My testimony (Excerpt): The Fights Against the Devil and Evil Spirits
We should know that the devil and the evil spirits are everywhere in this world and are the rulers of the kingdom of the air currently and temporarily:
“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. ” (1Jo 5:19)
When we Christians were reborn, we have the holy spirit dwelling in us and have been brought into the kingdom of the Son He loves (Col 1:13). Our wars against the devil and evil spirits are inevitable.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ” (Eph 6:12)
Even LORD Jesus Christ went through the temptations from the devil (Mat 4; Mar 1; Luk 4). As to our Christians who follow LORD Jesus Christ, we certainly will meet with the temptations and attacks from the devil and evil spirits. Each teaching of LORD to every church in the REVELATIONS mentions that the believer must be the one who overcomes. To him who overcomes (Rev 2:7,11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21), he will be given the right to eat from the tree of life; will not be hurt at all by the second death; will be given some of the hidden manna and a white stone with a new name written on it; will be given authority over the nations; will never be blotted out his name from the book of life; will be made a pillar in the temple of God; will be given the right to sit with LORD on throne.
Our belief that we will overcome depends on that LORD Jesus Christ has overcome. And we should also know that God is the Sovereign and Lord of all things and has the absolute authorities.
1. The forefather of the mankind sinned and gave the authority of this world to the devil:
The whole world is under the control of the evil one (1Jo 5:19). This is because the forefather of the mankind listened to the temptation of the devil and disobeyed the strict command of God. The minds of the human beings are the contention battlefields of the devil and God. Those who are obedient to God have goodness, righteousness, truth and love; and only those who are obedient to the Holy Spirit can live the life of Christ, bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, become the residents of the new Jerusalem, be one in Christ and be with God forever. Those who listen to and follow the devil, will indulge in selfish desires --arrogance, greed, deceit, hypocrisy, do all kinds of sins and evils, and disobey God and so on; and will become one member of Babylon and go to destruction together with the devil.
The ordinary people live under these two kinds of spiritual influence without being aware of it. Since the non-Christians do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in, they have no strength to resist the devil and can not be completely obedient to the conscience -- the law and reminders that come from God. While the Christians should know that every Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling in, but also has the evil spirits standing by. Whether they can overcome or not depends on whom their freewill submit to. Whoever becomes a spiritual man will face this battlefield directly.
(1) The grace and guidance from the Holy Spirit:
When I gave the invitation to LORD in 2004 that “I am going to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.” (Mic 6:8), I only desire for God Himself, and desire for the truth and righteousness. I had no intention to get the gift so that to show off to others, nor had other selfish desires, though afterward I met with immediately the disturbance and unfairness in the work so that I prayed to God, and through which the work of the Holy Spirit started to be revealed. All thanks and praises to LORD! God who brought me forth from my mother's womb and whom I rely on, guard me even before I knew Him and let me have a heart that desires for the truth and righteousness all the time.
The words of God are so righteous and upright; the commandments of God are so pure; and the fellowship with the Holy Spirit is so good. Even the rebuke once in while from the Holy Spirit makes me genuinely convinced to say: “Amen!” The appearance of the dwelling-in of the Holy Spirit brought joy at the very beginning, which I had never experienced before, so that I was amazed at that time that how come I was so joyful in the situation that I should be worried and distressed and also when I was sick with a severe cold.
At the first time, when I was writing the email to share the testimony with the Bible study group of the fellowship in the previous church, I wrote it in the same way as I used to write a letter. However, the Holy Spirit corrected me that I should give thanks and praises to LORD. Therefore, I followed Him and added the words of giving thanks and praises to God here and there in the whole letter. I used to be careless to give thanks to God over the meals and even forget to do so sometimes. Also, under the reminders of the Holy Spirit, I formed the habit to give thanks to God over every meal. After I joined in the church nearby, I started to handle the offerings myself. The Holy Spirit asked me to offer the tithe. However, since I did not want to draw the attention at the very beginning, I said that how about taking into account the money that I spend on the books and CD of Gospel that I gave to others all together as the tithe. But the Holy Spirit urges me repeatedly all the time, so after a while, I started to offer a tithe to the church.
