The devil works by agreement. He usually presents you w/ something & looks for your agreement so that he can lead you to sin [disobedience] & gain access. Eve was led to eat the fruit & disobey God because she agreed w/ satan’s assertions - this opened the door... Thread

to the evil & disobedience that we see in the world today. Contrarily, he presented Jesus w/ three statements, looking for his agreement so that God’s plans for Him would be thwarted. Each time Jesus exclaimed NO! I do not agree, winning victory over him.

Many of us have given the devil access to our lives simply by agreeing with him. When he tempts you, he’s asking if you agree & if the word of God is not strong in your heart, you will. That’s why David said I have hidden Your Word in my heart so that I won’t sin against You.

We disagree with the devil by agreeing with the Word of God & standing on truth. In so doing, we resist him and he has no option but to flee and try at a more opportune time. We must be vigilant, we must stay strong in the Word of God & we must be aggressively disagree w/ satan.

Now, I’d like to zoom in on a particular area of agreement which is fear. Fear is one of the devil’s biggest tools against humanity. It does not come from God and this is evident in that God is constantly saying “Do not fear” in His Word, even in seemingly fearful situations!

God is asks us to be aware of the devil’s devices, to be vigilant, but nowhere in His Word does He ask us to be afraid of him. Why? Because when you submit to fear, you come into agreement w/ satan. Let’s look at an illustration of this:

I want you to imagine a door & someone screaming from the other side of it. They’re screaming “open this door or I’ll break it down!”. In one scenario, you open it because you’re so terrified they’ll break through. They come in and they begin to attack you. In an alternative...

approach, you say “NO. You do not have the authority to break down this door, in fact you can’t come in unless I open it for you and I refuse to open it. Go away.” The devil is hoping that you’ll take the former approach, while God encourages the latter.

When the devil brings fear, most of us open the door & entertain it, ignorant of the fact that fear is just an entry way for his attacks. We need to respond by faith, based on the Word of God. Fear is agreement, faith is disagreement. If God hasn’t said it, it is simply not so.

Understand that the fear is simply a way to cripple you to gain access. So when he comes, recognise what’s happening & refuse to agree. Hide in Jesus’ Word & assurances to you. But you can’t do that if you’re not familiar w/ what Jesus has said/ don’t fellowship w/ His Spirit.

You can’t do that if you don’t recognise he’s lying because your mind is so saturated in truth & you dine regularly with the Spirit of Truth.

Alot of us underestimate reading the Bible. It’s not the reading that’s essential, it’s the imbibing of God’s truth, character & one’s identity in Him that is synonymous to sharpening a sword so that it is READY to be used in the day of battle. If you’re not ready, you will fall.

A brilliant example of all this is Nehemiah. God had prepared Nehemiah for the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem through fasting & prayer. He then returns & faces serious opposition from enemies of God who tried EVERYTHING to stop the work from being finished.

At a point, they tried to deceive Nehemiah & he said:

“No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them... for they were all trying to make us afraid, saying “they’re hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done”... Now therefore, oh God, ...

strengthen my hands.” - Nehemiah 6:8 & 9. This message came to Nehemiah FOUR TIMES. The devil came & knocked on the door but Nehemiah disagreed with Him & turned to God. What’s more, he had discernment that they were lying because he was a man of prayer & fellowship with God.

Similarly, in Nehemiah 6:10-13 they tried to attack him again, still using fear & he says:

“Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because T & S had hired him. For this REASON he was hired... that I should be AFRAID...

and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.”

Some of the people who you allow to speak into your life are actually agents of satan & haven’t been sent by God at all and they come with one purpose, to bring fear.

And that fear is simply a door opener, it is not the real attack. But you need discernment to recognise them. Guys, I hope this encourages you. Do not agree with satan through fear, but be strong in God’s Word & build a solid foundation of faith in Jesus Christ

And understand that some of the voices in your life are not voices of faith but of fear, sent by the devil to cause you to stumble, but you will never discern them unless you are familiar with the Holy Spirit & His Word. Be spiritually alert.