This morning, I feel inspired to write about a particular demonic strategy, a deadly attitude being embraced by many. This attitude is from the pit of hell. It holds its victims by the jugular, suffocating them with obvious but subtle strangulation techniques and yet distracting them from what is killing them. The result then is that they refuse to accept something is wrong when it is obvious to all that they are on the path of destruction.
Let no man deceive himself. – 1Co 3:18a
I am talking about self-deception! You see, deception can come from different sources, but the greatest and deadliest form of deception is self-deception.
The demon behind self-deception works hand in hand with other demons especially mammon spirits and religious spirits. So you can see a person who says she wants to sleep around in order to get money, after all she goes to church and serves there with her time and money!
Hence, most people that are self-deceived can be found in the beautiful auditoriums of our churches today, in the choirs and on the pew.
Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap. – Gal 6:7 AMP
It is only self-deception that will make a lady get involved in pre-marital affairs and then confidently sing in the choir the next day without blinking! You see such person is self-deceived, believing that her service to God will cover up for his or her ungodly life! It sounds incredible, but it is all over the place!
It is only self-deception that can make a man stand up from an adulterous bed and then go to church and condemn it from the pulpit!
It is self-deception that will make a man of God who has several branches under him and many looking up to him get involved with habitual adulterous life!
It is one thing to make a mistake, and anybody can fall, and people do fall. And God did make a provision to situations where people fall, to get them restored. But when it becomes habitual, I don’t really care how anointed the person is, there is an intertwining of self-deception demons and other demons oppressing that man!
He simply tells himself that God will overlook it since he is still having ‘result!
That is also a demonic strategy in itself, to make people develop a cold attitude to the things of God, to make them resent anything called pastors or church and thereby shutting them away from where they can get help. The result is that bondages and captivities are elongated and perpetuated!
To be continued…
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I severe myself from all ungodly relationships in Jesus name.
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY I receive God’s help to be free in Jesus name. Lord, send help to me now in Jesus name
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Joh 8:36 (AMP) So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Become accountable today to someone your respect and value a lot.
This morningour topic is centered around how to stop the operations of the strange woman
Learn to appreciate your spouse
With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. (Proverbs 7:21 KJV)
I say this to married people all the time; don’t grow weary of each other. I tell wives, don’t be careless in handling your man! Avoid unnecessary quarrels that linger for days. Stop getting hurt over every issue. Work together as a couple. None of you will ever be perfect, but keep improving and keep forgiving each other. That is how to work at your marriage.
Now, ladies, you need to consciously protect your husband from several traps out there! Don’t be careless! Learn to appreciate your husband and praise him!
You need to know that this is the strength of the strange woman! While you are busy fighting and quarreling with your husband everyday over this and that, the strange woman is busy flattering him!
With her much fair speech….with the flattering of her lip!
Look at the Message translation:
Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech. (Proverbs 7:21 Message)
I will give you examples: Stop telling your husband, “You are not even handsome again, your belly is protruded, this is not the man I got married to!” Why?
You see, the strange woman will gladly say things like, “This is what I like about you. Your tummy! So rounded like football, O ya, come and lie down, let me rub it for you. That ingrate you have at home doesn’t know what she has!”
When you have been quarreling with your husband, and there has been no communication nor Jeru trips for days, and you know he is neither grounded in the things of God nor spiritual, and you know he is having executive and business meetings in different locations and in hotels, you have just aided the devil in trapping him!
Usually, the next thing that happens is the next verses:
Before you know it, he’s trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush and then shot with an arrow, Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over (Proverbs 7:22-23 Message)
I give you another example: Don’t tell your husband, “Dear, you have to do something about this your balding head. How old are you that all your hair is fast disappearing? You don’t even look fine again. You look like Papa Ajasco!”
You see the strange woman is ready to rub that head and say things like, “I just like this your head, let me rub cream on it, I just like it shiny!”
The strange woman is ready to tell all the lies, make him feel appreciated until she collects all the money meant for his family!
The concluding verses advises all the men:
So, friends, listen to me, take these words of mine most seriously. Don’t fool around with a woman like that; don’t even stroll through her neighborhood. Countless victims come under her spell; she’s the death of many a poor man. She runs a halfway house to hell, fits you out with a shroud and a coffin (Proverbs 7:24-27 Message).