The Holy Spirit teaches me on all kinds of things, such as giving respect to the parents, giving donations to the charity and those who need it, making no judgment on others, being willing to help and serve others, patience and perseverance, and being humble and so on. The Holy Spirit is pleased that I give testimonies to LORD; and He never let me give up any chance to preach Gospel to others. When I am very grateful to the Holy Spirit for the helps, He always let me give all the thanks, praises and glories to God.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit from LORD Jesus Christ. I remembered that He mentioned that He is the One who is our king, gentle and riding on a donkey’s colt. However, since I did not know much about the Holy Spirit, I did not understand quite well. Even later on, after I had the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, I still felt it difficult to bear such a span of space and time in my head. I actually get to know Him through His grace and guidance that I experience in all kinds of things everyday. As time passes by, I know more and more about His righteousness, justice, love, wisdom, pure, goodness, power, mercy, patience, truthfulness and perfection and so on. And also, I know that what I can know and comprehend are only a little bit of the outer fringe of His glories. I used to draw a conclusion long time ago that it is impossible for a person to be perfect. However, He let me know that perfection is possible and does exist. In the beginning, I used to feel somewhat strange that He is God; I was so ignorant that I even murmured that since He is God, He might not understand a human being’s feeling and thought. However, the Holy Spirit pointed it out right away that Jesus Christ used to live on the earth directly. He is the King. In the communion, in order to understand His commands more clearly, I used to want to help to set some ways of the communion; but LORD is gentle and firm that I should follow everything as He sets. He is the teacher, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He gives me wisdom and helps me to understand the truth. He is the friend, who comforts me and helps me. He is worthy of all the love.
(2) This world is still temporally under the control of the evil one:
I worship God and pray to Him three times daily. Even the words of worship and prayers are guided by the Holy Spirit to be in accordance with the truth of the Bible. During the prayer, I used to speak aloud about the details of the helps from the Holy Spirit, for I felt that only in this way I can express my gratitude. But the Holy Spirit did not let me speak it out in such details. “Why?” I wondered. The hint that I got is: otherwise, a large group of enemies will come. I almost forgot that the devil is still the ruler of the kingdom of air of this world. When I followed the Holy Spirit to write down the 15 messages on the Complete Salvation and during the time of writing the 6th message about the devil, I used to ask LORD to keep the devil and evil spirits far away from me so that I won’t be disturbed. The answer that I got is: “no one is discharged in time of war” (Ecc 8:8) Later on, indeed, I started to become aware of the existence and deeds of the evil spirits. The evil spirits are the wicked and incapable guys; however, it seems that they can bring up with some rules that the Holy Spirit should not help a human being too much. It is all because the human being did not choose to obey God in the very beginning, but followed the lies of the devil instead. It is man himself who handed over the authority to the devil. Usually, the Holy Spirit only gives commands instantly; except the predictions, He seldom tells about the plan in advance. Maybe one of the reasons is: if He tells the plans and details in advance, the devil and evil spirits will use their permitted authority to make disturbance and hinder it. On one hand, we can not live in this world ignoring the devil and evil spirits, and pretending that there is complete peace already; on the other hand, we should know that God has the absolute authorities, and LORD Jesus has overcome.
