IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU? (Part 1-5)

Eric Aboadwe
November 29 at 1:00 AM ·

IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU? (Part 1)

Our Scripture reading is taken from the Holy Book of Genesis where it says:

“So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14).

Greetings to all of you Brothers and Sisters on the platform and our dear readers in the grace of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. It has really been a long time since we broke bread in (The True Living Bread & Water). But we give THANKS to our God in everything as we have been told in the Scriptures (1 Thessalonians 5:18). He is the One who leads us in all things and also give us His Word. And one lovely thing about Him is that, “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

So going back to the passage of Scripture reading, God told the serpent after He led man into sin, “On your belly you shall go, and you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life.” Here we must understand that after Lucifer became the Devil (the Old Serpent) and he was driven out from Heaven to the earth (Revelation 12:9), he became a creature who lives in SIN, eats SIN, drinks SIN, and enjoys SIN. Such a creature and his hosts are so abominable that God has no other option than to “JUDGE” him and his hosts and throw all of them into hell with His fierce wrath (Revelation 20:10).

Brothers and Sisters, when Satan led humans into SIN, he never regretted, but he was very pleased with it because his nature has turned into SINFUL. He is a creature who is pleased in what is opposite to God. So what is God “PLEASED” in which is opposite to Satan’s pleasure? It is indubitable that God is “PLEASED” with what is RIGHTEOUSNESS and in RIGHTEOUSNESS because He is RIGHTEOUS.

That’s why when JESUS fulfilled all RIGHTEOUSNESS by taken away our SINS upon Himself in the Jordan River in order to save us from these SINS (Matthew 3:15), God did not hesitate to say, “This is My beloved SON, in whom I am well PLEASED” (Matthew 3:17). Here, even though God said He was “PLEASED” in His SON, we must know that it is because of the RIGHTEOUSNESS which the SON fulfilled which made Him “PLEASED” that Father.

If the SON had not done the “PLEASURE” of the Lord God, then He wouldn’t have “PLEASED” God. That’s why Isaiah prophesied about the SON when He said, “Yet it PLEASED the LORD to bruise Him, He has put Him into grief, when You make His soul an offering for SIN, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the PLEASURE of the LORD shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:16).

Here in the above passage, the words “PLEASURE of the
LORD” means that it is something which will “PLEASE” God. Therefore the words “the PLEASURE of the LORD shall prosper in His hand” is telling us that JESUS will fulfill all RIGHTEOUSNESS which God is delighted in. Do you think that if JESUS had not done that He would have “PLEASED” the Father? Of course not.

When JESUS said that “Oh My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” it was not something that will “PLEASE” God if it were to occur. God the Father will only be “PLEASED” if the SON is “bruised” and “die” to fulfill His RIGHTEOUSNESS. If the “cup” were to “pass from” JESUS, then God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS will not be fulfilled.

But after JESUS took our SINS in the waters of Jordan, the fact that He was immersed (plunged into) the water means that He has agreed to face DEATH for the wages of our SINS (Romans 6:23). That’s why even though He was terrified by the sufferings which will come upon Him due to His human nature which He took from the body of Mary, He still told the Father, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Mathew 26:39).

Therefore when Isaiah says that “Yet it PLEASED the LORD to bruise Him,” it does not mean that God the Father was just “PLEASED” to inflict pain on His own Son and to make Him suffer. That is not the case. On the contrary, since it was an act which will fulfill all RIGHTEOUSNESS for us, God was “PLEASED” in that. In other words God was not actually “PLEASED” with the sufferings of CHRIST per se, but He was “PLEASED” with the results which will come out from His sufferings (fulfilling all RIGHTEOUSNESS).

