Don't Give The Devil Too Much Credie

Don’t Give The Devil Too Much Credit

I always use PowerPoint when I preach my messages. Usually, it involves a fill in the blank that allows the audience to be more plugged into the message. One Sunday I took my USB stick over to the audio/ visual person for her to put the slides in the computer so that it would be ready for the sermon. Only problem was that it would not read on the church computer that we use every week.

We tried 4 or 5 different USB sticks, and I even emailed it to her. Still, it would not open on the church computer. I finally had to give up and just preach without PowerPoint. When I got up to preach, I said, “The devil didn’t want this sermon to flow right so he made sure that the power point would not work”. When I asked my wonderful wife later that day to look at the PowerPoint, she discovered right off the bat that I had somehow put the presentation in the wrong format.

Seems that I was to blame for the error – not the Devil. Unless you want to think that the Devil distracted me when I was preparing the presentation, so I put it in the wrong format. I think that sometimes we give the Devil too much credit when things go wrong. Sometimes, like in this case it was just human error. When we give the Devil too much credit it increases our fear of him.

The Bible tells us to fear not and that if we resist the Devil, he has to flee from us. In other words, we have the power of the resurrected Jesus living inside of us if we are Christians. When Jesus came out of the tomb he overcame death, Hell, and the grave forever. He also broke the power of evil that tries to ensnare us in sin. We have the authority from Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us to command the Devil to flee, and he HAS to obey and leave us alone.

The Devil is not and never will be more powerful than God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. When we invite Jesus to be the Lord of our life and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us the Devil is a defeated foe. It is only when we forget that we are Children of the most high God and don’t follow His perfect will for our lives that we give the Devil an opening to enter our minds and hearts. He only needs a small crack to jump in and try to take over.

That is why we need to put on the Full Armor of God each day because our enemy the Devil never stops trying to attack us. The Good News is that if we stay faithful and true to God, HE has already won the war over the Devil and HE fights for us each day. Keep your eyes on God and don’t give the Devil an opening to attack you.

If he does get in, then immediately plead the Blood of Jesus and take up your Spiritual authority and command that rascal to leave you alone. He cannot control you in any way if you are covered by the Blood of Jesus and have an up to date – fresh relationship with the One who died on the cross to pay the price for your sins. In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs