There are distractions taking place in our world that are a tactic of the enemy. Their intent is to rob us of hope and weaken our faith. Properly discerning these distractions will determine the longevity and effectiveness of our testimony.
I recently had a very impacting conversation with a good friend. He is a Kingdom strategist who, along with his team, is developing a global platform for Kingdom expansion that will rival the information technology and systems of enterprise and commerce currently employed by nations.
In our conversation, my friend unpacked a reality that is missed by many believers. The evidence being gathered that reveals government, banking, and legislative corruption is important to understand, but it’s not the full picture. While the evidence of these things drives the news cycle, it lacks the kind of in-depth insight needed to accomplish God’s will on Earth. They are distractions. Those issues are real and demand some of our attention, but in and of themselves, they do not reveal the underlying motivating forces that are creating ungodly outcomes. If we allow those issues to become the end of our inquiry and assume we have the full picture, they will consume our attention and available emotional energy, becoming a diversion from the truth of a matter.
Our emotional energy and the reserves of our faith can be depleted if we allow ourselves to be distracted, choosing to enter the river of never-ending cycles of frustration and disappointment where there appears to be no resolution regarding the ills being perpetrated in our world. These ills appear to go on forever unchecked. Those things, while real in fact, become a distraction. A distraction is used by hell to wear down the saints of God to the point of frustration where we give up and roll over and let hell have its way.
A verse in the book of Daniel, while referring to a specific time and place in history, defines the tactic to divert our attention away from the real issues at hand, thinking we are engaged in a significant battle when in fact, we have been diverted to disempower our witness. Referencing the fourth beast, Daniel wrote, “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and shall think to change the times and the law” (Daniel 7:25).
The phrase Daniel used to describe hell’s assault against the Church to “wear out” our faith has also been translated as “to wear away.” It is a form of consistent grinding away at the resolve of God’s people to hold on to truth, leading them to a place of futility and, eventually, surrender.
This current spiritual conflict is deeper and more expansive than even our best evidence can define. It is critical not to camp on the latest tidbit of information or the next revelation of an evil that takes our breath away. We must have the eyes of our faith fixed solely on the horizon of the future, not only on what’s happening at our feet at the moment. That horizon is where the Lord and His angelic hosts are fighting the real battle, a battle already determined to be a victory for the Lord. To look at the horizon of the future and see anything other than the Lord and His overwhelming victory is the most dangerous distraction of all.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Hugo Jehanne on Unsplash
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