The YOU ARE NOT files - your enemy's most dangerous weapon

With grateful thanks to C.Baxter Kruger’s excellent teaching on this subject.

God when I doubt, when I’m not really sure if it’s you that I’m hearing, should I include that in these conversations that others see?

Yes you should. It’s reality.

You really said that?

I did.

But God it’s not normal for public Christian figures to openly confess doubt, I mean I’m not a ‘public figure’, but thousands of people read these conversations now so I just wanted to know what the rules are.

It’s not normal. But if you do it shows reality.

What do you mean?

I mean when public Christian leaders don’t share the doubt that assails every one of them, the everyday man assumes that his own doubt is unusual, he quickly comes to the conclusion that others, certainly other ‘strong’ believers don’t suffer doubt like he does and he wonders why he is assailed by doubt ‘when others aren’t’. The enemy pounces, the enemy tells him that it is because of his sin.

“the great accuser who accuses you all day and night”

The enemy points to some particular sin that the man finds he cannot overcome.

“the thing that I would not do that very thing I do.”

He pretends to the man that he is not forgiven, is caught in sin, and as a result cannot possibly hear from God. Can you see the brilliance of his strategy Mark?

Is brilliance the right word God?

It’s an apt word Mark. The enemy is not stupid he convinced billions of angels to rebel. Angels are more difficult than men to trick. The enemy’s strategy is to convince all men that my prime focus is their sin.

Why?

Because sin is your vulnerable spot. Sin is common to all men, and all men feel bad about it because the enemy is constantly telling them how bad they are. The enemy’s lie is true and yet also a lie. You are caught in various sins but it’s a lie because it does not affect my view of you. The crucifixion demonstrates that in so many ways that even the greatest theologians are still trying to come to terms with. Unfortunately the everyday rank and file Christian has been hoodwinked into thinking that popular Christian thinking on the Crucifixion explains it all – and yet it doesn’t even touch the surface!

What should we do about that?

Ask me.

“You do not need that any man should teach you, but the Spirit teaches you…”

Ask me Mark and I will explain.

“And the Spirit of truth will lead you into all truth.”

Mark the Cross was a plan hatched by the three of us before the beginning of the world, a plan we had been working on and developing in conjunction with humans and angels since that date. All of the prophets and the bible heroes discussed it with us and pointed to it in their prophecies, writings and Psalms. Do not for a moment think there is a man alive who understands fully the import of the Cross.

Wow God I didn’t see that coming; that was pretty big.

Bigger than you can imagine. The point of this conversation Mark is that Doubt convinces the common man that he is sinful, caught in his sin and as a result cannot hear me. He convinces the man that whilst others, particularly public Christian figures, can hear from me, he cannot and the reason is because of some fault on his part. Some days the enemy points to a particular sin and tells the man the reason for not hearing from God is that sin, other days he reminds the man that he is generally falling short of the mark and tells him that his basic ‘fallen’ behaviour is what is keeping him from hearing me.

But God why is the enemy so focused on this? We all know that it’s possible to hear from you.

You all know in theory, but in reality few of you experience it as a fluent regular conversational back and forward experience like you might converse with a friend. And Mark that conversation is the very reason you were born. When a man converses with me he becomes himself. He begins to recognise my voice in his everyday life and things begin, ever so slowly to change. The enemy knows that. He understands that the reason you were born was for a conversational relationship; back and forward conversation all day. So he has focused all his efforts on preventing you from that.

You think his temptations to do the naughty sins are his main focus but they are simply a smoke-screen. He is much more focused on hurling a constant barrage of self-doubt at you. He opens up his files of destruction and death, the ‘YOU ARE NOT’ files that he keeps on each person’s life.

As Baxter Kruger has brilliantly discerned and then taught, Satan’s ‘YOU ARE NOT’ message is carefully crafted to destroy a man from the inside out. It is particularly destructive because Satan makes a very convincing job of pretending that his ‘YOU ARE NOT’ files are actually a mix of your own thoughts and mine, but actually they are not. They start with him; ‘You are not good enough’, ‘You are not worthy’, ‘You are not acceptable to God’, ‘You are not admired by the people you love’, ‘You are not making the same level of progress in your life that others do’, ‘You are not as good a father as other fathers’, and so on. 