The evil spirits are everywhere, and no one can be isolated completely from them. Although all the Christians have the Holy Spirit dwelling in, they also all have the evil spirits standing beside them, luring them and giving temptations at all opportune time, including all the saints and the workers of God. Those who overcome are those who obey the Holy Spirit, take hold of the faith and truth, endure and overcome all kinds of temptations and enticements. When LORD Jesus was on the earth, he also suffered from being tempted, and he had overcome completely. He also endured the persecution of the sinners who were agitated by the devil on the road of cross, and had overcome the devil and accomplished the great salvation. Therefore, a spiritual man can sense the Holy Spirit, but will also face the fight with the evil spirits at the same time. In the spirit, I can feel the Holy Spirit, and even the angel, but I can also know the evil spirits sometimes. It seems that while the angels are looking after the human beings, at the same time, they also do the evaluations on whether what the human being is doing is good or bad, and they will ask for advice from LORD sometimes. For example, when I was writing one testimony, and mentioned how I used to be ignorant about the Bible and how I used to be a nominal Christian etc., the angel also seemed to have the question that how come such is a saint that has her looking after. LORD answered: What He cares about is what kind of person that one will become. All these things occurred in the spirit though, but were not heard by the ears of flesh. However, it seems that the evil spirits are lacking in control, and was even directly heard by me for once. It occurred only once during my worship; when I was giving thanks and praises to God, I directly heard a sharp curse from the evil spirit with my ears of flesh. Later on, from the radio, I gradually became aware of the messages of the devil and evil spirits. In the past, while I was driving to and from work, I used to listen to the radio broadcast all the way, from the radio stations of the pop music, classic music or news. And I only felt that what I heard are the messages made by the people in the stations for their work. However, later on, I can hear the messages of the devil hidden behind and mixed in those messages. The devil is indeed the ruler of the kingdom of the air. In order to avoid the disturbance of the devil, I did not listen to the radio anymore while I was driving, instead, I sing the songs of praising LORD on the way. On the website, most of the messages are from the evil spirits; but there are a few from the Holy Spirit occasionally. In this world, the public opinions and concepts, and the minds of quite amount of the people, all follow the devil and are corrupted by the devil.
The devil and the evil spirits especially are afraid that people know about their existence. Whenever I follow the Holy Spirit and write the messages to disclose things about the devil, I will be attacked each time, including this one. This kind of attack can be felt directly, such as headache. When I follow the Holy Spirit to write some critical messages that can truly save people, such as sins and repentance etc., I will also be attacked directly by the evil spirits. I still remembered clearly that I got the direct attacks right after I wrote the messages on “Faith Without Deeds is Dead, One Must Have Good Deeds after Being Justified Through Faith”, and the poems of “Where is Your Cross?” and “Denying Oneself, Living Christ’s Life ” and so on.
The Holy Spirit encourages me and is pleased when I do good and give testimonies to others. However, the evil spirit ridiculed and attacked me when I did good. While each time after I receive some grace and help from the Holy Spirit, the evil spirit will come to get it even. Every testimony is like an evidence that the devil and evil spirits have the rights to get it even. Having a glance at the workers of God and the saints in the past, they all both received the grace and experienced the sufferings and difficulties. Nevertheless, in the sufferings, there are more grace from LORD, and LORD will keep those who belong to Him from falling.
The longer walking with LORD, the more sensitive I become about the words of the Holy Spirit of LORD; and the more capable I am to distinguish the words of the devil and evil spirits. Both the Holy Spirit and the evil spirits can speak through the people around. While the Christians, especially the pastors might say some words from the Holy Spirit without being conscientious of it. However, the Christians are also often influenced by the evil spirits and follow the evil spirits; especially those Christians who indulge in the selfish desires, they follow the devil the same close as the non-Christians. Therefore, in practice, it is proved that every Christian who confesses the name of LORD Jesus and was baptized into His name, has the Holy Spirit dwelling in. The grace of LORD is given freely; and the promise of LORD is faithful. Even someone whom LORD let me give the warnings to -- some Christians who provoke the anger of LORD and will go to destruction if they never repent, they also have the Holy Spirit dwelling in; even though they often listen to the devil, deceive, do unrighteousness and evils, are willingly driven by the devil, are against the way of LORD, and hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. If a Christian does not learn and follow the truth and teachings of LORD, does not submit to the Holy Spirit of Christ that he has received to transform his life, still always lives a life in accordance with the old and sinful way of the old life and the world, and chooses to follow the devil and evil spirits to do the unrighteous and unjust things without repentance, how could he expect that after listening to and following the devil all the way, yet he still finally can enter the heaven?
2. The devil and evil spirits are crafty and cunning. Only those who do not indulge in the selfish desires will rarely be deceived.
The devil and evil spirits will not only attack from the outside, but also can put thoughts into people’s mind, such as all kinds of thoughts to doubt God. One should not take all the thoughts in mind as their own thoughts. What are in one’s mind might be generated by oneself, or might come from God and Holy Spirit; but at the same time, also there are often some from the devil and evil spirits. The Christian should use the Bible to guard one’s own thoughts; one should stop immediately whatever thoughts that are not in accordance with the truth of the Bible. And one should not take it as his own thoughts to accept it and continue it. Although the judgment is only on one’s deeds and words, to purify the thoughts is the foundation to purify the words and deeds.
