Be sober, watch, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

It is evident that there is a struggle and the devil does wander from place to place because he is on a mission, working to clearly defined plans or strategies.
Paul said in his teaching about the armor of God that we wear it in order to stand against the wiles or methodeia of the devil. These are the schemes, plans and plots he constantly makes, but we can be in the position whereby we are not ignorant of his devices and be overcomers.
He describes the kind of armour God provides , likening it to the armour that a Roman soldier wears. It is all complete and it is a total inventory of everything that such a man is given when he joins this army as a new recruit. He does not have to buy it because the military provides it when he joins up. He goes to boot camp, where he is measured and fitted with his uniform and equipment and woe betide him if he does not wear it all properly.

He was measured and fitted with certain items that were “custom made” just for him. For example, if a soldier needs a size 10 boot, he is not issue a size 7. If he is short and stocky in build, he will not be given long pants that a tall slim man would wear. If a slim man was given a pair of pants that were too large they would keep falling down. A soldier cannot be effective with the wrong equipment and Christians cannot be effective for the same reasons.

It is often said that we can wear one part but not another, but no military man ever does that. At best, he is regarded as being out of uniform and is disciplined accordingly.

It is also said that we have to ensure that we have put it on, but this implies that we can “take it off”.  We are never to take it off at any time.

We cannot choose which part we want, because this armour is like a one-piece garment in which different pieces are inter-locked with other pieces.

The loin belt for example, is indeed a “belt” but it helps fasten the breastplate.

It has a fitting into which the shield of faith hangs. It has a scabbard for the sword and there are different kinds of swords.

One is a wooden sword used for training. Another is a long bladed two handed sword and one that we often think of is the short sword Roman soldiers used.

In like manner, our “Sword of the Spirit” is similarly designed.

We need to learn the difference and the various uses for our Sword of the Spirit. It is the sword—that the Spirit wields!

What is not mentioned in this armour is that there is also a kind of spear or javelin called Pila and that has a fitting into which it hangs when not needed. What is of significance is that, although many suits of armour completely surrounded the body,  Paul does not speak of anything for the back! We don’t need it!

Click the image to read The Armour of God.

John continued:

 Anyone who indulges in sin lives in moral anarchy, for the definition of sin is breaking God’s law. And you know without a doubt that Jesus was revealed to eradicate sins, and there is no sin in him.
Anyone who continues to live in union with him will not sin.
But the one who continues sinning hasn’t seen him with discernment or known him by intimate experience.

Delightfully loved children, don’t let anyone divert you from this truth.
The person who keeps doing what is right proves that he is righteous before God, even as the Messiah is righteous.
But the one who indulges in a sinful life is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God was revealed was to undo and destroy the works of the devil.

Everyone who is truly God’s child will refuse to keep sinning because God’s seed remains within him, and he is unable to continue sinning because he has been fathered by God himself. Here is how God’s children can be clearly distinguished from the children of the Evil One.

Anyone who does not demonstrate righteousness and show love to fellow believers is not living with God as his source. 1 John 3:4–10 

The word for destroy in the original language is luō. it means to untie, loose from ropes or straps, set free, release from condition or circumstance, do away with, remove, exercise authority eliminate, put an end to, cause to come to an end, dismiss, disperse to destroy, to ruin by tearing or breaking.

One rendering is like that of corroding steel in the way that rust completely destroys it.
Once it’s gone, it is gone.

That is what Jesus did to all of the authority that the devil had.
The devil may continue operating for a season, just as a convicted felon is released on bail—but he has already been judged and final sentence is yet to be executed.

Jesus emancipated  us and gave us His delegated authority to act on His behalf.

At this point, we should look at how Jesus handled Himself when He encountered evil spirits. He did not deliberately look for them! If and when situations arose, He acted accordingly. In Mark 4:35, He told the disciples: Let us pass over the other side.

The Greek means “pierce”. The Lord was about to pierce and penetrate enemy territory and take possession.

During their journey, a fierce storm arose that threatened to kill them and it was demonically motivated.
Jesus was not concerned and was fast asleep because He fully intended getting to His destination. click the image to see the account.

