The Battle of Doubt

Doubt - causes a person to waiver between two opinions.

Unbelief - Leads to disobedience.

So many times in the last several weeks of my life I have been reminded of the cartoon I used to watch as a child that would have a demon on one shoulder and an Angel on the other. Both of those would whisper things to the person and the person would decipher the information and then ultimately make a decision. Good, bad, or ugly??

I believe that when Jesus told peter “to get behind me, Satan“, that this (a demon, whispering in peters ear) was happening to Peter and Jesus recognized that the words coming from Peter’s mouth was not some thing that Peter himself was thinking, but that it was coming from the enemy, whispering in Peters ear to taint his mind against the very thing that Christ came to do. Our battles are, a large portion of the time, lost or won in our own minds.

It is always necessary to consider the source of our thoughts. Is it the enemy that has whispered into our ear and we have heard it so long it begins to sound like our own voice or our own thoughts?

Doubt is not some thing that ever comes from the Lord.

How many times have you been in a battle and thought did I really hear God? Is that really what the Lord said?

Typically, when that happens, you can rest, assured that you did actually hear the Lord. And that is the exact word that the enemy has come to steal. If you think back to the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve are being attacked by the enemy, it does not look like an attack from the enemy. It is a literal conversation where the enemy is using the word of God to trick Adam and Eve into believing that the very thing that God said, is the very thing they are confused about. There was no confusion about this in the previous days because it was not an area that the enemy had yet attacked.

Fast forward to the new testament, when Jesus is getting baptized by John the Baptist. There is a great voice out of Heaven that says “ this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.“ then there is a dove that comes, which, we know signifies the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is driven by the spirit into the wilderness, and after he fasts for 40 days, Satan comes to him and the first thing that he tries to attack him with is the last thing the Lord said to him. Remember “ this is my beloved son.“ that is the last thing Jesus had heard, and it is the first thing that the enemy attacked him with. Satan said if you are really the son of God….it wasn’t just Jesus who heard that word from the Lord that day. John, the Baptist heard it. The disciples heard it. The onlookers heard it. And yet, it was the thing that the enemy tried to cause Jesus to doubt.

I never realized really, that disobedience was simply giving up on some thing that the Lord has promised. Remaining steadfast, and keeping that communication with the Lord hid in our hearts and untainted by the enemy is vital. We must not waiver.Doubt is a choice

We make ourselves unhappy when we believe the lies of the devil. We can have joy and peace, because God is a keeper of his word.