Enchantment broken

October 31, 2007

By Randy Mantik

We’ve all heard the stories about enchantments — fairy tales filled with witches, princes, apples, princesses and frogs. All too often, the hero of the story would try to accomplish some worthy goal, but would fall prey to an alluring but lethal deception. I fear there is a real enchantment that affects all of us at times. It is a mindset with which the enemy of our souls can ensnare us.

Satan loves to keep us in a kind of enchanted sleep spiritually. He lulls us into believing the “little sins” we allow into our lives are not really that destructive. We don’t realize the bondage we are in.

The devil will never knock on the door of our heart and say, “Hi, I’m Satan. I’ll be messing around with your life the next few days. Not to worry, after you stumble and do something faithless, I’ll stick around to accuse you.” No, he’s much more devious.

Paul described Satan in 2 Corinthians 11:14 as someone disguised as an angel of light. He comes with the most appealing thoughts! Usually it involves something we believe will make us look better. He’s constantly trying to feed our pride. What are we to do? We have to start at the root of the enchantment and take every deceptive thought captive.

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4, NIV).

The literal context in this verse means to put the thoughts in prison and quarantine them. We need to analyze every thought. Then, instead of trying to fight the battle ourselves, we need to learn to yield to Christ and let Him win the victory as we submit to Him. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Satan is out to kill and destroy. He wants to delude and deceive anyone he can, manipulating and perverting our minds to the point that right thinking becomes unnatural, even unrecognizable to us. We become powerless, unable to break free from the power that holds us.

But then Jesus steps in with the key to our freedom in His nail-pierced hand. He speaks the truth and every lie is shattered. Our self-will and pride lie in ashes at our feet, the scales fall from our eyes, and we know we are free! Enchantment broken!

Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). When the truth of Christ and His finished work on the cross is established in our lives, right thinking becomes our normal standard operating procedure. We can stand strong in the face of the world when it tries to enchant us with it self-seeking logic.

Let Christ’s truth break every inroad of satanic enchantment in your life. Trust the Lord, trust His Word, trust His wisdom. Commit to doing what is right as you listen for the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit. In the end, you will find freedom.

Enchantment broken! Praise the Lord!

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Crossroads Church of the Assemblies of God in Pembine, Wis.