Exposing Satan's Playbook The Perry Stone

include internal emotion, spiritual or health conflicts, and the outside difficulties and negative circumstances that are not of our making and beyond our control. Temptation is a pressure that often initiates from without (with what we see or hear) and impacts us with pressure from within . The testing without often enters through the five senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching, and the flesh is dominated by these five sense gates. The testing within is caused by the thoughts that are birthed on the image screen of the mind. T HE P OWER OF T EMPTATION The word tempt refers to something being tested or even scrutinized under some form of pressure. The word tempt in Hebrew can have the connotation of, “to assay, or to purge metal by using fire, such as when impurities are removed from gold and silver through hot flames burning out the dross and leaving the pure precious metal.” Temptation begins in the form of a thought to do something contrary to the laws or ethics of God. If the thought persists, it turns into a mental pressure and eventually stirs the emotions of the person being tempted. The great danger to a believer is when the thought becomes a feeling . Once a temptation moves from a simple thought to a feeling, it presses on the emotions of an individual. Then the individual emotions begin building mental images called imaginations . As the imaginations persist, they become mental strongholds. Mental strongholds tied to emotionally charged images are difficult to break, and the