The Devil Has A Hold On Me.

If you are a Christian and do not believe in the devil, you better start.  This is not say that you should worship the devil, do not misconstrue my message. But this is to say that you should be aware that as a Christian the devil is out to destroy you (see my blog here for more on that).  I think it was TD Jakes that said it best.


“If the devil is not bothering you, then he does not see you as a threat, he does not see you as someone that is worth his time.”

Although this may seem like a good thing because no one wants to be bothered by the devil, it really is bad because it means that you are not doing your job as a Christian.  The devil has been after me lately.  He comes to seek and destroy you and to keep you away from your goals.

Just to give you an overview of what I have been going through.  I am taking the last classes in my PhD program before my dissertation.  I have always maintained above a 3.0, but for some reason in these last classes I have been doing terrible.  It seems like my mind is clouded, I am confused, I cannot think properly.  I am questioning my intellect.

Lately, my money has already been running thin.  But the devil true to form has been trying to attack my money even more.  Just yesterday my phone that I had for less that a year went out for no reason, and I had to buy a new one.  But in the midst of hardship God is always there.  I went to Walmart to get a new phone and a phone that should have cost me $129 was marked down by mistakes to $48.  As I went to the register, they told me the full price, but due to their mistakes they gave it to me for $48.

And just today, I needed my GPS to go to training at a location I did not know where it was.  My GPS malfunctioned, I was lost, and it put me in a frenzy.  Not just because of the GPS, but the failing grade that I got on my final exam due to a misunderstanding, and because of me having to spend money due to unforeseen circumstance.  It was because I was sleep deprived and I have not been on my A game at my job.  All this happened just this week. Not to count the past months or years that things have just been falling apart.

I was mad and tired and ready to take it out on God.  Wondering why after all this and me being tired, was God not protecting me?  Why was he allowing everything to fall apart, right before my eyes?  What was the deal with my heavenly father that he was allowing this attack to come against me? I was about to just give up and fall apart.

Then God spoke to me as clear as day.  He asked me why was I letting the devil get to me?  I know the devil was out to take away my future, the things I have worked so hard for.  And even more so, the devil wanted me to believe that God had forgotten about me and that God was not on my side, because everything and anything was going so utterly wrong.

Instead of calling out the true villan the devil, I wanted to blame God, because I felt that God was there.  But one thing that I have learned is that as a Christian, God does not promise that anything is going to be easy for us.  Not because God wants us to live a hard life, but because the devil is after us day and night trying to find ways that he can sabotage the promises that God has for us.

You may be asking the same question that I asked.

Why does God allow the devil to hurt us?

Why can’t God protect us from everything and we just live life in complete and utter  bliss all the time?

I do not know if I can adequately answer that question.  But what I do know is that the devil is in the world along with his fallen angels otherwise known as demons.  The devil tried to even stop Jesus from completing his assigned task, so we should know that he has no hesitation in trying to stop us from ours.


Unfortunately we live in a fallen world where the devil can roam free.  It has been like this since the day of Adam and Eve.  The devil was right there waiting to lead all of man kind down to the path of damnation.  And with the devil and Eve, he is responsible for the fallen world we live in today.  The only choice that we have it to just deal with it.

Not what you were expecting to hear huh?

One thing that I do know is that God is only going to let the devil go so far.  The devil may come against us, he may make us loose our job, our homes, and our money.  He may make other people come against us and be mean to us.  But he cannot stop our belief in God.  He cannot stop us from knowing that no matter what he does God will be with us making sure that the devil does not go too far.

Our only job is to trust God and not to fall into the devil’s trap.

My week could have went like this.  I could have walked off my job because I was getting frustrated.  I could have withdrawn from school because I was not doing so well.  I could have given up on everything that I have been working hard for because I do not see the results.  And then the devil would have won.  He would have cheated me out of a destiny that I know that God has for me.  And then I would be going no where fast.

But instead of giving up, I handle and do what I can and I believe that God is going to do the rest.  And guess what, He does.  It may take some sleepless nights.  It may take some tears and wondering why God has forsaken me, because sometimes this is how I feel.

Even though I do not see it clear in the natural.  This is what we call having faith in God and trusting him.  Having faith is having belief in something that you cannot see.  And this is what God wants. For you to follow him blindly even if it means walking with him in the middle of the storm, thinking you are about to die.

I have felt this way.  Wondering why I have followed God this far.  Wondering if this was some cruel joke, by God to lead me into the middle of no where only to put more on me than what I feel that I can bear.  And in this time and moment as I am sure many Christians reach.  God wants us to make a choice.  We can choose to walk away from him and out of the storm because it is too hard, we can choose to navigate our way through the storm on our own, or we can choose to hold on to God and allow him to take us all the way through the storm until we are on the other side.

