Welcome back to the place we find ourselves podcast. I'm Adam Young and we are in the middle of a series of episodes about warfare.

In episode 41, the war against your heart, we looked at the fact that the place we find ourselves is living in the midst of a world at war.

And then last week, last time we looked at the first tactic employed by the Kingdom of Darkness, namely hurling accusations at your heart and mind throughout your day.

Today, we are going to look at the second main tactic of the Kingdom of Darkness. And that second tactic is to deceive you to make agreements with it.

As with last week, I am deeply indebted to the teaching of both Dan Allender and John Eldridge on this topic.

They opened my eyes to this category and the freedom that has resulted has been immense.

So let's start with the simple question, what in the world do we mean by agreements?

Agreements are fundamentally about pledging yourself in a particular way to the Kingdom of Darkness.

Now at first glance, it sounds like a wild notion, who would pledge themselves to evil, who would pledge themselves in any way to the Kingdom of Darkness?

Well, most of us are deceived into making these agreements. Agreements are almost always made in the context of particular stories of tragedy, harm, abuse, heartache.

The Kingdom of Darkness is opportunistic and the most opportune time to deceive a human being into making an agreement is in a moment of significant pain.

So for example, for the first 12 years of your life, you watch your father struggle with immense emotional pain.

And one day, when his pain is particularly evident to you, the thought just sort of comes to you, since no one, including God, is going to care for Dad's pain, I have to.

That's the thought that just comes to you. Since no one is going to care for my Dad's pain, including God, I have to do it.

And something in you says, yes, to that endeavor, you make an agreement. I will tend to Dad's pain because no one is else is going to do it.

Now, at first glance, it might seem like a sweet, empathetic, kind thing for a child to do, but the impossibility of that task dooms the endeavor.

And just like that, you've made an agreement unwittingly, but you've made an agreement with evil. You have pledged yourself to take on a task that no child can accomplish.

Or suppose you watch your parents go through an ugly divorce as an 11 year old girl, and during the divorce, you witness your father lie repeatedly to his attorney in an effort to sway the settlement in his favor.

And then one day at school, your male teacher screams at a classmate and then lies to the principal about what really happened.

And suddenly a quote unquote truth dawns on you. When men are in trouble, they will always lie to get out of it. Just like that, you have pledged yourself to a lie, a lie that seems like a rule of the universe.

And that lie will wreak havoc in your future relationships with men. Why? Because you have agreed with the father of lies that when men are in trouble, they will always lie to get out of it.

Now, hopefully these two vignettes illustrate the point that the agreement is far more evil's idea than your idea.

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