Behind The Scenes

 

Preach the word:  be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. – II Timothy 4: 2

 

The phrases ‘in season, out of season’ means for you to be ready with the Word at all times, whether it is convenient or not.  We are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and right doctrine – which is the Word of God rightly divided [see II Timothy 2: 15] or see teaching “Study – Be Diligent”.  I purposely do not put hyperlinks in most teachings so that you will not be distracted.  Look highlighted teachings up after you have read this teaching to keep things simple.

 

Now the following Scriptures along with II Timothy 4: 2 will set the stage for what is the true purpose and meaning of this teaching.

 

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is  the breadth, and length, and depth, and height (of love). – Ephesians 3: 18

 

God is referring to knowing and practicing everything that is available pertaining to the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation.  We know from Corinthians that without the love of God, we are nothing and we accomplish nothing.  But you should know what is the most simplest, easiest to understand, definition of the love of God and here it is:

 

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:  and his commandments are not grievous (oppressive). – I John 5: 3

 

So what is the love of God?  It is keeping the commandments of God which are written in His Word.  That is why we must study and why I said to look up II Timothy 2: 15.  This is why God says that we should be ready with the Word at all times whether it is convenient or not.  And finally, we should study diligently I Corinthians Chapter 13 which gets into details about the characteristics of the Love of God.  This will allow you to look behind the scenes and know the score.

 

Now to the point of understanding the title of this teaching.  It says in the Bible that God is a respecter of conditions and not persons.  You really should fulfill the conditions of this teaching up to this point to be able to fully benefit from the remainder of what we will study.

 

To be ready with the Word, you must, of course, know the Word and that requires study.  To receive any profit from anything, you must be manifesting the love of God in your daily walk with God.  Once you have done these things, you can benefit from this teaching which will show you how to destroy the works of the adversary in your life.  You need to be able to master this teaching to understand how your enemy works.  You need to look places where very few Christians look – BEHIND THE SCENES, to truly understand what is happening spiritually.

 

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What is the secret to Satan’s success?  The secrecy of his moves.  Please understand and do not ever forget this.  He operates in secret – he hides.  He disguises himself as good when really his end game is to steal, kill, and destroy.  Once Satan is exposed, he fails.  You must be able to expose him as he tries his best to destroy a Christian’s life.  Remember, we each have a personal  adversary.  He knows everything about your old man and he tries his best to use that against us.  Each believer has an Achilles heel and Satan will work on your weak areas.  We each have to bear this burden on our own.  When you learn to ‘look behind the scenes’ you will be able to see Satan and will be able to counter and avoid his moves.  I will give you examples of how you can recognize a counterfeit that appears absolutely genuine.  Spiritually, once you can look behind the scenes, your overall quality of life with God on this earth will greatly improve.  Let’s get to it.

 

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:  because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. – I John 4: 4

 

The Christ in you is greater than the devil and all his methods and devices IF we renew our mind and APPLY God’s Word in our everyday lives.

 

For instance, yesterday, I took the same walking route as I did the day before to meet my wife as she came home from work.  I told her I would do this in the morning and the walk would not begin until 2:30 PM that afternoon.  I usually do not do this until I am ready to leave since I have about 4 or 5 different routes I can take to reach the same destination.  Maybe God let me do what I did to teach me this principle once again, hopefully for the last time.  There is one main way that Satan can make your life miserable and that is to be PREDICTABLE.  Always remember to keep variety in your life.  Hopefully you will realize the serious importance of that statement.

 

The Christ in you can work to tell you things that, by your 5 senses, you can never know.  I felt uneasy about the walk right after I told my wife which way I would be coming.  The enemy had at least 4 hours to do his dirty work.  On the walk, I noticed cars and trucks were swerving close to me for no reason – a bad sign that walkers and runners also recognize quickly.  But the main incident was the following:

 

I am walking up a sidewalk on a big hill in a fairly attractive housing development – usually a quiet part of the walk.  At the top of the hill, a young African-American teenager is talking to some girl with his back to me.  In an instant he turns around and starts screaming to me in an obvious made-up language.  It took me by surprise and I simply ignored him.  But probably in time, he will have to be dealt with and I will confront him to his face.  A fearless believer can scare half the life out of someone, but possibly this man is insane.  I mentioned in previous teachings that I worked in a large State Hospital at one time.  You don’t confront an insane person.  They cannot reason, lack simple logic, and can very well be dangerous.  But what was all this that happened to me that day?  WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?  Here is man’s explanation:

 

MAN’S POINT OF VIEW:  Oh, you just had a bad day.  Those drivers were probably distracted for an instant and that was surely just a coincidence.  Oh, that teenager was probably just a delinquent and was playing around.  I’m sure he wasn’t just waiting for you.  Have you ever heard people talk like that?  It’s sickening.

