KNOW YOUR ENEMY
As we go through this battlefield of life, we must know our adversary- our enemy. He is our accuser, the deceiver, the tempter, the beguiler, the father of all lies and he masquerades as an angel of light. He was once an angel, the highest ever created by God in the highest rank and order of seraphim. He was the most beautiful creation of God, exuding beauty and intelligence far beyond those achieved by any creature of God. In fact, he was the contemporary and intimate friend of Jesus Christ. But he was deceived by his own beauty and intelligence. He loved himself so much that he began to adore himself. He began to hate God and rebel against God to become God himself. He was able to deceive 1/3 of the angelic host and they battled against the remaining faithful angels of God. God's faithful angels were led by a lowly archangel by the name of Michael. Archangels and angels are among the lowest ranked angels among God's angelic host. And to show the awesome power of God against the rebellious group, Michael and his faithful angels defeated them. They were cast off from heaven and were thrown down to the earth and the seas. They were frothing and seething with anger and revenge by seeking to enslave mankind whom they envied because mankind still had the chance for redemption if they are washed by the blood of the Lamb. They enslaved the elementals of the earth, the seas and underneath the earth to do their biddings and to oppress mankind. They have manipulated the minds of men so that men will set themselves up against God just like what they did before in heaven. They became the beguiling pied pipers of this world, enticing men to follow their hypnotic tune down the road to destruction and doom. His name? Satan. "All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Tags: God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Enemy, Accuser, Deceiver, Tempter, Beguiler, Father of All Lies, Masquerades As Angel of Light, Seraphim, Highest Order of Angels, Most Beautiful Creation of God, Most Intelligent Creature, Self Adoration, Rebel Against God, Deceived 1/3 of Angelic Host, Archangel, Michael, Cast Off From Heaven, Thrown Down To Earth, Anger, Revenge, Envied Mankind, Save By The Blood of The Lamb, Elementals, Pied Pipers, Hypnotic Tune, Road To Destruction and Doom, Salvation By Accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Eternal Life, Word of God, Holy Bible
Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla
Philippines
Spiritual/Inspirational/Motivational
16 comments:
noadays, i can easily see the face of the enemy. i thank God for helping me recognize the enemy using other people close to me.
That is maybe positive & negative energy.
dear mel...i was just coming here to thank you for your sweet comments on my blog.
you will never know how much i appreciate you and you are so good, never complaining that i come here so few times. you never give up on me and for this i am thankful, my friend!
mel, this is such a serious and truthful post.
it is really strange that just this sunday the preacher at the gospel meeting quoted this poem that is so near to your post.
it was very hard to listen to but i am going to copy and paste it here anyway mel,
"The Hellbound Train
A Texas cowboy lay down on a barroom floor,
Having drunk so much he could drink no more;
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain
To dream that he rode on a hell-bound train.
The engine with murderous blood was damp
And was brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp;
An imp, for fuel, was shoveling bones,
While the furnace rang with a thousand groans.
The boiler was filled with lager beer
And the devil himself was the engineer;
The passengers were a most motley crew--
Church member, atheist, Gentile, and Jew,
Rich men in broadcloth, beggars in rags,
Handsome young ladies, and withered old hags,
Yellow and black men, red, brown, and white,
All chained together--O God, what a site!
While the train rushed on at an awful pace--
The sulphurous fumes scorched their hands and face;
Wider and wider the country grew,
As faster and faster the engine flew.
Louder and louder the thunder crashed
And brighter and brighter the lightning flashed;
Hotter and hotter the air became
Till the clothes were burned from each quivering frame.
And out of the distance there arose a yell,
"Ha, ha," said the devil, "we're nearing hell!"
Then oh, how the passengers all shrieked with pain
And begged the devil to stop the train.
But he capered about and danced for glee,
And laughed and joked at their misery.
"My faithful friends, you have done the work
And the devil never can a payday shirk.
"You've bullied the weak, you've robbed the poor,
The starving brother you've turned from the door;
You've laid up gold where the canker rust,
And have given free vent to your beastly lust.
"You've justice scorned, and corruption sown,
And trampled the laws of nature down.
You have drunk, rioted, cheated, plundered, and lied,
And mocked at God in your hell-born pride.
"You have paid full fair, so I'll carry you through,
For it's only right you should have your due.
Why, the laborer always expects his hire,
So I'll land you safe in the lake of fire,
"Where your flesh will waste in the flames that roar,
And my imps torment you forevermore."
