The devil has access to right now, God has access to forever

​Pastor Jabin Chavez says, "the devil is a present devil. He only has access to this current moment. God, on the other hand, has access to yesterday, today, and tomorrow."

That is a powerful spiritual truth to understand. It helps us begin to feel the kind of "hail Mary" pressure the devil constantly lives under, the never-ending threat that if he can't derail God's plan for us in this very moment, God may forever sweep us up in his calling on our life.

That is why the devil holds nothing back in the temptations of this moment. Why there is no lie the devil won't tell us about our past and our present and our future. It's why the devil is so anxious to get us telling ourselves lies about our lives that we will carry into the future that he has no control over.

We know that about ourselves, don't we? That if we start believing we aren't enough today, chances are we'll still be believing we aren't enough tomorrow. That if we live today in fear of tomorrow chances are we'll still be in fear of tomorrow next week and next year.

The devil knows that about us. He knows if he can get us twisted in our thinking about who we are today, he can twist God's plan for who he wants us to become tomorrow.

The story God is weaving with our past is not the story the devil is writing with our past because the devil has no power over our past.

And the promises God has for our future are not the promises the devil has for our future because the devil has no access to our future.

The conflict comes in the right here and the right now. That is where the devil and God do battle, in this present moment. Only, in this present moment, God is living inside us offering us strength and reassurance, while the devil is a voice on the outside shouting lies.

So really, it's us doing battle with the devil, not God.

God is holding us, whispering to us without ceasing. Don't listen to him, he says, you are more than enough.

Don't listen to him, with me you are more than strong enough.

Don't listen to him, with me you are always way more than loved.

Don't listen to him, with me your past has been beautifully redeemed and your future is nothing less than prosperous.

Don't listen to him, with me you have truth and no need to turn to his lies.

Whenever we get to feeling anxious in this moment, defeated in this moment, lost in this moment, that is the devil shouting. The devil screaming in desperation. Because the devil knows this moment is his last best shot. If he doesn't make it, chances are we'll be swept up in the whisper of God forevermore.

And even the devil knows there is far more power in God's whisper than the devil's shout.

It is worth knowing that. Clinging to that. That if your day starts to feel full of desperate screaming coming at you from the outside, there is a whisper waiting for you on the inside.

Turn to it. Turn and hug in return the whisper that is hugging you. And say I hear you, I believe you, because you are a promise for forever and not a lie for right now.

The devil has one shot at you and that is right now. With God we're never too short to block that shot.

So why not do it. Go ahead.

Block that shot.