When the seventy missionaries returned to Jesus, they were ecstatic with joy, telling him, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we commanded them in your name!”
Jesus replied, “While you were ministering, I watched Satan topple until he fell suddenly from heaven like lightning to the ground. Now you understand that I have imparted to you all my authority to trample over his kingdom. You will trample upon every demon before you and overcome every power Satan possesses.
Absolutely nothing will be able to harm you as you walk in this authority.
However, your real source of joy isn’t merely that these spirits submit to your authority, but that your names are written in the journals of heaven and that you belong to God’s kingdom. This is the true source of your authority.” Luke 10:17–20

The devil hates such people and this, I believe, is one reason why so much opposition has been leveled against such appointments.
Cessationists in particular are fierce opponents of the gifts of the spirit and the five ascension gift ministries Jesus gave His Church.
There are many arguments concerning the gifts of the Spirit, such as which is best.

One argument  is that love is the best gift, but love is not a gift. It is a fruit of the Spirit according to Galatians 5:22.

We are to function in and by love. The best gift is the most appropriate gift to be used on a given situation. A gift of healing would be the best gift when healing is required, but a comforting word via prophecy might not be appropriate. The phrase “that which is perfect” is often used to explain away the validity of these gifts today, saying that this refers to the church. Now that the church has been established and the original apostles passed away, they were no longer needed.

That cannot be true, because what is known as the church is far from perfect, being full of controversy, faction fighting, sectarianism, immaturity and more.

As for the ministry gifts, they are set into place, seen in Ephesians 4, to perfect the saints, to equip us all for the work of the ministry, to bring us to unity and full maturity and it is evident that we are far from that stage.

Before they got into that boat, Jesus had been teaching the crowd that included the same kinds of people we can meet today. They were a mixture of religious people, mockers and scoffers, casual passers-by, curious observers, the disciples and other followers of the Lord.
We often think of the twelve, but this is not true. We know from 1 Corinthians 15:5-7 that Jesus had at least 500 followers. No one, not even His disciples understood what He meant.

It was only after He had dismissed the crowd that His followers asked Him to explain the meaning and He revealed it to them—but not to anyone else.

If you follow this through in the chapter, you will see a definite pattern of “them” and “us”.

Unless we are in the that core of believers “one of us” we will never understand His meaning! The scribes and Pharisees who excelled in their knowledge of scripture and could put many of us to shame for being able to use all of the theological tools we seem to want today, like tense, verb ,mood, parsing, exegesis, apologetics, hermeneutics etcetera ( all very good and necessary) did not understand Him. They had no revelation!

His principles never alter, because He does not change and His word never changes!

He did not say a thing to them without using a parable; when he was alone with his own talmidim he explained everything to them. Mark 4:34

At evening time after that, He got into the boat to cross over to the other side and it was, as I said before, a deliberate move to meet one person, deliver him from the devil’s traps and appoint him to be an apostle there.

It is a strange thing when doing some research, many resources linking the words “the twelve” and “apostles” together implying that Jesus only had twelve! He may have had 500!
I believe that the devil has cheated The Church and hidden the truth.

An apostle in the Greek is apostolos meaning a special messenger, an envoy, someone sent forth or a sent one. We usually refer to the twelve of course, but Paul was an apostle. So was Epaphroditus, Barnabas, Andronicus, Junias, Silas, Timothy and two unnamed brethren.

That “man of Gadara” was destined to become an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and I can say that boldly because of the account.
...as Jesus began to get into the boat to depart, the man who had been set free from demons asked him, “Could I go with you?” Jesus answered, “No,” but said to him, “Go back to your home and to your family and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he had mercy on you.” So the man left and went into the region of Jordan and parts of Syria to tell everyone he met about what Jesus had done for him, and all the people marveled! Mark 5:18-20

Jesus went to him, set him free and sent him on an assignment to tell the people what He had done for him. I believe that this qualifies him for apostleship.

I know nothing else about this man and seriously doubt if he planted churches and did the things we often concentrate on, but he was important enough for the Lord to get there, despite that storm.

Perhaps the devil suspected something was going to happen. He does not have the revelation we have, but is very shrewd and possibly foresaw a threat to his plans and tried to stop it, so that storm was probably demonically driven.

I state that because of the various Greek words used to describe the incident.

