Why The Enemy Is Winning

In this episode, Kevin discusses how sometimes the enemy wins in our lives as Christians. He emphasizes that even though we are on the winning side in Christ, there are times when the enemy prevails.

Transcript

Kevin (00:02.96)
The other day I was on social media and I saw this very funny clip from the ESPN TikTok page and it showed this young lady. She was sitting on the bench of a basketball game. I guess she was waiting to get in or she had just come out of the game and there was a guy who was filming from behind her, from behind her back. It was saying, Hey, don't worry. You guys can still get, you guys can still come back. You can still win the game. And then he panned over to the

It was the fourth quarter and the score was 65 -3 with two minutes left in the game. The girl said, come back. We only have three points and I scored two of them. There's no way we can come back. Stop messing with me. It was kind of funny because at that point the score was astronomically high. There was no way they could come back and it was a

That team was going to lose that game. Now, why am I bringing up this example about a kid in a basketball game? A lot of times that's what happens with us. We're in a game, i .e. with the enemy, and we're not just playing one game in basketball and other sports. They play a series of games. It's not just one game. For example, for the championship for basketball or baseball or hockey, it's the best of seven to win the series. So a lot of times with us, with the enemy,

We're in a series of battles and just like in football or basketball or any of these sports, sometimes we lose and then sometimes in our battle with the enemy, sometimes he wins and that's the reality sometimes. Now, again, let me make this clear from the beginning. This is not a gloom and doom episode. We know ultimately how the story is going to end.

We know that Jesus is the victor. He's our savior. He's our Lord. The enemy is a created being. He's not God. There's no way he is going to win the overall war. So let me get this straight. If you are a Christian, be secure fam. You're on the winning side. I know sometimes it gets rough and this episode is going to talk about that. Sometimes we take some hells from the enemy. But that's something we need to understand.

Kevin (02:24.614)
that no matter how much you pray, no matter how much you fast, no matter how much you read your Bible, you study, you go to church, you do ministry, we have to remember something. The enemy is way stronger, way faster, way smarter, way more clever than you and I, especially in those moments when we're not filled with the spirit, which if we're honest, most of the time we're not filled with the

present company included. So those moments when we're not filled with the Spirit, when we don't have the full arm of God, we're walking out not battle ready so to speak, and we got this enemy who hates us to the very end of his being and we are totally no match for him, of course you're gonna lose sometimes and he's going to win.

But just because he wins some battles, that doesn't mean we get discouraged or we throw in a towel or feel like we shouldn't even fight anymore. That's what he wants to do. He wants us to believe that somehow, regardless of what the scoreboard says, that we just are not going to win or we're destined to lose, that the referee is going to proverbially count us out. And that's one of the tricks in the text of the enemy to make us give up because sometimes we do take some L's, especially when those L's are really

big and sizable. It can make you lose the steam to continue to want to continue to grow and continue to serve and continue to press on during that narrow road that the scripture talks about. But there are things that we do specifically, even as Christians, even though we're saved, even though we may even be filled with the Holy Spirit, that doesn't mean we always listen to the Holy Spirit. So that's what I'm talking about. What are some things that we

even as Christians and non -Christians alike, to cause and to contribute more effectively to the enemy actually sometimes winning. So, the first thing that we do sometimes as Christians to allow or help the enemy actually win sometimes, one of the first things we do is we talk too much. Now, what do I mean by that? All you have to do is really just go online.

Kevin (04:42.286)
And you can see for yourself some of the things that people do and people say that lets you see that sometimes we say too much. Now, let me say it from this perspective as well. The enemy obviously is not omniscient. He's not omnipresent, but he can hear what we say when we say certain things out loud. And some of the things that we say out loud,

He can actually use them against us. Some of the things we say out loud are good. But some of the things, if we're honest, if we're not filled with the Spirit, of course, we don't always say the things we should say. And that's when the enemy really takes a hold of those things that we say that are not pleasing to God, that are solely about what we want, our desires. So now, am I saying you're not supposed to talk about your desires at all? No. But what happens is this.

