Have you heard of the frog in the pot of water? A frog is swimming in the pot of water. He’s having a grand ol’ time. But someone is heating up the water. The frog doesn’t notice the water is getting warmer. It’s so subtle. Degree by degree, and then … it’s too late. The frog might have jumped out earlier but he was happily swimming around. So soon he will be dead meat.

The enemy of our soul likes to be subtle, just as the frog in the pot of water. It’s cool, so cool, but it is slowly and steadily heated up. The consequences may be death.

Our real enemy, satan, has his ways to lure you into a snare. He doesn’t come out and say: “Hey, I’m the devil. Would you like to follow me?” Most people would not! No, he does it subtly.

When I was young, I got into this “world peace organization.” I was young and naive. They told me I would be chanting for world peace. They said that Christians could join. They told me it was a philosophy and that’s how I viewed it. But it definitely was a religion! Through the chanting, which I later learned was a form of brainwashing, I was calling on a false god! It was in a different language, so I didn’t realize this. (My testimony is here)

We would be wise to do it God’s way, by the Book, the Holy Word of God. Since I’ve been a saved, many years ago, I see now the pitfalls. I want to help people, especially young people, avoid the seductions of the enemy. . But the enemy is shrewd.

THE ENEMY SAYS ….

The enemy entices people, especially young people, to go astray. How many things do you think are “cool” now?  The temperature of the water will invariably go up!

James 1:14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

SEXUAL IMMORALITY

The enemy says, “It’s just a little petting.” But that leads elsewhere. One should be married before you are intimate with someone.

But what if the girls gets pregnant? Should she marry the wrong person? That could end in divorce!

Would you get an abortion and kill your baby? I knew a girl in high school. It took her one time to get pregnant. Unfortunately, she had an abortion.

Do you want your first helpless baby aborted? This is like giving your baby as a sacrifice to the false god Ba’al. But the Scripture says:

“Now choose life…” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood…” Leviticus 17:11

Before a women normally knows she is pregnant, her baby has blood and “the life of the flesh is in the blood.”

So sexual immorality may lead to the death of a tiny baby!

IMPURITY

The enemy says you can have an alternative lifestyle when really he wants you to live in abominable sin, contrary to the will of God.

When God created Adam and Eve, His very first commandment to them was:

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it …

How can one be fruitful and multiply if they are of the same sex? Maybe the end result of this will be death through AIDS. But it certainly leads to idolatry.

Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…”

So God gives them over to IDOLATRY!

IDOLATRY

The enemy says, “Do a little yoga.” But there is a false god and it’s name is “Om” presented in many yoga schools. There is a difference between yoga with the roots in Hinduism, and doing stretching and exercise! I say, let’s differentiate between the two. Yoga can lead you into a spirit of error: chanting, false god, horoscopes, and Kundalini yoga which has the danger of demonic possession.

Also, reading horoscopes is not the way of the Spirit. The LORD wants us to come to Him with our problems and concerns.

Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

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SORCERY

The enemy says, “Read a little Harry Potter.” But shouldn’t one say, “Thy will be done” as in the LORD’s prayer, NOT “MY WILL be done”?

This is the essence of witchcraft: getting your way over God’s way. It starts with manipulation, then it gets deeper into incantations, and finally voodoo. It’s a thought, and then given verbiage, and then executed.

The enemy says, “Try a little pot. It won’t do you no harm.” But then that is to get you into deeper drugs. The Greek word for “witchcraft” or “sorcery” is:

5331 pharmakeía (from pharmakeuō, “administer drugs”) – properly, drug-related sorcery, like the practice of magical-arts, etc. (A. T. Robertson).

Is that shocking that the Greek word “pharmakeia” is linked with illicit drug-taking especially to get you “high”?

THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS

Now, we’ve learned somethings that the enemy says, but what does the Spirit of God say:

Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who doe such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Notice I used “the works of the flesh” in the headings up above: sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, and sorcery.

But God wants us to be filled with His spirit. If you are born-again – believing and trusting in Jesus Christ, you receive the Spirit of God.

There is a difference between the spirit, which is born of God; and the soul – your mind, your will, and your emotions; and the flesh which is carnal. If you walk in the Spirit, your soul won’t lean towards carnality!

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

DISCERNMENT

I pray that you will be wise to the subtleties of the enemy. The devil hates us and wants us ruined! Do not fall for his malicious craftiness!

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.