Epiballō is one. That is a compound word describing how something is forcibly thrown against or into something with great force the way someone picks something up in a hand, like fistfuls of water and hurling them at the boat.

When Jesus woke and stood up, He rebuked the wind. The Greek word is epitimaō  and it was a simple rebuke, expressing strong disapproval. It meant that He denounced it, issued a command or a warning implying a threat!

He dealt with the root cause first—the wind. The devil is a thief and a liar. He bluffs, cons,  bullies, coerces and mixes a little bit of truth amongst a lot of lies. There are times when we can be distracted and sidetracked, chasing after shadows, non-existent problems, or trivial issues. Deal with the cause first!
I have found that we can be ministering to someone, such as in a prayer line in a meeting and ask the other person what they want us to pray about which is a good thing to do, but it is not always the “best” thing to do. There could be something else that the Lord wants done. He has sometimes issued an instruction to pray on another matter.

The gifts of the Spirit, such as words of knowledge or discerning of spirits will prove to be very valuable.

The waves were beating that boat like a giant fist, but Jesus did not deal with the water, He told the wind to stop motivating the waves. He dealt with the root cause first—the wind.

The devil is a thief and a liar. He bluffs, cons,  bullies, coerces and mixes a little bit of truth with a lot of lies. Deal with them, the cause, first! After that, we can deal with the end results.

Jesus then dealt with that issue by simply speaking.

He spoke to the sea.

The word here is epion that relates more to speech in general form as well as issuing a command. This may sound a little childlike, but I cannot imagine Him ranting and raving and yelling as we sometimes do, thinking that by yelling, we are exercising authority and “being spiritual”. He did not say something like, “I command you in the Name of the Father” because He had no need to be like that. He knew that the Father had given Him all authority and all He had to do was use it.

We  often think of peace in the term “shalom” but that word also can have several different meanings. Jewish phrases can be Shalom Alachem. How is your shalom? Shalom berakha vetova. Sometimes a greeting follows the line of shalom, shalom...

The word used here is not like that. It is  siōpaō . It means to be  silent, do not speak, do not do anything else from now on. It suddenly became calm like the sudden calmness of water after a storm has blown itself out.

That word for still is phimoumai.

It also means to say nothing and be quiet, but also means that it was muzzled. That should speak for itself. We may be liken it to the way someone stands up in a noisy crowd that suddenly realizes someone in real authority just did so. All that this person does is to lift his finger to his lips and merely say, “Shhhhhh”.
My dear friend, speak to your storm and say, “Shhh”.

For more information on this please click here.

There is no neutrality for any of us.
The devil hates God. He hates The Church and he hates you, so even if you do not think so, you are in a war zone. To illustrate, have you ever felt unworthy, or hear some kind of whisper inside you telling you that you are not good enough, or God wouldn’t be interested in...you...who do you think you are?
That alone is a good starting point.
How about the time you did something wrong?

A guilt trip is a good tool the enemy uses against us but we have an “It is written” comeback when things like that happen.
This is where you need to know what God has said—to you.

It’s personal, but it may also apply to all of us.

The devil may sneer at you and say you are not good enough, so the reply may be something like, “Well....God says that I am accepted in the beloved and quote Ephesians 1:6. 

He may try telling you that what you are doing does not work; that it does not matter and that you are wasting your time.
He wants you to quit.
My reply could be, “It is written”.

...thanks be to God, Who gives me the victory [making me a conquer through my Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I stand firm , steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord, knowing and being continually aware that my labor in the Lord is not futile. It is never wasted or to no purpose”.

I quoted 1 Corinthians 15:57–58 from the Amplified Bible. We can’t talk like that if we do not know our bible.

We should use the word warfare, carefully, because the Lord once spoke very strongly to me about it, saying that He hates hearing believers say that the devil had been attacking them. He said that it is tantamount to “worshiping the devil by default” adding that they are actually confessing that Calvary was not complete.

Nevertheless, there are times when we certainly experience what we call “attacks”

Some kind of definition or explanation would be wise.

The enemy adopts cleverly designed strategies, that Paul called the wiles of the devil in Ephesians 6:11. The original word, methodeia, means wiles, strategies, scheming and craftiness. His “authority” to continue operating has been taken away by the Lord, but he is still temporarily free to wander around, probing and constantly seeking for someone he can trick.

