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Most of us have seen a school of fish before. Whether in a documentary or in real life, we know that many fish instinctively use this technique.

Swimming together for small fish has the advantage of making them look much larger than they really are.

It is not uncommon to see fish at sea forming a school, to discourage any predator from making a meal of them.

There is a technique very similar to that of the schools of fish that satan uses against Christians.

A problem rarely happens by itself. It is not uncommon for other problems to arise in our lives. And in this we are all concerned.   

God never told us that we would never have any more problems after we were born again. But neither did He tell us that the problems in our lives should dominate us.

 Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.

satan knows very well that worry is harmful to humans and that it has the power, if we feed it, to eventually bring us down. 

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

This is one of the demonic purposes used against us: satan tries by all means to keep us down in our thoughts.

Often some people think they are doing the right thing and take examples from the old covenant. The most used ones are often words of King David.

Here are some of them:

Psalms 38:6  I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

Psalms 61:2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalms 143:4 Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is distressed.

These words of David, or others in the Old Covenant, are often used to justify the idea of being discouraged. A majority of Christians believe in good faith that these words are from the Bible, and that therefore if David was discouraged, then we can be discouraged too, and even be downcast as David sometimes was. But this is without taking into account the fact that many things have changed since that time.

It is very important never to take examples from the Old Covenant without contrasting them with the New Covenant Scriptures. Otherwise our view of things will be unbalanced and our thoughts on the subject will be erroneous.

We can take some examples from the New Covenant to create a balance and contrast them with the passages quoted above.

1 Thessalonians 5:16  Rejoice always,…

2 Corinthians 6:4-10 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses,  in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings;  by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,  by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true;  as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed;  as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Philippians 4:7  … and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Many times we can see teachings about this, which will advocate that it is normal to be downcast by problems as many similar examples in the Old Covenant are given.

If we go back to our picture of the school of fish, this is a strategy that satan uses to make people think that their problems are too big and unsolvable.

satan will try to make you look at the problems of your life as a school of fish. He will try to make you look at all the problems in your life at once as if they were one big problem.

 

We all go through problems from time to time. As we said before, we all are affected. Sometimes the cause will be different. Sometimes our bad decisions create problems for us, or sometimes our ignorance, other times persecution, or simply this life we live in, in this fallen world, often permeated by evil.

satan takes advantage of this human tendency to see things in a global way in order to consider all the problems we may have as one big problem which of course will appear unsolvable.

This is the image of the school of fish.

The problems in your life are in no way like a school of fish. If you have this view, you have fallen into a demonic trap. 

The truth is that problems should never be considered all together as one big problem.

Take these problems and force yourself to deal with them one by one to solve them!

Taking things one at a time will take a lot of pressure and stress off you.

Don't let yourself think about all these problems at once.

Choose one, and ask the Holy Spirit to validate your choice, or to show you which one you should deal with first.

When you are about to pray, when you are about to do your part to deal with it, it is imperative that you forbid yourself to think about any other problem than the one you are dealing with.

The solution is to separate the problems and never group them!

Don't let the opponent group the problems together and present them to you as a big school of fish that is invincible in your thinking.

For example, if I told you that the average French person eats about 7 kg of chocolate per year.  Well, if I would come to you on the 1st of January and say: "You must eat 7 kg of chocolate this year! “ Chances are you'll start to focus on those 7 kg and wonder how you're going to manage to eat 7 kg of chocolate.

But if you like chocolate, you will eat this amount in a year, and you will do it without noticing. This is simply because the French people who eat 7 kg of chocolate in a year never think about that volume of 7 kg.

Every time you divide the problems that are in front of you, you reduce the power of the problems by the same amount.

Genesis 11:6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.

This example is of course not directly related to the problems, but we will take it to see what God is meaning here.

In other words, God says that if people are together, they become invincible, because nothing can stop them from achieving their goal. 

Well, the same is true if we see the problems in our lives as one school of fish. They become invincible. That is why satan knowing this, wants us to keep this false image in our thinking.

 

Bye for now...

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