Do you think it was easy for Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, being accused of rape, and spending years in prison?

Do you think it was easy for Moses stepping down from the Prince of Egypt, being an outcast murderer, and then coming back to do the impossible?

Do you think it was easy for David, running from Saul who wanted to kill him?

Do you think it was easy for Paul who was thrown in prison time and time again for declaring the word of Christ?

And do you think it was easy for Jesus, knowing he was the Messiah, to be persecuted, beaten, and then killed?

I have come to learn that life is not easy.  Especially when you are on the right path that God wants you to be one.  The devil will come on to you even harder.  We cannot get into the mindset of walking away from God during these times.  But drawing closer to Him, to make sure we get through.

If the devil is against you, then you must be doing something right.  He must see you as a threat that has the power to tear down his kingdom.  Do not let him destroy you.  Do not make him think that your problems will overcome you.  With God, you have already won.

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Grown Women Fighting Over Not So Grown Men.

https://sophie-sticatedmom.com/

“In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, ‘We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!’” Isaiah 4:1


I can recall reading this Bible verse over the years, thinking that this type of behavior will never happen. What type of woman is willing to share her man all for the sake of not being disgraced? I think to have a better understanding of this verse, it must be dissected.

In that days refers to the ending of time.  This is not going to be a blog about the end of the world but the Bible teaches us

“Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Luke 21:25-36

This may sound confusing, but all this is saying is took look for the signs that God tells us about the end of times.  And when we see these signs then we know the end is near.

This is why we must always read the Bible and see the signs that God is trying to show us regarding what will happen.

The next part of the verse states that “7 women will take a hold of one man and say ‘We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!’"

You see there was a time in which men were actually the head of households. Men took women out on dates, married them, and took care of them.  Men provided food for their families and clothing for their women.  Men knew how to take care of home.

Let’s fast forward to today.  There are some men who do all I just mentioned, but how many men do not want to take a woman out on a date?  This is a foreign concept to them.  How many women have taken the place of men and give men money, provided for them financially, and take care of themselves? The man does not have to do anything significant except for have sex with them from time to time, and women somehow feel this is sufficient.

Woman feel this way because they do not want to be alone.  They do not want to be single, they do not want to be without a man.  Is this not what the Bible verse is speaking about.  Women doing everything and the man doing nothing, just so long as they have the right to be called their woman.

It is crazy how we accept things in this world as being normal.  We watch reality shows, television shows, and even people we know.  We see women fighting each other over a man.  Each of them know about one another and trying to give the man more and more just so that he can choose her to be his girlfriend.  And the man is not really doing anything much to prove his worth as a man.

Why are women fighting each other over a man that is doing them both wrong? How is this a man worth fighting for?

Has women’s self esteem or the stigma of being single became that bad that women are willing to make fools out of themselves all for the sake of saying they belong to a man.

Do not allow anyone to tell you that what I am saying is outdated.  I work and I am educated.  I am not saying that women should sit on their behinds all day and expect a handout from a man.  But the only male that I take care of is my son.  I will not allow for a grown man to come into my home, sit on my couch, and watch television all day.  Him not contributing to the bills, providing food for us, or showing my son what a good man is NOT.

This simply makes no sense.  Why would I want to have two men in my home to take care of and one is not a child?


But this is the type of behavior that is going on all the time.  Children going without food, clothes, a mother, because she is out and about trying to keep, chase, and fight over a man.  Because she is spending money on buying a man a pair of Jordans as oppose to putting food on the table for her kids.

Since when has this way of life become so familiar and acceptable to us?
And then when you say something about it to men, they try to trick you into thinking that taking care of them is normal.  They try to convince you that they are a good man.

But how?

How can any man be good if they cannot take care of their children and expect another woman to do it?

If they cannot put food on the table?

If they cannot even stick to one woman and bounce around between women?

How are these characteristics of a good man?

I would love for someone to explain this to me.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  1 Corinthians 13:11

The point I am trying to make is to urge women not to fall into this trap of taking care of a man, fighting other women over a man, and allowing him to not be a man.  It is better to be alone than to deal with this nonsense.

I am convinced that all women must see what is going on in the world around us and be aware of the same things that God is trying to warn is about.  Fighting over a man and letting him escape all responsibilities of being a man is not the way that God intended it to be between man and woman.  It is now up to the women to just say not to foolishness and not allow themselves to be taken advantage of anymore.

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