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Heaven is for Real for Kids: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back Heaven is for Real for Kids: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

Satan's Strategy to Defeat Us!

(Read Romans 8:5-9)

Do you know your enemy has a plan to defeat you?

Some people who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior have suffered repeated defeat throughout their lives simply because they don’t realize they have a spiritual enemy.

Many today mock the idea of a literal devil, but Scripture clearly states that Satan is real, and his goal is to draw people away from God, to thwart His purposes, and to cause division.

Satan is a liar, and no one is immune to his attempts to deceive. Therefore, to stand firm against his lies, believers in Christ need to understand his strategies.

What is a satanic attack?

It’s a deliberate, willful assault by Satan upon an individual for the purpose of doing harm in the spirit, soul, or body, or all three. These attacks could come at any time or from anywhere. The devil tries to trip us up when we are at our weakest, and he knows exactly who or what to use as a lure. He often tempts us with what we do not need or should not have as he seeks to bring us down.

Romans 8:5-6 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” The thoughts of the unsaved are governed by what Paul calls “the flesh,” and the result is death. He is not referring to the physical human body but to an internal drive that opposes God. In contrast, Christ’s Spirit lives within believers, governing their minds and behaviors according to God’s desires and giving them life and peace.

Romans 8:7-8 “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Since unbelievers are controlled by the flesh and influenced by Satan, their thoughts are opposed to God. Furthermore, without the Holy Spirit, they have no ability to obey Him or please Him.

Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” The indwelling Holy Spirit—not church attendance, baptism, or good behavior—is the distinguishing mark between Christians and the rest of humanity. Although Satan still deceives and tempts believers to sin, their disobedience does not result in the loss of their salvation.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan is always working to mislead and blind people to the truth regarding Christ. The result is a world characterized by sin, conflict, and deception.
Satan’s battleground is the mind.

He infiltrates the world with his lies, and even believers can be deceived. He’s always ready to interject his ideas into our minds and lead us astray by convincing us that there will be no consequences for sin. If we believe his lies and disobey our heavenly Father, we will suffer His loving discipline. But the Holy Spirit also reminds us that we are God’s children whose sins have been forgiven through Christ’s death on the cross, and we can never be separated from our Savior.

Satan’s Strategies

He directs our attention toward a need or desire. This strategy began in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden when Satan drew Eve’s attention away from the abundance of God’s provision to the one thing He withheld—the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And the devil has been using this same technique ever since to stir up lust for a particular person, greed for a certain possession, and envy for what belongs to another person. He promises that having the objects of our desires will satisfy us, but nothing outside God’s will ever brings lasting joy but only disaster.

The devil chooses times when we are the weakest. After Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights, Satan came to Him suggesting that He turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Yet Jesus didn’t come to serve Himself but to obey His heavenly Father. In the same way, the devil comes to us when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. Together these form the word HALT, which is exactly what we should do when we are tempted at the point of our vulnerability. We must stop and consider that this is a satanic attack.

He creates doubt in our minds. Satan’s biggest target is the Word of God. He wants believers to rationalize themselves into disobedience by misinterpreting verses or taking them out of context to support their desired sin. Once the devil gets people to doubt the veracity of any part of the Bible or to declare those parts irrelevant or outdated, he gets a foothold in their lives from which he can promote his lies.

Satan wants to get us in a debate. Temptations are not to be debated but rejected. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, He always responded the same way by saying, “It is written,” followed by a passage of Scripture (Matt. 4:1-11). God’s commands are not given to keep us from something good but to protect us from the self-destruction of sin.

The devil uses deception as his key weapon. To deceive is to mislead by obscuring truth. Satan does this by making what is evil look good. He wants to create division. He tries to convince young people that the Bible is outdated and that older people lack understanding of reality. His goal is to replace unity in the family, church, and society with strife, distrust, and division. Since the Word of God promotes harmony, peace, and godliness in relationships, he begins by stirring up doubts about its truth.

