Are our actions influenced by our carnality or Satan?

[Pressing-On]

I was following the thread by Bro. Strange - "Any One Know What This Scripture Means?"

Being that a lot of things are being discussed there, I especially wanted to focus on this portion of the discussion.

I was reading in Acts 5, concerning Ananias and Sapphira. I found it interesting that Peter would say in Acts 5:3, "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

I heard Jeff Arnold saying, once, that we didn't understand. It is the Devil that is working with people's minds.

It seems, IMO, that we would normally view Ananias and Sapphira as just being selfish and carnal, but the Bible says that "Satan filled their hearts to lie.""

So, is everything we do influenced by Satan?

Here's a post I was working off of - courtesy of Digging!

Originally posting by Digging4Truth,

What indication do you have from scripture that it was demonic?

It was false... that is for sure.

But to say it was demonic would be to say that what they did was influenced by demons.

Nothing they did was outside the ability of man, on his own, to conjure in his own misled & carnal reasoning.

Is there any scriptural reason you have for you insistence that this was demonic?

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told Unregistered in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

These are the works of the FLESH... not of demons....

Of course... something that is demonic might well include these things but these things do not, in and of themselves, denote demonic influence. Man is degenerate enough on his own to do these things.

Thanks for the imput!

[RevDWW]

Could it be that they invited him in?

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by RevDWW

Could it be that they invited him in?

Yes, possibly, but the way the scripture is worded it seems that Satan influenced them, when we call it just normal carnality.

[RevDWW]

Influenced yes, made them no. If the legion that possessed the man in the tombs could not keep him from Jesus, just how much power do they have? The enemy's greatest tools is lying.

[Felicity]

Originally Posted by RevDWW

Influenced yes, made them no. If the legion that possessed the man in the tombs could not keep him from Jesus, just how much power do they have? The enemy's greatest tools is lying.

I like DWW's comments (as I so often do).

[tbpew]

Kinda of an interesting journey in thought here.
It evokes in my thinking a need to consider causation and opportunity, within a singularly responsible entity.

Jesus told the folks in John 8 that their (his audience of scribes?) father is the devil and that they are from BELOW.

If carnal-mindedness is the realm in which Satan has influence, when the carnal-mind makes a conclusion and acts upon that conclusion, it does so from a heart that given space to the tempter to bare fruit from within the subject/vessel.

So who is responsible, the tempter or the vessel. Obviously BOTH, otherwise there would be no Lake of Fire or a need for a redeemer.

If a demonic force is in possession of a vessel, the "devil made you do it". But this is not the likely condition/setting that involved the Congregation of Israel and Aaron when Moses came down from the mountain. Even this may not limit what CHOICES are available deliverence for the person/vessel possessed but I do not think the poor guy whose son was injuring himself and burning himself was making those choices to do so (since no man hateth his own flesh).

The responsible entity has to be the individuals whose hearts were needing a visible god to approach, but without the tempter, their imaginations would not have taken the gold (which God told them to borrow from the Egyptians) and fashioned the calf.

God leaves these opportunities in our lives so that our own hearts can be revealed to our own selves NOT as a type of "canary in the mines" for the presence of demonic forces.

[RevDWW]

Originally Posted by Felicity

I like DWW's comments (as I so often do).

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

I was following the thread by Bro. Strange - "Any One Know What This Scripture Means?"

Being that a lot of things are being discussed there, I especially wanted to focus on this portion of the discussion.

I was reading in Acts 5, concerning Ananias and Sapphira. I found it interesting that Peter would say in Acts 5:3, "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

I heard Jeff Arnold saying, once, that we didn't understand. It is the Devil that is working with people's minds.

It seems, IMO, that we would normally view Ananias and Sapphira as just being selfish and carnal, but the Bible says that "Satan filled their hearts to lie.""

So, is everything we do influenced by Satan?

Here's a post I was working off of - courtesy of Digging!




Thanks for the imput!

While I can't speak for the doomed couple and why they were carried feet first out of the door, I will say I DO NOT BELIEVE satan influences actions by those filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

I do believe however that we are lead away by our own lust. I do not and absolutely will not give the satan undue credit and God forbid, credit for things he is not responsible for.

I am responsible for my own actions and take ownership of my shortcomings.

If I blame satan all the time, then how can I claim the precious grace and mercy of God.

Nope, not me. Let the little bugger rule the darkness, he ain't getting ANY consideration from me.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by Chewy

While I can't speak for the doomed couple and why they were carried feet first out of the door, I will say I DO NOT BELIEVE satan influences actions by those filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

I do believe however that we are lead away by our own lust. I do not and absolutely will not give the satan undue credit and God forbid, credit for things he is not responsible for.

I am responsible for my own actions and take ownership of my shortcomings.

If I blame satan all the time, then how can I claim the precious grace and mercy of God.

Nope, not me. Let the little bugger rule the darkness, he ain't getting ANY consideration from me.

But, if Ananias and Sapphira were considered part of the church and included in the giving then they did have the Holy Ghost, so where does that lead us?

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

But, if Ananias and Sapphira were considered part of the church and included in the giving then they did have the Holy Ghost, so where does that lead us?

People don't necessarily have to be part of the church in order to give, in fact, very little of this story even has to do with the church.