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Why is life so hard for the follower of Christ? It’s simple; Satan is really good at warfare.

He’s brilliant, cunning, and willing to fight a long war.

A very long war…

Why is life so hard? Because we are fighting the most experienced and tenacious fighter in the universe…well, other than God the Father.

But I do respect Satan, especially for the brilliance and success of his current campaign—and in particular his most effective strategy.

Angel of Light?

In 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul is talking about how some men of the day were being deceptive, but then says something about how that makes so much sense.

Why is life so hard? Because, Paul warns, “…no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

Whoa, get the message?

One of the devil’s primary tools is to make his attack look like it is not an attack—but rather that the elements of evil are packaged so attractively that even God’s children will embrace them as light. 

We, the blood-bought children of God will actively embrace and engage the weaponized ideologies and weapons of the enemy of God—because it seems good!

You can find followers of The Way promoting the most heinous doctrines of Satan as being “godly.”

As an example, there is an argument made by some who call themselves by The Name that goes like this:

In Galatians 3:28 it says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Since in heaven there will be no male nor female, it ultimately does not matter whether you are gay or straight, or pansexual, or trans. If you faith community can accept it, then it is right in the sight of God.

That really resonates with so many, it sounds like light. 

Let’s test the passage—is grandpa who died with dementia at the age of 96, going to be a 96-year-old immobile spirit who doesn’t know you or where he is?

We understand that in heaven there will be no “age” or physical limitations such as we have now. We will be as we are spiritually. As God notes in speaking to Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you….”. 

In other words, Jeremiah, like the rest of us, was pre-existent as a spiritual being. God creates the spirit first, and then gives us a physical body. This is the process by which we become the Hebrew word nephesh. 

Nephesh is the totality of who and what we are as an embodied being, made in the image of God.

So whether a nephesh dies physically as a baby or as a dementia patient is irrelevant, there is no age of a spirit—only a maturing process as a nephesh as we come to know who we have always been.

To answer the claim that sex (or “gender”) does not matter in this life, by the same token, let’s take it to the attraction of a 55-year-old man for a 5-year-old boy.

If we are to be ageless in heaven, then why would it matter what age the boy is? As long as your faith community can accept this…

That. Is. Sin. That is an affront to the Holy One who loves us all.

I know the objection, “You are taking this too far…”.

No, you are not taking Scripture far enough.

You see, when Jesus was a nephesh like us, he observed the limitations of the body he was in. He rested, he got away to commune with the Father, he spent time with friends, he worked, he ate food, and he pooped.

Although his “spiritual reality” was that He is God, as a nephesh, he fulfilled his role assigned by God (a man with a mission, just like each of us is a man or woman with a purpose from God) and honored both his sex/gender assignment, as well as the moral laws handed down by the designer of life for our time on earth.

Our faith community may accept genocide because ultimately we are helping people to get to the best place of all in mass numbers.

All that means is that our faith community has fallen for the the enemy of God as he masquerades as an “angel of light” while promoting unspeakable evil.

Why is Life So Hard?

Satan’s role in making life hard is that he is a skilled and experienced deceiver. He even deceives us, the followers of Christ, into believing that ideas that directly violate the inspired Word of God are not really what God meant to say.

Each of us has an unlimited capacity for rationalization and delusion—aided by the very worthy opponent of God.

Why is life so hard? Because we allow Satan to pull us away from God through buying into his various strategies.

One of his biggest strategies is to keep us away from the Word of God.

The average American reads less than one book a year—and most Christians only read “devotionally,” which means we get pleasant little “sound bites” from the Word, but most of us are biblically illiterate.

As I have warned in all four of my books to date—if you claim to be “Spirit-led” but do not read extensively and have a thorough knowledge of Scripture—you are only “spirit-led,” that is, your are under the influence of Satan and his demons.

That is “the mind set on the flesh” and it is noted to produce “death”. (Romans 8:6)

Reading Scripture and good Christian writing is “setting your mind on the Spirit” which produces “life and peace”. (Romans 8:6)

Why is life so hard? Because Satan poses as an angel of light, and we, in our spiritual sloth and electronic device levels of mega-worship in them, have chosen to embrace the ideologies of Satan as though it were righteousness.

Why is Life So Hard? Because we…

Why is life so hard? Because we choose the path of life that Jesus specifically warned us not to take. “…The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” (Mt. 7:13)

In other words, Satan appearing to be an angel of light says, “Hey, here’s an easy path to fix what’s upsetting you!” And we say, “Hmmm, sounds good to me, I know Jesus wants me to be happy.”

Actually, what Jesus wants is for us to have “life and have it abundantly”. (Jn. 10:10) The abundant life lies down a path that Jesus notes is through a gate that is “narrow” and that the way is “hard.”

Why is life so hard? Because we choose what is easy in the short term, or so it appears. But ultimately, it is the path of death.

If you want to make your way to the narrow gate and start growing along the difficult path, stay tuned for more podcasts in this series.

If you want to accelerate you growth, get my book Superhero: Being Who God Says You Are and work your way through it. It has one several awards in the area of practical spiritual growth, it is a great guide along the beautiful path of walking with God powerfully every day in every way.  It full of practical steps in growing close to God and walking expectantly with him every day, in every way.

If you want a shorter course in just being less fearful and more bold for Christ, get my latest book Freefall: God’s Path to Courage and Boldness at this link. 

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