Watch Out!

People in your life can become corrupt agents for demons. This will make you look at people around you and know that you have to be more discerning. How close is this? For Adam it was his wife; Eve was deceived, Adam was disobedient. That’s how close it is! You have to keep your filters up as close as your relational networks are. Strongholds are defined as believing lies, self-deceptions that we can hide behind. They come because we put our guard down. We trust and we get careless. We trust corrupt people or practices. The inroads to our lives do not come from people we don’t like or people we distance ourselves from. Some people we can look or see them afar off for what they are and we just keep our distance. Sometimes the people that we like can be just as corrupt and maybe even more dangerous because they have inroads to our ears. Jesus was perfect, yet He had someone that He picked, someone in His inner circle who absolutely became an avenue through which Satan tried to infiltrate a thought. It was that one, Peter, who was infiltrated and sifted to the point where he forsook Christ. He is the one who later wrote in his epistle, “Be sober and be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." Peter wrote that in hindsight. He can remember when he walked with Jesus and Jesus looked him in his face and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan, because you are an offense to me." Jesus saw a corrupting intent that Peter himself was not aware of, because he was unguarded.

PRAYER: Most gracious heavenly Father, help us to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. Help us to discern spiritual matters without compromising our faith. If it is Your will that these individuals enter our spheres of life, then Lord Jesus please grant us Your wisdom. And if we are the unguarded ones, the infiltrated ones, the ones used by the enemy, may we receive Your rebuke and repent. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen
By Pastor Wayne Cockrell
Taken from "The Danger of Fellowshipping with Demons"