John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it (overflows). AMPC
Torture is a Word I got from the Lord this morning. He was showing me how the enemies plan is to torture His children.
Before moving on let's examine that word. Torture is to inflict pain, to punish, abuse, mistreat, maltreat, persecute, and more.
When Jesus said that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy God is showing us this is what Jesus was talking about. He comes to torture us , to try to inflict pain on us so that we quit serving God. His objective is to punish us for serving God, to torture us because he hates God, and try to get us to serve him by those persecutions.
When Jesus said to take the narrow path, the amplified describes as the path with the pressure (Matthew 7:13-14). That pressure is the enemy and he tortures those who allow him to torture them. What do I mean those who allow him? Jesus said He had given us authority over the enemy (Matthew 28:18-19), He said we have the keys to the Kingdom, He said we can bind the enemy (Matthew 16:19)! Jesus laid down His life for us, He overcame and gives us the authority to use His name as over comers of His!
Therefore His grace, His unmerited favor is all we need to put the enemy where he belongs, and that is under our feet!
If we know the wisdom of God, the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, as we should (Mark 4:11), then we won't allow the enemy to torture us, but we will take our God given authority and do as we were commanded!
Luke 10:17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!
Because many don't know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, because they haven't taken the time to know God, we live as God describes tortured by the enemy! Satan has freedom in our lives to do what he wants when we don't know that we are in authority over him. Our ignorance to the Word gives him authority over us, instead of us over him as it should be.
The one that doesn't take that time to know God, those often accuse God to be the one that is torturing them (killing, stealing and destroying). But if those persons would take the time to open up the Word of God and get to know God they would know, and clearly see that the opposite is true. Satan is the one who is torturing and Jesus came so we could have the good abundant life.
The person who doesn't know God believes the lies the enemy puts in their head, like; “everything happens for a reason”. As if God would cause bad things to happen for some good reason? Nope, that is not what the Word of God tells us. The bad things happen because we have an enemy and we are not taking the authority we were given to stop him from torturing us!
The good things that need to happen are also in our power. Jesus taught us to call those things to be not as though they were,(Mark 11:22-26) but we don't because we don't know. Even if our head knows, our heart doesn't know if we’re not doing it!
It’s time, God is saying it is time we stop blaming Him and expecting Him to do what He gave us the responsibility and the power to do!
He said you go and do what I was doing and even greater things!
John 14:12 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. AMPC
We are not waiting on Him, He is waiting on us to know Him and then have the revelation knowledge we need to be confident in knowing who we are in Him and what we are empowered to do for Him.