There is something very special about the call of God – When He calls us out of our corrupted selves so that we can be reborn as New Creations and gain citizenship into His Heavenly Kingdom. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we accept the battalion of salvation and our names are entered into the race for eternal life through spiritual perseverance for there is no sprint in the Kingdom of God to the finish line.
In the race for eternal life, God trains you on the go. There is no off season in the spirit only different seasons and times which would require different training plans. This is not a race you can prepare to enter but rather, it is one that you can prepare to finish. The person who entered the race will not be the same person that finishes because your perseverance can only be sustained by your transformation.
The devil and his demonic minions are ever-present throughout our individual races and he roams and walks through the race tracks of those who have been called to see who he may devour. His ultimate goal is to kill, steal and destroy us before we can reach the finish line of our race. In essence, the devil wants to disqualify our participation in the race before we can cross the finish line of death.
Today I would like to speak about the subject of entanglements because this is a very popular and effective strategy of the enemy. This strategy is especially effective on spiritual infants – those who are spiritually immature and who have only been able to feed on the spiritual milk of the Word. Those who are spiritually mature are not exempt from being entangled nonetheless. The Devil is both cunning and strategic in his attempts to destroy the men and women who have chosen to follow God and his #1 hat trick is showing up in our lives masqueraded as an angel of light.
The Devil will either keep us entangled in sin or he will entangle us with people and things that are not aligned with God’s will for our lives to keep us distracted, weary or too busy to finish the race we began.
Galatians 5:7 states “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” and this is a clear case of what often happens in one’s Christianity. We start off running well but then for many of us, we take our gaze off of Jesus and our disobedience and spiritual carelessness begins hindering us. I am certain that every genuine Christian can testify of circumstances that steered them off course soon after giving their lives to Almighty God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word ‘entangled’ means ‘to trap something within something else from which it is difficult to escape.’ The Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary states ‘to twist or interweave in such a manner as not to be easily separated.’
Sometimes our entanglements can be a consequence of us being in bondage to ungodly strongholds and evil spirits brought about by our disobedience, sinfulness, witchcraft, generational curses, demonic covenants or demonic possession. Whatever it is, we cannot dismiss the seriousness of our spiritual dilemmas. We must apply the blood of Jesus Christ to our circumstances as we enter into the throne room of God’s grace and power in prayer and fasting to receive the healing and deliverance we desperately need. We must test every spirit to see if it is from God and engage in active spiritual warfare to rescue our souls from any snare, trap or wile of the enemy.
Let’s look at ten (10) ways the devil seeks to entangle us so that we become too entwined to run effectively and qualify for our eternal prize:
1. We can become entangled in unequally yoked relationships, and this usually keeps us matted in a myriad of sexual sins. Oftentimes, a female may end up pregnant and both parties may end up feeling burdened to stay in a relationship that may be toxic, spiritually unfruitful or unaligned to God’s will.
2. We can become entangled in unequally yoked marriages on the premise that marriage is a good thing. If we do not take the time out to ask God if the marriage is His will, we may be acting hastily out of our own selfish will and desires and soon after, we feel the spiritual burdens of being with the wrong “rib”.
3. We can become entangled in a career that does not glorify God but suits our talents, financial needs, passions or desires. Sometimes, we forget that we ought to be in the world but not of it and we delude ourselves to believe that God will bless us in spite of. We neglect the opinion of God as it relates to the plan He has for our lives and try to push our own agenda on God in hope that he will understand and bless it nonetheless. We forget that we are God’s handiwork and the talents and abilities we have are what He has purposefully determined for our lives to glorify and serve Him. We ought to be the light bearers of God in this world and the salt that gives taste to the systems of this world not the other way around.
4. We can become entangled in webs of hurt, bitterness, un-forgiveness, envy, doubt, unbelief, apathy and disillusionment based on incidents of grief, heartbreak, poverty, abuse, divorce and even failure in our lives.
We may ask God why bad things happen to good people and we may feel as if God has handed us an unfair and undeserving portion in life. Eventually we feel justified in feeling and holding on to the negative and sometimes ungodly feelings we tarry with instead of looking for the testimony within the test and the message within the mess.
