Why Ideas Are So Powerful

Ideas have always been and continue to be our Enemy’s favorite method of undermining the work of God.

Dallas Willard comments on what happened in the garden of Eden:

“Ideas and images are ... the primary focus of Satan’s efforts to defeat God’s purposes with and for humankind. When we are subject to his chosen ideas and images, he can take a nap or a holiday. Thus when he undertook to draw Eve away from God, he did not hit her with a stick, but with an idea. It was with the idea that God could not be trusted and that she must act on her own to secure her own well-being.”

Two observations. First, both Adam and Eve fell for the bad idea that God really can’t be trusted. Second, once ideas take root, they have a mind of their own and