God is inviting you today to go into the back room that houses the chirping criticisms of Satan and put to death once and for all his accusatory lies in your life. Either his foot will rest on our neck or ours will rest on his. Though this demonic presence at times feels like a three-headed dragon, when the light is turned on, he is exposed for what he is - a mere cricket who can be crushed with one small stomp.
"Finally, brothers and sisters, 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." -Philippians 4:8
Do you ever hear the nagging voice that echoes, “failure”, “screw up”, or “you are not enough” ? It’s this voice that rages to steal away proper understanding of our position in Christ and impart a false belief of identity. This voice has to be squashed, and until it is, it will remain a significant voice at worst and a quiet background noise at best. If it is not silenced, it will steal away our living in the freedom Christ sacrificed his life for us to inherit.
Last week I was sitting with my wife in the living room when we heard a chirping noise that grew louder and louder coming from my back office. When I went back to check the noise I realized that a cricket had made its way into our house. At the time I couldn’t find the cricket, and so I shut the two doors between the back office and our living room. The loud chirp quickly became a faint whisper.
As we continued to get ready for bed, we kept hearing the noise from our bedroom. In order to silence the noise, we turned on a fan in our room. Sure enough, the noise was gone and we slept without hearing a chirp throughout the night.
As you can guess, when I awoke the next morning and worked my way through the house, the noise that was deafened quickly became louder and louder, affecting me again in annoyance the way it had the night previously. It wasn’t until I went in the back room and searched diligently and intensely for the cricket, that I was able to exterminate the noise and eliminate the annoyance from my home.
Quickly I realized, Satan’s chirping criticisms can exist within the home of our mind in a very similar manner. The chirp can be deafened for a moment, but if left in the house will only be silenced momentarily, not exterminated completely. Often we abide in the room that allows his voice to blare in our ears while other times we just deafen his voice by distancing ourselves from his lies. Either way, unless we exterminate the critic, the chirping will continue to remain in our midst.
In large part, our transformation in life is occurring as a result of what we think. This chirping of Satan’s criticism that pours forth lies birthing condemnation and shame is a satanic assault on our lives. When the voice of Satan pours forth accusations that we believe to be true, we position ourselves to be conformed by the patterns of lies rather than transformed by substance of truth. This scheme of Satan is occurring at some level in each of our lives, as he is making war against our minds to abide in truth and rather live enslaved in the chains of his accusations.
God is inviting you today to go into the back room that houses the chirping criticisms of Satan and put to death once and for all his accusatory lies in your life. Either his foot will rest on our neck or ours will rest on his. Though this demonic presence at times feels like a three-headed dragon, when the light is turned on he is exposed for what he is - a mere cricket who can be crushed with one small stomp.
Today, turn on the light and recognize that his accusations are lies, making a simple stomp on his presence by standing firm in God's truth. Simply declare, “I am a beloved son or daughter who has been washed by the blood and brought into the Kingdom by Christ’s broken body. His cross has triumphed over my attack, I am more than a conqueror.”
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
- Colossians 3:1-3
Start to think on things above, and suddenly the things below that once seemed so powerful will quickly become puny and powerless in your presence.