If we're saying things that shouldn't be said, the enemy uses the things that we shouldn't say to get us to desire the things we shouldn't desire. For example, saw this, again, social media is the perfect place for this. You can go to any social media platform you can think of, and you see a preponderance of people who just get on there and they say anything. And there used to be a time where you didn't say everything that was on your

because everyone has a microphone, everyone has a camera, everyone has an account, so everyone feels like they're a social media personality, a social media superstar, that their opinions are the most important. I gotta tell you everything that's going on in my life. And the problem with that is when you feel like you gotta tell everyone what's going on, you gotta compete with everyone else who's telling you what's going on. So now, okay, Suzy went to eat at a three -star

Okay, that's nice. So it means I got to go to a four star restaurant. Then I see someone that goes to a five star restaurant. So I got to compete with them. So I got to kind of connive and do all these things to try to compete. So now there's pride. Now there's ego. That's how the enemy starts to win. Cause now our focus is not on God. It's not on serving. It's not on growing in Christ. It's about not keeping up with the proverbial Joneses.

Kevin (07:07.94)
And I saw this woman, not necessarily in a comparison perspective, but just saying things that you shouldn't say. I saw this woman online and she was talking and she sounded pretty good in the beginning talking about relationships and things of that nature. But then she started saying about when I meet a guy, this is what she said, when I meet a guy and we finally get together physically from a sexual perspective.

There's only one position that we should do with it. Now mind you, she's online telling this to everyone. Now my first question is, why did you feel the need to tell everyone in the planet what your sexual preferences are? That is not our concern, that is not our business. We don't need to know that. So now, why is that not good at helping the enemy?

Because now the enemy again can use that because you've put in the atmosphere for him to say, I know the things that she's looking for. I know her preferences. I know her desires. I know the things that she wants. So now I can send people in things that are counterfeit, that are contrary to God, but are feeding her desires. Because let's be honest, she's saying things in the social media sphere that should be

It should be personal. Now, I'm not going to even get into the fact that, you know, if you want to be real honest, you shouldn't be talking about that to somebody, something like that with anybody outside of your husband. That goes without saying. But the fact that you said this out loud for the world and the enemy to hear, he now takes a hold of that information and now he can concoct a plan to devise to how to strategize to now to send things and people to you.

So now that you can start doing things that are not God pleasing, and guess who wins when you do that? The enemy wins. And the more you do things that aren't pleasing to God, the more you start driving yourself away from God. And the further you get away from God, the closer you get to the enemy, and this is how he wins. I saw this example just in illustration. I was at the gym.

Kevin (09:30.908)
working out and this woman was a machine that crossing me. She was doing, I think she was doing, at work, she was doing abs And for a moment, and I had to be one of those guys at the gym. I'm far from like a gym expert. I just try to go somewhere frequently. But if you go to the gym nowadays, especially in 2024, talking about social media, most people on their phones, you know, they may do two reps, record.

or they have a tripod recording or their phone is right by them all the time. So they're not actually working. They're doing more phone stuff than actually working out. So in this case, she had a phone. She was doing some texting, whatever. And then she put on a song and she started singing, which is fine because I have my headphones and I'm at the gym. They have me some music. The problem was, like a lot of times when you put on headphones and you're singing, you don't realize how loud you're singing.

and she was singing pretty loudly. keep in mind, coming from someone who can't sing, her and I would be brothers and sisters. She could not sing either. But the point I'm making is she was singing so loud and she was so oblivious that other people could hear.

