“Arrogance is someone claiming to have come to Christ, but they won't spend more than five minutes listening to your journey because they are more concerned about their own well being, rather than being a true disciple of Christ. Blessed is the person that takes the time to heal and hear another person so they can move on.”
― Shannon L. Alder
A good friend said to me once that when trying to pass a counterfeit bill, we wouldn't use monopoly money. The enemy's schemes are a twisted version of truth. Counterfeit is made to look real. How do we prevent falling for a counterfeit? We know the real so well that we recognize fake. Many believe the antichrist is already on the earth. He is not going to look like we imagine Satan and his entourage to look. Discernment is so important.
Imagine a man who buys Easter Lilies for his wife every year on the anniversary of the day they met. He does this because the day they met when he handed her a fist full of Easter Lilies, her response was, "Oh my goodness. What a wonderful surprise. I love them." Fifty years later as he walks into the kitchen with yet another fist full of Easter Lilies, she smiles. He smiles back, proud that he has not missed a year. Even the year he broke his leg, he managed to talk his friend into picking up those flowers for him. As he puffs out his chest and leaves the room, his wife whispers to her sister, "I hate Easter Lilies. They smell like cat urine."
If this is true, why did he not know? At one time did she try to tell him and he didn't hear her? On their first date she didn't know him well enough to say, "I hate Easter Lilies, because they smell like cat urine". She was excited for their first date and wouldn't dream of making him feel bad. The first few years it still touched her heart that he would put the effort in to please her, but around forty years ago, she could smell cat urine before he got out of the car. He never asked. He assumed that the same thing that pleased her then would please her now. If you asked him, he would talk for several minutes about how well he knew his wife. He didn't have to ask her what kind of flowers she wanted. He will even boast about the time when she was very ill, even hospitalized and he surrounded her with several bouquets of Lilies. She begged the doctor to discharge her. The room was just too small and she was drowning in cat urine.
I see people do this with God. They wait on Him to speak and respond the way He did in the past. Of course He would tell us if He wanted us to do things differently, if we listen. Looking through the Bible how many times do we see Him respond the same way or direct His people to do things the same way. He had specific instructions for taking down the walls of Jericho. Do we ever see an army defeat a city the same way in the Bible? Things He might have let us get away with in the beginning of our relationship with Him, He won't approve of now. As we grow and change, our knowledge of Him grows and changes.
Our behavior changes the closer we get to Him. Where we might have told a white lie before, we wouldn't dream of it now. Some of the areas I have changed is the movies I watch, the words I use, the music I listen to, the places I go. I believe this should change and as I get closer to Him, I want to change these things to please Him. Religion is about rules and that's not what I am talking about. There are still a lot of things I need and want to change, but sometimes I have to ask myself, would I be doing or saying this if Jesus was standing next to me, visible to my naked eye? Well, He is even closer than that every minute.
The heart of God doesn't change, but the way He wants us to do things and the way He does things, does change. He will tell us if He doesn't want anymore Easter Lilies. Ha. But we always have to be listening. If he expected the same thing from us every time, how would we grow. He has often stretched me by saying, "This time I want you to..."
In showing me the schemes of the enemy and where his authority lies, I have noticed the enemy does not always do things the same way either. God has patience and His timing is very important. The enemy has patience to and he will wait a long time to have the biggest affect. The enemy also likes to do the same thing but in a different way. We get so busy watching for the attack the way he always attacks, but he sneaks in another way.
To know God's heart does not always mean we know what He wants us to do or how He wants us to do it, though knowing His heart can show us the counterfeit. His lies are twisted variations of the truth. Flattery and compliments are two different things. Compliments come from the heart, while flattery usually has a motive. The enemy can come as an angel of light. We have to know God's light. We have to be so familiar with Son light that we recognize when a light bulb is turned on.
“It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is. (60).”
― Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
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