I wish I could rename the TITLE of today’s message, “THE PLEASURE OF THE LORD.” However since it is the study of our Scripture reading in Genesis 3:14 which has brought into light for us to know the difference between what God is “PLEASED” in and what the Devil is pleased in, we will still maintain the title “IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU?” So we are not deviating from our study TITLE, but rather God wants us to know what He delights in and what the Devil delights in. But I will try as much as possible to treat “THE PLEASURE OF THE LORD” as a separate topic which we will study later.

Therefore when God told the serpent, “On your belly you shall go, and you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life,” God said this because the Devil has extreme pleasure and satisfaction in SIN. So God was revealing the nature of the creature who turned himself to be SINFUL and who survives by EATING the SINS which he makes humans commit with their bodies “all the days” of his life. Satan does this because his pleasure is evil.

Our study continues...................

Eric Aboadwe
ericaboadwe@hotmail.com
www.nlmghana.com

Comment
Habtamu Wendimu Nlm Amen Amen .



Eric Aboadwe
November 30 at 7:55 AM ·

IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU? (Part 2)

Let us take our Scripture reading once again from Genesis where it is written:

“So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14).

In our previous studies we understood through the Word that when God spoke the words above, He was first of all revealing the nature of Lucifer who turned himself to be SINFUL and for which he got the name the Old Serpent and Satan. Secondly, we learnt that he feeds on the SINS that humans commit after making Adam and his descendants SINFUL.

Thirdly, we also learnt that the desire and delight of this fallen angelic creature is SIN which is completely opposite to God whose delight is in RIGHTEOUSNESS because He is a RIGHTEOUS God. So we saw how He sent His only begotten Son JESUS to fulfill all His RIGHTEOUSNESS for mankind in the waters of the Jordan River (Matthew 3:15).

From the words, “you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life,” one may then asked, “Is it God who provided the Old Serpent with the food of EATING the SINS that humans commit with their SINFUL bodies which is the DUST?” In answering such a question, we must ask ourselves, “Where did SIN come from?” You and I know that it didn’t come from the RIGHTEOUS God but it came from the SINFUL Satan.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul said, “Therefore, just as through one man SIN entered the world, and death through SIN, and thus dead spread to all men, because all SINNED – (For until the Law SIN was in the world, but SIN is not imputed when there is no Law” (Romans 5:12-13). When it says here that SIN entered the world “through one man,” it does not mean that man is the originator of SIN, but rather it means that man was used as an INSTRUMENT by Satan when Adam and Eve obeyed him for SIN to enter the world.

As we all know, in the beginning man was RIGHTEOUS and not SINFUL, but the Devil was already a SINFUL creature. So obviously the source of SIN is traced from Satan who diffused and distributed it through the parents of mankind (Adam and Eve). This is what Paul actually mean when he said, “through one man SIN entered the world, and death through SIN, and thus dead spread to all men, because all SINNED.”

So concerning the question as to whether it is God who provided the Old Serpent with the food of EATING the SINS that humans commit with their SINFUL bodies which He referred to as “DUST”, somebody may think that God was forcing or coercing Satan the Old Serpent to “EAT” the SIN of human bodies, but that is not the case. To understand this better, we should ask ourselves, “Why didn’t God gave Satan good food (RIGHTEOUSNESS) to EAT?”

My beloved Brothers and Sisters, can Satan “EAT” what is “GOOD” such as RIGHTEOUSNESS? He simply cannot! Why? Because he is a SINFUL being. The Lord God almighty gave angels and humans volition (free will) to either live in His will (RIGHTEOUSNESS and life), or to live in their own chosen will (SIN and death). We must therefore grasp the fact that when God told him, “you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life,” He was telling him that since he (the Devil) has chosen to live in SIN, he will “EAT” it and remain like that “all the days” of his “life.”

For example, when humans rejected God and his RIGHTEOUSNESS, and they chose to live in the SIN of obscenity and moral corruption, the Apostle Paul said, “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the LUST of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the TRUTH of God for the LIE, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen!” (Romans 1:24:25).