And now people would know what she was singing and knew what kind of music that she listened to and were all looking pass and by and giving her this look like, she needs to turn those headphones on. She don't even realize. And she just kept singing. Now, some of my mother said, well, that's their problem. She was having her own business, whatever. That's not the point. The point is she was so oblivious that what she was saying was affecting others as well as how they viewed

That's what we do sometimes when we talk too much. When we tell everyone what's going on in our lives. We're so busy putting on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter about what's going on here, what we're doing, what are our plans, this, that, and that. When we're doing, we're so eager to share every little thing that God has told us, if he's told us anything, that there may be times when God does not want you to share. That these are things he wants you to do in private, that he wants you to

Kevin (11:44.846)
in secret. There's some growth that's taking place that shouldn't be public. That should only be private. And when you're like this woman singing out loud, sometimes you put stuff in the atmosphere that's not pleasant and people look at you with a bad disposition. And when all of that happens, God doesn't sing glory, but the enemy gets another W in his belt. So we have to be conscious of what we share when we share

who we share with because the enemy again is always listening. There's not a moment in our lives he doesn't have someone in our atmosphere trying to hear, trying to intercept, trying to understand what we're saying and trying to do something about it because now he wants to use that information later on to attack you. You you ever go on social media, again social media is thing with this, and you see someone on social media or you look up something and they're like,

Ten minutes later, you're scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, and you get all these ads for what you just looked at. I was looking up basketball tickets. I'm just picking some that's off my head. Then 10 minutes later, every ad on Instagram or YouTube or whatever is about basketball tickets. So it's like, wow, the algorithm picked up what you were looking for and now sends you all that stuff. The enemy does the same thing. Now he uses some demonic algorithm.

So now you put out there that you like certain things, that you want to do certain things, you're planning certain things. You don't like this. You like this. Me and this person had this fallout. Me and this person argued. I don't like the way they look. I don't like these people in my job. All these things were so eager to go out and share and talk about. So now the enemy uses that. So that same way that internet brings back stuff on your feed, the enemy brings stuff to your mind.

based on the things that you share, based on the things that you're so eager to talk about and to vent and to let loose. There's so many people online who go online for advice. They have a problem about something. I'm posting this because I want to know what y 'all think about this situation. Why don't you pray about it? Why don't you have a friend or a family member or a pastor or someone in the church that you confide in?

Kevin (14:11.984)
that you don't need to be telling the whole world. And then when you tell the whole world and the world does what the world does, now you're sad. Now you're hurt. Now you're I can't believe people are so cold. I can't believe people are, because you put it out there for the world. And the enemy is going to use again that same stuff to attack you and I. So we have to be very careful about what we say. We got to stop talking so much.

if we don't want the enemy to get another W. Let me give you a scripture. This is a very good one. Isaiah chapter 39, starting at verse three. And it says, then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, what did those men want? Where were they from? Hezekiah replied, they came from the distant land of Babylon. What did they see in your palace? Asked Isaiah. They saw everything. Hezekiah replied, I showed them everything I own, all my royal treasures.

And Elisha said to Hezekiah, listen to this message of the Lord of Heaven's armies. The time is coming when everything in your palace, all the treasures stored up by your ancestors until now will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. Now, a little bit of a context. Hezekiah was sick, and he got a letter from the king of Babylon, a love letter that says he's feeling better, know, we wish you feel better, blah, blah, blah, blah. The king comes over to visit, and now Hezekiah.

being so proud about what he has and being so filled of himself shows his king, check out my palace, check out my treasury, check out this. So he's showing them all of his treasures and look at what the prophet says. Because you shared all that stuff, now that same person that you shared all your wealth with, the same one's gonna take it away. Because it says in the scripture the Babylonians were the ones who came in ultimately that God used to judge Israel.

So you see that? So now that's exactly what we do at times. We are so eager to share things with people. We want to impress people. We want to tell everybody what's going on in our lives. And knowing the enemy is going to use that same information, just like we had Zakiya, to give back at us, to punish us, to have the enemy attack us and then ultimately get a W. So we have to be very clear.