Then the cowboy awoke with an anguished cry,
His clothes wet with sweat and his hair standing high
Then he prayed as he never had prayed till that hour
To be saved from his sin and the demon's power;
And his prayers and his vows were not in vain,
For he never road the hell-bound train.
--Unknown
what do you think of that mel?
you couldn't hear a pin drop after the preacher had quoted this.
mel, please continue to be so faithful to god...and be aware that the devil does not like it at all what you are doing and so i am sure that i and your many friends will be praying for you and that your blog will be a blessing....l love you brother....love terry
Hi sis Pia,
Our familiarity with the word of God and our constant prayers have given us the Spirit of discernment so that we recognize the enemy in all his guises and personalities. But beware since the nearer we are to the throne of grace, the more subtle and ingenious are the ways of the evil one. We should keep watch of where we are standing, for the vane of the people of God is how to keep their feet on solid ground. Self righteousness is as much a sin as pride. As the Bible said, "judge not that you my not be judged." Thanks for your visit and inspired comments. God bless you always.
Hi Hobo,
I always respect your point of view my friend. Thanks for your visit and comments. God bless you always.
Hi Terry,
I love you too with the love of the Lord my sister in Christ. That poem is so powerful indeed that best describes the situation in our world today. People are perishing for lack of knowledge. They ride the train of passions, greed, materialism, corruption, power, fame, lust and self glory down the road to hell. And people are not even aware of where they are going to. I likened it to the children that followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin to the path of destruction. That is why I wrote this post. I was probably fated by God to enroll in an International Bible College to familiarize myself with the dogmas and tenets of our faith. I was wondering why God took me away from my ministry of conducting salvation seminars in our local church and conducting Bible studies in cell groups at members' houses and He put me in this darkened world of the internet. It was to become a small candlelight in the pervading darkness of the internet. But oh, I am paying the price for this as the enemy never stops from tormenting me with all kinds of diseases and problems. But I was covered and protected by the words of God and His divine promises. I am also inspired by selfless souls like Shiela of Bluebirdy- Life-4 Hours At A Time and Amrita of Yesu Garden who have written about their lives that glorify the Lord. They are always in my prayers so that they will be protected and covered by God against the wiles of the enemy. And like me, they too suffer the brunt of the enemy's assault on their beings. But we have the assurance that, "when I am weak, then I am strong" for our strength comes from the Lord. I'm sorry too if I cannot visit you regularly. I have to divide my meager time in our computer attending to my seven active blogs and visiting my regular readers. But be assured my friend that you are always in my prayers, you and your loved ones. Thank you so much for your visit and very inspiring comments. God bless you all always. BTW, Merry Christmas to you all.
Hello Kuya Mel! A quick visit here tonight... Finally my laptop is fixed, the virus really destroyed my laptop and it crashed on me, kaya nwala ako for a coupple of days.. Thank God, hubby was able to revive it by reformatting the entire thing.. Sakit lang sa ulo pero it's up and running again...
Regarding your post, as usual, it's another very good post. It's a way of reminding us that all that is good will prevail and win no matter what... God helps those that are on His side and He never lets us down... salamat po for always reminding me that God is there and that eversince the beginning, He never let anybody that is fighting for Him down... He is truly the greatest and the almighty...
Thanks for posting kuya Mel and God bless you always...
Be right back tomorrow.. Have to update all kinds of program here in my lappy...
Women
Abbeymae
Mom
I already forgive all my enemy but haven't forget what they done. Ang bad ko ani Sir, Mel... sometimes it is really easy to forgive but hard to forget. And its also hard to figure out who are our enemy. Great post Sir, mel thanks for sharing it with us.
We should always be on guard that we don't fall prey to workings of Satan.
As always, thank you for the inspiring post, Mel.
Hi Kathy,
We always encounter those problems in our computer because of viral infestation. My youngest son is so fond of downloading online games and in the process also downloads a lot of viruses, lol. Good thing my second eldest son is a computer techie and he always reformats our pc to clean it of viruses. Yes, God is faithful with us from beginning to end. We must just be reminded always that we are not alone in our struggles against the enemy but there is always God who shield and protect us against the onslaught of the enemy. I have experienced that time and time again. When I'm weakest, I drew strength from the Lord and He always overcome my adversities. Thanks for your visit and inspiring comments. God bless you all always.
