Once again, you are welcome to another interesting topic: to kill, to steal and to destroy. This is the scriptural summary from John 10:10 which says, and I quote
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” – John 10:10 KJV
In this series, we will examine who a thief was, what does he do? What does he steals, why does he steal, who is immune against his strategy. Why does he succeeds so much in this enterprise, and what can be done to overcome him. We will examine killing, and lastly, we will look at what destruction means, where the destruction mentioned by Jesus Christ would takes place, and how to escape from the plan of this so called thief.
Strategies used by Satan to capture souls of mankind were what Jesus Christ revealed in John 10:10. Devil has a plan, he has an agenda, he has focus, and he has targets. He does not steal for nothing; he does not kill for nothing. Why does he do that? What is his reward for doing it? And why does he perpetrate this evil-act against mankind? We will find these out and much more in this series.
Happy reading!!!
A thief is likened to a robber, a burglar, a bandit or a crook. In all ramifications, a thief is not a nice name to call someone and yet Jesus Christ used the word as the name of someone. We need to know why he used this word for us to understand the significance of what He was saying in John 10:10.
Who is a thief? A thief is someone that appropriates what belongs to others as his. A thief is someone that deprives others the benefits of what rightfully belongs to them. A thief is someone who steals, especially secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny. Because the work of the thief is planned and executed in secrecy, therefore, the impact is also deadly to the unsuspecting mankind.
While the thief described above steals physical or tangible items from man, he could also steals spiritual gifts from mankind as well. His action could inflict pains, anguish and agony on mankind. This is the focus of this write-up. In other words, there are spiritual thieves: Those that steal from unguarded, unsuspecting and careless children of God. Understand one important thing: stealing must be carefully planned to succeed otherwise, the victim would thwart or impede the thief’s plan. May the plan of spiritual robbers over your life be hindered in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thief does not steal what is valueless. He does not waste his time on non-entities, nor waste his time on those that already in his camp. Opportunities can be stolen, marriages can be stolen, well-being can be stolen, joy, promotions, elevations, name it! Virtues or potentials deposited in you by God Himself can be stolen. And that is what the devil is even looking for.
Therefore, whatever is precious to a child of God, can be stolen by the devil if not well guarded. All that God created were perfect and good. Examine Genesis 2: 18, 21, 25, & 31. God did not create imperfection; He did not create sickness to co-habit with you. But devil can steal your health and substitutes sickness. In summary, no one would want to part with what is precious to him, unfortunately this is the target of the devil. May the devil fail in stealing your virtue from you in the name of Jesus Christ.
How did the devil – the enemy of mankind achieve this? What weapons does he use? Does the devil achieve this alone without the help of others? How far can he go in order to fulfil his ambition or desire in your life? We will discuss these in this section.
In Psalms 82 verse 6, the bible declares that we are gods and children of the most High. Stealing from us is therefore herculean task for the devil. In Matthew 12:29, Jesus Christ said “Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house”. That is the position we are to the devil: the position of strength and authority. The devil realizes this and therefore uses methods outlined below to fool us. This is how stealing comes in.
The devil hides in our behavior for negative inclinations or dispositions to steal from us. In 1 Timothy 6:10, Apostle Paul declares that the love of money is the root of all evil. Indeed love of money above the love that we have for Christ is an avenue for the devil to attack us. Every love we have for money would have to be moderated or controlled. Otherwise, we will be placing money before God and be lead astray. What about other invisible yet deadly negative tendencies like hatred, pride, habitual sins, anger, strife, procrastination? In concrete terms, examine Mark 7: 21 – 22, 1 John 2:16. All these vices were mentioned in several passages of the bible and cannot be enumerated completely here. Again, these are the agents or forerunners of the devil. They are the weapons used by the devil to steal from us. The effect of sins lowers our spiritual alertness or height, belittle us or completely alienate and distance us from our original position of authority in Christ. Once this happens, we have unknowingly opened ourselves for the devil’s attack and invited him to steal from us. We have been caught napping!!!
