THE BACKDOOR

     Welcome to the glorious month of July, may the Lord cause His face to shine on you this month like never before in Jesus name. One evening my wife begged me to help her close the backdoor to our apartment as I walked towards the back door, the Holy Spirit started ministering some deep truth to me that I never knew before. 

     We all know that the door is an opening in the wall of a building or house by which to go in or out. Every house has a door without which nothing/no one can go in or out of a house. In like manner every heart has a door without which nothing/no one can get into the heart. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me.” If you observe something in the above scripture, you will see that; who we admit into our heart is absolutely our choice and no other. Jesus Christ being the epitome of true gentleness said He won’t force Himself in on us but he will only announce His presence by knocking, then the choice is up to us. Are you reading this article but you have not accepted Jesus, but you are wondering who He is and you would like to know Him? I’m glad to announce to you that He’s right now at the door of your heart waiting for you to open your heart to Him, so that He can come in and completely change your life (Sup with you) 

     Jesus Christ told us in John 10:1, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” As a believer (a member of the sheepfold of Jesus Christ) the devil knows he cannot come to you through the front door of your heart and expect you to give Him access, therefore he uses the backdoor just like a thief and a robber (John 10:10). Now let us look at this back door and how the devil uses it against believers. 

     A lot of believers are not conscious of how the devil takes advantage of the backdoor in their lives. Jesus Said in John 10:1, that there are other ways to a man’s heart apart from the front door and this access is only used by the devil. Below are some of the ways the devil tries to gain entrance into a believer’s heart through the back door. 

1. Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” From the above scripture you can see the devil trying to gain entrance into Eve’s heart through deception. You must know that the devil doesn’t just enter into a man’s heart straight away because he can’t; he starts by sowing the wrong in that Christian’s heart. Now the ultimate goal of the devil was to make Adam and Eve obey him but he didn’t go about it by asking them directly, he didn’t ever go through the man (Adam) because Adam represented the front door which has been fortified prepared against the evil day instead, he went through the weak link, the backdoor, the unsuspecting Eve. He didn’t even ask her to eat the fruit, he only asked her a question: but if you look closely at the question, you will discover that the devil over exaggerated the truth. In Genesis 2:16, God told Adam to freely eat of every except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but the devil was about to ask Eve; “Has God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden” Now at this point Eve hadn’t sinned but she was indirectly opening the backdoor for the devil to come in because she just had a civil if not friendly conversation with the devil. As believers we have to be careful of the kind of questions we entertain because we just might be entertaining the devil’s idea. Have you ever tried to close a door and somebody outside put one of their foot between the door, even though the door appear almost shut, as long as that foot remains at the edge of the door, the intruder could eventually gain access to the room if nothing is done to push that foot out. As long as Eve kept on playing with the devil, he succeeded in making her see what he saw which eventually led to the fall of man. 

2. Matthew 4:4-5, The devil had a bigger agenda when he tempted Jesus but he looked for something that looked relatively harmless like changing stone to bread, an immature believer might say it is not a bad thought but Jesus understood immediately the plan of the wicked. Dear teens, I know there are some things in your life that seems harmless initially but over time they begin to affect your relationship with God but they still don’t appear as a ‘sin’ per se. Please beware because you ought not to be ignorant of the devil’s devices. The devil already knows you won’t give into fornication as a believer but he makes you read books and watch movies that carries so much sexual content and you feel like as long as it is not fornication, the movies are not pornography, you are in the right but brethren beware, he knows your new nature in Christ won’t let you steal but he makes you worry and focus so much on your financial problems. Brethren beware; always and always stay on Philippians 4:8 and have a victorious Christian life in Christ. 

     See you next month and God bless you.