It was a strategy he used when he conned Eve with a simple question that was designed to get her thinking and consider...

An analysis of the Genesis account reveals that Adam was given full authority as God’s vice-regal agent and was put into this garden to not only tend and care for it but to protect it. The Hebrew wording indicates that they were in an area that was protected by a hedge of thorns designed to keep someone or something out!

He tended and guarded the garden.

We can easily “blame the woman” but where was Adam at the time and how did the serpent get in? Why didn’t Adam immediately command it to leave? He had that authority. He was able to give names to all of God’s creation

For some reason unknown to me, he did not exercise that authority. Something happened there that, at this present time, is inexplicable, so we can only assume certain things.

We do know however that the serpent  twisted and warped God’s word, by questioning it and this is a strategy he still uses to this day. It happens in many churches when people try to tell us that certain parts are no longer relevant; that they have been done away with etcetera and we have already touched on that. Once anyone starts trying to tear a page out of a bible, where does it stop? Who “qualifies” such people to do that?

I refer of course to the word in its original language.

If you are not familiar with this term, gaslighting is a form of manipulation and control where the intended target is deliberately fed false or misleading information. It got this name from a film in 1944 that was called “Gaslight” in which a man used a range of evil tactics including dimming the gaslights to trick his wife into believing that she had mental issues. He wanted  to keep her isolated to allow him to search for her dead aunt’s extensive jewelry collection. If a lie is repeated often enough, loud enough, and long enough, it is eventually assumed to be truth and it causes people to question what they believe to be truth.

That was what the serpent did to Eve.

Languages may change over time, but God’s word does not. It remains forever.

Gaslighting can be a serious and abusive issue. The “gas lighter” tends to be controlling and narcissistic to their own ends and the victim is manipulated to believe what they are being told. It is a ploy used today to discredit someone’s belief system.

It uses a system of lies designed to trick the victim into questioning what they believe to be truth.

Gaslighting is a common technique employed by cult leaders to manipulate and control members. These leaders present altered versions of events, history, or teachings, causing members to question what they thought they knew. They distort reality to their own advantage.

Gaslighting can have a significant impact on our faith and the gospel message.

Gaslighting exists within the church.

We see this in Galatians where believers were being manipulated and being thrown into confusion over spiritual matters. Paul called it a “different gospel”.

It is still happening today in that many verses are taken out of context or distorted and twisted to support their arguments. Many churches now embrace the LBTQ movement. They argue that we are not to judge others or that Jesus never spoke about homosexuality, but God clearly speaks of this in Genesis 2:2; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26-28 and Jude 1:7. Pro-abortion advocates claim the Bible never speaks against abortion, dismissing scriptures like Psalm 139:13-18; Isaiah 44:24 Jeremiah 1:5. What about murder or adultery?
Jesus spoke of those two things, adding that we can commit the deeds simply by not controlling our thought processes, or as Paul said, by renewing the mind.

Please look at the image of an ordinary mouse trap seen here and take note of the part that is circled. That is the skándalon.

Any trap has something like that to catch the prey.

In this instance the bait is cheese.  Sometimes a small trail of the bait is set out a short distance from the actual trigger, hoping to entice the victim to come closer.

One little nibble is not dangerous and the idea is to dull the senses into thinking that there is no danger. The actual trap may have some bait placed harmlessly right on the very top. It does not matter if the mouse eats them. That poor little critter can come and go and not see any harm in doing what it is doing.

This is not as uncommon as we may think.
 

God can warn us not to go somewhere or to avoid some kind of relationship with another person, but we can think, “It won’t hurt us; What’s the point?” and get involved.

A casual one night stand can lead to an unwanted pregnancy, or a sexually transmitted disease. One little drink could trigger a chemical reaction and one sip leads to another then another until the trap is sprung.

The senses have been dulled. The human reasoning and the flesh nature of the old Adamic nature makes poor decisions and the outcome can affect many others for generations to come.

Esau sold his birthright for some food.

Abraham and Sarah fell into the “Did God r-e-a-l-l-y say that?” trap and Ishmael was born.