May God deliver you from the strange woman.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am delivered from the strange woman.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, deliver me from the strange woman.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech. (Proverbs 7:21 Message)
I have often been asked, “How do you know a wrong person for you in a relationship?” And the answer is very simple, “Through his words!”
“But Pastor, what about if he or she doesn’t talk?”
You see, the reality is that he or she cannot hide for long.
His words are a mirror of his heart. If you can listen very well, to what is being said, and listen to what is not said, you will always be able to discern a man’s heart.
Over the years, I have had to attend to young ladies who unwittingly got messed up by married men. It would have been too late by the time they discover what is happening and by that time they are caught in an emotional web.
These married men are skillful, usually older and experienced at preying on young ladies. The sad thing is that sometimes, these ladies are believers, naive, unsuspecting and too trusting to discern between the lines.
Now, words are powerful, and you can actually know the intent of a person’s heart by his words.
The words he or she speaks are reflections of what is intrinsic in the heart. When a married man wants to sleep with you, he comes indirectly with several statements. When you hear these statements, you should run for your life. I mean, run for your life.
Everywhere the scripture proffers a solution to sexual pressures, it asks you to speak to your legs!
“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” (1Co 6:18, KJV)
Flee fornication! It means to run away!
You remember Joseph ran away? And he became a prime minister. Samson refused to run, and he destiny was cut short!
You also remember Samson didn’t die immediately, his eyes were first taken out! It typifies that he could no longer read the word of life. That is what the devil does to you when you start compromising, he takes your eyes out, you lose interest in reading the Bible, because he knows that is the only thing that can save you or deliver you!
Okay, let’s quickly run through seven statements that should make you run for your dear life when you hear a married man say them. Never ever take those statements as compliments. They are the expressions of a lust-filled heart designed to slow you down and make you sin against your God.
1. If I have met you before I married my wife, I would have married you
Why should a married man say this? When you hear him say this, it is not time to feel cool and start blushing. It is a statement that betrays his covenant relationship with his wife and it is inappropriate. Stay away from such a man. If you don’t, he would put more pressure and might eventually sleep with you.
Also, beware when a married woman says to you as a single guy that had she met you before meeting her husband, she would have married you.
2. I wish you can have a baby for me. You are so beautiful
You are not a baby factory or a baby producer. You are meant for your husband. Never take this as a compliment. Why would a man be wishing this when he is already married? If you feel special because of that statement, and you get pregnant, the next shocking suggestion from him would be abortion.
3. Can I take you out? I love your company
Don’t cooperate with this antic. A married man doesn’t take you out repeatedly unless there is an ulterior motive. After series of being taken out, your defence will be down.
4. My wife doesn’t give me enough attention
It is a lie from the pit of hell. First, you have already made the first mistake by allowing him to make such statements. Nobody made you an attention giver, so the man should go back to his wife at home. It is a just a ploy to play on your imagination and make you feel cool.
5. You make me feel young again
When you are not a medicine or some tranquilizer! It is a lie, he is not actually feeling young, he is feeling lust. As a child of God with a covenant perspective, you should run away from such men.
6. You are more intelligent than my wife
When a man makes this kind of statement, you should be scared of that man. He had more or less reduced his wife to a stupid entity all in the bid to fool another lady.
At the end of the day, if you cooperate with such men, who do you think is really unintelligent?
7. Where have you been all my life?
Lastly, they make statements like where have you been? Where have you been hiding all the while? Never fall for such statements. It is a deceit from the pit of hell.
The Bible advises that we should not be ignorant of the devices of the devil.
“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2Co 2:11, KJV)
Understand that the marital covenant is so strong that God is committed to fighting whoever tries to break it.
I pray for you this morning, you will not fall into the snare of married men who are deceivers. God will protect you and shield you continually.
Stay away from such men and don’t slow your self down! God will grant you more understanding.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am discerning. I am kept from married men who are deceivers. My relationship is blessed.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, give me a discerning heart
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY “After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!” (2Co 2:11, MSG)