Satan’s goal is to destroy us. If he can convince people to doubt a portion of Scripture, he can then persuade them to reject even more of it. In fact, the verses that address the area of their temptation are the first ones they begin to doubt.

Satan is a liar who stands against the truth of God’s Word. Yet for those of us who belong to Christ and believe His Word, it is our greatest protection against the enemy’s lies. When we fill our minds with Scripture and live according to its principles, Satan’s schemes lose their power over us.

What kinds of battles is Satan waging in your mind? Have you been listening and considering his ideas? What Scripture passages do you know that refute his lies? Do you believe that the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation? The veracity of your answer is revealed by how you live. Are you living according to God’s revealed truth, or are you ignoring or not practicing what it teaches?

Have a blessed day in the mighty and glorious name of JESUS CHRIST, I pray,

Amen and Amen.

(Asa Spades)

REVELATION EXPLAINED AT LAST!

God has not left mankind without a SOURCE of answers that reveals in detail what lies ahead. Tragically, believing things will eventually “turn out all right,” many hide their eyes, choosing to pursue pleasure and the accumulation of material goods. But for the short term, things will not turn out all right. World conditions are—and will become—far more serious than most realize.

God understands human nature and where it always leads when left to its own devices. This allows Him to know, and to guide, the awesome future events that will occur from now on!

It has become God’s time to REVEAL what lies ahead—short and long-term. The stage is set and He has lifted the curtain on the future. Revelation describes terrible plagues and world-shattering—truly Earth-shaking—events!

But careful study reveals they follow a long period of God’s Kingdom on Earth. A just God would not bring undiluted punishment on an entire mankind who did not have opportunity to learn and practice His way of life.

After the above-described “Jacob’s trouble” afflicting the descendants of modern Israel, the territory of God’s Kingdom will spread to encompass all the Israelite nations, ushering in unprecedented tranquility in our time. (You will greatly benefit from the booklet How God’s Kingdom Will Come – The Untold Story! It will help make clear that God’s Kingdom arrives long before events of Revelation.)

During this Kingdom, God will give mankind everything—peace, prosperity, and happiness. But after generations of reaping these blessings, vast numbers will choose their own way, turning their backs on God. And, shockingly, this cycle will unfold again—resulting in the punishment detailed in Revelation.

With this in mind, recognize that the events of Revelation described in this booklet are far in the future. But they can be understood NOW!

Mystery Book
Signs, seals, symbols, vials, visions, trumpets, thrones, plagues, angels, beasts, heads, horns, witnesses, woes, wars, numbers, multitudes, messages and mystery! Revelation contains all of these terms. But what do they mean?

Most believe that the book of Revelation is sealed, closed from understanding. It is called a MYSTERY BOOK without meaning. Yet it is an entire book of important—vital—MEANING. It is filled with answers. The above terms can be unlocked! They can be understood—and this eye-opening booklet contains the necessary KEYS!

You will be intrigued—even fascinated—by the clarity of what can be known from the book of Revelation. Events are building to a final culmination—a tremendous CLIMAX! You can know them.

One-third of the Bible is PROPHECY—the future written in advance! The Bible is approximately 750,000 words, with about 250,000 devoted to many, many prophecies. Almost half the books of the Old Testament are included in either the so-called “major” or “former” prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) or the “minor” or “latter” prophets (Daniel, Hosea, Joel and 10 others).

The apostle Paul explained that the New Testament Church was “…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20). Recognize that, since the Church stands on the words of the prophets, Christians are to understand prophecy. If God commands men to “live by EVERY WORD of God” (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4; Deut. 8:3), He would not exclude the full third that is prophecy!

The prophet Daniel spoke of a time when “…many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (12:4). This has happened! Then, speaking of the end time, he said, “…the wise shall understand” (vs. 10).