Kevin (16:36.248)
and very concise about what we share and who we share it with. Everything that's in your mind should not be on your social media. Keep some things close to the best. So that's the first thing. The reason why the enemy wins sometimes is sometimes we just talk too much and we give him that kind of information. More importantly, that kind of ammunition. The second thing that we do sometimes of why the enemy wins or the enemy is winning.

is sometimes we want too much. Now this goes right in concert with what we just talked about of sometimes we talk too much. Because what we are talking about a lot of times are the things that we want. Now if you're the enemy and you're trying to strategize on how best to attack someone, the best thing to do is just listen to them talk. Let them tell you what their dreams

Let them tell you what their desires are. Let them tell you what their plans are. And then a lot of times what happens family is it's nothing wrong with having dreams and plans and aspirations. But what happens a lot of times is that we want things that we shouldn't want or we want more than we need. And the reason why I can say that is because two words, prosperity gospel. That right there.

capitalizes on most people because most people don't want just what God wants to give us. We want what we want and we want more than what the other person has. Because there's a time, my focus, my perspective rather, on the prosperity gospel, as bad as it is, and it is horrible. It's a cancer in the church. One of the things I used to think about a prosperity gospel is that people were being

that these are people who are just, you know, people who are being duped, people who didn't know any better, people who are just being, you know, they were falling prey to these slick tongue, know, slithery tongue snakes in the pulpit and these pimps. And then the more I started looking and the more I started looking at the reactions and then more importantly, when I saw videos of people who

Kevin (19:01.692)
core of these people who preaching this prosperity gospel and asking for people to give. So if you give to this ministry, if you give to this preacher, this pastor, this revival, whatever it is, and God's going to bless you out of the abundance of what you give, which is a straight tactic that's not biblical, by the way. When I would see people post these videos and then there would be some who would be critical of it, you will look at the comments. And for every five people that will be critical over it, there were 10 people that were saying,

You just don't understand. just try. I'm not going to let my blessings be blocked. I'm going to be obedient to the pastor. I'm going to be obedient to the overseer because I don't want to miss out on my blessing. And the problem becomes most of the time it's not because they want to be blessed because they just, it's a need. A lot of times it's because they want something more. They want bigger. They want a bigger house. They want a better car. And they want to do all of this because going back to the first point, they've been talking big.

They've been talking big about all the things they want. So now that desire grows in concert, in context with the big words, the big words, the big breath, the big speeches now becomes big desires and big claims. And now it has to, takes a big work to get it done. So now to compete with Jones's and to keep up with what I told people I said, because I talked too much. Now I'm going to need a lot to meet that. So I don't look like a complete fool.

But at this point, I'm convinced when it comes to a lot of these people in the prosperity gospel, now if you're a new Christian, you're immune to this and you're not involved. But you have people, family, who've been following these prosperity preachers for years and for decades. And they have been falling for the same tactics over and over and over again. And people will say things and say things and have people thinking that...

That's, this is what I got to do to get more. And at some point family, they're not being fooled. They're being fed. This is what they want. They don't want truth. They don't want sound doctrine. They want a shortcut to success. They want a formula to try to finagle or finesse God to give them

Kevin (21:28.4)
more. So I don't have to read, I don't have to study, I don't have to pray, I don't have to serve the ministry, I don't have to grow as a Christian, but here's something I do. There's a quick get rich quick scheme or IE get blessed quick scheme that these pastors are throwing to people. And at some point that's what they want because now I'm feeding into all the things I said, which creates all the things I want. So now what happens in all of

God is being manipulated. The word is not going forth. People are not growing in Christ, growing in faith. People now have bad expectations and look at God as a cosmic genie. And then when God doesn't deliver like they think he should, then God doesn't get glory because now they leave him and they don't think he's the God that who he is. So with all of that, who gets the W? The enemy gets the win. Let me give you another scripture.

very famous one, James chapter four, starting at verse three. And it says, and even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You only want what will give you pleasure. So sometimes we want too much. We are satisfied. There's a scripture, I believe it's in Psalm. I don't want to say it wrong, but it says specifically, Lord,

Don't give me too much or I will get greedy and forgive you, forget you. Well, don't give me too little or I may steal and disobey you. Give me just enough. The model prayer, Jesus says, give me this day our daily bread. Now let me make this clear. I'm not saying you should just settle and just be a pauper.

If you have the ability to attain more, I believe God wants to give us more, then fine. It's nothing wrong with wanting more, but wanting more and wanting too much, sometimes it's a very thin line. And a lot of us, if we're honest, don't know the difference. We think whatever we want is enough. We think whatever we desire is enough. We think whatever we clamp, we concoct in our mind.

