The Plumb Line of Victorious Living

John 10:10 (AMP)
10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

It is surprising how many believers have difficulty in understanding what things come from God and what things come from the devil. This difficulty comes about for a number of reasons; religious tradition, the traditions of men and a lack of knowledge about what God’s Word says. The Word clears up the issue in John 10:10; in fact it is so clear that as one minister of the gospel said, “You would need help to misunderstand it.” According to John 10:10, if what is happening in your life results in decrease or loss then it is from the devil. If, on the other hand what is happening in your life brings increase – spiritually, emotionally, financially, relationally and socially – then it is from God.  Simply put, God adds to your life; the devil subtracts from it.

Many times John 10:10 is misquoted; instead of saying the “the thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy”, the order of his actions is changed to… “the thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy.  The misquoting of this scripture is significant because it leads to confusion as to what the devil’s real motivation is.  When “kill” is the first action mentioned it leads to the belief that the number one goal of the devil is to kill believers; when in fact if you could ask him, he would probably say he doesn’t care if believers live or die.  His goal is to render them powerless to keep them from receiving the good things God wants them to have, which leads them to want to share with others about the goodness of God.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God (2Timothy 3:16); so the order of actions taken by the devil listed in John 10:10 is very important. With each action Satan gets closer to his ultimate goal.  Satan’s first priority is to steal the Word of God from a believer’s heart. He knows he can’t stop the Word from working; he can only stop believers from acting on it. When he can get a believer to back away from standing on the truth of God’s Word, the devil is then positioned for his next action – to “kill”.  Without the Word he can kill a believer’s faith (Romans 10:17).  Faith is the avenue through which all the good things from God come. Those good things can be summed in one phrase “THE BLESSING”. God spoke THE BLESSING over Man in Genesis 1:28; it was His original intent for Man and that will never change.  Knowing this is important because THE BLESSING is ultimately what the devil is after.  With the Word  cut off and faith weak/gone, the devil then goes after what he wanted all along – to destroy THE BLESSING (Gen. 1:28) in a believer’s life.  His goal is to attack God by cutting off God’s greatest desire for His children – to see THE BLESSING flow in their lives.

A plumb line is used when there is a need for something to be straight vertically. As long as the line is in place, all other lines next to it will be straight. A laser level works in the same way. John 10:10 is a believer’s spiritual plumb line/laser level. When all other things are measured by it, they will always be in line with God’s Word.

John 10:10 (NLT)
¹⁰ The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.