2069 Smells Like Hell

0:00Congratulations! Your gift of a new day is here! Ready to live it big? You're listening to the Big Life Devotional Podcast. Now, here's Pamela to get you fired up for all God has available for you today! Well, good morning, beautiful! Welcome to a brand new day of life! Happy Tuesday, my friends! Oh, I missed you yesterday! I have been traveling over the weekend and on Monday and oh, now I'm in Hawaii! I am on the North Shore of Oahu. I'll be here for the next seven weeks. This is where our son lives and so we not only get to be in paradise for several weeks, but we get to see our oldest kid and his wife and we're just so grateful. But I'm still going to be bringing you devotionals, so I'm glad you're listening today. The title of today's episode of the Big Life Devotional Podcast is Smells Like Hell.

1:02That's right! Smells Like Hell, we're returning to our study of the book of Exodus. We took a break last week, but we're back in Exodus and this is a valuable lesson for us. This will be one you need to listen to and you probably need to share it. Every supernatural occurrence is not by the hand of God. When we chase the supernatural, we are subject to confusion. Sometimes we are dabbling in dangerous darkness while thinking we're tapping into godly powers. My friend, you have to know not every power is godly. There are dark powers in this world. Now these are not my own ideas. These are God's warnings directly from his word and we're going to read about them today in Exodus.

2:04God is capable of mysterious miracles that cannot be explained. No doubt we are surrounded by his power at work in every detail of our lives and it's truly remarkable. We are also surrounded by a fallen angel who constantly tries to undermine our mighty god with imitation miracles and wonders. What we need to decide with absolute conviction right now is if it is not from the hand of God, I don't want it. Wouldn't you agree? If it is not from the hand of God, I do not want it. There is not a single magical, mysterious, seemingly awesome thing I want if it doesn't come from God. Honey, if it is not from the light, then it's from the dark.

3:05If a power is not from God, it's from our adversary, the devil. And he is capable of absolutely nothing good. It might look good for a moment, but it simply is not good. It's dangerous. The powers offered from the pits of hell do one thing. They pull us away from our creator with a divided and confused heart. And in that space of distance from God created by confusion and division, the enemy attacks. If your heart has gotten divided with dabbling in powers not offered by God, it is time to rid your life of those things with supreme urgency. If your heart has gotten confused by mysteries lacking the fingerprints of God, it is time to recognize the author of those mysteries as the enemy of your soul,

4:13whose objective is to kill, steal, and destroy. James chapter 4 verses 7 and 8, reading in the message translation makes it super clear. Yell a loud no to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin, purify your inner life, quit playing the field. How easy is it to say, well, you know, there's nothing wrong with dabbling a little bit. You know, I'm just dabbling in this. But the better question is, is there anything truly good with it? There's nothing wrong with the day and month you're born. But thinking that your birth sign determines a single moment of your God-given miraculous life has absolutely nothing good in it.

5:23And when there's nothing good in it, God's not in it. If God's not in it, then there's a whole lot of room for alternate forces to reside. And you don't want that. We are supposed to be yelling, devil, you get behind me. Not, hey, devil, this is kind of fun. Eve, remember Eve in the garden? She made a terrible mistake. She entertained the offerings of Satan. She gave him permission to speak into her life. And when the devil speaks, he lies. He twists truths. He confuses thoughts, he hardens hearts. And he brings chaos to God's intended paradise. And he's still doing it. That apple smelled like hell.

6:23But Eve never paused long enough to smell it before she ate it. Eve, quite simply, should not have entertained a conversation with that slimy snake in the garden. He had nothing good to say and he never does. Hey, Eve, like, why can't you eat this apple? Don't you want to taste it and just see? Have you been entertaining seemingly innocent conversations with the enemy of your soul? It's straight up never innocent on his part. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's bringing confusion into your life. He's hardening your heart to God's true power and tricking you into a perversion of power. Sadly, just like Eve, sometimes we fall for it. Yes, the devil has power. To think he doesn't is foolish on our part, but he never has power to do good.

7:31Only God holds the power for good. In Exodus, Moses is sent by God to Pharaoh, the leader of the Egyptians. Remember, he's there to rescue the Israelites after 400 years of slavery. But Pharaoh is stubborn. Remember, two weeks ago, he studied that. He is stubborn. He does not want to let go of his free labor, so he refuses. God then directs and empowers Moses in very specific ways to display his miraculous acts as a warning to Pharaoh. Like Pharaoh, you got to know this is God speaking. And here, here's some miraculous acts to prove God's power. Exodus, chapter 7, verses 10 through 12. Remember, Moses is with Aaron, okay? Aaron is the one that God gave him as a helper.

8:32Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent. Now, again, this is a specific miracle that God instructed Moses and Aaron to do to show his power to Pharaoh. Throws down the staff in front of Pharaoh, and the staff becomes a serpent. A staff is a stick, okay? Like a walking stick. Then, Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and those Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents. These magicians had the power to do the same thing. Wow, think about that. Here it is, my friends. We're not making up alternate powers that work in this world. It's real, and it's deceptive, and it's right here in our Bible.

9:34The magicians were operating under a different power, and the display of their power confused the already hardened Pharaoh even further. Moses was under God's power, and turned the staff into a snake. Pharaoh's magicians were under another power, not of God, and did the same thing to seemingly undermine the word of God. Next, God sends the first plague on Egypt as a warning. He turns the water of the Nile River into blood. But here come the Egyptian magicians, and they too turned water into blood. Further convinced the powers he trusted in were just as powerful as the powers of Moses's God, Pharaoh ignores the warnings continues to do wrong. He's confused, right?