 

GOD’S POINT OF VIEW:  [Behind the scenes]  Satan’s ministry is to steal, kill, and destroy.  The ONLY way he can know what you are thinking is IF YOU TELL HIM.  Didn’t I do that in the morning when I could have waited about 4 more hours?  Were those car and truck drivers distracted?  Yes, they were.  Who distracted them?  Distraction is a devil spirit.  I mentioned I felt uneasy about the walk.  Was that just a feeling?!  NO!!  It was God trying to tell me something.  Now, to the person that screamed at me.  Satan DID have him there waiting for me even though he didn’t know that.  That was a clear and obvious devil spirit of INSANITY.  How did I know this?  By word of knowledge, word of wisdom, and discerning of spirits.  These are 3 of 9 manifestations of Holy Spirit known as the eyes and ears of the church.  A believer can receive information from God via these manifestations that, with his 5 senses, he could NEVER KNOW.  God can work at lightening speed and I instantly knew what to do.  He looked foolish as I ignored him and I sensed some embarrassment on his part.  But then he appeared normal.  Why?  Because my Advanced Bible studies taught me that a devil spirit can enter and exit a man’s mind in seconds, if not less.  If I did what man might do, I may have called the police,  but you see, by that time, that devil spirit would be long gone.  In the mental health field, we called this activity “holding it together”.  The patient could be completely insane one minute and then act normal the next minute.

 

All of this is tricky, I admit, but in time it does become second nature.  The young man was possessed temporarily by a devil spirit of insanity.  The problem here is that  all devil spirits are parasites.  They cannot come into manifestation unless they can possess a human body.  By his own free will, that man allowed himself to be possessed.  That devil spirit knows it has an open door with that person and it will come back.  ESPECIALLY when a person attempts to bring harm to a believer.  Woe unto him.  He is going to wish he were never born.  Satan does not know what the word ‘mercy’ means.  It is not in his vocabulary.

 

Are you beginning to see the overall gist of this teaching?  There is man’s point of view and there is the true God’s point of view – looking behind the obvious – looking behind the scenes.

 

And in nothing terrified by your adversaries:  which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. – Philippians 1: 28

 

There are many believers that do have some fear about their adversary.  But fear has 2 causes:  ignorance or wrong teaching.  You are either unaware of what the Word of God says due to a lack of study, or you have been taught wrongly.  God says we are never to be afraid of our adversary which sends a message to him clearly of destruction – his destruction.  It also illustrates to him your salvation or wholeness (body, soul, and spirit) which originates from God.

 

Let’s go to another example and remember the following Scripture no matter what happens.

 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. – I Corinthians 15: 58

 

When I first got involved in the Word of God, my strongest point for God was witnessing.  God seemed to set up spiritual radar within me and I almost always witnessed to someone interested in learning about God – almost.  I was also a music teacher and taught guitar.  Many of my students were children.

 

As I was attending fellowships and was heavily involved in the movement of God’s Word, I sometimes ran ads in the newspaper for guitar lessons.  Well, by now the enemy did not care for me and wanted to trip me up and he did.  Why?  Because I wasn’t looking behind the scenes.  Here’s what happened.

 

I got a call from someone who wanted me to teach their daughter how to play guitar.  I tried to discuss with this person that his daughter was quite young and may not be able to reach many necessary keyboard positions.  Regardless, he sort of insisted and I set up an appointment in the evening.  Now pay attention.

 

When I entered the house, I immediately felt uneasy – not a good sign at all.  The house was eerie and strange – depressing.  I was new in the Word and I wasn’t sure what was going on.  Finally, the girl’s father appeared with his daughter – he was a priest.

 

Although I tried everything I could with this little girl, her hands were just too small.  I felt bad about the situation, but what could I do?  I knew by her age this would probably happen.  I had to sit down with her father and explain this to him.  He almost seemed sarcastic about the situation – as if the fact that her fingers being too small, was somewhat my fault!!!  Finally, he asked me more about myself and I told him how often I studied the Bible.  We got into discussions of his beliefs while I quoted Scripture.  He twisted almost everything I said and was downright rude and insulting.  My sitting through a 36 hour Bible class gave me 50 times more knowledge than he ever had about God’s Word.  It amazed me as to how little he actually knew of the rightly divided Word of God.  It was sickening to tell you the truth.  I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and I did feel quite upset.  When I walked out of that house, I felt like I was exiting hell.  And I was.

