{"id":3219,"date":"2017-01-01T23:21:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T23:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davesali.wordpress.com\/?p=3219"},"modified":"2017-01-01T23:21:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-01T23:21:08","slug":"the-greatest-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/01\/the-greatest-trick\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest trick"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: &#8211; Matthew 8:16<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The greatest trick the devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he didn&#8217;t exist.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the famous line from\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KnGo6Qm0Wt8\">The Usual Suspects<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>not\u00a0<\/em>a verse of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>It is however the essence of deception and strategic warfare.<\/p>\n<p>As terrible as it would be\u00a0for you to be overcome and defeated in battle by an evil powerful foe&#8230;it&#8217;s far more devastating to convince you that this foe doesn&#8217;t exist, and all the hindrances and damages you&#8217;re sustaining are due to something else.<\/p>\n<p>This blindness of heart and ignorance of spiritual realities gives your adversary plenty of room to\u00a0prowl around like a roaring lion, &#8220;seeking whom he may devour&#8221;. (1 Peter 5:8)<\/p>\n<p>Convincing you that all you see is all there is, will get you focusing your efforts in the wrong area.<\/p>\n<p>Convincing you that there\u00a0is no connection between the manifestation of physical infirmities and the operation of unclean spirits will keep you managing symptoms but never dealing with the root issue.<\/p>\n<p>And as an aside, the immediate counterattack to any attempt to probe in this area is The Extremist Card: <em><strong>&#8220;Do you mean to say that every sickness is because of the devil?&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be intimidated or manoeuvred out of position by this question. Whether or not <em>every<\/em> sickness is due to the devil does not change the facts that Jesus routinely healed people by casting out evil spirits.<\/p>\n<p>Case in point, Luke 9:37-42 (<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"text Luke-9-37\">Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. <\/span><span id=\"en-NKJV-25340\" class=\"text Luke-9-38\"><sup class=\"versenum\">38\u00a0<\/sup>Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, \u201cTeacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child.<\/span><span id=\"en-NKJV-25341\" class=\"text Luke-9-39\"><sup class=\"versenum\">39\u00a0<\/sup>And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams <i>at the mouth;<\/i> and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. <\/span><span id=\"en-NKJV-25342\" class=\"text Luke-9-40\"><sup class=\"versenum\">40\u00a0<\/sup>So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-NKJV-25343\" class=\"text Luke-9-41\"><sup class=\"versenum\">41\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jesus answered and said, <span class=\"woj\">\u201cO faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><span id=\"en-NKJV-25344\" class=\"text Luke-9-42\"><sup class=\"versenum\">42\u00a0<\/sup>And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed <i>him.<\/i> Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Verse 42:<\/p>\n<p>Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit&#8230;healed the child&#8230;and gave him back to his father.<\/p>\n<p>Direct correlation between spiritual oppression and the manifestation of what could be typically diagnosed as an Epileptic Seizure.<\/p>\n<p>There is a direct link between physical manifestation and spiritual realities.<\/p>\n<p>The specific narrative of the\u00a0spiritual force behind each physical manifestation may be a mystery\u00a0only understood by &#8220;detailed revelation&#8221;&#8230;and perhaps for some of these things it may not be given for us to know.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u00a0<em>is\u00a0<\/em>a connection between spirit, soul (mind+will+emotion) and body.<\/p>\n<p>And learning how to navigate life with your eyes open to this reality is probably the greatest goal\u00a0you can aim for in your spiritual growth this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: &#8211; Matthew 8:16 The greatest trick the devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he didn&#8217;t exist. That&#8217;s the famous line from\u00a0The Usual Suspects,\u00a0and\u00a0not\u00a0a verse &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/01\/the-greatest-trick\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The greatest trick&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}