A Life Of Turning Aside

The song we sang said “I’ll praise until my breakthrough. I will praise because I trust you.” Sometimes we need to be reminded that faith and trust, oftentimes, requires patience and it requires endurance. It requires us to be willing to hang in there and continue to do what we know we need to do until we see the breakthrough.

Paul said it like this: “We don’t become weary in well doing.” We don’t become weary in well doing because we will see the breakthrough. We will see the breakthrough.

So whatever breakthrough you need to see, have the patience, have the endurance to hang in there. Trust the God that you serve, trust the God that you worship that He is going to bring the breakthrough.

Normally, I would ask “How is the blessed of the Lord?” But tonight I am just going to tell you, “You are blessed.”

Last April, Pastor Bronc (Flint) did a message about Revival Demons, and he talked a little about that at the conference this past April. He named the following demons that have been released on the Church to influence the Church to live a life other than what God wants us to live.

He mentioned the spirit of infirmity, the spirit of division, the spirit of lust and perversion, the spirit of another gospel, the spirit of diversions, the spirit of lukewarm, the spirit of excuses, and the spirit of Mr. Destruction of reason.

As I thought about that message over the past few months, I looked at the list and thought about which of the spirits, right now, has the potential of being a subtle attack for the Church and for Barry. The one that I focused on is the spirit of diversion.

I want to tell you what a diversion is and this is from Webster’s dictionary.

o The act of an instance of diverting or straying from a course, activity, or use: DEVIATION. How many of you have heard about airplanes that take off for a particular destination but have to abandon the route it was taking because of some problem with the aircraft? The problem which caused the flight crew to alter its course is a deviation.

Satan wants to divert us from the place God wants us to go. That’s the spirit of diversion. Let me give you another example.

Let me give you a football analogy.

I love the way the commentators help you understand what’s going on in the game because they can see the entire field and we can’t. For example, the announcer will say the team looks like they’re in zone coverage or a two-deep coverage, which means the safeties are playing behind the cornerbacks. When the safeties are covering the line, it’s an opportunity to throw the football. When they are back off the line, it’s an opportunity to run the football.

When the quarterback comes to the line, he’s looking to see what type of defense he’s facing. Let’s say the team is in a cover two, which means there will be opportunities for the wide receivers to run routes between the linebackers and the safeties. But to succeed, the quarterback must make sure the safeties don’t drop down into the coverage and take away the route. So, he looks at the safety to his left and until the safety sees him. The safety begins to watch the quarterback’s eyes and when the receiver comes across the formation from the right, the safety is not in proper position because he has been looking at the quarterback. That safety has been diverted.

o Another definition of diversion is something that amuses: PASTIME (Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube). They don’t seem like they’re a big deal. You are enjoying the moment. You are wrapped up in the moment. These are things that that eat up our time and divert us from the spending time with Jesus.

o Synonyms – deflection, departure, detour

A diversion, as a principle, is neither positive nor negative. It is the motivation behind it.

My point: A successful diversion, one that has an aim and a purpose, is dependent upon, now listen to me ladies and gentlemen, is dependent upon the person seeing the diversion, but not recognizing that it is a diversion, and then responding to it in the desired way.

Again, a diversion is like the safety eyeing the quarterback. He doesn’t realize he’s being diverted until the safety comes across field from the opposite direction and catches the pass.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. Turn to Joshua 9. We’re going to read the first 14 verses.

(1) And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;