 

The very next day, I still felt uneasy and surely wasn’t myself.  I went right to one of my fellowship coordinators at his job and he looked at me and said “Ralphioso what’s wrong?”  He took a break from his job and came to me with deep concern – with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation beaming from his eyes.  I told him everything that happened the night before and how, for the first time, the enemy had set a good trap for me and apparently I was right.

 

My brother in Christ immediately opened his Bible and showed me this Scripture.

 

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. – II Corinthians 11: 14

 

What happened to me was a miracle.  All the bad feelings and confusion just left me.  It was all gone.  This simple act of love by my brother in Christ healed me instantaneously by showing me God’s Word.  He went on to explain to me how Satan hides – oftentimes behind religious people.  There is 1000 times more of the rightly divided Word of God in this web site than in any seminary in the world today.  Who did it?  God did it – He tells me what to write and teach.  So please give the glory to Him.

 

Ok, let’s analyze the above situation – let’s look behind the scenes and see what really  happened.   

 

MAN’S POINT OF VIEW:  Oh, that man was simply concerned for his daughter and was simply ignorant of her age and requirements.  He didn’t mean anything by it.   Also, some people just have gloomy houses – it was nothing.  And he had every right to disagree with you regarding your beliefs (they weren’t my beliefs – they were God’s beliefs).  It may seem like something strange was happening , but it was surely just a coincidence.  Priests are dedicated to their religion and maybe you should have respected some of his beliefs.  The only reason you were upset is because your pride was hurt.  Your friend was just consoling you.  He probably felt bad for you.

 

Now doesn’t that sound like something some so-called ‘normal’ person would say?  It would accomplish only the following:  it would cause you discouragement; make you doubt your belief in the true Word of God; it would aggravate you and make you angry; it may result in a feeling of worthlessness and cause you to condemn yourself; it would make you feel that someone had pity (a counterfeit) on you instead of compassion (genuine).  Now let’s look at what really happened:

 

GOD’S POINT OF VIEW:  [Behind the scenes] 

 

I was hot on the Word and was told by my leader that I was going to turn on the whole city by myself.  Believe me, the adversary was plotting against me since I was a serious threat to him.  What’s the secret to his success?  You better know this.  Because I never saw it coming.

 

The devil himself inspired this man to call me.  You want to argue about it – argue with God.  Satan put me in a position where he could manipulate one of his followers – yes, a priest who knew nothing about the rightly divided Word of God.  The enemy used something I cared very much to do to set his trap.  He knew I would never turn down a little girl from a chance at becoming a musician.  The little girl was not capable of playing a guitar and Satan knew that also.  So he had his stage set just right and the final performance was the conversation that I had with this priest knowing that I would have a tendency to respect a person with such a title.  Confusion is not of God and I was confused within minutes.

 

For God is not the author  [a God] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.  -- I Corinthians 14: 33

 

The priest argued from a senses point of view with all I said.  I began to believe that he was not even born again of God’s Spirit!  All of his arguments were based on the 5 senses and not on spiritual matters and knowledge.  You have got to understand that I was new to the Word and even though I was totally dedicated, I was not as spiritually mature as I eventually became.  I was not ready for this type of situation.  Finally I got out of there and the very next day, in the morning, I went to another believer for help.  This believer was not consoling me or having pity on me.  The true God had him ready to help me before I even walked in his workplace.  He knew exactly where to go in God’s matchless Word to get the help for me that I seriously needed.  I walked out of my dynamic brother’s place of work totally healed.  Now I knew that Satan can be transformed into an angel of light and became much stronger in this area of my renewed mind.  What a great brother to help me like he did.  We used to joke with each other because of my Italian last name.  He called me Ralphioso and I called him Larryioso.  Brothers for all eternity with strength and backbones fortified by God Almighty.  Before he left our area, he met a beautiful woman of God and when his year of service was over, they were married.  That’s a reward for sure and Larry deserved it along with his lovely wife.

 

I would like for you to be able to understand now what it means to look “Behind The Scenes” regarding every situation in your life.  God’s Word studied and applied will allow you to separate truth from error.  You will understand what is truly going down and it will give you an advantage.  It may take you a while to develop this spiritual insight, but the end result will be more than worth it.  Confusion will begin to disappear which will help your mental outlook even to the point of improving your physical health.  The enemy causes much stress with his lies and deception.  You will be able to recognize and avoid his tricks and greatly increase your ability to manifest the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ promised in John 10: 10b.  We were designed to live by the commandments of God.  His Word is our blueprint for living.

 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  Fear [respect] God, and keep his commandments:  for this is  the whole duty  of man.  – Ecclesiastes 12: 13

 

 

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