April Duped by the Enemy
By: Lynda Doty
2002
Precious people! My heart is heavy as I write this, because the enemy is on the warpath more than ever before. You won’t believe the insanity I’m seeing all around me. The pain. The suffering. All the hurt and wounds, some of which will never fully be healed until Jesus comes. Then we shall have our new bodies and thankfully, our new minds, and know we have made it home.
I am so very homesick for heaven. Gone are the days when I pray, “Lord, tarry a little longer till so-and-so is saved.” I honestly don’t believe we should pray like that. There is no guarantee that ANY of us will make it. I pray, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.”
I have had a glimpse just recently of how deceptive the enemy of our souls can really be. I count not myself to have apprehended. I have not arrived. None of us have arrived. But I do feel that, as a leader and a prayer warrior, I have faced a good number of attacks from the enemy. The longer we fight, the more we learn and understand the tricks he has played on us.
I am ashamed to admit how he has recently tricked me, but I feel I must share it as it could help someone else. We need to be aware. Jesus said to WATCH and pray. We have to realize how sneaky and SLY the devil is!
For years I’ve gotten up early (often as early as 4:00 and 5:00 a.m.) and have my prayer and Bible reading, so that when Bro. Doty gets up, I have all of that behind me. It has always been a joyful time with the Lord, those early morning hours alone before the rest of the world comes to life. Many times I have fallen back asleep with the Bible in my lap, or curled up on my knees; but I was in His arms, and it was good.
At the same time, however, I’ve also struggled with a lack of sleep for years. It seemed I could never get enough sleep. I would awaken early and could not go back to sleep, so I would get up to pray. A few months ago, that pattern began to change. One morning I slept until 9:00. I woke up, looked at the clock and said, “Oh no! How could I sleep so long! I don’t believe this!”
On the other hand, I was delighted that I had actually gotten eight hours of sleep. Wow! The next morning, I got up at my usual early morning hour. But I started sleeping later more often. Pretty soon, it had become a regular pattern. And all this time, I was rejoicing because, finally, I was getting a good night’s sleep! Thank you Jesus, right?
But what happened to my prayer life? I would find myself saying, “Well, I’ll get to it in a little while.” Sometimes I did, but more often than not, something would come up. People were awake now. Phones would ring. There were many interruptions and much to do. Prayer kept getting shelved until Later. And more and more often, Later never came. By bedtime, I was tired and sleepy…..
It’s a dreadful thing to live that way, always putting our time with the Lord off until Later. I was living under guilt and condemnation. And yet, I was getting eight hours of sleep at night! For some reason, I simply was not connecting the two. I believe I had been blinded by the enemy, unable to see the truth.
I began to feel the symptoms of prayerlessness—-irritability, nervousness, anger, impatience. The longer I went without praying, the less I wanted to pray. Isn’t that how it is? We cannot afford to let up! What was really happening was, my heart was growing cold. I began to cry out to God, “Lord help me! My prayer life is going down the drain! Lord, I prayed—-what’s wrong!”
One recent morning, I went to my computer, eagerly anticipating an e-mail from a special person who always started my day off with a ray of sunshine. He lives on the east coast, and I’m on the west coast, so he got a 3-hour head start on me each day. I loved his zany emails and looked forward to them. This morning, however, there was nothing.
The next day he explained that he had overslept, and I didn’t think about that one way or the other. But when the same thing happened the next day, he told me, “I NEVER oversleep! This isn’t like me!” Suddenly, a red light went off in my soul. Bells began to clang! Revelation! And I realized right then that the Lord was answering my prayer of, “What’s wrong?” What was wrong was, I had traded my prayer life for a good night’s sleep. What I had erroneously interpreted as a blessing from God was actually a trick of the enemy! It all began to fall in place! Now I understood EXACTLY what had happened!
I zipped off a warning to him, just as I am doing to you right now. Again: Jesus said to WATCH and pray. We have to be so alert. Don’t let us drift off like five of the ten virgins! It is no fun to admit we have been duped! And I was duped by the enemy. I fell for one of his tricks. I could keep quiet about it, but I choose to speak it out. The devil loves secrets. I refuse to make my folly a secret!
The enemy is very smart. He is powerful. But he has no power that God Almighty has not given him. It is not a contest between Satan and God. They are not equals. Far from it. Satan is merely a creation of our loving, wonderful, powerful God! Read Job. You will understand.
God bless you richly is my prayer.