you, spiritually or physically, if he cannot do that, then his second best plan, if you will, is to diminish, diminish, diminish your life, to press you down personally, to cover as a wet blanket of oppression your marriage and your relationships, to squelch in you all of the potential and beauty and purpose of God, to render you less than fulfilled, to render you less than satisfied, and certainly less than glorious in Christ Jesus. And do you know what? So often I believe that rather than seeing the true enemy as being Satan, we look around and we get so frustrated with one another that we begin to think that he's my enemy, or that woman I'm married to, she's my enemy. Or that boss I have to face every day who thinks I'm a weirdo fanatic, he's my enemy. Beloved, we really have one enemy, and it isn't the healing ministry, or the praise team, or the Episcopalians, or the Catholics, or our boss, or our wife. Our enemy, the Bible tells us, is Satan. And the hordes, multitudes of powers that he has at his disposal, who have designed a strategy to diminish your life, to diminish your life, to push you down and keep you there. If you have little children like I do, one of the things that's just incredibly satisfying as a parent is to see your child begin to come into some accomplishment. You know when they're a little total dependent, the times when you don't breathe without them watching, and there's that stage in life where they're just always hanging on you. I mean, moms know this better than dads. That stage goes on for a while, especially when you have them sort of back to back. But then you begin to see them accomplish their first step of walking. And then you begin to see them learn how to build some things with blocks. Then you begin to see them learn how to read. And then they can begin to express love and appreciation. It's so incredibly fulfilling. And I have to say, I still at times, like last night, got home late from an elders meeting, walked by my little daughter's room and just went in, and you look in that little bed and you see potential, just 10 years old, and your heart fills up with a sense of, wow, what's going to happen? What's going to be in that life? You know, I think God looks at you that way. You know, we see this sister come up here six months in Jesus, in love with Him, and I think God looks at her and says, oh, what's going to happen in her life? And you know what? He already knows what He's planned. He knows the plans He has for us. The prophetic word even confirmed what Jeremiah 29, 11 told us, that He has plans for our welfare, not for evil, to give us a future and a hope. But there's one on the outskirts who's lurking about, 1 Peter 5, 7 says, roaming about like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. You know what that word means? To reduce or to diminish and to destroy. And so, don't ever think that because you've made a commitment to Christ, that that ensures you of rising into the fullness of what God wants for you. Do you understand that? That there is set against you demonic forces, and they are your enemy. Not the home group leader that you don't like, that's right. And not the person that you never could get along with. You know, we just have put our eyes in the wrong place so often, church. It's time to stop looking at yourself, you're not your enemy. There are people here tonight, I would venture to say, that you think that God, even God, can't make something out of you, because you've messed it up so badly. And you've become your own worst enemy, have you ever heard someone say that? You've become your own worst enemy. Your heart toward yourself is the most debilitating thing about you. It's not you, and it's not your sister in the Lord, or your brother. It's not your mother or dad. It's not your elder. There's one enemy, and his name is Satan. And I want to share with you tonight, in the next few minutes, and I'm having to change the message considerably. The three ways that I believe Satan slips in to work a diminishing in your life. And I want you to write these down, would you? The three ways that he slips in. Now get ready, because you're not going to think that these are all that serious. Because I'm not going to talk about Satan parading in front of you, some enticing, lust-producing person of the opposite sex. You know, I've found that Satan knows how to get you. Do you ever feel that? He knows what you're not really vulnerable to, and what just begins to cause everything in you to start clawing to stay hooked to the Master. I want to share with you these three things, three ways that the enemy makes entrance to diminish your life. Here they are. I want you to be honest with yourself as I share them. Because listen, I believe tonight, because of the words that were shared, that God is going to root out some things tonight. He's going to free some of you tonight, and we're going to minister to one another as we conclude. The first area, the first way that Satan makes an entree, is when you get, and I use this word intentionally, disgruntled. Disgruntled. It's when you begin to be discontent, and what always goes along with that, beloved, is murmuring. Look at Exodus, would you please? How many of you have read Exodus here in the last weeks? Yeah? Look at Exodus chapter 16. Just for the sake of time, move quickly, I'm going to read. Okay. The whole Israelite community set out from Elam and came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. And in the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. I know a lot of churches these people used to go to. And then the Lord said to Moses, I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for you, and the people are going to go out each day and gather enough that day, and this way I'll test them and see if they're going to obey my instructions. Verse 6. