Today’s Soul Food Appetizer Is: Psalm 92:12-14
CHOOSE ONE! ENEMY CACKLE? GOD’S PROMISES?
The uncompromisingly righteous shall flourish like the palm tree be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible. Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. Growing in grace they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap of spiritual vitality and rich in the verdure of trust, love, and contentment. Amplified Bible
Main Course: From The Author’s Journal
“Through Attacking Eve’s Contentment, Satan Was Able To Incite Rebellion In Mankind And Sin Entered Into The World.”
Author Wayne Barber
I read this quote and I thought, wow I have never thought of what happened to Eve and Adam in that perspective of thought. How true is that!
Her enemy, satan attacked her contentment and was able to incite a dissatisfaction in her that he used to turn to rebellion against God! The enemy talked in her ear, enticed her mind with half truths and she bought into the deception and disobeyed God in a very impulsive and reckless way. As I thought about what happened that day with Eve, I decided to put a label on it. I call it enemy cackle! I have to admit, I also have experienced what Eve experienced and enemy cackle hurts! OUCH! The consequences of listening to it are not fun!
Enemy Cackle! In fact, I experienced it kind of like she did, a voice of enemy cackle coming subtlety to my mind, challenging the truth I know and bringing so much confusion to my mind, thoughts hitting me from every direction so much so that my mind actually hurt, if that is even possible! Enemy Cackle goes on and on until you say – Jesus help me! Then it stops!
What happened with me so many times, was the enemy of my soul would poke at my mind through the discontentment of my circumstances, especially in situations where I was diligently waiting for God’s intervention, and my thoughts of God’s Promises began to get fogged up with the rationalization that I chose to pursue. The “What If” questions really fogged in the truth and kept me so mind boggled, that I found it hard to see my way to clarity! Enemy cackle is deliberately used to confuse contentment with the deception of rights. Here is one of our enemies most famous enemy cackle: “If God is Real And You Are His Child, Why Do Bad Things Happen To You? It Is Your Right To Know Why! You Have Given Him Your Life, You Have A Right To Know Why He Is Witholding Good From You. If He Really Isn’t All He Says He Is, You Have A Right To Know.”
When You Are Persevering, Enemy Cackle Can Be So Discouraging And Lead You Down A Path Of Discontentment Right To Unbelief!
When you are persevering and waiting for a breakthrough, enemy cackle can be so discouraging and it can cause you to lose your focus on God! I really believe enemy cackle gets very intense right before God is ready to bring into reality that which He has been working on in the unseen for our good.
Okay, are you getting it? Do you see it or do I need to “flesh it out” more? Enemy cackle is our enemy attacking our mind with subtle, sneering laughter attached with sarcastic speculations that are soaked in deceit and intended to jab our mind with frustrations that leads to discontentment that leads to the sin of unbelief! WHEW! That was a mouthful, just as much as enemy cackle can be a huge temptation! I used to listened to such enemy cackle all the time and as I began to entertain the cackle in my mind, instead of kicking them out, my emotions responded with a downward attitude shift, until I recognized the deceit, kicked it out and replaced it with God’s Truth!
Yes he tries, our enemy to worm himself into our thought patterns and harass our contentment and if he is able to incite discontentment, look out – it could be a long spiraling downhill fall into his “pouty pit”!
I have done so many stupid, impulsive things in my life time, choices that I deeply regret because of this very same thing- listening to enemy cackle and entertaining them! I can relate to Eve! I am afraid, that I too have bit the apple served by enemy cackle!!
I remember a time when I was sitting in a “pouty pit” entertaining enemy cackle and God had enough with my restless discontentment and said this to me: “I am going to shake up your contentment, and from this point on in your life, nothing will feel the same.”
The Holy Spirit went on to speak to me in that still small voice I had grown to recognize: “The heart of My Gospel is change; My truth will uproot you from the comfortable place you have made for yourself here in this world and it will make you more like Me. This is where you need to grow and it begins with uprooting yourself from the security, comfort and contentment you have in this world.
In ordering your life and scheduling your every moment, you have compartmentalized My life right out of yours. Your contentment is about to be uprooted from this world’s culture and transplanted in My Kingdom soil.
Completely! This is what I will bring you towards. I will become your One Thing, your One Desire, your complete satisfaction. It begins! I will break your “Martha” will and create in you the heart of a “Mary”. On My Potters Chair you will sit, until you become willess – pliable clay in My Hands; clay that is responsive to My touch. When that happens, then I will mold you and shape your spirit with Kingdom purpose ordained only for you. You will be made new, shattered –remade –refilled and found being a broken- beautiful vessel of My Glory, glowing a light so bright it will shatter the darkness of your world and draw many to My Light! Yes! My Precious Broken Vessel Of Light, You Will Shine!
When My Sovereign Will for you is activated, then My Infinite Love will undergird you until I am finished and you are Kingdom New!”
And that is exactly the journey God has taken me on the last 10 years. He is still working on me and like Eve, I still get tempted in the area of contentment once in a while, and I know my mind will be a battlefield of personal expectations incited by intentional deception, the cackle of my enemy, so I guard my mind with all diligence. I am a different person than I was 10 years ago, because the Champion of my soul has trained me and I know how to guard my heart with His Word.
It also helps that my will is no longer as strong as it used to be and He has shaped a new spirit within me that puts Him 1st! One of the biggest things God skilled me in was learning how to handle my emotions and expectations, teaching me the safest place to put them. (Psalm 62:5-6) I don’t diminish the temptations of enemy cackle, they are real and strong, yet I am blessed incredibly because my life is one of a daughter, whose Father God is continually and faithfully teaching by His Holy Spirit and Powerful Word!!
AHH Lord God, Yes because of The Purposes of God, I daily find myself consumed by Jesus and less directed by my thoughts or driven by my emotions. Thank Goodness!!!
Today, in the face of the Eve-like temptations, I am learning to face life with a willessness that helps me run my race as a Champion In Christ. My impulsive pursuit for me, myself and I, has been changed (“the heart of the Gospel is change”) by a diligent pursuit of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. My life-plans have been altered by the surrender of what I want, my plans, schedule or will and is all about being faithfully found In Him! As a Champion In Christ, this is how I work out my salvation training: I changed my response to enemy cackle!
I do not pursue my satisfaction or my contentment anymore! I do not entertain thoughts from my enemy that subject my personal contentment.
I lay it down, my will and my plan of contentment for this day and I decisively with purpose, pick up the baton for The Kingdom of God and run as a Champion In Christ should run – with excellence and in pursuit of the ultimate prize, Jesus Christ!
The Author Table served up a great menu today and I pray it nourished your soul with great God wisdom. Please share this great meal at The Bridegroom’s Cafe with others by using the social medial buttons below. Do you know someone who is struggling with a mind overwhelmed with enemy cackle? Share this, encourage them! Please leave a comment on how this post helped you and also encourage others with any wisdom you may have. God bless you MUCH, KimberlyMac