4.22.25

Good morning!

Welcome to the tenth day of counting the omer! We are in the second week and the third day of counting with a focus on investing more and expecting less.

In our zoom call study last night, we connected the glory of the Lord with the role of the priest (Lev. 9:6, 23), who teaches the Torah (specifically, the difference between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the common (Lev. 10:10), the daily bread of an omer that God provides for us on our journey (Ex. 16:7,10), the intimacy of covenant marriage (Ex. 24:16,17), God's presence within us (Ex. 40:34,35), all are designed to help us understand more about counting the omer (Lev. 23:15,16) and what waits for us at Pentecost, for those who obediently count to 50 :-)

 A couple days ago, I gave you some thoughts on the enemy's attack plan. Today, I want to take it a step further by giving you some practical truths to take the negative behaviors that society desires to control us with and flip them on their head (lust, gluttony, greed, envy, wrath, sloth, pride).

As the Iglessia youth learned last week, during our Q&A, Satan, our adversary, the one who feeds on the dust of the earth (Gen. 3:14; 1 Pet. 5:8), can’t trap you into lust, he will trap you in avoidance of intimacy. For instance, many of us know what it means to be hurt, and most are good at forgiving. But if that person is still in your life and you're asking why can't I just forgive them and everything goes back to normal? Your 'nose' is pretty smart. It knows something smells a little fishy. Why would your body want to give more to someone who only wants to take advantage of you, or hurting you. If someone isn't interested in listening to your pain and validating your experience as real, taking accountability and repairing any hurt that they've caused...you can forgive all you want, but you'll never feel close to that person. Is intimacy possible after betrayal? Yeppers! But only if both parties are willing to work on a change in their behavior. If not, the enemy wins again.

If he can’t swallow you in the over abundance of gluttony he will tantalize your taste buds in controlling everything around you.

If the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4) can’t seize you in greed, he will entrap you in the scarcity of thinking that you’re not good enough. Thinking that you’ll never ever have enough to meet your needs.

If the one who transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) can’t grab you in envy, he will grab you in idolization; where you idolize other people, that you look up to, a little bit too much. Leading us down the road of losing ourselves in the identity of another instead of becoming who God, who is light (1 Jn. 1:5), intended you to be (Matt. 5:13-16).

If Satan, the angry one, can’t grab you in expressing wrath, he will pull out the spiritual duct tape and zip your lip with silence; where you are never able to speak your mind, express yourself and do what’s right.

If the one who is constantly going around to and fro (Job 1:7; 2:2) can’t grab you in sloth, he will grab you in hustling, performance mode; constantly draining your soul.

If the arrogant one (Isa. 14:12-14) can’t grab you in pride, he will grab you in the false pride of self hatred, where deep down you don’t think that you’re good enough, where you become extremely insecure and you become the opposite of pride.

There's nothing new under the sun when it comes to the schemes of the wicked one (Eccl. 1-10)! Consequently, we have to make sure that we put all of our energy in the right place.

Which of those 7 attack zones is the enemy attacking you? Let me know so I can pray for you. And, then, on the flipside, let me encourage you to spend 45 minutes listening to the zoom call from last night to actively counterattack the enemy's stranglehold.

Happy 10th day of counting the omer! Pentecost is coming!

Shalom

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