Influencers Weekly Devotional

September 27, 2010

Go With ME

Embracing our Sacred Responsibility with Christ

The Accuser

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” Revelations 12:10

If there is a voice more easily disguised, I haven't found it. It is a voice that we most often think belongs to ourselves. It is not vocal, and it is rarely heard by anyone else, unless we repeat what it said to us. When we do repeat what we heard, we see how destructive it can be, and we learn to regret it. This voice seems to be on our side many times, and it gives us insight to other people's inadequacies. The voice tells us how wrong they are, and how right we are. The voice makes us smug and prideful about the spiritual insight and wisdom we have, while telling us the other poor fellow is dull in understanding. The voice convinces us that we have things figured out, while another struggles with the obvious answer. The voice accuses another person in our thoughts, and we easily believe it. Later, somewhere in our maturing process, when we begin to look at other people as Christ does, we begin to understand that we have been too critical of others. We realize that another thing has happened. Our critical spirit has made us appear arrogant and prideful to the people around us. We begin to see that they would rather not be near us anymore, and we grow lonely and relationally starved. In this "alone" condition, we try to run into closer fellowship with Christ, for we understand He will love us in spite of our sins. But we discover that our spiritual pride has created distance in our intimacy with Him. The simple truth we uncover is that He loves us, but He loathes all spiritual pride, and this has created a hindrance in our fellowship with Him. We discover we cannot grow closer to Him, unless we abandon our critical point of view of others. We see the problem clearly as never before, and we pledge to leave our negative criticism behind, so that we can remove the obstacles in our path. Our King opens His arms, and we go closer to Him and find that which we longed for. For a time, the voice is silent, and we make progress in our spiritual walk with Christ and with rebuilding our relationship bridges that had been burned behind us. Life is good and getting better, but it is not long before the voice begins to speak again. This time it is different though. No longer does the voice disguise itself as a friend. No longer does it make us feel good about ourselves by running others down. Instead it condemns us. It tells us how worthless we are. It reminds us of our sins and how we could never tip the scales enough to make up for our darkness years. It tells us we are a hypocrite and that we can never change. The voice tells us the only way to overcome our wrongs is a life of never-ending performance and religious activity. The voice not only accuses us, but it also accuses God of being a liar, saying His promises are false. The voice says things that confuse us. We ask ourselves, "Where did that come from?", as condemnation attacks every sacred aspect of our life. If we are wise to how spiritual warfare is waged against God's man, we sniff it out. We are hearing the voice of "The Accuser." His cover has been exposed, and we have him in our sights. Now, it is time to go on the offensive and battle him. If you think my buildup in this devotional is rather dramatic in introducing our enemy, "The Accuser," I would say I wish I had more time and pages to use in describing my own battles with this evil voice. I would also say that God's man will be disabled in his growth to be a man after God's own heart, if he doesn't learn to distinguish this voice, know where it is coming from, understand its intent, and know how to resist it. So, let's discuss a warfare strategy in resisting this voice. "The Accuser" is another name for Satan. The name describes his work perfectly. In his work to hurt us, and discredit God, Satan accuses God of being a liar. He tempts us to doubt God's promises and believe that we cannot depend on Him. Next, Satan accuses people with whom we have a problem, tempting us to be judge, juror, and jailer. He tempts us to think even God doesn’t love them and that they deserve His wrath rather than His grace. Satan also gets to us with his accusations in tempting us to loath ourselves, doubting that God could really love us like the Bible says He does. Then, Satan makes us a target of someone else's condemnation, as he is a voice which prods them to accuse us and condemn us. I can go on and on with many examples. But these four ways he accuses are his most active methods. So, how do we resist the voice, especially if we are a victim of condemnation from someone else? The first thing we need to nail down is the fact that this voice can have no affect on us unless we agree with it. I know this sounds highly simplified, but it is the truth. Unless we embrace his tempting, Satan cannot create doubt, self- loathing, pride, and anxiety within us. Therefore, we must not agree with the voice in any way, form or fashion. The second thing we need to nail down is that Satan is a liar, and no truth can come from his voice. If we embrace and believe the Father of Lies, no matter how convincing he seems, he will lead us astray. Therefore, we must not follow his voice, for it leads to great hurt and pain for others, and for ourselves. Third, if you follow Christ, Satan will make you a target in someone else's mind, even though it is unjustified. You will be accused, as Satan speaks to another person and condemns you. I have had bitter experiences in this particular area, and I've even had some lately. It is surprising that it can come from friends, or people you would think know you thoroughly. These can be your most trusted friends, co-workers, or ministry partners. They are people to whom you open yourself with transparency. Out of nowhere, you begin to sense their distrust or criticism. This may be the hardest voice for us to resist, for it requires that we pray and wait for God to reveal the truth to another person. We cannot turn someone away from the voice, for it his choice to believe it or not. But we can do our part and pray for the one who condemns us, making sure we do not respond as Satan desires, with anger or our own condemnation. Summing it all up, this voice from the enemy can be resisted. We must recognize it, refute it and reject it. One way of distinguishing whose voice we are hearing is to ask ourselves, "How does this make me feel, and what is it tempting me to do? Does it create a critical spirit? Does it create anger? Does it create fear or self-condemnation?" If the voice does these things, we can be sure it comes from the Accuser, and we have just sniffed it out. The Apostle Paul had a good offensive weapon to counteract the voice. See what he said: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Phil. 4:8 Listening to only ONE voice, Rocky TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS DEVOTIONAL, CLICK HERE