Satan Never Shuts Up!
October 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under Articles by Mike Wells
“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” (Zechariah 3:1)
I remember as a university student taking a cross-country trip with a fellow I barely knew; he was catching a ride with me to a city some distance away. I did not know the fellow had no capacity to shut up, but rather, there appeared to be a random firing in the brain that connected to the tongue. What made it even more frustrating is that he presumed to know everything about nothing in particular. Like the doll that has a string in its chest for a child to pull and hear talking, he prattled, but by pulling his own string. When he did stay on a topic, the longer he talked, the more it sounded like he might know what he was talking about, but I was probably just getting brainwashed. I began to look for a blowhole in the top of his head that enabled him to keep talking without seemingly ever taking a breath. The monologue just went on and on and on. I have only had that experience with one other being, the devil. He never shuts up, never. If he followed Jesus into the wilderness in order to get on a topic and not let up, how much will he do to us? A brother told me one day of the appearance of a demon who spoke to him, and he asked what I thought about that. All I said was: “Do not talk back, because the longer they talk, the more sense they make.” One day a friend sent a letter that really frustrated me. He was judging everything I was doing. I put it aside and refused to answer immediately. For the next two weeks all my thoughts were harsh, critical, driving and condemning toward the brother. Oh, it made me mad. Finally, I got the letter back out and prepared to respond (or, actually, react). I reread his letter only to find that it said nothing of what I had thought it said! It was completely supportive and positive! Satan had twisted the whole meaning of the letter. Satan gets on to our flaws, the things that make us safe for God to work through us, the things that brought us to Christ, and the things of the flesh that do not change apart from abiding; and he harps, and harps, and harps until we are left wondering why God does not just kill us, or we ask God to take our life. He also talks through others; we all have had a share of that. How he loves to play off of our self-life through the offense of another, a failure, a disapproving glance from someone, a criticism, and more. He knows everything about nothing; he is a liar that never shuts up! According to him we are all hypocrites, hopeless, in terrible relationships, and being constantly abused; we are the unhappiest people in the world, surrounded by a world that is conquering us at the whim of wicked men, and more. He never shuts up. He is a liar, the father of lies, and just as a judge grants visitation rights to his children, if we receive a lie, Satan will have the legal right to visit it in us. Once he has gained access to us in that way, he torments us. We must for the sake of our own sanity bring every thought captive to Christ. Christ knew us at our worst and yet chose us. We have been stupid, and yet look at how, because of Jesus, we continue to be blessed. God is nothing like what Satan is attempting to tell us. God has not judged us, wiped us, punished us, or killed people that we love just to see us weep! God is love, and Satan is the liar that never shuts up; he is a noisy being, and those that follow him on the earth are noisy. When all the noise gets to be too much, first of all, do not give the enemy your attention by starting to do battle. Jesus showed us how to handle him by saying, “Lord rebuke you!” That is enough; any more and things will get worse. Second, go to 1 Corinthians 13 and read what Love/God is and let His peace and Truth flood over you. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (Romans 16:20).
Captive to Something How?
October 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under Articles by Mike Wells
“Therefore it says, When He ascended on High, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8).
So many of us, at some time in our Christian lives, believe ourselves to be enslaved to something. It is either a returning habit or a new one, but the slavery seems very real. We have said it before but God cannot, as a shepherd, lead someone that is sitting. We must move to be led, and that means that we must move into a truth to discover the reality of the truth. He has taken captive everything that could have held the believer captive. We are free! Growth for Christians does not comprise a series of efforts to make us free but a series of revelations that make known our freedom. We look at our Red Sea and wonder how WE will part it to obey and go forward. In reality, we step into it and discover that HE is the one that parts it, but only so far as needed for us to place one foot at a time in it. That is the life of faith. It is a lie that we are enslaved or captive to anything but Christ. However, the voice of sin, Satan, the world, and flesh are so loud that sometimes we sit in the chair and bemoan a condition that we do not even have. The glory of God is in choice, and there are none freer to make a choice than the believer. I have counseled people in a variety of situations, among which are several prisons, orphanages, alcohol and drug treatment centers, and with couples in troubled marriages. I have given them information and witnessed some miracles, but it was not the information that ever set the people free; it was their choice to act on the information and to walk in the freedom Christ had already given them. The one dispensing information can never take the credit for a changed life; it was simply that the believer chose to walk in a freedom that was given by Him. I am happy that being obsessed with Betty long before she knew it, that upon her discovery of my love, she chose me. I chose her first, but she responded by choosing me. I am happy that she was not forced to marry me but responded to my choice with her choice. God has chosen you, He chose to set you free, and now you will thrill Him by choosing to walk in it. It is a hard pill to swallow, but if you can choose not to go shopping naked, you can certainly as a believer choose not to walk in what you believe to be a behavior to which you are held captive. Admit where you are so you can leave where you are. Admit that you are choosing to stay in your state and let God work with your honesty.
He Who Knew No Sin Became Sin!
October 8, 2009 by Mike Wells
Filed under Articles by Mike Wells
II Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
That sin was great that it drove the very life out of him.