Remember, every sin that we commit takes us away from the position of authority. Many people have stopped seen sin as sin, and given it a glorified name. Lies has stopped been called lies and has assumed ‘beautiful’ yet stinking name before God!!! We only hear what we want to hear, and those things that make us feel good. The earlier we retrace our steps back to Christ the better for us. Do not open yourself for the soccer punch. Do not allow the devil to steal from you again. Be warned.
After stealing then comes killing.
The killing is an install mental. The process of killing is gradual. Killing does not come suddenly, killing comes unawares. Once your ability to recognize sin afar off has been blotted out, once you have become used to sin such that guilty conscience has departed from you, you no longer see sin as sin, every mention of sin in your presence annoys or angers you, or does not even provoke any reaction at all. You have become part and parcel of the family of sin, you have made yourself enemy to God, you have invited “killing” into your abode. What a wasted journey on earth!!! You are fighting against the only power that can redeem you from this senseless and profitless journey to your final destruction.
Every step you take in this battle of isolation from Christ increases your chances of ending up in eternal lake of fire. The devil will encourage you to continue in the rat race. He will give you all encouragement to succeed in the battle. He will make you see every truth as inconsequential. He will help you to see every truth-loving people as your enemy. When this is happening, understand that you are heading towards your “killing”.
In Matthew 13:25, Jesus Christ said “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way”. You have slept for too long and your enemy has sown tares of confusion, anger, failure to recognize the truth, failure of all manners of sins, and finally tares of final death into your life. I urged you to wake up today and retrace your steps back. It is not too late for you to do so. May the Lord give you the grace to retrace your steps back to him in the name of Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, Proverbs 20:5 says “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out” You are a wise man and I believe you know now what to do.
After killing is destruction
Destruction is the final straw that broke the camel’s back. Destruction is at the place of hell fire. Destruction is not on planet earth. You have to die to be destroyed. Because you are still living, you still have hope of retracing your steps back to Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 8: 36 – 37, Jesus Christ said: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” I tell you, the answer to this question here is no. You cannot exchange your soul for anything. Nothing is worth your soul. It is imperative that you ensure your name is not missing out of the book of life as it is written in Revelation 20:15 – “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” Where is your name now? This is the best time to answer this question. If you are not sure of your answer or you do not even know the answer at all, then you are heading towards destruction in the hell fire. Come out of it and the Lord will grant you the grace to make the heavenly race.
The devil knows the full advantage or benefits of going to heaven, but he has lost it. He wants as many as he could deceive to follow him to hell fire to roast! Why do you want to be among these numbers that are going to the hell fire? Why do you want to increase their population in hell fire? Why are you pretending that hell is not real when you know deep-down inside you that hell exists? This irrational and baseless thinking is the delusion of the devil. This cannot be you, something is wrong somewhere, and the earlier you make a U-turn and follow Christ now the better.
May you never end up in in hell fire.
The person who can overcome the devil is the one that is aware of the strategy of the devil himself. You need to understand or have an understanding of what the devil is using against you to pull you down. This differs from one person to another. Devil does not use the same method but his goal is the same: to pull you to hell fire. It might be anger in one person, in another it could be stealing, in another it could be ignorance of the truth, yet in another, this might be all manners of secrete sins that cannot be mentioned here. You need to ask the Holy Spirit to let you know what the devil is using against your life.
Once you understand the strategy of the devil, the next step is to determine to do something about it. But what can you do? In 1 John 4 – 5, Apostle John declared “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” The realities of the above scriptures are these: (1) you cannot overcome devil on your own nor rely on your strength and ability, (2) you need to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, (3) you need to rededicate your life to Christ if you have not done that already, and (4) you need to have faith in Christ that he is able to deliver you.
In Revelation 2:7, the bible declares that “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Why is the bible saying that those who have ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying when in fact God has given everyone ear to hear what God himself is saying? It is because not everyone will listen to Him, it is because not everyone that will read this message will listen to and do what the message is saying. May the Lord give you the spirit of obedience to listen to Him in the name of Jesus Christ.
In summary, if you are yet to know Jesus Christ, you have the opportunity to do so now. If you knew him sometimes but you have since make a U-turn, I urge you to take another U-turn and come back to Him. In Christ you have live and you have it more abundantly.
This is the concluding part of this series. Stay blessed!!!
