Some people think that life is going to be a bed of roses when they accept Christ as their savior. I, and I’m sure you also, have found this not to be the case. We have a powerful enemy in Satan who will do everything he can to discourage us in our walk with Christ. His demon cohorts observe our behavior and know exactly what buttons to push to distract us from God’s will, to cause us to lose our spiritual joy, to get angry at God and lose faith in His ability to deliver us from our trials and temptations. The list goes on and on. Our mental weaknesses are fed upon when we’re in a vulnerable state. Demons magnify our negative human thoughts and can put us in a deep spiritual depression. We have the ability on our own to fall into a situational depression. But evil forces can manipulate a vulnerable Christian’s mind to end up actually blaming God for their dilemma.
For the past two and a half months, I have been almost constantly attacked by the enemy. It is no coincidence that during that time, I tried to get my new CD onto my web site. My friends tell me these attacks are actually a good sign that if the devil is fighting me so strongly, then God has something great in store for my perseverance. Since I do all my recording , engineering and producing of my music myself, I must obviously deal with a great amount of technology. It has been unbelievable the amount of problems I’ve had with the software I use. This is good software I’m using. These problems are not caused by simply my not knowing how to use the software. I’m talking about, weird, inexplicable problems that have stumped the developers of these programs. For reasons I won’t get into here, you have to trust me, this continuous wall of problems I’ve been experiencing is of a metaphysical nature. Again, to put it simply, Satan does not want this music to get out to the public. I suffered through two months of constant delays just to get this new CD onto this web site after it was completed. There was technical failure after technical failure. All with no viable reason to occur.
Then, the real “you-know-what” hit the fan when I started working on the YouTube video for the CD. As of today, it’s finally up after over 120 hours of work put into it. Half of those hours was spent dealing with an unbelievable amount of software crashes and really strange occurrences. The software developers tried to help me with fixes the best they could, but the sure-fire fixes didn’t even work. I have a good, fully optimized computer. (My operating system, resources and specs are excellent to handle this video editing software.) So, in short, I’m going through hell to do God’s work. (By the way, the videos are up to view.)
You know, when we get into these kinds of situations, we tend to ask how this could be so. If God is in control of the power Satan has over our lives, why would He allow Satan to hinder the work we’re doing for Him? Our minds start reeling....maybe what I’m doing is something I just think is God’s will, but He actually doesn’t approve of it. We want to try to figure things out with our own minds. We are so focused on solving our problems that we don’t take the time to really think that there is a higher reason for why these things are happening to us. I admit I’m a pretty impatient person. I normally have a pretty calm life, and when things go wrong, it upsets me. I’m kind of spoiled that way. And when everything hits me all at once, I blow a fuse. I want to solve my problems as quickly as I can, because I am a very busy person, with lots of projects lined up. I like to finish one project before I move on to the next. But lately, I have found there simply is no solution to the problems I’m having by using my own logic.
Could it be that God is trying to teach me patience? Could it be that He has allowed all this stuff to happen to me so that I am forced to go to Him for the answers instead of depending upon my own will? Isn’t that the core of the Christian faith....to rely and depend upon God for all our needs? I think of the scripture First Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation (testing) has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” In its original intent, Paul was writing to his readers concerning the temptation of falling back into idol worship. But I believe this scripture has a strong application for our lives today as well. The biggest question I have had concerning these words is, “What does it mean ‘...He will also provide a way out...”? Notice that it says we still have to endure the testing. So, even though the testing may remain, the hardship of bearing it will be no more than each of us are able to bear. That comes by the grace of Christ. Some believe that the “way out” is through prayer and surrender to God’s will. I have to tell you in my personal experiences, sometimes you can pray your heart out, and the trial is still not lifted.
I am coming to realize that it is because God knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows with all our praying and wailing, we still haven’t surrendered our will to His will. We can pray for the torture to end, but what we should be praying for is for His will to be done in His own time. That way, if we truly have faith in His sovereignty, we can lay our troubles at His feet and know what we are going through is for our good, because He will reward us for being obedient to Him. I always tell people to pray daily for wisdom and discernment, so we can know what lessons God is trying to teach us when we go through those rough patches in our lives. Otherwise, we have the tendency to just keep getting hit over the head with the frying pan until we learn. I’m still getting hit over the head, because I’m stubborn and independent by nature. I’m telling you, considering the hell I’ve been through in the past two or so months, I’ve realized two things: The devil really doesn’t like it when you actively work for God and His gospel, and he’ll attack you like all get-out. And when you do work for God, you have to do it God’s way, in His time, according to His will, or you might have some tough lessons to learn. If you get a chance, pray for me and my thick head. God bless your life. Amen.
