Good afternoon everyone,

once again, I am led by the spirit of God to write an article.

Tell me…. Have you ever felt as though God was being unfair when he told you that you couldn’t do something? I know I have and even still sometimes I do. Especially when the thing he told me I can’t do is something that by my understanding, is by all rights and purposes harmless, something I enjoy and have done before. Today I’m here to tell you that when you give your life to Christ, you are a new creation and you will spend your life learning all about yourself all over again. God will teach you who his child is. He will teach you one way or the other, who you as his child are supposed to be. He will teach you how to be who he created you to be. With that comes plenty of denial and being forbidden from doing something even if you’ve done it before. 

Now many of you are probably thinking “wow… That sucks… Why should I follow God” I know I thought that for a while, 15 years in fact. But I submit to you this…. What parent doesn’t forbid their child from doing something that they know will hurt them whether it be short-term or long-term? How many of you went through your lives with your parents never telling you no never stopping you from doing something you wanted to do because they thought it wasn’t a good idea? Generally, parents know what’s good for their children. They know when something their child is interested in will harm them and they’ll do what they can to prevent that harm from ever coming about. When you give your life to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to take residence in you, you become one of God’s children, and he becomes your parent, he becomes your heavenly father. The difference between your earthly parents and your heavenly father is your heavenly father knows everything about you past present and future. He knows what is best for you in every single circumstance that you could ever face. He wants what is best for you in every way and he will protect you from everything that is not designed to change you into who he wants you to be. 

As humans though… We don’t always accept or even understand that. Sometimes we think we know better and sometimes we know we don’t know better but we want what we want anyway. Sometimes those wants turn into actions and we do something that God didn’t want us to do. That’s called rebellion, that’s called disobedience and sometimes it’s even called pride. That itch that needs scratching…. That temptation to do something you know you shouldn’t….. that’s the devil saying “go” even after God has said “no”. Temptation is the devil’s stock and trade. It’s his bread and butter. Temptation is the only way he can get us to do anything. Without it, he is powerless. It’s his one and only weapon, but it is indeed a strong one, especially for those new to the faith, new to actually following God.  I’ve been following God for a little over a year now and yes, I do still struggle at times with obedience and submission. However, my consistent and overall goal is to please God and obey him. Does that mean I don’t mess up from time to time? Surely not, no human is perfect…. especially not me. It’s the intent of your heart that matters to God and you cannot fool him, he knows what’s in your heart when you do everything you do when you think every thought when you say every word. He always knows what or who’s behind it.

I absolutely love sugar, cookies, candies, chocolates, desserts of all kinds… You name it. I have been told many many times by God that I need to cut down on my sugar if I don’t wanna shorten my life, if I don’t wanna give back years that he intended for me to have. Most of the time I do very well with the sugar cut down, but sometimes I fall. Sometimes I have a little bit more than I should have. Sometimes he says no and I do it anyway. I know he does not condemn me when I fall like that, but I also know it grieves him to witness it. Instances like that are when I’ve listened to the wrong voice. When God has said no, but I listened to the devil when he said go. Many of you may be thinking… It’s just candy. It’s not that bad. But think of it this way, the way the Lord has taught me to think of it. We cannot know what he has planned for us, Nor can we know how long our life actually will be but we especially cannot know how long he intends it to be. Some of us might be pivotal figures for the faith in the coming years. We don’t know that. But if we give into desire instead of being obedient to what God tells us, we may never find out, we may never fulfill our purpose here on earth. The one thing God created us as individuals for. That is why he grieves so when we do not listen to him in even matters that seem frivolous. If I was to continually disobey him and live a life in which I did not eat as healthy as possible and indulged in massive quantities of unhealthy things like candies and other forms of sugar, then eventually, I would catch something like diabetes, which would end up shortening my life. This would likely happen well before I would have completed what God put me on this earth to do. 

If that takes place, then the devil would have won even a small victory against God. Every purpose and calling that the devil is able to cut short is a notch in his belt. Every life he’s able to end early could’ve been another Moses, another Elijah, another ruth, another Esther…. We don’t know what God has planned for us. We don’t know what miracles he will work through us. We don’t know what lives he will turn toward himself using us. We don’t know… but he does. We have to go to him when feeling temptation. When we hear the devil whispering in our ears, we have to go to God. We are not strong enough to constantly resist. We are not strong enough to stand against the enemy without him. We have to be obedient.

Or else satan gets the victory over us and whomever God put us on this earth for.

So when God says no…. Let it be no….. and tell the devil to go!

By Malcolm B.