While We Look to God Satan Has No Power Over Us

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

While We Look to God Satan Has No Power Over Us

Today's Text: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12

The Message:      Just before Peter's fall, Christ said to him, "Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." How true was the Saviour's friendship for Peter! How compassionate His warning! But the warning was resented. In self-sufficiency Peter declared confidently that he would never do what Christ had warned him against. "Lord," he said, "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." His self-confidence proved his ruin. He tempted Satan to tempt him, and he fell under the arts of the wily foe. When Christ needed him most, he stood on the side of the enemy and openly denied his Lord.      But even when Peter was denying Him, Christ showed that He still loved him. In the judgment hall, surrounded by those who were clamoring for His life, Jesus thought of His suffering, erring disciple, and turning, He looked at him. In that look Peter read the Saviour's love and compassion, and a tide of memories rushed over him.... He saw that he was doing the very thing that he had declared he would not do.... Once more he looked at his Master and saw a sacrilegious hand raised to smite Him in the face. Unable longer to endure the scene, he rushed heartbroken from the hall.      He pressed on in solitude and darkness, he knew not and cared not whither. At last he found himself in Gethsemane. The scene of a few hours before came vividly to his mind. He thought of how the Saviour, during His agony in the garden, had come for sympathy and comfort to those who had been so closely connected with Him in labor....      On the very spot where Jesus poured out His soul in agony, Peter fell upon his face and wished that he might die.... Had Peter been left to himself, he would have been overcome. But One who could say, Father, I know "that thou hearest me always," One who is mighty to save interceded for him. Christ saves to the uttermost all who come to Him.      Many today stand where Peter stood when in self-confidence he declared that he would not deny his Lord. And because of their self-sufficiency they fall an easy prey to Satan's devices. Those who realize their weakness trust in a power higher than self. And while they look to God, Satan has no power against them....      There are some lessons that will never be learned except through failure. Peter was a better man after his fall.... As fire purifies gold, so Christ purifies His people by temptation and trial.-Manuscript 115, 1902.

Commentary: My friend, there are many in the church today that are following the same path as did Peter, trusting in self and the accomplishments in their spiritual lives rather than making a complete surrender of their wills to God.  They have deceived themselves into thinking that they are right with God when they are not.  They have an outward appearance of righteousness, but in reality they are "... wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Revelation 3:17). For many years now the Seventh-day Adventist church has adopted the doctrine of the trinity, believing that it is present truth.  It has taught the people that God is a triune God; a trinity, and as such have turned the hearts and minds of the people away from the One true God and His Son Jesus Christ.  By turning the eyes of the people unto a false representation of God, the enemy of souls has steadily corrupted the church, bringing in damnable heresies such as the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, contemplative prayer, the belief that we do not need to overcome sin in our lives, women's ordination, homosexuality in the church, and more.  By supplanting the One true God for the trinity, the church is no longer being led by the Spirit of God, but is being led by the spirit of Satan. Today the church has an outward appearance of righteousness, but in reality is in the condition of Laodicea.  Says Jesus "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" (Revelation 3:17).  The only remedy for the church is to have their faith tested by trial and temptation, that their true condition may be revealed. Through His faithful messengers He gives the stern warning of their true condition before God.  He seeks to turn them away from the deception that has been played upon them, and this causes a shaking among the people.  Those who look away from the trinity and unto the One true God through His Son Jesus Christ, will be derided and persecuted, calling them the troublers of the people.  By this painful process the true church of God will be purified and made white.  Those who resist the working of the Spirit of God in the message to the church of Laodicea, will eventually grieve away the Spirit of God, and will be left in darkness. I know that it is hard to believe that the church that you have grown up in, the church that you have come to love, is in error.  We have been taught that the church will not fail.  The true church of God is not made up of a corporate structure, but is made up of those who are being led by the Spirit of God.  Jesus said "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20).  The true church of God is where Jesus is.  The church of Laodicea is not being led by Him because He is depicted as being on the outside looking in (Revelation 3:20).  By the trinity, Satan has usurped the authority of the Son of God, and has been steadily corrupting the church from within. My friend, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15).  Look for your self in the Word of God and see what He declares about Himself.  Jesus praying to His Father prayed "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3).  From this text and many others, Jesus the Son of God, declares that there is only One true God, and it is by our connection with the Son that we are connected with the Father. In the trials of the last days, if we are looking unto the false god of the trinity, we will as surely receive the mark of the beast as those who are worshiping on Sunday. May you heed the warning of the Faithful and True Witness today, and look away form the trinity and unto the One true God through His Son Jesus Chrsit. God bless,

Video of the Week The Godhead by Pastor Bill Taitague Retired pastor Bill Taitague presents a important message for our time.  This message was presented in June to a group of people in California.