Colossians 2:15 reads, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Since Jesus defeated Satan, spoiling principalities and powers, the only power Satan has left is the power of suggestion. He will suggest something to your mind to try to deceive you into believing it so that he can work it against you.
I like what God said to one minister: “When Satan suggests thoughts and images to you, it is much like the filming of a movie. When you watch a movie in the theater, even if something happens that you don't like, you're aware that it isn’t real – it’s just a movie, it’s just pretend.”
That's the same thing with Satan when he shows you something. He projects a thought or image to you, hoping you will believe it and open the door to him. But anything that he suggests is to be treated like it's not real, it's just pretend – so refuse to be troubled by it and don’t believe it.
Not long after God said this to the minister, their daughter-in-law was in a terrible car accident and they were told that she would be incapacitated and in a wheelchair for the rest of her life because of brain damage and damage to her back. But when they heard the report, they joined hands together and said, “Satan, we refuse to believe this picture!” They just refused to watch that picture and play it and turn it over and over in their mind. The next day she was released from the hospital without one thing wrong with her!
If they would have bought the picture, they would've been stuck with that picture!
People end up with pictures in their life of what the enemy showed them because they bought them. Don't buy the picture. Resist the devil, resist fear, resist worry, resist doubt!
The devil will use all kinds of suggestions and thoughts to tell you lies and to show you a fake movie.
At a time of testing and opposition, make sure you’re meditating on the Word, meditating on what God says, and not on a fake movie – not on what symptoms or other problems are saying to you.
To keep from believing the lies and to keep from quoting the lies of the enemy, you have to put the Word first. You have to do what Proverbs 4:20 says, “Attend to my words.”
Don’t quote the devil’s lies or what other people say – quote what God says. Your victory is in what God says!
If you are full of the Word, it's easy to believe the Lord's report, even when you have the wrong report or the wrong movie being shown to you. Know what the Lord's report is before you hear the lying report.
Isaiah 53:1 reads, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?”
The Hebrews that God delivered out of Egypt would not believe the report of the Lord about the land that was theirs. Joshua and Caleb were the only two who built that report in them and believed it – and they were the ones that entered it.
Whose report will you believe? Choose to believe the report of the Lord!
I like how the Amplified Classic translation reads Isaiah 53:1,“Who has believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]?” We believe the Lord’s report as we trust in, rely upon, and cling to His Word.