10:35He sees his magicians can do the same miraculous acts, powers. The next plague from God brought frogs everywhere. Again, a warning of how bad things could get for the Egyptians if Pharaoh didn't obey God and let the Israelites go. But again, the magicians were able to do the same thing with their magic. They too caused frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. Why would God allow Satan to have powers? That's a great question, not one that I can answer. But here's what we know. We know Satan has power here on earth. We're not making it up. It's inscripture. But we also know his power is limited. Here's the part we so easily miss.

11:38Yes, the magicians could tap into a power other than God to do harm. But they could never tap into power that helped them do good or to stop the harm. God could stop the frogs and he did. But the magicians could not. God could bring peace, but any power outside of God cannot bring peace. God brings healing. Satan cannot. Satan kills, steals and destroys. His power is second rate and only for harm. You do not want that in your life. Trust me? That smells like hell. This is how we know every supernatural occurrence is not by the hand of God. It's in God's word. It tells us.

12:40Just because it's mysterious and magical does not mean it's of God. Let us not be fooled. Take a whiff. Does it smell like hell? Satan wants to work through awe and wonders and mysterious works to confuse us. And he will, if we entertain it. Girl, if you open that door, he will waltz right into your life and bring a parade of chaos with him. He will still your peace. He will fill your mind with anxiety. He will disturb your dreams. He will darken your thoughts with fear. But here's what God will do when you only entertain his truth, his promises, his plans, his ways, his words when you say that quiet yes to God. Oh, he'll be right there in no time.

13:40He will fill you with unspeakable peace that doesn't even make sense to have peace. You've had that before, haven't you? Oh, yeah, that comes from God when you say yes to God. God will calm your mind and send those anxious thoughts back to hell where they belong. He will bring you rest and allow you to wake up refreshed with his new mercies each morning. He will give you every reason to believe, to trust and to hope so abundantly that there's simply no room for fear in your heart or your mind. So here comes Satan with a tarot card. Are you going to entertain that? Here comes the devil with a crystal, a fortune, a palm reading, a healing ceremony, a seance, a voice from beyond, a mystical connection. Are you going to entertain that? There is nothing good in this and there could be a whole lot of bad in it.

14:43Shut it down, yell a loud no. Throw it out, evict it, exit yourself from those circles, slam the doors on the confusion of darkness. Stop dabbling. So right now, would you be so bold as to ask God to reveal to you any door you have opened to the power of darkness in your life? It doesn't mean you're a bad person. It simply means you've been tricked somewhere and Satan has slipped in through the back door of permission and he's been attacking from within without you even knowing it. Lord, please forgive us and help us. We have unintentionally subjected our hearts and our minds to a power that is not from you. Here's the truth. I had once done that in my own life.

15:45I had given the enemy access and I wondered why I was feeling a lack of peace and constantly battling chaos. I can admit that to you now, but here's what's really hard to admit. I didn't want to shut it down. It had become my normal. I liked my little daily practice and I struggled with God for over a year as he told me to stop. It looked not only innocent, but it actually looked good to most of the world. But within, I knew God was saying it wasn't good for me. It was not good for me. And sadly, I tried to reason for entirely too long and continued in disobedience for a season. But the immediate peace that came once I surrendered to God's promptings and eliminated that gray area from my life was so sweet.

16:54And it's so sweet that I'll simply never go back. I know God's power. It's unmatched and it's always for my good. And I also know the power of darkness. It's real. It's always lurking and it will try to creep in to create a distance between me and God. It will try to confuse me and distract me and sidetrack me and it will never be good for me. And I've decided I want absolutely nothing to do with it. No matter how normal the world makes it look, no matter how innocent it may seem, no matter how dressed up it might be, a little bit fun, a little bit edgy, a little bit exciting. It still smells like hell to me because that's where it came from. So how about you? Will you take a whiff of what you've been dabbling with, allowing or entertaining and see if maybe it smells like hell?

18:00And if it does, what are you going to do about it? Once again, James 4 verses 7 and 8, yell a loud no to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life, quit playing the field. If it smells like hell, yell no. My friends, may I pray with you today? Let's do that right now. Come on and join me. Hey, God, thank you for waking us up today. Thank you for a new day of life. Thank you for being so patient with us, Lord. We are coming and just asking you, is there any door that we have opened to the enemy? And we have given him access, we have given him permission, and we are dabbling in things that are not from you.

19:04God, would you reveal that to us? Would you give us just a holy conviction, a prompting within to see that it's not good for us? And then would you just give us special strength to walk away, to stop it, to eliminate it, to yell no to the devil? I thank you, God, for just this timely reminder and your call back to you, back to your best plans for your girls. We're so thankful that you're patient with us. We're so thankful that you forgive us. We're so thankful that you redirect us continually. We receive that holy conviction and that redirection, and we commit to you, God. We say yes to you. It's in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. All right, my friends. Thank you so much for joining me today. Sorry for those little notifications that were being in the background.

20:04I'm recording at a different time a day since I'm in Hawaii, and I forgot to turn off those notifications at this time. We'll get that fixed. But thank you so much for joining me. Hope you have a great Tuesday. I love you wildly. Goodbye, everybody. You are created for a big life. We'll help you do it. Join us each weekday for a new big life devotional podcast. If you're ready to dive into the big life way of living, visit our website at biglifehq.com.