God has opened up—REVEALED!—to His servants what lies ahead. He may want you to understand. He does not want those who obey Him confused, ignorant or fearful of the future.

Then what are the wise to understand? Important KEYS exist, which OPEN UP Bible prophecies. But the world knows nothing of them! No wonder so many claim that the meaning of Revelation cannot be explained. How could they understand without the KEYS?

Imagine. Forty-two percent of Americans actually believe that they can consult the dead about matters involving the future. But mankind refuses to seek and consult GOD. Only He can reveal the future. Mankind cannot, through intelligence, human reasoning or scientific discovery, know or discern events to come. And many “religious” people believe that the book of Revelation offers no help anyway, because it cannot be understood.

But God is working out a supreme Master Plan, involving every human being. However, Daniel 12:10 adds, “…but none of the wicked shall understand,” because God will not reveal His plans to those who do not obey Him!

Psalm 111:10 says, “A good understanding have all they that DO His commandments.” God only gives understanding to those who do what He says!

Revelation Means a Revealing
After Daniel finished recording the prophecy, he asked God to explain what it meant. Though Daniel was used to record the book, even he did not understand it: “I heard, but I understood not” (12:8). God answered, “Go your way…the words are CLOSED UP and SEALED till the time of the END ” (vs. 9 – the Moffatt translation is even stronger by rendering this “till the crisis at the close”).

While Daniel was not allowed to understand what he wrote, those who live in the time of the end can! And we have seen that the wise DO! Daniel contains a mixture of history, prophecy that has been fulfilled, prophecy soon to be fulfilled, and a few elements of prophecy that will be fulfilled centuries in the future—at the time of Revelation.

We will see that the book of Revelation was also sealed with seven separate seals. It is crucial to understand another KEY point: The seven seals in God’s hand essentially span all but the last two chapters of the book! The seven seals are opened one by one, in sequence. Each reveals events before they happen. Only Christ is qualified to remove the seven seals and open the book to understanding.

The Greek word apocalypse is translated “revelation.” This English word actually means to reveal—not conceal, hide, veil or close up. The dictionary definition of revelation is: “The act of revealing or disclosing; something revealed, especially a dramatic disclosure of something not previously known or realized.”

In the first verse of the book, the apostle John recorded Christ’s words, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ…to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.” Near the end of the book, Revelation 22:10 states, “Seal NOT the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.”

Comprehend John’s words. The time for understanding the book of Revelation IS now at hand!

God reveals a basic framework for understanding future events. This framework is primarily laid out in Daniel and Revelation. Daniel, recorded 600 years earlier, sets the stage for the larger and more detailed book of Revelation, which describes many events nowhere else in the Bible.

Understand! By naming the book “Revelation,” God makes clear that the book is not a review or a reiteration. It is not merely a re-telling of what can be learned in the Old Testament, or elsewhere in the New. The book contains elements of God’s Plan that were “revealed” decades after the rest of the Bible was recorded. All the apostles but John knew nothing about it because they died decades before John received it.

Its 22 chapters stand on their own. Treating Revelation exactly as God intended—as a book that contains different, additional prophecies, largely separate from those previously recorded in His Word—becomes the first great KEY to unlocking the book!

Revelation outlines a long series of events that relate to one another in a continuous flow—comprising an entire story. These occur in order of time sequence. (The center of this booklet contains two overview graphs—an outline and a story flow—to which the reader may occasionally refer.) Also, Christ periodically insets certain events into the course of the Revelation. You now understand a second KEY to unlock the book!

Now a third all-important key! Revelation explains many things that happen deeper into God’s Plan, which would be lost to the understanding of billions if we did not have this book. Endless speculation would arise over what God was going to do in His Plan’s next phases. He would have to reveal these things.
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The preceding is an excerpt from the book REVELATION EXPLAINED AT LAST! If you would like a copy of it, say "YES" in your comment below. I will tell you how to get it - ABSOLUTELY FREE!