That barrage of ‘you are not’-focused self-doubt is common to all humans, Christian or not because your enemy is fighting a battle with all humans not Christians in particular. He hates you all whatever your beliefs.

So what should we do?

Listen to me. Instead of constantly focusing on your sin, listen to me. I’ll tell you if I’m not happy with something. See what happens if you do this; instead of telling me what you’ve done wrong, ask me if there is anything you’ve done wrong that I particularly want to talk about;

“search my heart oh God and see if there be any wicked way in me.”

But be ready to have your faith tested, I am not nearly as focused on your wrongdoings as you want me to be. Even in repentance the enemy wants you to shut me out. If you just listened to me like David did you would often find that I didn’t want to focus on your sin, but rather just wanted to talk. I know your mistakes before you make them, I knew them before you were conceived, you don’t have to remind me of them. But ask me if you like and I’ll point out the ones I want to talk about at the moment, but be prepared for a surprise. Many many religious people will not be prepared to accept that I am not as focused on sin as they are. The Pharisees have always been that way Mark. They were completely focused on their understanding of scripture and on sin and yet completely missed the fact that I just wanted to talk with them.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me, and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”

They constantly harassed me for not conforming with their understanding of scripture. Constantly!! They thought that I should come to judge all the sins of the world because they misunderstood the words of Jeremiah and Isaiah and the others. The enemy taught them their understanding of scripture and as a result they saw me as a God who always wanted to remind men of their sins. But I didn’t and that made them very unhappy with me. The enemy still teaches the Pharisees their understanding of scripture, and as a result they still want me focused on judging and condemning. Their misguided knowledge of scripture tells them still that’s what I want to do, but they are wrong;

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

By focusing you all on your sins and your constant need to confess them he blinds you to the fact that I am just waiting to talk. And if I surprise you with what I say what of it? Do I get to talk or can you only hear your own ideas about what I want to say? I want you to risk allowing me to do more of the talking, and if I surprise you by not focusing on your sin would you be prepared to be comfortable with that? Or is the spirit of the Pharisees going to win in this generation too as it has in every generation?

The Pharisees need to search the scriptures to discover what the real sin is. It’s there, hidden in plain sight and it’s not what they think it is.

Your enemy wants you to focus on your sin because when you do you assume that I will not talk until you are clean and then having caught you in that lie he reminds you of even more reasons you cannot possibly be acceptable to me, and so you turn away from discussion with me convinced that the reason you cannot hear me is that you sinful. You spend your days convinced you are bad and guilty and you mistake the awareness of your faults as my voice convicting you. It seldom is. When you are aware of something you’ve done wrong you should test the spirits. Ask me if that awareness of past faults, no matter how recent the fault; ask me if that awareness is my voice, or the accuser’s. You are going to be surprised and unsure of the answer, but if you continue to ask and seek you will quickly learn that it’s me.

“Ask and keep on asking.”

That’s all I want, just to talk.

God there are going to be people very unhappy with this conversation and convinced that it isn’t you because they want you to be much more focused on sin.

Yes they do. They need to discuss that with me not you. I am better at answering questions of that nature than you will ever be. I see the real heart of a man and it is a different picture than the accuser presents.

God that comment will just make them even angrier.

Some yes, some no. Leave that to me Mark. Leave them to discuss that with me. Those who are genuine will do, those who are not will confront you.

Wonderful!

PRAISE FOR THE FREEDOM DIARIES

The Freedom Diaries will stretch you. It describes Mark’s real life struggle with Doubt as he discovered that he could hear God’s voice every day.Dr Mark Virkler. Author of 4 Keys to hearing God’s Voice. Buffalo. New York.

Like a child on Christmas morning, I was delighted to discover how simple yet wonderful it is to place my hand into the hand of God and listen to his whispers and enjoy his affection.  I could only ask why no one had ever told me he was this good and this close.  I wish I had read this book a long, long time ago.  Daniel Walker. Founder and Executive Director of Nvader. Author of God in a brothel.

This is new and exciting. It’s not the idea of hearing from God that’s new, it’s having conversations back and forth, question and answers. That’s new for most of us. Now I am enjoying my own conversations with God, which always leave me with hope. David Garratt of Scripture in Song. Hawaii.