The above passage is revealing to us that just as God “gave up” humans who love to live in SIN to “uncleanness,” He also “gave up” Satan the Old Serpent to “EAT DUST all the days” of his “life” since that is what he desires and delights in. This is the reason why the favorite “FOOD” of the Devil is SIN. He can never “EAT” RIGHTEOUSNESS even for once. The Serpent made human beings SINNERS and he “EATS” their SIN according to his own desires and wishes.

So let us understand that it is a right course when God says to the serpent, “you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life.” The words “all the days of your life” means that Satan will continue to wallow and “EAT” the “FOOD” of SIN which humans commit with their bodies until he is judged by JESUS CHRIST to burn in hell forever.

We give thanks to the LORD who delivered us from the power of this evil creature through His water, blood and the Spirit.

Our study continues...........

Eric Aboadwe
ericaboadwe@hotmail.com
www.nlmghana.com

Comment
Habtamu Wendimu Nlm Good in sight Iam blessed Thank you
Brother Eric




Eric Aboadwe
December 1 at 6:30 AM ·

IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU? (Part 3 )

We are taken our reading from the Epistle of Apostle Peter where the Word of God tells us:

“Be sober, be vigilant: because your ADVERSARY the Devil walks about like a roaring LION, seeking whom he may DEVOUR. Resist him, steadfast in the FAITH, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

We give thanks to the LORD for the excellent “Word” which He has giving to us, and we must always remain thankful to Him for the fact that He has not only giving us His “Word,” but He also teaches us and give us the interpretations of the “Word” through His Spirit who dwells in our hearts through JESUS CHRIST by “FAITH” (Ephesians 3:16-17).

When our LORD drew my mind to our Scripture reading above in the Epistle of Peter, my heart leaped in joy with thankfulness. This is because it made me realize how the “Word” of God is truthful, connected, and very elaborate without any contradiction whatsoever. And this is what the Apostle Paul mean when he said, “LOVE...rejoices in the TRUTH” (1 Corinthians 13:6).

If the Word of God says that our “ADVERSARY the Devil walks about like a roaring LION, seeking whom he may DEVOUR,” then we must know certainly that the reason for this is because God told the serpent, “you shall EAT DUST all the days of your life.” The Devil is a being who is always “seeking” for his PREY (a hunted animal for food) so that he will “EAT” them as God revealed in Genesis 3:14.

The word “DEVOUR” means that Satan EATS greedily, and he enjoys it when humans live in SIN by not believing in the Word of God. Therefore the reason why Adam and Eve became a PREY (a food) for the Devil which is “DUST” is because they doubted and disbelieved in the Word of God. Since then, Satan has continued to “EAT” the descendants of Adam for their disobedience to JESUS CHRIST whose is the “Word” (John 1:1).

And the reason why the Apostle Peter is admonishing us to be “sober” and “vigilant” is because even after we are born again, if we don’t live by placing our “FAITH” continuously in the “RIGHTEOUSNESS” of JESUS CHRIST which He fulfilled by His water, blood and resurrection, the Old Serpent will still hunt us for “FOOD” in order to satisfy his evil desires. This is because he is destined to “EAT” the “DUST” of human beings all the days of his life.

That’s why even after the people of Israel were delivered from the slavery in Egypt by the power of God, and “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud, and in the sea,” and “all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink... of that spiritual ROCK that followed them, and that ROCK was CHRIST” (1 Corinthians 10:2-4), still Satan the Devil did not give up on them, but he waited and sought to get every opportunity to “DEVOUR” them at the slightest chance when he was moving around them like “like a roaring LION.”

So what happened? The Devil begun to stir the “DUST” in order to “EAT” them, and therefore it is written, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people GATHERED together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1).