The devil and evil spirits tempt people to doubt God and turn away from God. They use all kinds of selfish desires and self-pride to lure people away from the holiness, righteousness and truth of God, to follow them to do all kinds of unrighteous and unjust things, and to regard sins and evils as the power and the way to gain such that to deceive and do harms to others, also make people to be selfish and self-proud and so on. Those who are filled with selfish interests and desires, will give a large foothold for the devil; just as the selfish desire of the Eve and Adam drag all the human beings into the hell.
To distinguish between the Holy Spirit and the evil spirits as spiritual men:
The spiritual man could directly sense the Holy Spirit and the evil spirits. It is mentioned above that after the grace and helps from the Holy Spirit, the evil spirits will often come to get it even. Therefore, whatever the Holy Spirit does, the evil spirits also often could imitate and make confusions. In most of the cases, it is not difficult to tell the difference, which is the same as how to distinguish a good person from a bad person. Once a person approaches and opens his mouth, we can tell whether he is a nice and good person or a bad and wicked guy. The Holy Spirit is the perfect gentleman; while the evil spirits are the wicked, mean and base guys. The Holy Spirit brings joy, peace and a clear mind; the attacks of the evil spirits bring headache, and make one low in spirit and upset. As to the signals felt physically, the evil spirits’ signals are muddy; the Holy Spirit’s signals are well controlled. There are something that the evil spirits will surly do, so that there won’t be confusion at all, which are: they always try to make people doubt and disbelieve God; they always let people be selfish and self-proud; they always hinder the messages about sins and repentance. The evil spirits often lure people by the personal gain; they lie, revile, threat, falsely accuse, or flatter people to make them to become proud and so on. The Holy Spirit leads people to give thanks and praises to God, and to love God and love other people. He is completely the truth, and He is pure , and is filled with righteousness, holiness and love. He leads people to know the truth, and He also gives grace, helps, discipline, comforts, mercy, encouragements and honest rebukes and so on. The Holy Spirit always encourages people to do what is good and to preach Gospel; while the evil spirits always hinder people to do what is good and to preach Gospel.
Besides these, the Holy Spirit gives me a lot of trainings and guides me to learn to distinguish. In the beginning, I thought that the way of letting the Holy Spirit guide my finger to the verses in the Bible should be the safest method to get the message. In the beginning, indeed the Holy Spirit guarded me to get the messages from Him only. However, later on, the Holy Spirit started to train me on recognizing the disturbance from the evil spirits in this aspect. The first training occurred after I started to send the messages to my classmates in the university. Only by following the Holy Spirit was I able to insist on finishing sending out all the messages. As to those who are against the messages publicly, especially those whom I was familiar with before, I tried to send them letters individually and asked whether they were interested in the book about the after-death life or not. Among them, there was one of my roommate before. I thought that I should pay attention to the way of conversation to avoid to be blunt. I know that she becomes an expert in photography, so I consulted her a question about the technique on photography first, then mentioned about the book at the end casually. At this time, I got a message, which is something about not to be so wordy. I thought about it and felt somewhat strange. Then the Holy Spirit told me that it was the disturbance from the evil spirit. “The evil spirits are also familiar with the Bible!” This is a shocking news to me. I thought for a while: It is not difficult to distinguish, for the message from the evil spirit is the verse that I never saw before. But the messages of communion from the Holy Spirit to me before are fixed: which verse is for what kind of situation, we all have secret agreement; just as the talking between two old friends, we are familiar with the language that is used. However, it seems that there is no much secret in the spiritual world. After a while, the evil spirit can also use the familiar verses before to disturb me. I considered it again: the meaning was irrelevant; therefore, I still can tell. However, after that, when using the familiar verses with relevant meaning, I got lost and can only wait till the Holy Spirit to tell me and make it clear.