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because He has heard your grumbling against... Who? Him. The Lord. Who are we that you should grumble against us? Is that profound? Catch this now. Moses also said, You will know that it was the Lord when He gives you meat to eat in the evening, and all the bread you want in the morning, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we? You're not grumbling against us, but against the Lord. Now, church, murmuring or grumbling is something we all know we shouldn't do. I don't have to stand up every night and say, You know you shouldn't do that. What amazes me, though, is the way in which we've learned to call it something else. Brother, I've got a word from God. I've got insight from the Lord, brother, about you. The way you tie your tie. Well, I've got... I mean, the Holy Spirit was moving in my quiet time, and I saw all these things that you were doing wrong. I just wanted to share them with you. I don't want to discourage you. I just want you to... I just want you to hear this. Do you have an hour? You know? There is a lot of frustration-letting that comes out in the name of revelation. And I... I just want to ask you to see that as our brother said, if the Lord has confirmed something, and if the elders of the church have stood before you and said, This is what we believe the Lord is saying. Then remember that if you feel that somehow that's wrong and it's costing you something that it shouldn't, don't grumble. Because you're not grumbling against... Who are we? But against the Lord. And I just have to say that it's so easy for us to look at that situation and say, Well, then what do I do? Am I just stuck? Do I have to put up with things I don't like? Well, God's given you someone to talk to. He's given you... First of all, He gives you Himself to go and say, Lord, this just doesn't seem right to me. Would you speak to their hearts? Now, if, as Dan said, those in authority over you are seeking the Lord, do you think that He's going to go ahead and speak to them about that? Certainly He is. And if you're prompted to go and make an appeal and say, Brother, I want to share my heart in this because this is a struggle that I have, then I think that's appropriate. But that's not the same thing, is it? Is murmuring and grumbling. Murmuring and grumbling, listen, isn't to the person. Who is it to? Somebody else. It's me going to Mac about Ken. It's Dan going to Ivan about Howard. It's this kind of stuff. And the enemy, beloved, gets in that and he rides that just as far as he possibly can. And pretty soon, half truths become no truths and it isn't long before a tremendous diminishing has taken place. I have so many illustrations of this. So many things I could say. There are so many ministries that have gone down because somebody began to mumble and grumble and murmur and murmur and it began to just spread. And once it starts getting out of control, it is really devastating. Most of you know that there are a number of powerful ministries to the Jews and some of them are stationed in Jerusalem. And a few of you here tonight, I recognize as having been down at Faith Community a few years back when van der Hoeven, Jan Wilhelm van der Hoeven, was there to speak. And he was the founder and president of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. This is a ministry of those who wanted to bless the Jews. Well, you see, it got into some things and there began to be some murmuring about, well, they shouldn't get political and they shouldn't do this. And you know, the whole thing now has just split up because there is division that got planted in there because people started, instead of appealing and going through the ways that the Lord has provided. And that's just illustrative. And I want you to see, look down there in Exodus 16. You may have never seen this before. The Lord gave them what in the morning? What did we call it? Manna. How many of you think manna was God's best? You do, alright. I just want to suggest to you that manna was God's provision in the face of their lack of faith. It's what God ended up having to give them in order to satisfy their crying out and mumbling. And here's why I suggest that to you. Do you know what the word manna means? If you have a New International, it tells you right in there. It means, what is it? What is it? You know, they went out and gathered up this white stuff and they couldn't describe it. So they called it, what is it? What is it? And do you know what that is? A picture of to me? That is a picture of, we in the church, when we insist on having something our way, God allows it to come. But it never is the substance of God that satisfies. You see, because when that comes, beloved, that glory of God that I talked about like six or eight weeks ago, there's no questioning what it is. It's the profound depth of who God is. It's the satisfaction that only comes from God Himself. It isn't, what is it? And I want to just suggest that a diminishing has gone on in some people, so they're accepting some things of God and saying to themselves, what is it? This isn't all that great. How many of you believe that they got a little tired of quail and manna after ten years? Right? You may be one tonight that's feeding on quail and manna. And you're saying, what is it? What's so great about this? Why? Because you've allowed a diminishing to come in. And it's come because you've murmured, perhaps. Or you've set yourself against God's order of things. And it can happen very subtly. Now let's go on. I have an antidote for that. What do you think it is? What's the antidote for murmuring? When you're facing a situation that you don't like, it seems to be costing you something like these Israelites experienced. What's the antidote? Praise. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Lord. I'll tell you what. It'll change your life. Because it brings Jesus into the circumstance. And I believe if the Jews had had that sort of submitted heart, God would have done something far more than supplied manna and quail. You know what he would have done with them? Where would they have ended up? In the Promised Land. Instead they've got 40 years of what is it? Think about that. Do you want to get where God wants you to be? Do you want fullness? Then learn to praise and give thanks when the trials and the tests come. That's what our dear sister was saying in this prophecy. Praise him when the hands of the master potter are working on you and you don't like it. Because he's doing something to prepare you. Alright, number two. The second way that you can be diminished is through distraction. Oh, my goodness. Distractions. Look at Acts 16. I'm going to have to fast forward here to give us time to pray together. Acts 16, verse 16. Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. In other words, she was pretty good at it. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved. That's good stuff. Is it not? I mean, she wasn't saying, you know, these bozos are representing Paul. She's saying, These men are servants of the Most High God telling you the way to be saved. She kept us up for many days and finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. Probably just like that. And at that moment, the spirit left her. Now, I want to talk to you for just a few minutes about distractions. There's not one of us here that hasn't experienced what it's like to get up on a Saturday morning in your day off to clean out the garage. And to know it's God calling you to clean out that garage for the sake of marital harmony. You're just about to go down there and you get a phone call from someone whose hot water heater just burst and their house is spilling up water in the basement and you've got to go over. You're torn between potential divorce and helping a friend, right? But you're distracted from your goal. How many of you have experienced distractions from accomplishing a goal? Today. It happens to us all the time. Distractions, beloved, are part of our life. But I agree with what I believe. One brother said very well that some distractions are supernatural and they're not from God. That there is a conspiracy of distraction that the enemy releases against you when you fix yourself. That is, fix your eyes, fix your heart to do something for God. When do you know distractions come? For sure, for sure, for sure, beloved. When you walk into that old prayer closet. We're talking serious distraction there, aren't we? Wandering minds, heavy eyelids. What is this I just bumped into here? It's not the man, I know. The man is still out there. Oh, I've got to take care of paying that bill. You know what happens so often? Some of you I know, because of your work schedule, some folks that try to spend half a day on Saturday with the Lord. Once or twice a month. And I know what happens to you when that Saturday comes along. Ten people call you. Would you like to play tennis? Could you help me cut my hedges back? I need to help someone put tile in my basement. And you know what begins to pull at us? Very worthwhile good things. Good things are the enemy of God's best many, many times. And you know what those good things many times are? People. Church, I tell you, my heart breaks sometimes because of the tension that goes between ministering to people and being ministered to by the Lord. Paul was on his way to the place of prayer. And this servant girl, she wasn't dumping, she was proclaiming this truth. And I think there's something in that. It was a good message. But he finally said, No more. And I want to tell you, just for the sake of time tonight, right now, let me just say that you've got to come to terms with those kinds of things that you know are perfectly timed by the enemy just to slip in and pull you away from God. Slip in and pull you away from accomplishing what God's given you to do. You've got to deliver yourself from those things. You've got to speak to the same authority that Paul did in the name of Jesus Christ. Be gone. Have you ever delivered yourself? I'll tell you what, don't hesitate sometime when you're sensing tremendous distraction just to take authority over that in the name of Jesus and bind it up and you'll find it. Hey, suddenly I can concentrate. I can be with the Lord. What's the antidote to being distracted? Well, single-minded resolve and mutual commitment toward a higher call. What I'm saying there is when you set yourself to do something that God's called you to do, see the word mutual commitment? Can I say to you that's one of the best ways I know to avoid distractions. Do you want to know why I'm able by God's grace to come to prayer three or four mornings a week? Because I'm mutually committed. And I know that Charlie will be there one of those times and Scott will be there another time and so on and so on. Ken goes to prayer because he knows that people are counting on him in faith. It could be in your own home. It might be your spouse. It might be a roommate. I know that Dennis Riley and Bill Schrader were saying now that Bill's living with the Riley's for a time, that they committed to each other to be there to pray at six in the morning. When you get mutually committed it does something wonderful to distractions. It breaks their back. Finally, and I won't be able to really do this like I want to tonight, the third thing the enemy uses is division. He divides you. When I began to think about this I wanted to develop it completely. But I want you just to think for a second. The design of the enemy to diminish you many times takes this form. It gets us in a mode of thinking that well, I'm not making any difference there or no one really understands me there or this isn't working out