The passage above is telling us that when the people of Israel begun to lose “FAITH” in the Word of God which is a Word of Promise to lead them to the land of Canaan, the Devil came to them for “FOOD.” As a result, the Holy Scriptures tells us that “...about three thousand men of the people FELL that day” (Exodus 32:28). Therefore God had no other option than to destroy them because at that time Satan had already EATEN them up (meaning he has completely EATEN all of them as food on his plate). And so the Old Serpent “DEVOURED” the people of Israel after their exit (deliverance from Egypt).

Those who survived from being EATEN by Satan were the people who accepted their wrong doing, place their “FAITH” in the Word of God once again, and obeyed the voice of God when Moses told them, “Whoever is on the LORD’S side–come to me!” And all the sons of Levi GATHERED themselves to gather to him” (Exodus 32:26). These sons of Levi were those who had a solid “FAITH” in the sacrificial system, and so they were able to escape from being “DEVOURED” by the Devil who sought to “EAT” them as his favorite “DUST” food.

Brothers and Sisters, our deliverance through “The Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the world” (John 1:29) is the same as the deliverance of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. This is because the Scriptures tells us that we were also “slaves of SIN,” but we “OBEYED from the heart that form of doctrine” to which we “were delivered” (Romans 6:17). However that is not the “END” of the journey, but we must keep our “FAITH” to the “END.” That’s why JESUS our Savior told us that, “But he who endures to the END shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

But because the people of Israel could not “endure to the END,” Satan came to them and “DEVOURED” as many as three thousand (3,000) people on a single day when he ATE them completely as his favorite food which is the “DUST.” This became an example for us (1 Corinthians 10:6), and it is telling us that when somebody disbelieve in the Word of “RIGHTEOUSNESS” fulfilled by JESUS CHRIST, he positions himself in such a way that he will fall into the paws of the wicked Satan who will “EAT” him up as his sweet “DUST.” Let us not forget that the Devil enjoys eaten a SINNER as his “FOOD.”

However, when we believe in the Word of God like Daniel, and we believe in the “RIGHTEOUSNESS” of JESUS CHRIST, even when we are thrown into the Satanic den of lions, God will shut his mouth, and he cannot “DEVOUR” us because we are “INNOCENT” like Daniel. This is the reason why the lions could not “EAT” the humble Daniel. That’s why he said, “My God sent His angel and shut the LIONS mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found INNOCENT before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you” (Daniel 6:22).

What a Word of deliverance from the Book of Daniel! Brothers and Sisters, we are also “INNOCENT” before God because He chose us in JESUS CHRIST that “we should be HOLY and without BLAME before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). This was made possible through “One Man’s RIGHTEOUS act” (Romans 5:18) by the water and the Spirit which made us born again. This is the reason why an angry “LION” like Satan cannot “EAT” us up.

Our study continues and resumes on Monday if God permit.......

Comment
Perezjoel Lungamani Glory to our God






Eric Aboadwe
December 12 at 2:46 AM ·

IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU? (Part 4 )

Let us take our reading once again from the Epistle of Peter. It reads:

“Be sober, be vigilant: because your ADVERSARY the Devil walks about like a roaring LION, seeking whom he may DEVOUR. Resist him, steadfast in the FAITH, knowing that the same SUFFERINGS are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

In our previous studies, we were able to look at the first part of the Scripture passage above, and we came to realize that the reason why the Apostle Peter was saying this is because God told our “ADVERSARY the Devil” that he will “EAT DUST” all the days of his life. This is why Satan always moves around like a “roaring LION” in order to seek “whom he may DEVOUR.” God revealed this to us in Genesis and He has made the Apostle Peter confirm it in the New Testament.

So today, we are going to look at the latter part of our Scripture reading where it says, “RESIST him, steadfast in the FAITH, knowing that the same SUFFERINGS are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” Here we must understand that God does not “Resist” the Devil for us, but He has given us the POWER to do so. He gave the same POWER to Adam and Eve.

Therefore when Satan came to Adam and Eve by hidden himself in the serpent and saying to them, “Has God indeed said, “You shall not of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1), Eve was supposed to “RESIST” the Devil who was hidden in the serpent, and Adam was also supposed to “RESIST” the Devil who was now using Eve to lure him into eating the forbidden fruit.

