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If the devil and his demons have been stripped of their authority by Jesus Christ victory on the cross at Calvary,why are there  so many defeated Christians?.The answer is in one word:**DECEPTION**.The devil tricks or deceive us into believing that a lie is the truth;that something is real when it isn't,that wrong is right ,and right is wrong.

If we believe his lies,he has gained a foothold in our lives.He will then take as much room as we will give him.He has no legal right to do this ,but he will if we allow him to.

Jesus said that the purpose of a thief is to kill,steal and destroy (John 10:10).Satan is a thief.He seeks to steal and destroy that which is not legally his.
We have the power and authority to stop him every time,however ,he will make us think that we do not.He will seek to look and act like he is in command.

He wants us to think and feel like we are weak ,helpless victims under his power and control.If he can deceive us,the devil knows we will fall back in fear and not resist Him in faith.
If the devil can't deceive us in large ways, he will try to deceive us in smaller things.

These smaller things begins from;

# Accusation And Condemnation 
2 Cor 2 :11 *"so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs."*
The scriptures tells us that we are to be aware of the deceptive tricks and tactics of the devil.What ,therefore ,are the methods by which the enemy seeks to weaken our faith through fear?Two important ways are through **accusation** and **condemnation**

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[Source](www.pixabay.com)

Satan first accuses-blames a Christian for some fault ,failure in His life.The charge may be true or false.In either case,if we accept it,we will feel guilty and unfit.We have been brought under the fear of judgement or condemnation.

# Conviction Versus Condemnation
As Christians we need to able discern or know the difference between :
* The "conviction" of the Holy spirit 
* The "condemnation" of the devil.

The Holy spirit will "convict" us of sin by clearly pointing it out to us.Once we see our guilt,we repent (turn from our sin).True repentance cause us to be sorry that we have sinned against the law and love of our heavenly Father.
The Spirit will then move us to confess our sin and receive Gods forgiveness.In this we are restored to the joy of our salvation. 

1 John 1: 9 *"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"*
 
Satan ,however ,will "accuse and condemn" us for both our sins and our weakness .Sometimes we are not even guilty of the things for which we are charged.
In either case ,however ,His purpose is to bring us into feelings of both doom and despair.He wants us to think that God had cut us off and what we have little hope for the future.If he can't take us this far,he will seek to keep us under an uneasy cloud of divine disapproval.His desire is to weaken our faith, that we will feel we aren't strong enough spiritually to face him in warfare.

This is what the Apostle John teaches us:*"Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God"*.If our heart is heavy with condemnation ,our faith will be weak or we will be without any faith.Without faith ,we will not fight.That is what the devil wants , a Christian who will not fight or resist.

Let serve the lord with gladness ,because His power reign in us ,which always gives us power of the deception of the devil.We arrive than conquers in the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ.

# Stay bliss and thank you for reading...

This is odsam2 from #steemchurch,  #sc-g and #teamghana 
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