LORD want us to have the wisdom to distinguish between the good and the evil, and to distinguish between what are from God and what are not. God give us the freewill and create us such that we can know God; and He want us to be able to reject the wrong and choose the right, so that we will not believe whatever we heard and make the same mistake as the forefather of the mankind, or follow blindly to fall as those one third of the angels (Rev 12:4). All the words of LORD are the truth. However, sometimes, since I could not understand it well right away, I did not do it completely. Afterwards, I will regret when I have a better understanding after getting the results. However, when I made up mind that I will be absolutely obedient no matter what, instead, I might meet with the disturbing message from the evil spirit. LORD want us to have the wisdom to distinguish, and want us to follow and do it willingly, but not just as a machine to obey the commands. The fights against the evil spirits are as the wind and storm that can also make one grow up.
Some experiences to share are listed in the following on how to distinguish the Holy Spirit from the evil spirits, which are obtained from the large amount of trainings by following and learning from the Holy Spirit and fighting against the evil spirits:
(1) Rely on the Holy Spirit. Usually, the Holy Spirit will make it clear before or after the acts of the evil spirits. Actually, all the tests and trials have their purpose; they are used to help the believers to grow up spiritually, to remove the dross and to come forth as gold.
In the beginning, when the Holy Spirit informed me in advance that there will be the disturbance from the evil spirits, I would simply ignore all the messages. At another time, when I knew that it was the disturbance from the evil spirit, I thought that I am smart that I opened the REVELATIONS. Each time the evil spirit attacked, I would read the Satan’s doom for once. However, by doing this, the purpose of training can not be achieved. LORD does not want us to escape from the attacks of the evil spirits, but we should stand firm during the attack by relying on LORD, gain wisdom and remove the dross so that to grow up.
(2) Confess that Jesus is the LORD and give praises and thanks to God. Sometimes, when it is difficult to tell, one can invite him to praise that Jesus is the LORD and give thanks and praises to God. If it is the evil spirit, it will revile and betray the ferocious nature.
(3) Because LORD have all the authorities. At the critical moment, it must be the work from the Holy Spirit. The timing that the evil spirit comes to get it even is always at the non-critical and unimportant moment. Therefore, even one is influenced and confused accidentally, there won’t be serious consequence.
Usually, immediately after every big victory and grace, there will be the disturbance from the evil spirits to get it even. This is actually good to the workers of LORD themselves. It is because after every big victory and grace, one will become complacent more or less, and even be intoxicated with the success and become proud; thus, one will fall into a very dangerous situation -- the spiritual pride. At such a moment, the attacks from the evil spirit can make one to be alert and won’t become proud, so that to keep our feet on the ground and keep us be humble.
When there are more sufferings and persecutions in the circumstance, the grace of the Holy Spirit also are abundant. In the difficult situations, because of the companion, comforts, supports and encouragements from the Holy Spirit, I am always filled with strength and joy. However, when others praise and admire me, I am often in the bitter fights against the evil spirits. LORD are building us up with His wisdom of the creation, and keep His people in the truth.
(4) To distinguish with truth and conscience. Although the Holy Spirit also rebukes people, that is in the truth. While the evil spirits bring the false charges and accusations; the rumors and slanders in daily life are all agitated by the devil and evil spirits hidden behind. We should not make a judgment from our feelings, for sometimes the evil spirits will flatter one and make one to be self-satisfied and proud. While the Holy Spirit only gives the commendations, encouragements and rewards, and will always ascribe the glories to God. Whatever to lift up a person himself high must not come from the Holy Spirit.
The evil spirits make one to be selfish, and make one to plot for one’s own glory, gain and benefit. There are several times that it is apparent that if I chose those words and deeds that seemingly will benefit myself, I will fall into the trap of the devil and evil spirits. Therefore, I am especially careful about any proposal which seems that will benefit myself. When we make a choice or decision, we should not consider for ourselves, but should only take LORD Christ as the motive, principle and goal. Thus, even though one might be confused momentarily, LORD will sympathize with us and will set the environment so that to help to make it up. And the orders of the Holy Spirit often seem that they will let ourselves suffer a loss or disadvantage. However, the big grace and blessing is often received after an obedience to such an order. Of course, those who are short sighted and only want to grab the visible and near benefits, can not follow LORD. It is because the real rewards and blessings are in the future. In the trials and sufferings, LORD often encourages me with the hope of a new heaven and a new earth.
