There is one thing that I know today with complete certainty.

I will look back upon myself in a couple of years, and think that I knew so little now.

I know this because I thought I understood so much a couple of years ago, and I can look back and laugh.  Out loud.
This is the walk.  Progressive illumination by the Holy spirit as we progress in our pursuit.  We can hinder ourselves so much by thinking we know it all.  Thinking even that we’re “supposed” to.  Such arrogence will blind our minds, harden our hearts, and sacrifice opportunities for Christ.  I know.  It’s happened to me before, and it’ll likely happen again.
God let’s us know, by the revelation of His Word, and the work of the Holy Spirit, exactly what we need and are supposed to know and understand.  Christians aren’t always at the same point in their walk.  God may reveal something to you in perfect clarity what to me is difficult at this time.  Such convictions should never lead to “spiritual puffing up” type of attitude, for it can only hinder, never help.

A good question I must ask myself - does “knowing the answer” always benefit the cause.  Sometimes it does not.  We can be so eager to display our personal conviction or insight, that we hinder the greater cause.  We are then, saying disputable matters are “more” important than God’s word.  It is often a simple battle of priority.  So much of the Christian walk is.

In my limited experience, a critical spirit is one of the MOST damaging sinful behaviors that Satan uses today to rip us to shreads.  We must always be on guard, for it sneaks into our midst like a bug only to build a nest that takes time and effort to remove.

Truly born again Christians don’t think of God or Christ or angels or heaven, for the most part, as some “general” goodness or feeling of goodness.  A true Christian understands the dynamics of what scripture teaches us about Christ, God, the Holy Spirit, & heaven and angels.

Yet the ambigious “general feeling” I think is sometimes applied to the enemy - Satan, and his power in deception is underestimated, to our own fall.

If we do not understand some of the dynamics about the tempter, then we will not be prepared intellectually to battle the ways he attacks us.  So here are some things you may not know, or acknowledge, about Satan:

• He was the perfection of wisdom and beauty (Ezek. 28.12)
• He possesses:
  • Intelligence (2 Cor. 2:11; 11:3)
  • Memory (Matt. 4:6)
  • a Will (2 Tim. 2:26)
  • Desire (22:31)
  • Great organizational ability (1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 2:9, 24)

Sometimes I think some of the “realness” of Satan is overlooked for some general “concession” of evil.  He attacks us at our weaknesses, not our strengths, and he’s been around for thousands of years perfecting these abilities.  If we underestimate, we might give Him a foothold, and bring about more difficulty in resisting temptation.  Let’s not underestimate the enemy…