Satanic Lies

In shepherding, one of the most dangerous deceptions is the deception of the devil, the Satanic lies. Satan hates the believers to grow in life, and much more, he hates the shepherding every believers has to either give or take. I have also been facing a direct mental confrontation from Satan with his deceitful lies. Not once, a couple of times. Only the spirit within and the ministry of the word without convinced me otherwise, against Satanic lies.

Two very practical incidents I faced recently are noteworthy. 

Few weeks ago, I was so much tempted to not go for shepherding a family. But because of the burden within, I fought against the tempation and went for a home meeting. As I drove my car, deceitful thoughts crowded my minds: Why do I have to waste my time, energy and money to visit this family? What have I gained from visitng week after week? Nobody paid for my visit. At least, in the business world, for any visit you are paid for it. This family is playing fool with you. Forget about them and just take rest at home. 

My God, I almost believed in these lies. But I did not back down, but went to visit the family on the Lord's day evening.

My! to my surprise, this family was so open! As I ministered the word of God with practical life testimonies, the hearts of the brother and sister melted. The sister was almost in tears. They were so subdued and confessed how much they need to be visited again and again, and be shephered. They also acknowledged how much they need the fellowship of the church. But somehow, something have been a hindrance in their spiritual pursuit. 

As we all prayed, the presence of the Lord was very rich. They both promised to come regulary for the church meeting. Even as I vistied them again yesterday, the Lord did a deeper work in them. The whole family of father, mother, and son decided in oneness to be faithful and regular for this kind of shepherding, and also to attend the Lord's tanle meeting.

Another family too was of similar case. The Satanic lies were: Why visit a family who are not interested? See they have escaped from coming to the meeting. And when I went there, the father of the family did not come home on time. In fact, late by over two hours. Why do I have to waste my time? 

But when they did come home, and the two families gathered together, the Lord's speaking was very rich. Though the fathers of the two families came back from their works after the whole day's labor, they got revived with the ministry of the word. They were so much shepehrded and each of them even testified of how blessed they were with the Lord's speaking. What if I listened to the Satanic lies and backed down from visiting these families? They would have missed that weekly portion of spiritual food supplies.

Thank God for the Spirit within and the Word without. 

Lord, grace me to be faithful to Your word. Never to listen to the Satanic lies but to the written word of God in the books and the spoken word of God in my spirit.