Of course, the temptations and tests by the devil and evil spirits are not only to the spiritual men. It is only that the spiritual men can know that they are from the spiritual world. Everyone is in the temptations and tests of the devil and evil spirits. The devil and evil spirits never stop working. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ” (1Pe 5:8) Those who are selfish and indulge in the self desires, and consider themselves smart, often listen to the ideas of the devil and the evil spirits. After they listen and follow, they will consider themselves smart; yet they do harms to others to benefit themselves, and are against the truth and righteousness of God and the conscience of men, such that they become the captives of the devil. People who are influenced less by the devil, are those who respect the truth, and are honest, humble and obedient to the Holy Spirit; are those who rely on and are kept by the Holy Spirit of LORD.
Those who are pure in heart are blessed in LORD. If one is willing to be simple-minded and even to suffer a loss for the way and truth of LORD, one will be able to be kept away from the temptations of the devil and evil spirits, and really become the people of God and are blessed by God.
Someone used to ask me about the secret to get close to LORD. Firstly, the secret is the faith in LORD; then is an honest and humble heart that is willing to accept the instructions; besides these, is the love of truth, righteousness and goodness; thus, by relying on the Holy Spirit, one can bear the fruit of the Spirit, that is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
(5) After fighting against the devil and evil spirits for a long time, I also get to know some messages especially used by the devil and evil spirits to confuse the truth. Two of them are listed in the following as a specific reminder:
Freedom for Slaves:
Only in the truth of God, there is freedom. Apart from LORD, we have no good thing. The rebellion of the devil and evil spirits only cut off themselves from the source of love, goodness and truth; while the forefather listened to the temptation and only get the freedom to leave the source of life. The older will serve the younger. Everyone is supposed to serve each other. While God is the One who truly bear all the burdens daily. God use part of Himself to create everything and He sustain everything. The creation enjoy the grace without knowing to give thanks; that is extremely benighted and utterly unreasonable.
It has been in the time of New Testament:
This message of disturbance was started when I was writing the article of “To Be One in Christ: the Parable of Building the Temple of God”. Because of this, I wrote down two messages at that time and removed the warning about purifying and clearing the temple. However, the message of building, clearing and purifying the temple is the message that I am most familiar with. From the end of Dec. 2005 to the middle of Jun. 2006, the Holy Spirit gave me the messages on this more than once almost everyday. And the verses about building and purifying the temple were directly given to me from the Holy Spirit when I was writing one message before. Therefore, at the end, I chose the message that includes the verses of purifying the temple.
The Bible is an entirety. There is no any part that is redundant, out of date, or negligible. It is because God are eternal and remain the same. However, due to men’s limited ability of understanding and comprehension, people often emphasize one part and ignore other parts, and even consider them contradictory and can not comprehend thoroughly. God have righteousness and love. While in this last hour that LORD is coming back, the judgment is coming and the end of the world is close, people should learn the righteousness of LORD. The first coming of LORD is to save; the Second Coming of LORD is to judge. Taking a look at the REVELATIONS, one should see the judgment and wrath of LORD. People should confess their sins, repent, and purify themselves so that to get ready for the Second Coming of LORD. One must not stay in sins, and must not only ask for forgiveness, and only ask God to accept oneself according to one’s nature yet without considering repentance at all.
3. The examples of fighting against the devil and evil spirits, and some characters of the devil and evil spirits:
After writing the poem of “Denying Oneself, Living Christ’s Life” and being approved by the Holy Spirit, I published it. In the poem, it is mentioned that “The devil is most benighted”. It is because “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Pro 9:10). However, the devil does not know that wisdom, power, glories and everything are from God, and God is wisdom. The devil does not understand that he is a creation, and he considers that the glory and power belong to himself. He does not know to fear God and obviously he does not have the beginning of wisdom. He is busy with ruining people all the time, continuously works hard for increasing his punishment in the eternity. Of course, he is the most benighted one. However, afterward, the evil spirit came to attack and charge me that this sentence is a lie. This made me not to know whether to laugh or cry -- the devil itself is the father of lies. The devil covets the self-glory. This message apparently infuriated the devil. Then, a series of intensive fights started:
First round: The evil spirit wanted to make me disbelieve God:
This move is really clumsy and inferior. I have experienced so many miracles, how could I be influenced by it? The evil spirit saw that this move was ineffective, and it stopped after only one try on this.