Kevin (23:50.384)
that that's the sufficient amount I need to have got. I need to have this car. I need to have this job. I need to live in this kind of house. I need to have this kind of spouse. So we create this desire in our own minds. Not even realize that sometimes you're asking for way too much, especially in consideration of who you are and what you have to offer yourself.

So, but the enemy capitalizes on our desires when we are greedy, when we want too much, as the James scripture says, think about the last thing you ask God for. And be honest, can you honestly say, and what you ask God for personally, was it just for you? And was it just something that you just needed? Or was it something you just wanted?

And then it was something that you wanted, even though you may have something already that may be sufficient. Again, I'm not saying you should just be comfortable with just anything, but ask yourself the question, as the James scripture is saying, question your motive. Why are you asking God for this thing? What do you plan to do with it?

Is it going to give God glory? And is it something, this is you know if it's not just for you, is it something that when you get it, you will have no problem sharing it to some degree. You will have no problem saying or using it. It will be a great testimony for the goodness of God. If what you're asking for is just for you and no one else benefits but

you, you have to ask yourself the question, do I really need it or do I just want it? Now, that being said, there are moments where God being the great God he is will give us some things that we just want just because he loves us. But is that all your prayer requests? Can you ask God to give you something just so you can bless somebody else with it? When was the last time that was your prayer request? When was the last time the Lord

Kevin (26:16.326)
Give me this so I can praise your name. Give me this so I can glorify your name. Give me this so I can show the same love you gave me through this thing so now I can be a pusher and a proponent of your kingdom, of your agenda. Or is it just for me? And if what you want, if what you're asking for, what you have been asking and praying for,

it's just for you and only for you and stops with you, then the enemy is the one who gets the W, not God indefinitely, not us. So that's the second thing that sometimes we do as Christians that allows the enemy to win. So I got one more thing for this week. So what else? What's the last thing that sometimes we do that contributes to the enemy winning? The last thing that sometimes we do is

We trust too much. Now, this goes in line with the first couple of things we talked about. First thing, we talk too much. Then sometimes we want too much. And because we're talking big and then we want big, we're leaning on people to help us to get these big things. And the problem becomes we're trusting everyone else.

It's not uncommon to go online and you hear people talk about the pro these prophets and these apostles and these gurus and these people who again using the second point because you want so much try to give you this shortcut to getting what you want that I'm a prophet. I'm telling you that if you do this, if you follow this formula, if you follow this plan, then

God's going to give you what you want. And then they'll try to make it seem better. Not only he'll give you what you he'll give you more than what you ask him because he's a God that can do exceedingly using the scriptures abundantly above all we could ask or think. Now God of course is that kind of God, but in a conscious they're giving it to you. They're making you trust in what they say. And it's not just trusting people when it comes to false prophecies. I got a scripture. I'm going to talk about that in a minute.

Kevin (28:40.048)
But sometimes we trust too much and the enemy wins when we trust in false doctrines. Again, it goes back to us not taking ownership of our own Christian growth. If you desire to grow as a Christian, which you should, if you want to grow in your walk and to be more effective in sharing the word and your prayer life, which you should, that should be something you aspire to. If you want to do those things,

Should you have people that you consult? Absolutely. Is that the wrong way having a big sister, big brother, or someone in your sphere that can kind of pour into you? But ultimately, you should be trusting God. You should ask God to send you these people. But we invert that. Instead of asking God to send these people, we're going to people to tell us about God. And because we don't want to do

because we don't want to read for ourselves. We don't want to go to the Holy Spirit. Lord, I'm struggling with this scripture. Make it make sense for me. Help me to understand. One of the things in most churches and the church I currently attend is no exception. This is not a good thing I'm about to say. No matter how many people attend your church, I guarantee you that number shrinks by more than half at Bible study.

