God's Will vs the Devil and his 3 D's

[Mrs.Somebody]

Joshua 9 

The Treaty with the Gibeonites

While visiting my MIL for her b-day I heard her Pastor speak on this chapter of Joshua.  It got me to thinking and I wanted to share some of his points and some INSIGHTS that I think I gained.

What caught my ear first and made me pull out pen and paper was when he said the Devil puts distractions in our way.   Of course we all know the Bible tells us that Satan is roaming this earth like a lion -to steal, kill and destroy.  He wants to take all that belongs to the children of God including the children of God. But hmm?   I never considered anything other than a direct attack.

The Pastor went on to say that "if he is unable to steal our salvation directly from us he will then put distractions in our way." These distractions can be in the form of people or things, even opportunities that WE interpret to be an answer to prayer. But what they are, are distractions- they are the thing WE wanted not necessarily what GOD wanted for us.  You know the job that is just what we are looking for, then we begin to spend more and more time at the job and less and less time with family, with personal devotions, with GOD.  You know the house that is just perfect, they accepted our offer so it must be what God intended- but now a year down the road we can’t afford the mortgage any longer.  You know that cute little sports car we’ve been coveting- yes coveting.  We buy it and now the transmission goes out in it and we don’t have the money to fix it so we borrow it and get deeper in debt.

Don’t worry, as difficult as it may seem to do, I am stepping on my toes too! 

What we need to do, what we should have done is pray first and DILIGENTLY seek his will.  This does not mean pray like: “Dear Lord, you know I have always wanted a 65 Mustang and my neighbor down the street is selling his.  If it’s your will for me to buy this please let it be there on my way to church Sunday morning.”

 

Diligently seeking his will- takes time.  You can’t get impatient with God’s timing.  Well you can, but it will only lead to problems if you act on that impatience.  Take the Children of Israel for instance. (Exodus 19, 20, 24, 32) Moses went to the mountain top to seek God’s will for direction on leading the Children of Israel.  He was gone a long time but with what did he return?  THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. And what did he find when he returned.  The Children of Israel worshipping the golden calf.  (Notice Ten Commandments #1 & #2- No other gods before Me, no carved images…hmm guess he knew they would need that direction spelled out for them)

Chapter 32 of Exodus shows us what happened when the Children of Israel became inpatient.  They melted down their gold and Aaron made a calf from it.  This they worshipped- and while God sat on top of the mountain dictating his law to Moses! What happened here is that Satan was watching and waiting.  He saw an opportunity- he distracted the Children of Israel wit the golden calf from the one true God that was on the mountain top.  He distracted them from the one true God that had brought them through bondage in Egypt and through the Red Sea, and fed them daily while they wandered the desert.

Joshua was distracted but the Gibeonites visit and the props they  prepared- the old clothes, the old bread, the old wineskins.  He was distracted by their words.  “We are your servants…make a covenant with us”  Joshua and the men of Israel did not seek counsel from the Lord.(v 14)   

If distraction does not work, Satan will try division.  He will divide your family against you, against God.  He will divide your friends against you.  Remember Job.  That great wife and those wonderful loyal friends he had.  Satan used them to divide Job against God.  But he stood strong.  He resisted when his wife said to curse God and die, he resisted when his friends told him he had done something to repent of.  The Children of Israel were divided with Joshua- they wanted to attack the Gibeonites and break the covenant.  But Joshua stood fast- the covenant was kept as the oath sworn was to the Lord.

 

Satan will use whatever is close to you to divide you.  He will divide your family, your marriage and even your church.  When he has divided all that you have and still you stand for God don’t think he’s given up.

When distraction and division do not work his next move is deceit.   He will deceive you- just as he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Just as Joshua was deceived by the Gibeonites (Joshua 9).   He will cause you to believe through his deceit that what you wanted is what God wants for you.  If you have not prepared yourself in advance by seeking his will through prayer, fasting and reading the Word of God you will be fooled.   Satan has a false for every truth God has.  Satan shows you Fool’s Gold, while with God you have True Gold. 

Once Satan has battered you with distractions, division and deceit he will attempt an attack on you.  He will try once again to steal your salvation.  Things may not be working out the way you thought they should and you may get angry with God and blame him for the things that are going on in your life. You must remember that if we did not seek His will first that we are following our decisions and not HIS PLAN. 

Many miners during the Gold Rush in the West were fooled by Fool’s Gold. Very few compared to the numbers of those mining for their mother lode actually struck it rich.  Mining or panning for gold was a long and arduous process. It could take weeks or even sometimes months to find a small amount of gold.  

It’s the same when we are searching or mining for God’s will. We have to diligently seek his will with prayer, fasting and the word.  We need to understand that the answer may not come tomorrow.  And when the answer does come it may not be in the form you are expecting.  That’s why it’s imperative to be prepared to stand strong and wait upon the Lord.

[Alaskarose]

Mar. 3, 2008 at 10:50 AM

Interesting, about 3 weeks ago at a Women's BIBLE study we called the "3 D's"  DISTRACTION which breeds DISCOURAGEMENT which births DOUBT