What is most important, our eternal outcome and eternal home or our temporary life and imperfect bodies on this broken Earth? Who we follow and serve with all our hearts, spirits, and lives determines our eternal home. Disciples of Jesus Christ must be alert and aware, or the devil can devour us.

Find Clarity in God’s Truth

Many baby believers and some people who have gone to church for a long time may believe the lie that salvation brings an easy, favored, and less challenging life. They may think they are not responsible for growing their personal relationships with God and Jesus through studying the Bible, praise, and prayer. This mindset places God and Jesus as their servants and genies who do everything for them or what they order them to do. 

The devil uses lies and misrepresentations of God’s word to bring doubts, frustration, and disappointment into a believer’s mind. Hence, the believer slowly separates himself from God and walks away. The devil is a thief, and his goal is to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10) every part and aspect of us so that we reject God. By rejecting God and Jesus, we follow Satan on earth and in an eternal hell.

Loving and Saving Us Cost Jesus Everything

Being a disciple of Christ brings us eternal hope, salvation, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and the power of the Holy Spirit living in us while we are on earth. Jesus also brings us eternal life in heaven. However, when you look at Christ’s life, you can see the challenges, tests, and persecution we will face when we love, follow, and serve God above all. 

God’s plan to save us included letting his son choose to pay the sacrifice for the sins of every person born in the past or present. They loved us so much that they believed we were worth dying for! Think about this unconditional and unfathomable love from our Creator, who gave us the freedom and power to choose! 

• Since they sacrificed everything to save us, how can we not give them every aspect of our mind, heart, and life?
  
• Do we not owe them our loyalty, complete surrender, obedience, and willingness to share the love, hope, and salvation of Christ’s gospel?

Following Jesus Brings Challenges and Costs

Jesus lived among the poor, needy, and broken. He wasn’t born into riches or as an earthly king. He was perfect, yet he allowed himself to suffer in his human condition. He felt love, joy, loss, rejection, abandonment, sorrow, betrayal, hate, and jealousy from others and the pain of being tortured and crucified to propitiate our sins. 

Jesus showed us that we will suffer persecution for following him because we are not following Satan. He came to be our example to show us how to triumph spiritually and overcome our challenges with God’s word. He wanted us to know that following him means the devil will target us to see if we will reject Jesus Christ. 

Christ’s disciples chose to follow Jesus and endure persecution unto death because of the transformation of their minds, hearts, spirits, and lives. They believed Christ’s salvation was worth sharing regardless of the cost to their lives on earth. They experienced Christ’s love and wanted everyone else to have the same opportunity.  

They knew the persecution believers endure for this short time is nothing compared to helping others find salvation and a perfect eternity. However, God knew we would struggle to trust, understand, and surrender in obedience, so he gave us Christ’s strength and example. God also gave Christ’s disciples warnings for us.

Be of sober spirit; be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 
– 1 Peter 5:8-9, NASB 1995

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 
– John 10:10, NASB 1995

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits.” 
– Matt. 7:15-16, NASB 1995 

Three Primary Ways of Being Devoured

From the scriptures above, we can see three primary ways that the devil can devour nonbelievers and believers if we do not walk hand in hand with Jesus daily.

Unaware of God’s Word, So We Pick and Choose

Our unawareness of God’s word allows the world and false leaders, led by the devil, to encourage us to create our preferred religious belief buffet. This mindset leads to our separation from God. Separation leads to listening primarily to the devil. Focusing and listening to the devil leads to a sinful life and, possibly, hell, even though we attend church. 

God is not our servant or genie. God is our loving Father, Creator, and all-mighty Yahweh. He deserves our love, loyalty, honor, and service, not an attitude of entitlement or to be treated like a genie under our power. We must understand God’s word. Christ’s disciples must not be caught unaware.

Jesus tells us. “You are mistaken, not (knowing or) understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.” 
– Matt. 22:29, NASB 1995

Not Studying and Living Out God’s Word Daily

You can’t know God and Jesus if you don’t spend time with them. Every believer is responsible for growing a personal relationship with them by studying God’s word through praise and prayer. When you do not know God’s word, you will not know his love, heart, and character, nor will you know Christ. 

Without knowing God’s truth, you are vulnerable to false teachings. Do not take someone’s teaching as God’s truth just because they claim to speak God’s truth. See if their teaching follows God’s word and the life of Jesus Christ. The disciple John tells us how to evaluate God’s truth from the devil’s lies.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist (a person who doesn’t believe in Christ according to this scripture). 
• 1 John 4:1-3, NASB 1995

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 
• Rom. 12:2, NASB 1995

Self-awareness, Frequent Self-Inventory of Priorities, and Accountability

Divorces don’t happen overnight. Relationships don’t break overnight. Like an illness or disease, many signs, symptoms, and ignoring go on long before things end.

The devil uses complacency, tolerance, silence, manipulation, deception, self-sufficiency, selfishness, and false understanding of God’s word to slowly creep into your mind, heart, spirit, and life. Even people who have tried to follow Jesus for years can separate themselves from him as their heart and spirit follow the world, which is the devil. The devil will use all tactics, arguments, power, money, status, illusion of justice, comfort, and every other means to turn you to his dark side.

The Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies depict how the enemy is waiting for a God-dishonoring desire or emotion to latch on to so he can start whispering in your ear. He feeds emotions like entitlement, hurt, anger, resentment, revenge, punishment, injustice, jealousy, lust, or any other negative emotion, so you will be drawn to prioritize your feelings and ways. As you feed on his cancerous words, the enemy slowly devours your mind, heart, spirit, attitudes, words, actions, and life. Over time, as you fall away from God and Jesus, your life will mirror the devil’s darkness in your heart. 

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness (disobedience), and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that He (Jesus) appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. 
– 1 John 4:3-10, NASB 1995 

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 
– Rom. 12:1-2, NASB 1995

These verses don’t mean Christ’s disciples will never sin. It means they will not willingly choose a life of sin. It means our mindset, attitudes, words, and actions will mirror Christ’s, not the devil’s.

The Only Power the Devil has is What You Give Him

If you choose to be Christ’s disciple, you must know it requires your complete surrender and obedience to his ways. It means you will grow your relationship with him daily and work with him to be transformed into his likeness. It means you will stay loyal to him and trust him no matter what it looks like, how you feel, or what happens.

Disciples of Jesus are clothed in his righteousness. The devil has no power over us unless we let him in. But he can influence and tempt us if we crack a window or open the door to our mind, heart, soul, or spirit. 

We Can Triumph Over Our Enemy!

Sometimes, discipleship may seem hard and lonely, but Jesus knows your hardships. It may mean sacrifice and loss, but Jesus knows your pain. It may mean abandonment and betrayal by people, but Jesus knows this heartbreak. It may mean that you or our family will die as martyrs, but Jesus will be waiting to take your hand for all eternity in heaven when you take your last breath.

You can’t say you are saved and live like the devil. Your life must reflect and mirror the attitudes, words, and actions of Jesus. Christ’s disciples do not live a life of sin. Do not let the devil devour your mind, heart, spirit, soul, and eternal life. Find a complete Bible-teaching church to teach, support, and hold you accountable. Take Christ’s hand and live in his fullness now and into eternity!

These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” 
– John 16:33, NASB 1995

I leave you with this challenging but true message with prayers for your strength as you faithfully follow our loving Father, God, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am taking a year’s sabbatical, but my team will be posting past blogs for the next year. Some blogs go as far back as 2010, and you will see how I have grown in God. I hope and pray you stay strong and encouraged as I rest in God. Live in the love and grace of Jesus Christ!