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"FAITH COMETH BY HEARING THE WORD!"--By Maria       Maria #175       DO 2821       7/92
--How to Counter the Devil's Lies!
--The Solution for Those Who Have to Deal with Our Enemies' Accusations!

       1. The more input you get from the Enemy, the more input you need from the Lord! (Fam: When you're walking on a flat surface, you don't need so much food or water, but when you start climbing a mountain, you exert a lot more energy, so you need a lot more food & water to sustain you, because it's a lot harder to cover the same distance going uphill than to cover the same distance on level ground. Likewise, when the Enemy is fighting, it's a harder climb, so you need a lot more spiritual food & water to keep you going.) Yes, that's a good analogy.
       2. Battling all of this persecution & all of these attacks & accusations of our enemies is certainly a hard climb & a hard fight. When you're just doing sedentary work or ordinary light work, it doesn't take nearly as much energy, so you don't need nearly as much food or water as the people who are doing real heavy labour.--They need a lot more energy, a lot more physical strength, & usually more food & more water.
       3. When you're facing the accusations of the Enemy, you've just got to rely on the Lord for your strength. Without Him you can do nothing & you're really weak. (Jn.15:5.) Without continuous strength from the Lord, you don't have any power or spiritual energy. You're empty & don't have anything to battle with. When you have to hear & be immersed in all kinds of vicious lies from the Devil, then you can't help but be affected by it, it influences you.
       4. You shouldn't feel condemned about it, because that's just the way it is. Like Dad has always said, words are real things, words are powerful, regardless of whether they're the Enemy's words or the Lord's Words, they have power. It's not just the Lord's Words that have power, the Enemy's words have power too, & they influence people & sway people. So you shouldn't feel condemned if hearing the Enemy's lies & negative input makes you feel discouraged or depressed, or maybe even temporarily doubting or questioning.
       5. You can't help it if it makes you feel that way, but you can go on the attack & do something about it. You don't have to let the Devil just walk all over you without your putting up a fight! The only solution is to make sure you get some positive input of the Lord's Words! The only counter-action, the only antidote for that is God's Word & His promises. But if you don't get that, then you're going to be weakened.
       6. The Lord's not kidding when He keeps telling us over & over that His Words are Spirit & they are Life, that they're quick (alive) & powerful & sharper than any two-edged sword, that they're the discerner of the thoughts & intents of the heart, & a lamp unto our feet & a light unto our path, that their entrance is what gives us understanding, as well as all the other things the Lord says about His Word! He's not just saying those things to supply you with beautiful literature, nor to give you some theoretical principles that sound nice. He means for you to do something about it. He wants you to apply it & make it work for you. He wants you to get it into your heart & every fiber of your being & let it empower you to rise above the negative words of the Devil that would drag you down.
       7. With His Word as your weapon, you have to actively resist & fight & overcome all of that negative input that you are subjected to. The only way to win is to have sufficient input from the Lord! That's just one of God's principles, that's the way the Lord has set things up, that's the way it works. There's nothing we can do to change it, the Lord has set it up so that the negative input can only be countered by positive input from His Word. So no matter how strong we may think we are, if we get a lot of negative input, but don't get the Lord's antidote for it, then we're going to be weakened. That's just the way it is, that's the way the process works.
       8. So it's really dangerous to think, "Well, I'm so strong, I can take it." You cannot take it unless you have the strength of the Lord's Word. David said, "By the Word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the Destroyer."--Psa.17:4. It's only the Lord's Word that will keep you from getting sidetracked onto the Enemy's slippery paths. It's the Word that gives you strength to overcome the Devil; "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the Wicked One."--1Jn.2:14. You may be able to take the Enemy's negative input for a little while, temporarily, & it may not seem to affect you much, but if you keep hearing & dwelling on that negative input, & you don't get the Lord's input, you're definitely going to be very weakened by it.