The Devil always seek for every opportunity to “DEVOUR” those of us who have become the “RIGHTEOUS” people of God. This is because even though our “soul” and “spirit” is born again of the water baptism and the Spirit of JESUS, we also have the “FLESH” which is the “DUST.” And the only way we can overcome him is to “RESIST him steadfastly in the FAITH” as we have been admonished by the Word of God.

We must know that Satan did not become the “Devil” on this Earth. Even though he was called “Lucifer, son of the morning” in Heaven (Isaiah 14:12), he became the Devil (an evil supernatural being) when “INIQUITY was found” in him according to Ezekiel 28:15. When you remove the “D” from his name “Devil,” it becomes “evil.” Due to the fact that he was “full of WISDOM and perfect in BEAUTY,” he sought to “DEVOUR” the angels by convincing them to obey his evil command and to stand against God.

Woefully and sadly, the Devil succeeded in his evil plot to the extent of deceiving one third (1/3) of the angels and making them evil as himself. That’s why it is written, “And another sign appeared in Heaven: behold, a great, fiery red DRAGON having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew A THIRD (one third) of the stars of Heaven, and threw them to the earth...” (Revelation 12:3-4). Therefore God had no other option than to “CAST” the Devil “down” to the Earth with his followers.

When it says the Devil drew “A THIRD” of the angels and threw them to the earth, it means that if the angels in Heaven are three (3) million, the Devil was able to deceive one (1) million out of the total number. And if the total number of angels in Heaven were twelve (12) million, it means that Satan deceived four (4) million out of the twelve. However, TWO THIRD of the angels did not agree to the CONSPIRACY of the Devil. How did they do it? They also RESISTED him just like what our Scripture reading is telling us to do.

So we have been told to “RESIST” the Devil steadfastly in the “FAITH” so that he will not be able to “DEVOUR” us. But how do we do that? With what kind of “FAITH” is the Bible talking about? It refers to our “FAITH” in the Word of God (JESUS CHRIST) who fulfilled all “RIGHTEOUSNESS” for us. After JESUS took away our SINS in the Jordan River and shed His blood on the Cross, He declared “It is finished” (John 19:30). This is how He “bruise” the “head” of the serpent in conquest (Genesis 3:15).

And just as we took the Kingdom of Heaven by being “violent” in “FAITH” and taking it by “force” (Matthew 11:12), we must “RESIST” the enemy with this same kind of “FAITH” and he will flee away from us.

Now I want us to look at what the Apostle Peter mean when he said, “knowing that the same SUFFERINGS are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” This is where Brother Kofi from Asuofia Asaman was asking the other day with regard to its meaning. But just as the Apostle Peter himself confessed, “In truth I perceive that God shows no PARTIALITY” to SAVE all human beings in his salvation plan (Acts 10:34), he is telling us in our Scripture reading that that the Devil too does not show any PARTIALITY to anybody in terms of whom he wants to “DEVOUR” whether they are righteous or sinners. His wish is for all humans to go to hell. This is the reason why he brought the downfall of Adam and Eve who were previously “righteous.”

When Peter says “the same SUFFERINGS” are experienced by our brotherhood in the world, it means that our relatives and acquaintances in the “FLESH” who are not born again (those who are of the world) also SUFFERS from the same attack from Satan. In other words, whether a person is “righteous” (not of the world) or a “sinner” (in the world), the Devil seeks to “DEVOUR” each of them since they all have the “FLESH” which is the “DUST” of his favourite food which he EATS all the days of his life as God told him in Genesis 3:13.

Even if we think that Satan has made life BETTER for our brotherhood who are in the world, the truth is that they still SUFFER from the inside and outside. But for the born again Saints, the Devil can only make them SUFFER from the outside by attacking their FLESH and not the “inner man”. He did a similar thing to Job. That’s why God told him, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; ONLY do not lay a hand on his PERSON” (Job 2:12).

