As I have studied Scripture and observed the people in whom Scripture deals with, I feel the need to write on the subject of the ‘Destruction of God’s People’. It is of prime importance that we understand truth apart from fiction. Truth frees and liberates while fiction puffs up and hinders freedom and can actually destroy God’s people. The fact of the matter is that in the time we live in, it would seem that so many Christians who claim to be such are in spiritual, emotional, and intellectual bondage today. It’s no wonder that the ‘church’ has so many problems; it’s filled with believers who are spiritually bound.
Notice in 1st Thessalonians 2:18; “For we wanted to come to you -- I, Paul, more than once -- and yet Satan hindered us.” That word ‘hindered’ means to strike against, to ‘loudly’ come up against.” Paul described Satan as a maker of malicious racket; one who seeks to noisily strike against believers! Why would he want to do this, one might ask. Of course he wants to harm all believers, but that’s not the scope of all he seeks to do. Satan’s ultimate goal is to halt any forward movement of the Work of God - specifically in the area of understanding and fulfilling the Word of God He knows that any forward movement for God is a move against him! Satan desires to draw us away from God in order that he can poison minds and cause division among the people of God! Disregard of the Word of God goes back to the garden. Remember that Satan tricked Eve into disregarding God’s Word! Satan’s greatest blow to us today is to hinder us from truly knowing and living God’s Word! Paul’s desire was to go and teach the Thessalonians the Word of God, but Satan noisily and maliciously fought against him! It is the same today, when Satan sees God moving in the lives of a group of believers in such a way that those same believers are set on fire by God through His Word, Satan rises up and does all he can to avert their attention away from what God is doing and what He hopes to do! I feel the main way Satan does this is by enlisting backslidden and immature Christians to make his noise! Those believers who are carnal minded, focused on selfish and worldly things. Those who for lack of maturity and lack of submission to the Lord are enlisted by Satan himself to derail any and all moves of God. These ‘racket makers’ are simply pawns in the hands of Satan! Unknowingly enlisted pawns, but enlisted pawns indeed! Remember when Peter rebuked the Lord? Jesus looked at Peter and said; “Get behind me Satan!” Here is the Apostle Peter, in a weak moment, a carnal moment that unknowingly was pulled into Satan’s web of deceit! Peter became a ‘pawn’ in the very hands of Satan to thwart what God was doing in the life of Jesus. Now just think about that for a moment. If even Peter can be deceived and enlisted, we all are vulnerable! The fact remains that in a moment of carnality Satan enlisted Peter to ‘mouth off’ to the Lord! He used Peter to attack and hinder the Lord! Be not fooled, believers in Christ can and actually do become pawns of Satan! Satan is the author of unruly and idle chatter, complaining and confusion, backbiting and tale bearing. God certainly is not! Now please understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with disagreeing. My wife disagrees with me more than anyone on the planet, but I love her and she loves me. We can disagree without getting personal and can do so without running the other down in public. It would be wrong in so many ways for me to get out in public and run my wife down by saying ugly things about her. By doing so, I would be harming her and also harming myself. It would be counter productive for a healthy marriage and our marriage could be destroyed by such hateful behavior. It’s the same in the body of Christ.
The body of Christ is a family and when Satan enlists believers, destruction will assuredly take place. The first and most important thing that will be destroyed will be relationships. Satan will use jealousy, bitterness, and even misunderstandings to destroy close, intimate, and deep relationships. God’s greatest desire for His family is that we be intimate with each other building strong bonds within the family of God seeking to grow closer to each other and ultimately to God. Satan seeks to destroy that and keep it from happening. By infiltrating the hearts of carnal and immature believers, Satan launches an attack against the people God and actually hinders a move of God. When Satan is successful, God is not the One who loses, we are! Jesus said in John 13:35; “they shall know you are My disciples by the love you have for one another”. We are not called to agree with each other; we are called to love one another.