If you have a church that has 500 members, I guarantee you less than 30 % of that 500 actually go to Bible study. I guarantee you less than 30 % go to a prayer meeting if you have it. Because why? People don't want to do the work. We're trusting in a man or a person or a figure to tell us. And what happens is this, because we are trusting a man and not the spirit,

The spirit is not giving us discernment to know whether that's the spirit actually talking through that man. Think about what I just said. If we're going to the man as opposed to going to the spirit, the spirit doesn't help us discern whether the spirit is even in the man we're going to. So what does that lead to? False doctrine, false things. And for a lot of Christians, the roots of our faith are very, very

Kevin (31:02.766)
If you look at this parable, one of the most famous parables of the parable of the soil, when the soil of the seas, they fell on rocky ground, thorny ground, and all those different types of ground. was only one kind of soil where the word took root and then a crop grew. One of the types of soil, it says the sea fell in and it started to grow. But because I think it was the concrete.

because the roots were not formed, the seed and the crop was quickly torn up. And that's what happens with a lot of people and how the enemy wins. Because you have someone, yeah, they started out believing, but all it took was one conversation, one email, one YouTube video, one Facebook post, one Instagram post, one TikTok that has something that makes them question

what they thought was true. And because their roots are not deep, because they didn't go to the spirit, because they are trusting in another man, now that crop is uprooted. So now, instead of being resolute in your faith, now you start questioning. Now you start rejecting. Now you start having these questions. And the questions aren't bad. But the problem is, when your roots are not deep, you don't realize whether their questions are actually even valid.

I see a lot of videos of a particular person. I don't like to name names. And this person is so quick to discredit the Bible. And he does so a lot of times from an African or African slash African -American perspective. And he's quickly tried to discredit the Bible and making it seem as if the Bible was not written for black people.

that Africans or African Americans have been given a false religion. Christians have false religion that is stolen from different things in the books of the Bible. And I have family members who have fallen for this. Because of one conversation, one experience that one person said, and because their roots are not deep, because they're not filled with the spirit, they haven't done the work themselves, and now they're trusting that what this person is saying is true. One of the most frustrating things for me.

Kevin (33:26.478)
as I've grown in my faith is to see stuff online that people are supporting, that people say about the faith that's absolutely not true. And it's absolutely ridiculous. It's unfounded. It's false doctrine. And people are like, wow, that's good. That makes sense. -huh, these Christians, they don't know how to answer that. They're not ready for this conversation. And I sit there and I just get mad. I get mad and then I get sad because I say to myself,

These are people who all they have to do is read the Bible. All they have to do is sit down, have a conversation with someone and help them with the help of the Holy Spirit. See that what this YouTube video said or what this TikTok said or what this Instagram person said is wrong. But because we're going to trust what these people say and not go to God on our own. We allow the enemy.

And there are people who go to church every single Sunday. And the reason why they go to church is not because they love the Lord. It's not because they're growing in their faith. It's not because they desire fellowship with the people around them. They go because of the person in the pulpit. They go because I trust him. In some cases her. I'm not gonna go there, but I could. I trust him or her.

to tell me what the sayeth the Lord. You know what you call a person who's in a position or a group who only listens to one person, only hears to one person, and that person's human just like them? That's the perfect textbook definition of a cult. A cult usually has one leader, and that person's voice is the only voice that matters. And that voice in a cult,

It's not God's voice. So ask yourself the question, in your growth with Christ, can you honestly say you are following him and his words or are you following the words of someone else? Because what happens is the enemy, again, we lose because we lean on people. We're trusting people and not the person of the Holy Spirit to lead us in God's. And again, it's so frustrating for me and I take this thing so passionately because

Kevin (35:54.436)
It's so easy to be pushed aside from the faith if your roots are not strong in the faith. Because let's be honest, we talk about this on the episode a lot anyway. It's hard enough as it is as a Christian, if your roots are strong, to stay the course. But if your roots have not taken any firmness to them, and if someone says something that can totally uproot,

you from your faith, it's easy for that point for you to lean to something that's false, something that's faulty, something that's substandard and just flat out anti -Christian. And of course, anything anti -Christian is definitely a win for the enemy. Now for this point, this is the last one. I actually have two scriptures that I want to share. This first one is Ezekiel chapter 13.