Based on that, we all saw how the Devil struck Job to “SUFFER” from painful boils from the sole of his foot to his head. We also know how Satan destroyed all the properties of Job including His children. So when God says “on his PERSON,” it means that God does not allow the Devil to touch the “spirit” and “soul” of His born again righteous people since their spiritual “PERSON” have been REDEEMED by JESUS CHRIST.

All the great and eminent Apostles went through “SUFFERINGS” whiles living in this world with their FLESH. The Devil attacked them in so many ways in order to destroy their “FAITH,” but he did not succeed. That’s why sometimes Paul will say, “Therefore we wanted to come to you–even I, Paul, time and again – but Satan hindered us” (1 Thessalonians 2:18). That’s why sometimes he also says, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the FLESH was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 2:7).

Peter and all the other Apostles went through “SUFFERINGS”
which were instigated by Satan when they were beaten for preaching JESUS (Acts 5:40). That’s why the Apostle Paul summarized all these “SUFFERINGS” in Hebrews when he said, “Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were STONED, they were SAWN in two, were tempted, were SLAIN with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented –of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth “ (Hebrews 11:36-38).

All these “SUFFERINGS” were brought upon the people of God by Satan. But their success story is that, “...all these, having obtained a good testimony through FAITH, did not receive the promise. God having provided something BETTER for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Hebrews 11:39-40). In order words, they were conquerors through their FAITH in JESUS CHRIST no matter come what may.

There are so many born again Saints who after believing in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit go through all sorts of hardships which time will not permit me to write about. And we even “SUFFER” in persecution. That’s why it is written, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in CHRIST JESUS will SUFFER persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). So is it God who causes this “SUFFERINGS?” The answer is “No.” It is the Devil who does this in so many divers ways. The only difference is that whiles the righteous can “RESIST” the Devil, sinners cannot.

How can a sinner “RESIST” his father the Devil? (John 8:44). They sometimes just use the name of JESUS to “RESIST” the Devil and cast out devils because he is afraid of the powerful and holy name of JESUS. But no matter what they still belong to him and they are his children who will join him in hell. Satan dwells in such sinners, but sometimes he only makes a SHOW in order for the false Christians to think and believe that God’s power is working among them so that they will not know they have been deceived by Him.

There is more to write concerning these things, but for time sake let us end and move on to other things.

Our study continues............

Comments
Sanhoun Mienmo Djaha God bless His word
Daina Akinyi Profound insight




Eric Aboadwe
December 14 at 1:58 AM ·

IS THE DEVIL FEEDING ON YOU? (Part 5 )

We are taking our reading this time around from the Psalms of David where the Psalmist said:

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have SWALLOWED us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us. Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as a PREY to their teeth. Our SOUL has ESCAPED as a bird from the SNARE of the fowlers; the SNARE is broken, and we have escaped” (Psalm 124:2-3, 6-7).

After reading the passage above, probably some may think that the passage is not related the Devil. However it is. One thing we must know is that just as God works through His servants as “INSTRUMENTS” to achieve His will, the Devil also works likewise to achieve his evil desires and purposes.

Therefore when King David says “when men rose up against us,” we need to ask ourselves and find out about the person who is behind this whole plot of instigating “men” to “rise up against us.” The person who is behind this whole thing is none other than the ENEMY called the Devil and Satan. He is someone who uses whatever means with different strategies to get his “PREY” and he always work with his fallen angels of demons.

