Getting Off the Angle of the Devil’s Attacks

Listen to this teaching here.

In martial arts, we were all trained to move out of the way of an opponent’s attack.

If they were trying to punch you in the face, you quickly moved your face to one side or the other or took a step back.

Watch trained fighters. They are almost always constantly moving and keeping out of the way and out of the angle of their opponent’s attacks.

“Don’t block a punch with your face” has always seemed like good advice to me.

The devil attacks us, especially as Christians. We find out that we’re being attacked at times, some in very obvious ways, but at other times in much more subtle ways.

The subtle kinds of attacks are what I want to address today.

If we are Christians and have a good, strong spiritual practice, we will be walking in the light of Christ in a literal way.

I like to envision a bright circle of light, almost like a spotlight all around me, coming down from heaven and out from the center of myself, in the deepest place, into a bright 360-degree circle of light filled with Christ’s power.

Now, what I want to talk to you about today happened in my own life, and it prompted me to create this class.

In the same week, I got two compliments from two different people about my personality, supernatural self-esteem, and overall spiritual abilities. They both said, “You are not a normal human being.”

In some ways, they were right.

I started meditating at age 17. I went and joined a powerful spiritual Christian order with many of the old monastic practices and much charity work. And I stayed for 20 years and was privileged also to be part of the Toronto Blessing, the Father’s Love Blessing, and the Prophetic Movement, and many other things that were so meaningful and helpful to me.

Now I’m 76, so I’m pretty good at meditating and prophesying.

So, in fact, I’m not a normal human being, but the same could be said of an athlete or Bruce Lee or another martial artist who has spent 30 or 40 more years studying and practicing, and they’re able to break bricks and do jumps and kicks that the rest of us can’t do.

They are not normal in the classic sense.

But here is where Satan got in on the act.

I started thinking a lot about not being a normal human being and kind of liking that idea. Sort of like, “Hey, I’m different. I’m more special than other humans.” And I enjoyed that in a subtle, quiet way.

But while it was in part true, something was off.

I just want to remind us all that the best lies have some truth in them.

I could feel myself suddenly being pulled out of the center of the light from above and from the center of myself, kind of like a negative magnet.

Now, it didn’t turn the light all the way off. It just moved me two or three inches off center. However, two or three inches can be very hard on you in certain situations.

I sort of shook myself and said to myself, “Hey, wait a minute. I’m being tricked.”

Even if it was subtle, it was pulling me out of the light that I enjoy so much and into a low-key, subtle, but hurtful pride and quiet egotism.

That made me mad when I realized that.

And so I decided to stop thinking of myself as a separate kind of human being, a “not normal” one, which is partly true, and especially different and special, even though I already am considered special and different by my Heavenly Father, and all His children have that same distinction.

He sees us all uniquely.

It’s sort of like a mother who says, “I love all my children the same way,” except He means it.

And a healthy response to being special and different because of God’s view of you, and He is the last word, is to love Him back and be grateful for how favorably He sees us.

What I didn’t need was even subtle egotism and pride.

So I decided, going forward, to start calling myself a lucky ducky rather than a “not normal human being.”

Not that that denies that I learned a lot in 60 years of ministry, but feeling grateful for the changes and for being drawn closer into my Father’s arms and encountering His love in ways that were quite meaningful to me and continue to be.

I do love Him, and I don’t like to be distracted from that.

I have decided to stay off the angle of Satan’s attack as much as I can. So I make it a rule in my life not to allow that to happen, and I believe you should too.

Some of the other ways he attacks us are with thoughts of how bad or shameful we are, or how bad our sins are.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance, not to self-condemnation.

I’ve never seen self-condemnation lead to anything good, and I’ve been a counselor for 30 years.

It’s just another way to get us off center and out of the light from heaven and the light within us, and to make us weaker so Satan can prey on us even more easily.

This is also a kind of egotism and pride, which makes us sick as we concentrate on ourselves and move away from the light and the love of our Father.