And it says, let me go a little bit first. Okay. Okay. And I have two scriptures. For this point, I have two scriptures that I want to share. The first one is Ezekiel chapter 13. And this is what it says, starting at verse three.

Kevin (37:20.796)
They don't warn the people of the coming trouble or tell them how dangerous it is to sin against me. Those prophets lie by claiming they speak for me, but I have not even chosen them to be my prophets. And they still think their words would come true. They said they're preaching my messages, but they're full of lies. I did not speak to them." Now, in the course of Ezekiel, he's talking about, of course, the prophets in Israel who were telling people that, OK, you know what? God's not going to really kill everyone. It's not going to be as bad.

And I'm telling you that God's going to do great things. God's going do wonderful things. So promising, prospering. God was like, he's telling you to repent. He's telling you to turn away. He's telling you to come back to me. And these false prophets who were going against Ezekiel, Zerumiah, Isaiah, all these guys, when they were preaching repentance, preaching reform, the false prophets, you don't have to repent. It's going to be all right. It's going to be good.

God's going to work it out for you. God's going to bless you. God's going to make sure you prosper. You're going to be, here we go, blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed when you come, blessed when you go. Make sure you pay your tithes so your bonds can be filled. Have I not promised you that if you do not rob me and tithe an offer, I'm going to pull out a blessing which you don't have room to receive. So just like now, those prophets then, they were using scriptures too. Out of context, of course, to give you the impression that, hey, I'm

I've been sent by God. And how do you know they're prophet? Because they're telling you something you want to hear. That's how we categorize prophets these days. We don't question, we don't ask if they really are called by God because what's the ultimate trump card for a person to say? The ultimate trump card is God told me. Because we can't look in a microscope or put them under a glass to see if they really been.

called by God. We can look at their hairstyle and the way they dress and all these things. If someone says, God said, God told me, I heard the Lord said, we a lot of times take them at their word because we feel like, okay, who am I? Just say, I can say for sure that God didn't tell them, but see how they fool you is they say God told me and then they tell you what you want to hear.

Kevin (39:47.45)
So now you're more apt to listen. Now you're more apt to pay attention. Now you're more apt to say, you know what, maybe they did hear from God because God wants to bless me. And they say God wants to bless me too. So those two things, can be a coincidence to when we trust the wrong.

That's when we end up letting the enemy win. And I have one more scripture for this point in concert with what I just said. So now you might be saying, okay, and the scripture is going to ask you a question. Well, Kevin, okay, someone says, okay, God sent me, God told me I'm a prophet, I'm an apostle, whatever. I can't say they're wrong. So how would I know the difference? Good question. Scripture gives the answer. See why you got to read your Bible?

Deuteronomy 18, starting at verse 21. And it says, may be asking yourself, how can we tell if a prophet's message really comes from the Lord? You will know because if the Lord says something will happen, it will happen. And if it doesn't, you will know the prophet was falsely claiming to speak for the Lord. Don't be afraid of any prophet whose message does not come from the Lord. So now, look at it from that perspective. Now we can say, and we can know.

that obviously the scripture says if a person is a prophet then what they said should come true. What they said should come to pass. Now what happens to this? Be honest. Most of the time when people do these prophecies we don't check to see if they're true. We don't follow them. And I saw this guy on YouTube made this good point. These prophets, so -called prophets, they come

traveled to church to church place to place. Promises, you know what, give $100, give $152 ,000, whatever. And I promise you, if you do this, you're going to be blessed. If that was the case, and every time they made these prophetic utterances that people were getting blessed tenfold, don't you think the same people will be following them everywhere they go? Because think about it. He made a very good point, this brother that was on YouTube.

Kevin (42:09.564)
If I went to Prophet Joe and Joe said, Kevin, you give me $100 in a week, you're going to get $1 And I did it. And it happened. Don't you think I'm going to be following Joe around and say, hey, man, look, Joe, I'm going take these thousand. I'm going go to Joe again. I'm going do a thousand to get 10 ,000. 10 ,000 to get 100 ,000. But what happens is this. We get so caught up in emotion that the same people

promise us these things, we don't hold them accountable. We don't see the fruit of these things come in the past. The scripture we read that says, if the prophet is from God, whatever they say is going to happen, it should happen. But what do these people tell you? If you do what they say, you forget, because you can call up in life, dealing with the family, stuff like that, you forget that he said if you give $100, you're going to get $500 or $1 ,000 or whatever. You forget. So then.

If it doesn't happen well, you know what? Maybe I didn't have enough faith. I really didn't believe like I should. you know what? I gave, but I didn't get it with the right motive. So next time, it'll work out for me because I know. And then what happens is rinse and repeat. Prophet Joe will be by Prophet Susie. Now, Prophet Susie will come. She'll have a similar scheme, but it will be somewhat different. Getting me.

to believe that God told her that this is how I'm going to start that business. This is how I'm going to write that book. This is how I'm going to break generational, start generational wealth and break generational curses in my life. All the while, the enemy, another W, another W, another W, he's winning.

He's winning because all the while you and I have changed our view of God. So now God is not our father. God is now our sponsor. And when he doesn't deliver like the man of God said, we don't blame the man of God. We blame God. And so now we don't trust God anymore. We don't believe him anymore. So then who wins? Because now

Kevin (44:32.336)
the people who might have been blessed by my faithfulness are also caught up in that mess. Because now since I'm not trusting God, serving God, and working for him, the people who would be blessed by my words, my insight, they're missing out too. That's one of the we forget, this whole idea about the enemy winning, right? The enemy wins bigger than we think.

what I just said. Because we think when the enemy attacks us and wins in some of these battles, that he won because he beat us. But he didn't just beat you. He didn't just beat me. He beat all the succession of people who would come to God or grow in Christ because of our witness that is now not going to happen. Because we no longer are serving like we should. Because we've now thrown in the towel. We've now

Give enough. You know what? It's not worth it. So all those people who could be blessed by the things that you've gone through and accomplished, how God can use you, all those people, they're not going to hear from Kevin. They're not going to hear from Susie. They're not going to hear from Mark, from John, from Bobby, from whoever, because now you're so consumed with you and trying to do your thing that God is not using you. Isn't that what we want?

Don't we ultimately want God to use us for his glory? But the moment God's glory takes a backseat to our glory?

We all lose and the enemy wins. So for a point of reiteration, why is it that why is it seem like the enemy is winning? It's because we talk too much. We share, we go on social media, we tell everything about our business, we share too much and we give the enemy ammunition against us. We talk too much. We want too much. Our desires are not things that God wants to use or can use for the furnace of his kingdom and for the betterment of others.

Kevin (46:46.532)
And then of course the last one, we trust too much. More specifically, we trust in the wrong people and the wrong things. So hopefully as she uses episode, it's kind of like a God post to keep you focused on the main thing and God of course, it is working as well. It's the main thing, but just know family, it's not an indictment of you and your growth in Christ. If every now and then, the enemy.

may get a W or two, but stay the course. Get back up, dust yourself off, get back in the fight because all you have to do to win the fight is stay in the fight. I use as an example, many, many, many years ago, I might have said on other episodes, it's just like a boxing match. Boxing match usually 10, 12

The only way you can make sure you lose in a boxing match for sure is if you get knocked out and you don't make the 10 count. But in a boxing match, when it comes to God, we can get knocked down every single round. But if we make it to that final bell in fights, if there's not a knockout, the fight is determined by the judges.

And we have a judge who has already told you or not, the fight is fixed. We have already won the fight. We just got to stay to the final bell. So the only way to make sure the enemy, even though he may win some rounds, remember we can make sure he doesn't win the fight itself, the whole fight. We just keep getting back up and keep

that is in the power and the strength that God gives us. Thank you so much for watching and listening. I pray this episode blessed you. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe. And as always, make sure your light shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the benediction. Until next time, be