Richard Roberts – Second of three parts
The next step of a Spirit-led life is what I call “blackout time.” It’s when the devil shows up and everything goes haywire. Every word you’ve had from God seems to go south, and you don’t know what to do. It’s when doubt creeps in.
Blackout reminds me of when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush and told him he was going to deliver the Israelites. God gave him a picture of the miracles He was going to perform, and Moses thought everything was going to be simple ― Pharaoh would let the 2 million people go just because Moses said so. But Pharaoh refused! Moses, the deliverer, drew the ire of his people, and they shouted at him, saying, “You haven’t made things better; you’ve made them worse (Exodus 3)!”
That’s blackout ― when Satan comes in and tries to make you doubt everything you’ve heard, everything you’ve believed, and everything you’ve stood for. Satan strives to separate you from your faith.
What do you do when blackout comes? You do the same thing Moses did. You go back to God and say, “God, tell me one more time what You want me to do,” and God is always faithful to give you that word a second time. Psalm 4:3 NIV says, Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him. And James 4:7–8 NIV says, Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.
That’s how you fight blackout. You turn to God, and Satan is defeated!