Satan’s Methods: Heartholds
This next group of blog posts comes from the third book in the Basic Training! series: Stage 3 Spiritual Warfare. By this time in the Pureheart process, you’ve locked down your devices, identified your triggers, you’re getting your acting out cycle under control, established accountability with your B.O.B group, and “Severed Spiritual Chains”. Because it is vital to your healing and maturity, we’ve devoted all of Stage 3 to teaching you about Spiritual Warfare. Have you ever met the devil? Demons? Do you know how to stand your ground against the cosmic forces of evil? Do you know how to fight against demons? Or how to equip yourself with the life-saving armor of God? “Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare” offers you a specific strategy for winning the invisible war that rages about you, starting with the fundamentals as laid out in this introductory chapter.
Brace yourself—it’s time for battle!
I want to remind you of the 3 primary methods by which Satan attacks Christians:
Strongholds (Deception), Hearthold (Temptation), Foothold (Oppression)
Back to that old demonic 3-pronged pitchfork again. Satan has 3 primary methods by which he attacks Christians.
Strongholds represent the battle for a Christian’s mind.
Heartholds represent the battle for a Christian’s heart.
Footholds represent the battle for a Christian’s life.
Or to use other terminology:
Deception = teach a Christian lies;
Temptation = win over a Christian’s heart;
Oppression = control a Christian’s choices and actions.
Today we’ll take a look at Heartholds.
The next attack is aimed squarely at your heart. Once the devil has your brain, he then moves on to the affections of your heart—your biochemical nature, your imagination, your dreams, and what you desire most. Adam and Eve first believed the lie, but the lie soon became an actual temptation. Genesis 3:6 tells us, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable… Notice the process: Eve is moving from an abstract idea in her mind (she will live if she eats the fruit) to the feelings and desires in her heart. No longer a matter of the mind, it’s now an affair of the heart. Hmm, notice any correlation here with any other kind of sin? Hint, hint, hint…
After fantasizing about the fruit and how she can’t live without it, after daydreaming about all the wonderful things that will happen when she eats it, Eve now wants that fruit so bad she can taste it! The devil can’t force Christians to sin, but he can make sin look really, really delicious (the forbidden fruit principle). Newsflash, brothers and sisters: Demons cannot force you to look at porn or masturbate or sleep with the secretary, but if you keep dwelling on the “fruit” before your eyes, you will eventually act out your desires. Demons and the world take advantage of our fleshly desires and entice us into sin (see James 1:13-15). Remember, God never tempts anyone; but the devil, demons, and/or the world will tempt everyone. The devil had the gall to even tempt Jesus (Matthew 4)!
Once the thought of sin sinks down into the realm of emotion, fantasy, and desire, a hearthold is formed. Note, I invented this word; it doesn’t appear in the Bible (unlike stronghold and foothold). A hearthold is all about your passions and your dreams, the secrets of your heart, the things you think about when you fall asleep at night. Maybe it’s a 1964 Ford Mustang, maybe it’s your fantasy football team, maybe it’s the business you want to start, or that novel you always meant to write. Perhaps it’s a co-worker? She’s looking mighty fine, whereas your wife can’t seem to shed those 30 pounds after having your last kid. Demons love to stoke the fires of old flames, reminding you constantly of just how good and pleasing and desirable achieving a particular fantasy would be.
God, on the other hand, “tests our heart,” “exposes the motives of our hearts,” and “searches our hearts.” God searches the heart for our sake—remember, He already knows everything—because our hearts are deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9-10). We are often frighteningly unaware of just how depraved and treacherous our fleshly desires can be—yet another reason God says “yes” sometimes when the devil comes knocking. Praise be to God, however, that in making us a new creation, Jesus provides a way for our hearts to made new through the process of sanctification (the Bible calls this process the circumcision of our hearts). As we learn to cut off our old ways and deny ourselves, we instead set our hearts and minds on things above!
Your Brother in the Battle,
Timothy
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Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare
Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis