Is the Accuser Stealing Your Blessing?

Romans 8:29 tells us that God knew us in advance. Long before we entered our mother’s wombs, God had a plan for our existences. He knew exactly who we would become as human beings living on the earth, and He knows everything that is going to happen in our lives. He knows the end at the beginning and the beginning at the end. Nothing ever escapes Him. The Creator of everything that exists chose us to be His very own. We were handpicked by God to be His kids, to be members of His family. Many people believe that every person is a child of God, but this notion isn’t grounded in the truth of God’s Word. Romans 8:29 declares that God chose those of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives for a specific purpose. God’s purpose is that we will become like Jesus Christ, so that he, Christ, would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. The reality of this truth reveals our origin and confirms that God engineered us from the very start to be loving, humble, and powerful ambassadors of Heaven within the earth.

Romans 8:30 further tells us that having chosen us to be in Him, He defines who we are. It is so important to remember this truth because sometimes we forget our identity in Christ. We forget that we are God’s chosen people, and that He has given us a destiny in His Will and Plan. Many individuals, believers and unbelievers, are very miserable because they’ve tried to define themselves outside of Christ. They’ve wanted to be defined by their jobs, spouses, wealth, fame, or popularity, but none of these things can touch the staggering reality of who God has made us in Christ.

One of the reasons we look to other things to make us happy and fulfilled is because walking in the Spirit and living by faith takes commitment and diligence. The payoff from this is huge, but many people are too impatient to allow themselves the privilege of growing in Christ. They want all the goodies of life on the double, but the system that God has designed doesn’t respond to impetuousness or impatience. God’s system responds to faith in Christ, and it takes time to build faith.

When I was around six or seven, I couldn’t wait to go shopping with my mother on Saturdays. We drove to a nearby city and would spend hours going into different boutiques and shops, then we’d go grocery shopping and head home. It was a wonderful time, and I always looked forward to our shopping trips. It never failed that before we left, my mother would remind me to be on my best behavior. She’d say to me, “Don’t get in that store and act like you don’t know who you are.” I knew exactly what she meant. Sometimes, we’d see children in the stores just showing out, throwing tantrums, calling their parent’s names, and flat-out defying parental guidance. Their parents would have this shocked and embarrassed look on their faces because the children were behaving as if they belonged to someone else. They were behaving as if they didn’t honor those that had loved and cared for them.

I understood as a child that my mother required respect and honor, and I also understood the price I’d pay if I stepped outside it. I knew that I was her child, and I didn’t want to disappoint her expectations because I held her in the highest regard. My mother continually reminded me of my identity in Christ. She caused me to understand the connection between my actions and behaviors, and the consequences I would ultimately face if I didn’t honor who she was raising me to be. Even though sometimes I did in fact get out of pocket and act like I didn’t have no sense, my mother was teaching me respect, integrity, and decency, because those things fall in line with the identity she wanted molded in my character.

God is our Abba Father. He is our Creator! He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins. My mother, as wonderful and loving as she is, did not make the mold; God did. The blueprint He created for us is Christ himself. He tells us in Colossians 3:12(NLT), “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” This is God’s commandment to us. It’s who He’s made us to be, but so many of us have forgotten to put on the identity of Christ, and when we do this, we leave faith behind and find ourselves without the armor and covering God has provided.

Like little children who misbehave, some of us are publicly throwing tantrums, behaving as if we don’t have a Heavenly Father that has loved and provided for us all the days of our lives. People are complaining about being very unhappy and unfulfilled, but they will not admit they’ve placed their identity on the backburner and have not renewed their minds to God’s Word the way they should. 2Corinthians 4:4 tells us that satan has blinded the minds of those that don’t believe God’s Word so that he can continue to have dominion over their lives. This happens to believers as well. We forget who we are and begin to behave just like the world. We do this because the evil one has tricked us in order to keep us from exercising our authority in Christ within the earth.

Revelation 12:10(NLT) tells us, “Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night.” This verse should be branded across the minds of every believer. It reveals high-level spiritual information about satan’s occupation, for he is the accuser and goes before the Courts of Heaven to accuse believers. If the accusations are true, and we are living in darkness in some area of our lives through sin, we are dabbling in a territory that belongs to satan. If we’re in his territory, he has a legal right to keep us bound in some way.

Many of us are praying for deliverance, yet we have not surrendered and repented from the thing that keeps us bound. Some of us are still gossiping, lying, holding grudges, refusing to tithe, indulging sexual sin and living any way we want to live. To repent is to have a change of heart about these things, to the extent that we no longer indulge them. When we behave poorly, Heavenly Father doesn’t love us any less. He will even allow us to continue to dabble in darkness if that is our choice, but we must deal with the spiritual reality of what the devil is using against our lives in the Courts of Heaven.

We belong to the holy priesthood of God. The light of Christ is in us, and we must repent and surrender the thing that holds us back so that we are no longer tricked, bamboozled, and kept in bondage by the accuser. Ephesians 2:10(NLT) tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” God has good things planned for us. If you suspect in even the slightest regard that something is blocking your blessing, don’t sit back idling while your blessings continue to be stolen by the devil. Increase in the authority of Christ by studying God's Word! Pray and ask the Lord to show you the area in your life where the devil is accusing you and be willing to cut that thing off when the Lord reveals it. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Is the Accuser Stealing Your Blessing?

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