Too many believers have an intellectual religion that satisfies the mind but never changes the life.

 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 62.

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The Holy Spirit can work in your life when your body, mind, and will are yielded to him.

But these are the very areas which Satan wants to attack! He wants to attack your body with suffering to make you impatient with God’s will. He wants to attack your mind with lies to make you ignorant of God’s will. And he wants to attack your will with pride to make you independent of God’s will.

 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 74.

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It is important that we learn to distinguish between Satan’s accusations and the Spirit’s conviction. A feeling of guilt and shame is a good thing if it comes from the Spirit of God. If we listen to the devil, it will only lead to regret and remorse and defeat.

When the Spirit of God convicts you, he uses the Word of God in love and seeks to bring you back into fellowship with your Father. When Satan accuses you, he uses your own sins in a hateful way, and he seeks to make you feel helpless and hopeless. Judas listened to the devil and went out and hanged himself. Peter looked at the face of Jesus and wept bitterly, but later came back into fellowship with Christ.

When you listen to the devil’s accusations (all of which may be true), you open yourself up to despair and spiritual paralysis. “My situation is hopeless!” I have heard more than one Christian exclaim, “I’m too far gone—the Lord could never take me back.” When you have that helpless, hopeless feeling, you can be sure Satan is accusing you.

 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 85–86.

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When you listen to Satan’s accusations, you will focus your attention on yourself and your sins; and this will only lead to defeat and despair. But when you listen to the Holy Spirit’s conviction, you will look by faith to Jesus Christ in heaven, your Advocate at the throne of God. You will remember that he died for you and that God cannot reject you, because you belong to Christ. It is because of the heavenly intercession of the Son of God that you and I can defeat Satan’s accusations.

 
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect and Defeat Him (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 90–91.

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Prayer is what we need to be taught. Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that even a small child can pray, it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which anyone can rise. It is fellowship with the unseen and most holy One. The powers of the eternal world have been placed at its disposal. It is the very essence of true religion. It is the channel of all blessings and the secret of power and life Through prayer, God has given to everyone the right to take hold of Him and His strength. It is on prayer that promises wait for their fulfillment, the kingdom for its coming, and the glory of God for its full revelation.

We know, however, that we are weak and unfit for this holy task. Only the Spirit of God can enable us to do it as it should be done. How quickly we are deceived into resting in the form of prayer, while the power is missing!

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 Even when we know what to ask, how much is still needed to make our prayer acceptable? It must be to the glory of God, in full surrender to His will, in full assurance of faith, in the name of Jesus, and with a perseverance that refuses to be denied. All this must be learned. And it can only be learned in the school of much prayer, for it is practice that makes perfect. Amid the painful consciousness of ignorance and unworthiness, and in the struggle between believing and doubting, the heavenly art of effective prayer is learned. Because even when we do not remember it, there is One—the beginner and finisher of our faith and prayer— who watches over our praying and sees to it that all who trust Him for it shall be carried through to perfection in this school.

 
Andrew Murray, Teach Me to Pray (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2002).

What is an enemy? It is a person who either wants to harm you or who would say something about you so as to call your credibility or integrity into question. They would rejoice at your downfall or lack of success. They would not pray that God would bless you and prosper you, but instead they would sincerely hope that God would bring you down.

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An enemy is a person who hates you although they would never admit to the word hate. I say that because, should your enemy be a Christian, they know it is wrong to hate. So they will use any other word or phrase: “loathe,” “despise,” “I just can’t stand them,” “They make me sick,” “I can’t stand the sight of them.” In other words, they just don’t like you, and they will show it one way or another, sooner or later.

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 Self-centeredness causes us to be shortsighted. We are unable to view our immediate circumstances through the eyes of faith. When our lives are truly lost in Jesus, we know His character and share His joy. 

 John Bevere, The Bait of Satan, 20th Anniversary Edition (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2014), 98.

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Trials in this life will expose what is in your heart—whether the offense is toward God or others. Tests either make you bitter toward God and your peers or stronger. If you pass the test, your roots will shoot down deeper, stabilizing you and your future. If you fail, you become offended, which can lead to defilement with bitterness.

 John Bevere, The Bait of Satan, 20th Anniversary Edition (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2014), 100.

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Offenses will reveal the weakness and breaking points in our lives. Often the point where we think we are strong is our place of hidden weakness. It will remain hidden until a powerful storm blows away the cover.

 John Bevere, The Bait of Satan, 20th Anniversary Edition (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2014), 103.

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Persecutors don’t kill with the sword or a gun; they do it with the tongue or pen.

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If you hate, you will give them your heart and mind. Don’t give those two things away.


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Steps in Totally Forgiving Others

1. Make the deliberate and irrevocable choice not to tell anyone what they did.

2. Be pleasant to them should you be around them.

3. If conversation ensues, say that which would set them free from guilt.

4. Let them feel good about themselves.

5. Protect them from their greatest fear.

6. Keep it up today, tomorrow, this year, and next.

7. Pray for them.

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Here are ten steps to freedom, as found in the Daily Express article:

1. Stop excusing, pardoning, or rationalizing.

2. Pinpoint the actions that have hurt you.

3. Spend time thinking of ways in which your life would be more satisfying if you could let go of your grievances.

4. Try replacing angry thoughts about the “badness” of the perpetrator with thoughts about how the offender is also a human being who is vulnerable to harm.

5. Identify with the offender’s probable state of mind. Understand the perpetrator’s history while not condoning their actions.

6. Spend some time developing greater compassion toward the perpetrator.

7. Become more aware that you have needed other people’s forgiveness in the past.

8. Make a heartfelt resolution not to pass on your own pain.

9. Spend time appreciating the sense of purpose and direction that comes after steps 1–8.

10. Enjoy the sense of emotional relief that comes when the burden of a grudge has melted away. Enjoy also the feeling of goodwill and mercy you have shown.

 R. T. Kendall, Total Forgiveness: When Everything in You Wants to Hold a Grudge, Point a Finger, and Remember the Pain - God Wants You to Lay It All aside (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2010).