WESUD

This past weekend I attended a prayer training conference at my church. It was a great reminder how the enemy works to destory us, and even more importantly that he tries to make himself appear more crafty than he actually is. If you think about it, this falls right in line with him being the father of lies.

You should know that my perspective is Life is hard………… and then you die.

JK.

But really though. Life is hard. The enemy works to trap us usually in one of five areas:

• Wounding
• Entanglement
• Sin
• Ungodly Belief
• Demonic attacks

The first part in overcoming the enemy is deriving clarity. This is something I would have benefited from knowing a few years ago: Why did I feel the need to over perform at work? Why was I so insecure about others perception of me? Why would I run from my wife in conflict? I acted out my feelings and self-perception instead of taking the time to find out what God says about me – what is TRUE about Grey Bonin.

I will share with you briefly that I have heard the Lord call me by three new names in the last year: Pathlighter, Annointed, Chosen. When you get your God given identity it is usually something that you have been doing all along but never attributed a characteristic or name to. But enough about me, lets talk about briefly about each of the areas the enemy tries to trap us.

Wounding refers to unresolved trauma. Most likely from your childhood or significant life events in adulthood. For me, I had a pretty significant father wound growing up which fed my need to perform. The lie I bought into is that “if I was more accomplished my father would love me.” This led to workholism and the need to control others perception of me. Wounding is the MOST COMMON form of attack the enemy uses.

Entanglement refers to unhealthy spiritual and mental codependency or covenants made outside of a marriage relationship. I remember in the middle of 2023 when everything came crashing down, the only thing I thought I had left to cling to was Sydnie. This unhealthy codependency caused serious issues in our relationship because I was no longer pouring into her, I was sucking all of the life out of her. She became my external validation tool, and because of this the Lord even allowed my marital relationship to suffer to get my attention. (If you’re a husband I can’t encourage you enough to take the reigns spiritually in your life. Some of you may need to get back in touch with your emotions like I had to.)

Sin. You know what this. Sin, bad. Holiness, good. Sin is anything we say, think, or do that breaks God’s law.
I could literally talk for days about my failures here, but I think this bullet point is pretty easy to understand.

Ungodly Belief refers to untrue things we believe about ourselves or about God. One of Satan’s primary tactics is to take what God says mirror it. What the problem then? Doesn’t a mirror usually show us exactly who we are? Not exactly. A mirror reflects an image, but backwards. So the next time you hear the enemy speak to you, utilize what he is saying to discover what God actually thinks about you. A couple examples:

“You are unworthy.” -> you’re made in the image of THE KING.

“You are alone.” -> God is ever present, and near to the broken hearted.

“You are (insert identity statement) -> look for how scripture identifies you.

Satan WILL attack your identity. You can turn his words on him by saying the opposite back to him.

Demonic attacks refer to serious cases of demonic influence and/or possession. The enemy attacks anyone and everyone because he hates God. Hurting us is his way to get back at God. Unfortunately some take the pain the enemy is afflicting on them and blame God for it. Again, Satan and his demons want to destory us becasue they hate God and us because we are made in his image.

I hope this helps you in your prayer life.

How can I be praying for you?