the way it should and therefore I'm separating. I'm leaving. I'm going somewhere else. And you know division has brought more crushing in people's lives than anything else I know. How many people that you know that have left fellowships gone off on their own and done better? I really can't say. I mean, okay, what I'm saying is you didn't stay on your own. Okay? I don't know of anybody because well first of all if they're on their own if they're just doing it on their own they're in violation of the word anyhow. There's no way that they could be in fullness of what God has for them. Isn't it interesting that Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 talks about turning people over to Satan for the purging of their flesh. And you know what that's descriptive of? You all know what I'm talking about where the man is sleeping with his mother-in-law or something like that? 1 Corinthians 5? Stepmother it is, yeah. And Paul says I'm going to turn him over to Satan for the purifying of his flesh so that in the end his soul would be saved. Do you know what that is most commentators agree that's a description of? Excommunication. Being put out of the church. Can't fellowship here. I think it's terrifically ironic that some people do that to themselves. They subject themselves to Satan for the tormenting of their old nature by removing themselves from the very covering that God has given to protect them. Beloved, division will bring you down. It will diminish you in God. Isolation never brings fulfillment. Do you know we have a covenant relationship? We're committed like in a marriage. We don't say, well, I want out. That's not an option. Well, I've got to work some things through. That's an option. Well, I love you, but I don't understand this. That's an option. But covenant love, the kind of love that's going to build a body strong so that it can be built tall to the glory of God. That's covenant love. Not love that's divided. What's the antidote? Let me give you four very quick things. Here they are. Number one, embrace the structure as being from God. I am more and more convinced that structure comes from God. All authority is given of God. And if you can embrace structure as being from God, it will help you to receive what God wants to supply through that structure. Number two, learn the joy of trusting Jesus through submission. Now, I could easily have ten minutes here on this point of submission, but let me just say, submission simply means that you accept God's care and covering for you through a person that He's placed in authority over you. And in submitting to that person, you're submitting to Him, and therefore you trust Him to take care of your needs to that situation. And there is a joy in that. There is a delight in that. And we in this body are encouraging that because we believe that it's a place of protection and safety. Number three, ask God to help you to see the overview. You know, a lot of the struggles that breed division are because people only see it from their own little point of view. They only see it from that one little perspective. They don't think of the larger things that God is doing. Someone said, well, why do we have to have certain songs picked out on Sunday? Why can't we just sing as the Spirit leads? And I've heard that many times, and not so much lately because I think people understand now. Because hundreds of people will be in the room and they wouldn't know what to sing and we wouldn't have the overheads ready to do it and we wouldn't have the musicians able to accompany it, you see. So we choose songs in the parameters that we believe God is leading for that service and then we can move within those. But for the sake of the overview, you understand that it's something that God's led us to do to include more people. Just a simple little illustration. Finally, receive each other as a completion and not competition. If you can look at your brother or sister and realize that God has given you that person, that elder, that home group leader to complete you, not to compete with your righteousness, it will free you, beloved. It will free you not to fight and kick, but it will free you to enjoy what God's supplied and to help you to rise up and not be diminished. Those three areas are what Satan wants to do. He wants to cause through disgruntling and murmuring to open the door to bring you down, through distractions to keep you out of God's purposes and plans and finally by dividing you from other believers. And I want to say, these come very innocently. They start with honest disagreement or frustration. And I wish I had time tonight to talk about how to handle disagreement constructively. But those three things open the door to being diminished, to being put down, to being less than fulfilled. And I want to say tonight, let's take a stand. Let's put the enemy on notice that we're not going to fall into one of these traps. And I want to ask you to do this in just the next five minutes and we'll be done. I want to ask you to pray in threes or fours, no more than four, for one of these areas if you find yourself particularly struggling with it tonight. Saying, well, you know, it's possible that the enemy has come into my frame of reference and caused me to have a bit of a murmuring spirit. Or the enemy's been really distracting me from the things of God. Or I feel myself being cut off, being divided from what God wants. Now, I don't want anyone to leave if you think that there's a chance that maybe you're possibly going to be tempted in one of these ways. Because tonight, I think through what we heard from Dan and what the prophetic word was, God wants to do some establishing. So just take five minutes, go ahead and pray together as you share those areas, and we'll all conclude in five minutes. So you'll have to move quickly. Go ahead. Praise the Lord.