Your Enemy’s Most Effective Strategy

In my last three blog posts, “You Are a Victor, Not a Victim,” “What to Do with Rogue Thoughts,” and “Where Thoughts Come From,” I have been talking about the importance of managing the thoughts we experience.

Not every thought we experience comes from our new heart, but from the outside in.

If the thoughts we experience don’t reflect the truth of our righteous identity in Christ, then our responsibility is to reject them as foreign trash and not even give them the time of day (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21; 10:3–5; Song 2:15).

We have talked about the fact that all lies originate with Satan (John 8:44).

But our enemy is cunning.

He dresses up these thoughts in particular ways where we have a hard time believing they did not come from us.

How exactly does he do this?

Why don’t you grab a cup of your favorite beverage and sit back and listen to these enlightening words from your Beloved concerning Satan’s most effective strategy in the battle going on in your thought life:

“My lovely bride, although Satan cannot touch you spiritually, he can greatly hinder your experience and expression of My cherishing love and exuberant life.”

“That is, if you let him.”

“The only real power he has over you is when he can get you to believe his lies.”

“Deceiver is his name; deception is his game.”

“And if he can hoodwink you into owning the unrighteous thoughts he serves up to you, then he can control you.”

“Satan’s most effective strategy is to disguise his thoughts as your own in order to trap you into doing his will.”

“If you allow these insidious impostors to set up camp in your mind, they can do untold amounts of damage in your life.”

“So, how exactly does Satan dress up his sinister suggestions to trick you into believing that you generated them?”

“He feeds them to you in first-person singular pronouns (I, me, my, myself, etc.)!”

“Can you see how thoughts like I am such a loser! God doesn’t really love me, My past will always come back to haunt me, and If this is going to get done right, I’m going to have to do it myself! could easily cause you to conclude that they came from you?”

“If you could actually see that Satan was the source of these thoughts, you wouldn’t even give them the time of day.”

“But when you believe they originated with you, you will have a difficult time agreeing with Me that you are pure, righteous, and holy!”

“And your spoken words and actions will ultimately reflect what you believe.”

“In short, you will become a pawn in your enemy’s hands when you take his bait.”

“Knowledge of your enemy’s most effective strategy will motivate and empower you to take control of the atmosphere of your mind.”

“So, the next time you hear a rogue thought in first-person singular, refuse to accept it and replace it with the truth about you.”

“The wonderful, beautiful, flawless, eternal truth about you.”

Inspired by 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; John 8:44; Revelation 12:9; 2 Timothy 2:26; Song of Songs 4:7; 6:9–10; 1 Corinthians 2:16; 3:16–17; 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21; 11:3, 14; Hebrews 10:10, 14; Song of Songs 2:15; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 10:3–5; Romans 12:2; Luke 4:1–13; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9; Revelation 19:7–9; 21:2.

(The above words from your Beloved and Scripture List is an excerpt from my book, Fifty Days in His Pursuing Love Devotional.)

I first learned about the way the enemy works in my thought life through Bill and Anabel Gillham’s ministry.

Both have passed away and are in the presence of our resurrected Lord now.

I can’t wait to meet them in person some day and hug their necks for sharing this vital truth.

Before I learned how the enemy works in my thought life, I had a very difficult time believing that I was pure, righteous, and holy because of the ungodly thoughts I heard in my mind (Song 6:9–10; 1 Cor. 1:30; 3:17; Heb. 10:10, 14).

Please notice that I said heard, not generated.

Now I know that my new heart cannot generate trash—only treasure.

The trash enters my mind from the outside in.

And now that I know the truth, I get to make an informed choice about what to do with the trash.

One night I was watching a superhero movie where I saw the perfect example of how Satan works in our minds.

In this particular scene, Loki, the antagonist, made himself invisible to the people he was in the room with.

Then, he spoke a first-person thought into the ear of a very influential man.

Immediately, the man parroted the thought.

Of course, he thought it was his own suggestion.

He couldn’t even see his enemy!

And that suggestion set in motion a very destructive turn of events that cost a lot of lives.

In the same way, Satan can do untold damage in our lives if we are not aware of his schemes.

He is the deceiver and a master of disguise.

In 2 Corinthians 11:3, 14, Paul writes,

“I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ … Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

I pray that today’s post has encouraged you in the truth that, as a believer in Christ, you cannot generate ungodly thoughts.

You can accept and act on them, but you have a choice.

And only when you reject ungodly thoughts as foreign, will you be able to enjoy the freedom of understanding your flawless identity in Him.

You can watch my YouTube videos where I share what’s in this post. I had technical issues in the middle of the message, so it has a Part 1 and Part 2.

In my next post, I will share how being proactive in the battle going on in our mind will help us enjoy living in love with Christ.

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If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to check out all of my books and my video series based on my first devotional.