For the past two and a half months, I have been almost constantly attacked by the enemy. It is no coincidence that during that time, I tried to get my new CD onto my web site. My friends tell me these attacks are actually a good sign that if the devil is fighting me so strongly, then God has something great in store for my perseverance. Since I do all my recording , engineering and producing of my music myself, I must obviously deal with a great amount of technology. It has been unbelievable the amount of problems I’ve had with the software I use. This is good software I’m using. These problems are not caused by simply my not knowing how to use the software. I’m talking about, weird, inexplicable problems that have stumped the developers of these programs. For reasons I won’t get into here, you have to trust me, this continuous wall of problems I’ve been experiencing is of a metaphysical nature. Again, to put it simply, Satan does not want this music to get out to the public. I suffered through two months of constant delays just to get this new CD onto this web site after it was completed. There was technical failure after technical failure. All with no viable reason to occur.
Then, the real “you-know-what” hit the fan when I started working on the YouTube video for the CD. As of today, it’s finally up after over 120 hours of work put into it. Half of those hours was spent dealing with an unbelievable amount of software crashes and really strange occurrences. The software developers tried to help me with fixes the best they could, but the sure-fire fixes didn’t even work. I have a good, fully optimized computer. (My operating system, resources and specs are excellent to handle this video editing software.) So, in short, I’m going through hell to do God’s work. (By the way, the videos are up to view.)
You know, when we get into these kinds of situations, we tend to ask how this could be so. If God is in control of the power Satan has over our lives, why would He allow Satan to hinder the work we’re doing for Him? Our minds start reeling....maybe what I’m doing is something I just think is God’s will, but He actually doesn’t approve of it. We want to try to figure things out with our own minds. We are so focused on solving our problems that we don’t take the time to really think that there is a higher reason for why these things are happening to us. I admit I’m a pretty impatient person. I normally have a pretty calm life, and when things go wrong, it upsets me. I’m kind of spoiled that way. And when everything hits me all at once, I blow a fuse. I want to solve my problems as quickly as I can, because I am a very busy person, with lots of projects lined up. I like to finish one project before I move on to the next. But lately, I have found there simply is no solution to the problems I’m having by using my own logic.
Could it be that God is trying to teach me patience? Could it be that He has allowed all this stuff to happen to me so that I am forced to go to Him for the answers instead of depending upon my own will? Isn’t that the core of the Christian faith....to rely and depend upon God for all our needs? I think of the scripture First Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation (testing) has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” In its original intent, Paul was writing to his readers concerning the temptation of falling back into idol worship. But I believe this scripture has a strong application for our lives today as well. The biggest question I have had concerning these words is, “What does it mean ‘...He will also provide a way out...”? Notice that it says we still have to endure the testing. So, even though the testing may remain, the hardship of bearing it will be no more than each of us are able to bear. That comes by the grace of Christ. Some believe that the “way out” is through prayer and surrender to God’s will. I have to tell you in my personal experiences, sometimes you can pray your heart out, and the trial is still not lifted.
I am coming to realize that it is because God knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows with all our praying and wailing, we still haven’t surrendered our will to His will. We can pray for the torture to end, but what we should be praying for is for His will to be done in His own time. That way, if we truly have faith in His sovereignty, we can lay our troubles at His feet and know what we are going through is for our good, because He will reward us for being obedient to Him. I always tell people to pray daily for wisdom and discernment, so we can know what lessons God is trying to teach us when we go through those rough patches in our lives. Otherwise, we have the tendency to just keep getting hit over the head with the frying pan until we learn. I’m still getting hit over the head, because I’m stubborn and independent by nature. I’m telling you, considering the hell I’ve been through in the past two or so months, I’ve realized two things: The devil really doesn’t like it when you actively work for God and His gospel, and he’ll attack you like all get-out. And when you do work for God, you have to do it God’s way, in His time, according to His will, or you might have some tough lessons to learn. If you get a chance, pray for me and my thick head. God bless your life. Amen.
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