Hi Shy,
If you have truly forgiven your enemies, you will forget about the pain they caused you in due time. When the memory of the pain lingers on, you have not truly forgiven and forgotten the pain caused you by your enemies and the spirit of bitterness will settle in your heart. It acts like a powerful acid, seeping through the very core of your heart and soul and you will never moved on. Marami din naman tayong nagawang kasalanan sa iba hindi ba? As the Lord says, if you will not forgive the sin of your enemy, neither will your sins be forgiven by the Lord. The best thing is to offer the pain, the shame, the evil effects of the sin to God. Release the pain your enemy caused you to the grace of God and in due time you will forget all about it and can move on. Ang mabuti ay mag focus na lang tayo sa mga blessings ni Lord and when we count our blessings, we will realize that we are not miserable after all. That many people are way down below us in terms of problems and trials. Then we will realize that the Lord never really left us nor forsaken us but we just forgot about Him. I am still praying for you my friend. In due time, you will realize that you are truly blessed by the Lord and your attitude in life will change. Thanks for your visit and sincere comments. God bless you all always.
Hi MsRay,
I agree with you my friend. Vigilance is the key word so that we will not be caught off guard by the wiles of the enemy. Thanks for your visit and comments. God bless you always.
Hi kuya Mel! I am here again.. hehehe.. Salamat po sa mga comments nyo sa posts ko, nkakatuwa po kayo...
Minsan po, we think that we are the best and invinsible when we achieve something in this world. Sometimes the enemy gets into our heads and tries to manipulate us, so we will think that we are better than God and that we did what we did by ourselves and not by God's graces... Success could be a two-edged sword sometimes and if we don't have much faith, we would easily fall into the traps set by the enemy..
My husband once said while we're discussing about people that don't believe in God, that they act in that manner because they don't wanna feel like they are responsible for their actions.. That they can do what they want and not fear about the consequences in the afterlife... And all those people's actions are examples of what the enemy does...
We are all susceptible to this and all sometimes we have to stop and pray and listen to the proddings of the holy spirit and not on the wordly things that the enemy controls....
God bless you always po and I hope you would have a wonderful Christmas celebration with your family...
Hi Fifi,
Words of wisdom indeed from one who is spiritual. Relying too much on ourselves and other people sometimes become a bane for us since we forget that all good things come from God and we are only receptacles of those blessings. Tama yung mister mo. Sometimes people deny God's existence because they don't want to be accountable for their actions. In other words, they want to become the captain of their ships and the master of their souls. We pity those people especially when they face the Lord to account for everything they did on earth. Thanks for the visit and comments. God bless you all always.
You never failed to amaze me sir. Im learning so much from your posts and just by reading your answers to the commenters. I guess you're indeed sent by God to the cyberworld and im glad i found you. I really forgot about this story but thank you for reminding me this again. It was once my favorite story, i remember when I was a kid, I kept on asking my religion teacher if Satan was really an angel before...
I admit, there are times that I am being manipulated by this so-called enemy, especially when I was younger. Looking back, I feel sorry for all the mistakes and bad things Ive done. But I guess this is life, nasa huli lagi ang pagsisi. What matter is you realized the sins you committed and feel sorry about it. As you said before, God is always forgiving. He knows if you're really sorry or not.
OT:
Anyway, ang galing nyo po talaga. Napapagana nyo talaga ang utak ko . Para po kayong Professor kasi ang galing nyo rin po mag-explain at ang gaganda ng mga words na gamit mo, ang galing nyo mag-english.
Happy weekends =)
Hi Bambie dear,
Thank you so much for your very inspiring words but as always, TO GOD BE THE GLORY. Before I was sent to this ministry of the cyber world, my ministry then was to inspire people through Gospel messages via sms or texting. Messages came automatic until it stopped. I found myself thrust in the cyber world. At first, it was really a frightening and thankless experience with all the darkness and filth in the internet. Pornography and anti God sentiments pervaded the net and I found myself flailing like a blind man. The foreword in this blog elucidates my main purpose in blogging- to light a single candle in the midst of the pervading darkness around. My only reward is to accomplish my purpose in life which is, to live in order to please God and give glory to His name. I have suffered a lot because of that and I just suffer in silence the backlash of the enemy. I am not even sure how long my feeble body will survive. Only God knows. But in my weakened state, I find solace in the promise of the Lord that, when I am weak then I am strong for the Lord becomes my strength. I have surrendered everything to Him and I live each day by the grace of God. And my consolation in life is His promise that, "never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." I pray for each post that I make that the Holy Spirit will imbibe it with power and wisdom and I also pray for all who enter my blogs and read my posts, that they may be ushered in to the glorious realities of the Gospel message of salvation and hope. Thank you so much for your visit and very inspiring comments. Sorry for this rather long reply. It is intended for all my readers also. Merry Christmas to you, your husband and most especially to your baby superstar- Anzu and also to all your loved ones. God bless you all always.
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