Sometimes he can even use a person who is very close to us or anybody or anything as a “SNARE” in order to catch as “alive” and KILL us after eating us. That’s why after hidden himself in the serpent to deceive Eve, he also used Eve as an INSTRUMENT to catch Adam with the aim of SWALLOWING him “alive.” He sometimes also make use of things such as the LUST of the flesh, the LUST of the eye, and the PRIDE of life (1 John 2:16) as his “SNARE” to catch us and “SWALLOW” as “alive”

In other times, the Devil also make us of false apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelist as his “SNARE” (a trap) to catch us and “SWALLOW” us up after eating the “DUST” of our flesh. Therefore when the Bible says “when men rose up against us,” we shouldn’t think of the “men” as some people who are coming with physical weapons like knives, swords and guns. The “men” are agents of Satan, and he makes use of them in an attempt to “DEVOUR” us.

We must bear in mind that the “SNARE” that Satan set for human beings started in the Garden of Eden when he used the serpent as his “INSTRUMENT” to implement his plot (secret scheme). But whiles Satan caught Adam and Even in his “SNARE” (trap), God provided the way of “ESCAPE” through JESUS CHRIST when He promised them salvation.
Therefore the only way of “ESCAPE” for Adam and Eve to “ESCAPE” from the “SNARE of the fowler” was when God declared, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her SEED; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).

The Devil is a hunter who sets his trap and moves around like a “roaring LION” in order to get his “PREY” and to “DOVOUR” them as we have been told in the Epistle of Apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:8-9). And whiles feasting on the “DUST” of the flesh of humans which commits SINS, Satan also seeks to “SWALLOW” our “SOUL” completely.

This is the reason why King David is telling us that “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side” (God’s intervention), then the enemy (Satan who sometimes works through various means such as using human beings) will have “SWALLOWED” us completely only for us to “PERISH” in the end.

It is important for us to note that David did not say, “Our FLESH has ESCAPED,” but he said “Our SOUL has ESCAPED.” Why did he say this? This is because our FLESH which is sinful and which commits SIN all the days of our life is the “DUST” which the Devil feeds on as God told him in Genesis3:14 based on his evil desire. Therefore our FLESH cannot “ESCAPE” because judgement has already been passed on to it, and it will die once for the wages of SIN (Hebrews 9:27).

And one thing which we must be aware is the fact that whiles Satan feeds on the “DUST” of our FLESH, he also has an ultimate aim to “DEVOUR” and “SWALLOW” our “SOUL” as well. But the Word of God is revealing to us in Psalms that because our “SOUL” was sealed with the Holy Spirit when we heard the gospel of our salvation and we believed (Ephesians 1:13), thanks to JESUS CHRIST it has now “ESCAPED” from the reach of the enemy and his hosts. Therefore God did not give our “SOUL” and “SPIRIT” to the “teeth” of our enemies (Satan, demons, the principalities and powers), but He has “broken” their “SNARE” and they could not catch us.

When the Psalmist says that, “Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as a PREY to their teeth. Our SOUL has ESCAPED as a bird from the SNARE of the fowlers; the SNARE is broken, and we have escaped,” then we must know for sure that this was made possible only through JESUS CHRIST our Savior who saved our “SOUL” with His water, blood and the Spirit. And it was for this reason that the Apostle Paul said, “How shall we ESCAPE if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed to us by those who hear Him” (Hebrews 2:3).

The Devil has really sharpened his spiritual “teeth” to chew, devour and “SWALLOW” whoever does not believe in the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God fulfilled by JESUS CHRIST. And nobody can “ESCAPE” from being eaten and being “SWALLOWED” by him if he “neglects so great a salvation” which God achieved with His own life in the Person of the God-Man (JESUS CHRIST).

Brothers and Sisters, even though the serpent FEEDS on our DUST FLESH which commits SINS, the Good News is that our “SOUL” has “escaped” from his “SNARE” just like the “bird” which “ESCAPED” from “the SNARE of the fowlers.”

Glory be to JESUS!

Eric Aboadwe
ericaboadwe@hotmail.com
www.nlmbookcafe.com/blog/eric


Comments
Kingsley Kunda Amen
Gift Lungu Am so blessed , thanks to our God for this salvation.