       Giving No Place to the Devil!
       9. The World criticises us, "You just won't listen, you're not willing to hear our side of the story, how we see things!" Well, when we know we already have the Truth of the Lord's Word, why should we listen to the lies if we don't have to--just out of curiosity or just to show how strong we are? The Lord tells us to "Neither give place to the Devil! And whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things!"--Eph.4:27; Phil.4:8. That's a command that the Lord gave us because He knew spiritual warfare is serious. He knew if you started listening to the Enemy & thinking on his things, you'd be polluted & corrupted by it. This is a principle that Dad covered very thoroughly in his "You Are What You Read" Letters. (See ML #775 & 776!)
       10. The World tells us, "You're just stuck on one idea & one frame of mind, & you don't give your kids a chance to be exposed to all the other ideas in the World. You won't even listen.--You're too narrow-minded!" Well, if those ideas are contrary to God's Word, then we're commanded not to expose our children to them & not to give place to them! (AMEN!)

       God's Good Word vs. the Devil's Dirty Garbage!
       11. When you are getting besieged by the word of the Enemy, the more you hear his lies, the more faith you have in them, & then the more doubt you have in God's Truth. On the other hand, the more of the Lord's Truth you get, the more faith you have, because "faith cometh by hearing the Word."--Rom.10:17.
       12. So the only thing that is going to help you to stand strong & give you the faith you need is hearing & dwelling on the Lord's Word. That's the only thing that is going to overcome the doubts that result from hearing the Devil's words. God's Word is the only thing that is going to counteract it.
       13. In other words, you definitely need to hear more of the Lord's Word than the Devil's words. So if you've got to hear all of our enemies' lies--like those who are involved in our legal & media battles--then you've got to make sure you're getting into the Lord's Word & getting immersed in it to keep you from weakening & doubting. Jesus said, "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you!"--Jn.15:3. Hearing the Enemy's lies besmirches you & causes doubt & fear, just the opposite of the cleansing, faith-building, reassuring Word of God.
       14. If you read all of our enemies' garbage & it causes you to get down or to doubt, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're so weak spiritually. It's just a spiritual law that if you're hearing the Enemy's word, you're going to start getting faith in it, which means you're going to be doubting God's Word. But it's also a law that you can counter any weakening of your faith by getting the Lord's Word.--And as you get into God's Word, you get faith in that.
       15. Whatever your input is, your faith will grow in it. The Devil's word brings faith, too, but faith in the Devil! But the Lord's Word, if you get more immersed in it, will give you faith to counter & fight the Devil's word.
       16. So if you have doubts & get weakened because of having to hear all of this garbage from our demon-inspired enemies, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's something terribly wrong with you. That's just the way it works: The more you get that negative input & hear the Devil's words without countering them with the Lord's Words, the weaker you are going to become, because you have no power of your own to resist the Devil's doubts.
       17. That's why the Lord commands us all, no matter how strong we may think we are, to think on the things that are good, the things that are of good report. You're not proving anything or doing anything great by trying to show how much of the Devil's input you can take & how strong you can still stand. If anything, you're tempting the Lord! It's His commandment to us all, no matter how strong we are, no matter how strong we think we are, to choose the good & eschew the evil, to give no place to the Devil.--To think on the good things, & the things that are of good report, & not on the negative & not on the evil & not on the Devil's words.
       18. Don't think, "I'm so strong spiritually that I can take all this stuff," because you can't take it!--It's only the Lord Who can take it for you! It's only the Lord & His Word that will give you the strength to overcome the doubts that you're going to be fed through hearing the Devil's garbage. So "take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph.6:17), & use it to defeat & cast down all of the doubtful darts of the Devil & all of the evil imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God! Amen? GBY! ILY! (Amen! TTL!--D.)
       P.S. Of course, you should avoid listening to the Devil's lies & accusations as much as possible. "Neither give place to the Devil!"--Eph.4:27. But if you have to be exposed to his garbage, make sure you get a good cleansing from the pure water of the Word, amen? GBY!


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