King Saul grew impatient, allowed his pride to control him and did something that he was not ordained to do. He made a sacrifice to God!
In all instances, we now feel the consequences.

For example, the present war in Israel is being waged against someone’s descendent Saul should have removed but didn’t.

The mouse might even eat all the cheese scattered around and leave, but that’s OK. It will return. That one special piece of cheese is fixed onto a trigger and when the mouse tries to get it, just as it has done before, the trap is spring.

That trigger with the bait is what is known in scripture as Skándalon.

There are different kinds of traps and baits and gaslighting as we just saw is one. Another is a word that may sound similar to skándalon is scandal.
Scandals in churches can be about money or about relationships.

A pastor may have innocent motives when a woman comes to his office, but he should never be alone with her, even if everything is innocent.

It is a matter of doing it right and being seen to be doing it right. People gossip.

An animal trap can be a hole in the ground that is disguised. It can be a simple piece of string that holds a stick up and the stick holds the trap open. When the person sees his opportune moment, he pulls the string and the bird or animal is caught. Birds can be ensnared by what seems to them to be invisible, but it is a net. Obviously there are many different kinds of traps, each with their own unique trigger mechanism and the enemy knows this, but we do not need to be trapped, provided that we know and apply the truth as revealed in God’s word.

Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that we are not ignorant of the enemy’s devices, schemes or plots, but this is conditional. One of the skándalons is an attitude of the heart whereby we can take offense, become resentful and harbour grudges when someone offends us. We avoid the trap by forgiving and then getting on with the job.

I wrote to you with a greatly distressed and anguished heart, and with many tears, not in order to cause you pain, but to get you to realize how very much I love you.

Now if someone has been a cause of pain, it is not I whom he has pained, but, in some measure—I don’t want to overstate it—all of you. For such a person the punishment already imposed on him by the majority is sufficient, so that now you should do the opposite—forgive him, encourage him, comfort him. Otherwise such a person might be swallowed up in overwhelming depression. So I urge you to show that you really do love him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would pass the test, to see if you would fully obey me.

Anyone you forgive, I forgive too.

For indeed, whatever I have forgiven, if there has been anything to forgive, has been for your sake in the presence of the Messiah so that we will not be taken advantage of by the Adversary—for we are quite aware of his schemes! 2 Corinthians 11:4-11

Spiritual warfare is thus not always as clear cut insofar as “attacking the enemy” and casting out evil spirits is often purported. It is also a more insidious sneaky affair right in the middle of our own beings. It is dealing with the feelings, attitudes and beliefs that motivate us. Perhaps scriptures like Proverbs 23:7 can reveal more of this.

...as he thinketh in his heart, so is he

It is what comes out of a person that defiles him or her.

Eve saw... Eve thought... Eve acted.

We cannot always control our environment, those we meet, what temptations come our way, but we can choose.

Let no one say when he is enticed, “I am enticed by Elohim,” for Elohim is not enticed by evil matters, and He entices no one.
But each one is enticed when he is drawn away by his own desires and trapped.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.
James 1:13-15

To illustrate and start winding this up, we shall look at Abraham.

There was a war In Genesis 14 and Lot was captured. Abraham should never have taken Lot with him, when God told him to leave his home and go to a place that He would eventually reveal to him. God blessed Abraham abundantly and Lot also prospered. An issue arose when their servants started to quarrel over  grazing rights, so Abraham told Lot to choose, but his heart was not right and he chose to dwell in Sodom.

He eventually moved right inside town, drawn closer and closer to the world system there and “became one of them”. We cannot compromise and associate with people who are “not one of us”. We are commanded to come out from amongst them and for good reason. We become like the company we keep. These things are the real war zones for most of us.

Abraham had trained 318 servants born in his own house and had fully equipped them. This was a well equipped, trained and motivated army and there is an object lesson in this for the church of today. Whether you believe this or not, we are facing a crisis situation whereby the enemy is already infiltrating the church in many places and introducing draconian laws that are designed to take away our freedom to worship, to preach truth and to gather together. Laws here in Australia have already been introduced, many in secret and many on the drawing boards. For the most part, what we call the church is in a state of slumber, content to have a few songs, followed by a talk and then a get together afterwards. Many are mere social clubs. I make no apology for that because it is true and the Lord spoke of such churches in Revelation.