5. We can become entangled in guilt and shame when we’ve done something unforgivable in our eyes or when we are struggling to be delivered from a particular sin e.g. pornography, masturbation, theft etc…. During these seasons, we usually feel to give up or to hide from God and we may even begin to question the authenticity of God and Christianity in our lives.
6. We can become entangled in spiritual stagnation when our lives are filled with the busyness this world brings. We juggle between parenthood, the workplace, cultural events, sports, liming, working out in the gym, extra-curricular activities and even church. Consequently, we struggle to find adequate time to spend with God in personalized and intimate worship and bible study. We are stuck in spiritual infanthood and so we stymie God’s hand in our lives with our dysfunctional growth. We become so engrossed with building our lives that we forget to build our lives in daily partnership with God.
7. We can become entangled in spiritual laziness.
We get stuck in religious rituals and we have no issue going to church on Saturdays or Sundays but that is as far as our relationship with God goes. We only want to chew on the spiritual meal our Pastors have fed us and we refuse to feed ourselves. We refuse to make the concerted effort and sacrifice to make prayer, fasting and tithing an active part of our lifestyles. We do not desire to burn the midnight oil in warfare prayer or to set an appointed time with the Holy Spirit before the sun rises so he can teach us the Word and give unto us His sevenfold Spirit. We like the hype of instant gratification and we run for altar calls for prosperity and blessings but we do not have the wherewithal to live in the Word and by the Word daily.
8. We can become entangled in luke-warmness.
We still dabble with sin here and there. We find it hard or even unnecessary to give up certain vices like partying, fornication, cursing, gambling, gossiping etc… We lack the understanding that while many things may be permissible, not all things are profitable and so we lead ourselves by our own limited human wisdom and forget that our steps are to be ordered by the Holy Spirit. We still have one foot in the world and one foot in the church because we want to experience the pleasures of both. We are even so brazen to ask God for his blessings and protection when we play in the devil’s playground. We count the cost if we are to truly give God our all and for some of us, it leaves a bitter taste in our mouth because we love the pleasures of the world more than we love God. We only go to God when it serves our self interest; when we want something from Him but we never go to Him for Himself. Lukewarm Christians will dare not abandon their self-interests for the interests of God.
9. We can become entangled in an unrenewed mind.
Let’s face it – transformation is hard and it is a never ending activity as a Christian. Joshua Botello once wrote “What the devil fears more than you walking in the calling of God is you walking in the character of God.” In order to walk in the character of God, we must allow the Holy Spirit to transform our mindsets, biases and patterns of thinking so that we can bear fruit. We ought not to respond to life as the ordinary God-less man does. Many times, Christians can be heard saying “this is just how I am” or “I’m not changing to please anybody” especially when they are displaying character traits like pride which are contrary to the image of God. We must be willing to abandon who we think we are for who God says we ought to be. We must be intentional about changing the way we speak, think and act by abandoning the works of the flesh.
10. We can become entangled in religion.
Many Christians can become zealous about their Christianity without studying to show themselves approved. If we do not have the revelation of the Holy Spirit, we can fall into the trap of religiosity where we are constantly trying to work our way into the good books of God. Our Christianity becomes burdensome as we begin focusing on food restrictions, religious days, religious festivals and we misinterpret and misplace the application of Mosaic laws in our Dispensation of Grace. Religion serves to make you self-righteous and hinders you from receiving revelation from the Holy Spirit whereby you can freely enjoy a childlike faith in God and a relationship where God leads and you follow.
Satan is not interested in helping you fix your eyes on Jesus while you navigate your soul through the race of life. His greatest angst is God saying “Let there be light” in your darkness. Darkness represents ignorance and the more he can keep you ignorant of who you are in Christ Jesus is the more he can keep you stumbling in darkness.
Proverbs 4:19
“But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”
John 11:10
“It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
Every time God plants a seed of His Word into the life of a Christian, the devil seeks to steal it before it can grow and blossom. How then do we win in this race for eternal life? – We beat and train our flesh into subjection to the Holy Spirit who lives within our Spirit and we put on the whole armour of God. Let us allow God to detangle us from any entanglement that is contrary to His will and may we run the race in such a way as to get the prize.
Be blessed!
1 Corinthians 9:26-27
“Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
Ephesians 6:11
“Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
