Three Links In The Chain Of Defeat

Three Links in the Chain of Defeat
by Charles Capps

There are problems in life that come to everybody. All of us, at one time or another, face troubles, tests, trials and opportunities to enter into strife.

James 3:16 says, “...where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”

Strife has the potential of producing calamity in your life. But it is God’s will that we overcome these problems in life by the power of His Word. The Word of God reveals our way of deliverance.

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:13)

Psalm 91:11-12 tells us, “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

If this is God’s will, then why do so many Christians experience defeat and calamity in their lives?

There are three major links in the chain of events that lead to defeat: WRONG THINKING, WRONG SPEAKING, and WRONG PRAYING. Any one of them can start a chain reaction which can produce calamity.

Wrong Thinking

Your successes or failures in life are not determined by the things you experience, but rather by what you believe about the things you experience. Your reaction to what you experience, whether good or bad, usually determines your attitude toward other things in life. The attitude you develop dictates your path either to success or failure.

After going through a bad situation in life, there is usually the temptation to give up. It usually starts by feeling sorry for yourself and wallowing in self-pity. If you give in to that thought, you will end up with the attitude that God is against you, and there is no way out. The real truth is, the devil inspired that thought and he will do his best to get you to blame all of your troubles on God! It is that kind of wrong thinking that opens the door to defeat.

There are many who use the story of what happened to Job as their excuse to blame God. They say, “Look at what God did to Job!”

In the late 60’s when I had some financial reversals, I stayed up all night one night reading the Book of Job. I was so sure I was another Job. I wanted to find out for myself how it turned out.

When I found out what God really did for Job, it surprised me. The truth was that God blessed Job with twice as much as the devil took from him.

I found that it was really an action of the devil that destroyed Job’s children and his possessions.

God had put a hedge around Job, and the devil couldn’t touch him. This was the very accusation that satan brought against God. (Job 1:10) It appears that it was Job’s fear that tore the hedge down. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 10:8, “...whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent.” Then, in Job 3:25, we find that Job admitted that he was highly developed in fear, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.” It is obvious from what Job said in Job 1:21 that he believed God killed his children and destroyed his possessions. Job said, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away...” Verse 22 states, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” At this point, he had not charged God with wrong because Job was sincere in what he believed, but what he believed was sincerely wrong. Verse 21 simply records Job’s own assessment of his situation.

However, after chapter one, Job made 74 false accusations against God. He really believed God was at fault. But we must realize that Job couldn’t read the first Chapter of Job and find out that the devil was the one who killed and destroyed his possessions.

There are some who believe that God put Job and all his possessions into the devil’s hand. But that was not the case at all. Look closely at what God said to satan, “And the LORD said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power...” (Job 1:12) Notice that God said, “Behold (look) all that he has is in your power (hand) ...” God didn’t put it in the devil’s hand; it was already there. I believe it was there because fear tore down the hedge of God’s protection (see verse 5).

Here are some of the statements Job made about God after chapter one:

Though God slay me, yet will I trust Him. It was admirable that Job felt that way, but he was wrong in his assessment of the situation. God was not the problem.

He takes me by the nap of the neck and shakes me...He runs up on me like a giant. No, that was not God...it was the devil.

He sets darkness in my path. It was not God that set darkness in Job’s path, but Job thought he did.

Two factors caused Job more problems than the actual troubles he experienced: wrong thinking caused him to believe wrong things.

Many precious people are crippled in life for the same reasons. Wrong thinking cripples their ability to function in the authority of faith and breaks down their resistance to the works of the enemy in their life.

God Is Not A Thief

There is no darkness in God, so He didn’t put darkness before Job. He is not a thief and didn’t destroy Job’s children or his possessions.

God Is Light

The Apostle John said, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:4-5) Then James said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)

Right and Wrong Choices

When you think wrong, you believe wrong. When you believe wrong, you speak and act in wrong ways against God.

There are many Christians today who blame God for the tragedies in life. Some even believe that it is God’s way of perfecting them. This actually opens the door to the devil and allows him to have a party at their expense. They won’t resist what the devil is doing because they believe it was sent from God. Therefore, the devil runs over them rough shod, and God gets the blame for it all!

The devil’s deception is designed to destroy you by making you believe that everything that happens to you in life is God’s will for you. The enemy’s deception is designed to break your spirit and your resistance. This is why the doctrine of praising God for everything that happens to you is so dangerous. It actually destroys your resistance.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

Wrong Praying

If you believe that tests, trials, sickness and calamity come from God to perfect you, you will pray wrong. You will think you are a modern day Job. “God, break me and grind me to powder,” said one woman who asked me to pray for her. Terrible things were happening to her as a result of what she prayed. She didn’t know it, but she just gave the devil permission to afflict her with that prayer. You see, God can’t answer that prayer because the kingdom of God doesn’t stock calamity, sickness, and trouble. But the devil can sure provide those things and she got what she asked for! The devil is the only one who will break someone, and he is glad to oblige.

Don’t ask for trouble when you pray. The devil provides enough of that already. Ask for deliverance and resist the devil and he will flee. Greater is He who is in you than the devil in this world.

Many Christians have been deceived into believing that satan has been hired by God to perfect the Church. No, God has not hired the devil to perfect the saints. In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us that the five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers was given to the Church for the perfecting of the saints.

If God were using sickness, disease, problems, car wrecks and tragedies to perfect the saints, then when a member of the five-fold ministry came to town for a meeting, the advertisement should read something like this:

One of the five-fold ministers is coming to town! He will give some car wrecks, some cancer, some lung disease, and some marriage problems for the perfecting of the saints.

The real truth is that God is using the five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers anointed with the Holy Spirit and the revelation of God’s Word to perfect the Church.

Jesus said, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3) Paul said that Christ would sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the Word. (Ephesians 5:26)

Make a decision to allow the water of God’s Word to cleanse your mind of wrong thinking and wrong attitudes which cause you to pray wrong prayers. God is not against you. He is on your side. He is the giver of all good gifts.

John 10:10 is the dividing line of all truth, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

I challenge you to develop the attitudes of Jesus so that you can live life more abundantly until He comes.

Three Links In The Chain Of Defeat

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