Abraham had made disciples of his men and they rescued Lot, having formulated a precise plan.

When Avram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, who had been born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night he and his servants divided his forces against them, then attacked and pursued them all the way to Hovah, north of Dammesek. He recovered all the goods and brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, together with the women and the other people. After his return from slaughtering K’dorla‘omer and the kings with him, the king of S’dom went out to meet him in the Shaveh Valley, also known as the King’s Valley. Malki-Tzedek king of Shalem brought out bread and wine. He was cohen of El ‘Elyon [God Most High], so he blessed him with these words:
"Blessed be Avram by El ‘Elyon, maker of heaven of earth. and blessed be El ‘Elyon, who handed your enemies over to you.”
Avram gave him a tenth of everything.
The king of S’dom said to Avram, “Give me the people, and keep the goods for yourself.” Genesis 14:14-21

Two things happened immediately after his victory.

• The king of Sodom immediately came to Abraham.
• Melchesedik brought out bread and wine and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.

We argue and debate over “the tithe”, the “prosperity doctrine”, “confirmation” to take communion, the role of women in the Church and other matters and this has divided the church. Skándalon!

The king of Sodom immediately came in the manner Jesus talked about of the enemy coming in immediately to snatch away the blessing, the truth, the good seed and the truth. He told Abraham that he could keep the stuff—but give me the people.

The war we need to concentrate on is real, but it is not always what we think it is. We do not need to be tricked by the smoke and mirrors  that exist in churches, because we can be attuned to the Holy Spirit and be led by the Spirit. In WW2, the allies created false airfields, with replicas of aircraft, false invasion barges, false tanks. Most were made of canvas covered wooden frames. They broadcast misleading radio messages supposedly between different warships and battalions of troops. They used the body of a naval officer who had been drowned, put clothing on him with tags from certain stores in London, put false identification documents including letters and photographs from his wife in the pockets of his uniform and attached a briefcase to his wrist containing “secret documents” including maps and after “waterlogging everything to make it seem he had drowned, took his body in a submarine and released it when the tide was right in the ocean off Spain. They hoped it would float ashore and be picked up by German sympathizers and it worked!

On D-day, squadron of Lancaster bombers flew at precise heights and speeds on a precise course, turning on que at given times in certain compass headings to simulate a naval fleet travelling to the enemy coast far away from Normandy. They bombed Calais and sent false attacks in that direction. The entire series of carefully orchestrated plans was designed to fool the enemy and it worked.     

This is the kind of thing I am talking about in the realm of the spirit and it is real. We are not here to play games, because eternal issues are at stake. Peoples’ lives and destinies are at stake. If an apology is necessary for being so blunt and taking so long, I do so, but allow me to share my heart.

When the Lord took me to hell for a 45 minute visit decades ago, it was no dream, vision, fantasy or near death experience and He told me in advance that He would do that. When I saw those preachers there, it shocked me. Hell is real, but it is not designed for us to go there.

The fires are real but there is an eerie coldness. The screams of people are unimaginable, but not because they are being tormented. It is because the people are aware of their eternal separation from God.
When there I saw some kind of “portal” and on the other side were wooden logs on fire. I reached in and as I did my arm turned to “fire”, but there was no heat. I  took hold of one and withdrew it,  placing it on the ground. As I did, that “piece of wood” turned into a human being and that person was overjoyed, repeatedly thanking me profusely.

After that event, I asked the Lord for a scriptural basis and urge everyone to test things for themselves like that. This includes what I say.

He told me to read Zechariah where it says:

He further showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and the Accuser standing at his right to accuse him.
But [the angel of] the Lord said to the Accuser, “The Lord rebuke you, O Accuser; may the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!
For this is a brand plucked from the fire. Zechariah 3:1-2

We deal with the accuser of the brethren. We have been given everything necessary to succeed and overcome. Jesus has all authority and has granted us permission to operate in that authority. We do not need to shake our fist, rant and rave and yell at an enemy that may or may not be there, but walk in that authority and declare the word of the Lord—the word He give us to speak at any given time. By knowing those truths, we can avoid the traps—the skándalons and avoid them—and warn the unwary in the process. This message was for certain people!

Blessings,

Robert