Second round: I was threatened with death:
The devil might have this power indeed. However, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. ” (Mat 10:28) I answered: “ I am eager to see LORD early.”
Third round: It said that I was a false prophet:
I answered: “ If I am indeed a false prophet, why do you need to tell me so many times in one day?”
However, the devil had people to work for him to cooperate his message.
Forth round: It asked me why contend with one who is stronger than myself:
I answered: “ You should keep these words for yourself, why you have no proper measure of yourself such that you want to contend with God?”
Fifth round: It will try to confuse me so that I won’t be able to commune with the Holy Sprit through the method of getting the verses with finger:
As to this, I can only learn to be careful and use the methods that I have been trained by the Holy Spirit before to learn to distinguish.
Some characters of the devil and evil spirits:
(1) Arrogance and ignorance:
Arrogance comes from ignorance. The devil and evil spirits do not understand that they themselves are only the creation. They think that the glory and strength are their own. They do not know that all things belong to God -- the Creator. They do not understand that it is all because of the grace of God that God use part of Himself to create all things, including themselves. They do not know to ascribe to God all the glories and thanks that originally belong to God. They do not know to fear God and the absolute authorities of God. Everything belongs to God originally; and God create everything and determine the order and sequence. However, the devil and evil spirits consider that they suffer a loss because of the creation of the mankind. But actually, being with God is the biggest reward; how could a creation consider what he deserves to get and what he is worthy of in front of the Creator?
(2) lies, falsehood and deceit:
God is the truth and faithfulness. While the devil and evil spirits are false and lying. The devil and evil spirits want to get something that they do not deserve, such as praises and authorities etc.; they need to confuse the good and the evil, do destructions, damages and harms etc.; therefore, they lie and deceive. The LORD detests lying lips (Pro 12:22); as to giving false testimony, it is directly against the law (Exo 20:16). One who is close to God and desire for the eternal life, must put off falsehood. The devil and evil spirits are the accuser, but their accusations are wrong accusations mixed with falsehood.
In DANIEL (Dan 8:23), it is mentioned specifically that in the last days, a wicked king -- a master of intrigue, will arise. And now, it is very common already that people today are getting used to speaking intrigue to cover their boldly criminal and filthy thoughts. Hope that those who belong to LORD pay attention to purify themselves on this.
(3) selfishness, sins and evils:
The hatred of the devil and evil spirits to the mankind comes from selfishness. While what the devil and the evil spirits like to do most is to prove the mankind are selfish and bad. Therefore, they lure people to be selfish, and do unrighteousness to satisfy one’s selfish desires and so on; they use all kinds of enjoyments and entertainments to lead people away from God. One should not make light of a single good deeds or an action to obey God; neither should one make light of a single bad deeds and an action to disobey God. We should not let the devil and evil spirits to boast about their victory. If one is obedient to one’s own selfish desires, he will listen to and follow the devil. Therefore, in the end, the enemy that one is fighting against is one’s own selfish desires.
The devil always changes the best to the worst; while God can change the worst to the best.
4. By relying on LORD and His faithfulness, and putting on the full armor of God, one can stand firmly in the fights and overcome:
“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. ” (2Th 3:3)
During the attacks of the devil, whenever I feel that I am incapable and about to fall, the Holy Spirit will come to rescue.
“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. ” (Heb 2:18)
“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. ” (Heb 7:25)
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. ” (Joh 10:27-28)
However, what need to be especially emphasized here is that:
These verses are the encouragements given to those who truly believe in LORD, follow and obey LORD, and fight for LORD regardless of sufferings, so that in all kinds of sufferings and trials, they can rely on the faithfulness of LORD completely. But these verses are not supposed to be used to illustrate the self-made doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved” by the false teachers to deceive and mislead others.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. ” (Eph 6:10-18)
As long as we always rely on LORD and put on the full armor of God, we can pass the tests and come forth as gold and the good soldiers of LORD Jesus Christ, and be those who overcome.
May the devil and evil spirits go to the Abyss to take the eternal punishment that they deserve early, together with all their rebellious, benighted, proud and ignorant, selfish and wicked, false and deceitful, and destructive and detestable sins and evils!
May LORD Jesus Christ come and reign on the whole earth early!
