Illusion: something with deceptive appearance; false or incorrect idea.
The enemy operates in the realm of deception and lies. He wants you to keep your eyes on what SEEMS to be and not what really is. He wants you to believe that you are living a life of lack: lack of health and peace, lack of provision, lack of evidence, signs, healings, miracles; lack of the Word of God working and producing in your life, lack of change, even the lack of God’s presence. When you’re going through a trial, which of us doesn’t at some point have the thought of “Where is God? I don’t feel Him!”? This leads you to begin to doubt God’s love and provision and presence just because you don’t FEEL it.
The enemy functions in the realm of the senses and when we rely on our senses as our source of truth, we are then open to his deceptions. We are then prone to believing his lies that we are lacking when the Word of God says that we lack nothing when we are in Christ.
Adam and Eve had it all. No lack whatsoever. They had peace, health, food, everlasting life and more importantly, intimate fellowship with God Himself yet what did the enemy get them to focus on? The one and only thing that God said they could not partake of ……and why? Because He was being mean and withholding something good from them? No, because they would DIE if they ate it. DEATH would be their reward. Did they not understand what that meant?
If we allow ourselves to focus on the illusion of lack, then we are partaking of and eating the lies of the enemy and this brings death to us.
It begins to kill your faith. It’s like a small infection that, if not treated, will keep spreading and growing until it eats away at anything living and good, leaving behind rot, decay and death. The enemy knows that it is by FAITH that we receive the promises of God; he knows that the substance of FAITH is what makes those very things manifest and thrive in your life.
It kills off your trust in God and in His Word. Did God really say? Why isn’t it working? I don’t see or feel anything different or better so it must not be working which means God’s Word doesn’t work, at least not for me….if I still feel this way then why bother praying and standing on the Word….and on and on and on….. Don’t think for one second these thoughts are all yours. Who do you think plants those seeds and then waters them with fear and anxiety and symptoms and unbelief? The enemy knows full well the laws of sowing and reaping. He knows how the spiritual laws of God operate better than most Christian’s do which is why he can keep doing what he does and be so successful at putting them under repeatedly.
It kills off your identity in Christ. Well, if I really was then this would change…..I wouldn’t feel/be/act this way….since I don’t see or feel any change then maybe I really don’t….maybe I’m really not…..
It kills off your peace. So, if I still have these symptoms/issues, and it doesn’t work, at least not for me, and I’m not what I thought I was, and God’s Word isn’t producing in my life, then there’s no hope…I’m not healed, I’m not protected, I’m not saved….. It fills and torments you with fear and dread. It kills off your joy, your light, all the things that Christ is to be in you, all the things that are the fruit of the life of the Holy Spirit within you….and this brings death to your spirit as the light begins to be overshadowed by darkness, suffocating the flame inside until it’s snuffed out completely.
THIS is the enemy’s purpose.
It can and does bring death to the physical body: sickness, disease, malfunction, fatigue, weakness. People grow weary of fighting and some even give in to death, believing that it is better for them to die than to live. The enemy wearies them into full subjection and snuffs out the light of Christ in another, to quiet another….because he lies.
DO NOT COMPROMISE with the enemy of your soul. Not once, not ever. He will steal any morsel he can get his hands on. Give and inch and he’ll take so much more.
Be tenacious. Dig in. Know that no matter how bad the “illusion of lack” can seem God’s Word IS life, it DOES prosper but we cannot let the enemy steal that seed or allow him to dig it up and out from under us or it stalls the process.
Fight the good fight of faith. Get and keep His Word, guard it like a precious gem, bury it deep within you. It’s your only offensive weapon against the enemy, and he’ll do anything he can to knock it out of your hand so that you are left defenseless, left to become just another statistic of the devil, who started off so strong, but man, what happened???
Did God really say? Well, go find out for yourself….
Then hold tight and don’t give up.