How? Take two magnets and try to hold them together. It will be opposites that attract not the positives. As you try to hold the positives together the magnets wiggle and move about trying to escape each other. As they flip they fit together nicely and tightly. Jesus is the invisible nuclear glue that is holding all things together. He is the positive. Man, attempting to be like God believes that man is the positive. Therefore, man invites sin into his being. The glue and the sin are repelled by each other. The glue withdraws and man becomes less and less in the image of God. If sin is continued to be invited in the man will, in time, no longer resemble the image of God. Therefore, God allowed a fix. The sin could be taken out of a man and placed on an animal. Man is in the image of God and the sin makes him sick. However, that sin placed on an animal, not in the image of God, will so distort the animal that it must be killed. The animal represented what man had lost in his sin. For example a dove, for a dove represents freedom, song, and peace. A sacrifice of man was never required. Not required until the fullness of time when the sins of the whole world (past, present, and future) had reached their culmination. On the cross God broke the divine umbilical cord that ran from Himself to the Son and placed on the Son the sins of the whole world. That sin was great that it drove the very life out of him. When the life was out of him, sin, Satan, the World, Death, Captivity, and Hell encased Him. He sank to the depths of Hell and there to the surprise of all there broke out! He conquered all that had encased His life, ripped open the gates of hell, preached, and even took Captivity captive so that it no longer could take captives. He then waited until God raised Him back into the body where the sin’s of the whole world lay. This time He entered back into the body with the power of an indestructible life, meet the sin, and conquered Sin in the body! His Life was so powerful that it even transformed his earthly body. Now, I believe that He has done all that in His body but the next step is believing that He can do it in my body!. He can, He will, and He has.
Your True Nature!
October 8, 2009 by Mike Wells
Filed under Articles by Mike Wells
In the village next to the Niger River I had noticed a cage holding one lone, odd-looking eagle. All the basic features were there; the body, neck, and two-thirds of the wings were white. Yet the end of the wings and the head were black. I was told, “That is a white eagle.” You could understand my confusion, since it had black on its wings, and the head was completely black. Upon questioning I was told, “It is a young white eagle; as the bird grows, the white will push its way to the tip of the wings and beak. The mature bird will be completely white in the end.” Again, all things created are preaching Jesus. The DNA of the bird dictates that it will be a white bird. As the bird grows, it expands into what it really is in fact: a white eagle. It doesn’t become a white eagle; it is a white eagle even when the black is on it. Growth and maturity will force out what does not belong to the very nature of the bird. The head is where the thoughts of the flesh hide in hopes of manifesting themselves. The black on the wings, our unbelief, is the only thing associating us with earthly living. Would it in any way be possible to stop the growth of this bird? No, but if it remained caged, the expression and exercise of its growth and maturity will never be seen. This white eagle gives me hope. First, it will grow, and what it is will be revealed; it has no choice. Second, God will not keep it captive. There will be a mounting up in the fullness of time. Imagine giving birth to a child if it were up to you to make it grow. Wouldn’t you be a nervous wreck? You can’t make a child grow, for that is God’s work. Likewise, you don’t make yourself grow spiritually! That is God’s work, a work that He has ordained by writing into your very DNA that you are a child of God. In the end, you cannot make one hair [one feather] black or white. Your “color” is the outgrowth of the new nature that He has given you. Christ’s life is written into your very nature. By the way, eagles devour the serpent and are feared by all the other little creatures that sneak about.
Your True Nature
October 8, 2009 by Mike Wells
Filed under Articles by Mike Wells
Your True Nature!
In the village next to the Niger River I had noticed a cage holding one lone, odd-looking eagle. All the basic features were there; the body, neck, and two-thirds of the wings were white. Yet the end of the wings and the head were black. I was told, “That is a white eagle.” You could understand my confusion, since it had black on its wings, and the head was completely black. Upon questioning I was told, “It is a young white eagle; as the bird grows, the white will push its way to the tip of the wings and beak. The mature bird will be completely white in the end.”
Again, all things created are preaching Jesus. The DNA of the bird dictates that it will be a white bird. As the bird grows, it expands into what it really is in fact: a white eagle. It doesn’t become a white eagle; it is a white eagle even when the black is on it. Growth and maturity will force out what does not belong to the very nature of the bird.
The head is where thoughts of the flesh hide in hopes of manifesting themselves. The black on the wings, our unbelief, is the only thing associating us with earthly living. Would it in any way be possible to stop the growth of this bird? No, but if it remains caged, the expression and exercise of its growth and maturity would not be seen.
This white eagle gives me hope. First, it will grow, and what it is will be revealed; it has no choice. Second, God will not keep it captive. There will be a mounting up in the fullness of time.
Imagine giving birth to a child if its actual growth was in your hands, being up to you to make it grow. Wouldn’t you be a nervous wreck? You can’t make a child grow, for that is God’s work. Likewise, you don’t make yourself grow spiritually! That is God’s work, a work that He has ordained by writing into your very DNA that you are a child of God. In the end, you cannot make one hair [one feather] black or white. Your “color” is the outgrowth of the new nature that He has given you. Christ’s life is written into your very nature.
By the way, eagles devour the serpent and are feared by all the other little creatures that sneak about.
